Late 4th of July post

Just thought I'd share this picture of our fam taken on the 4th of July. :) Unfortunately Chris doesn't have an American Flag shirt. We'll have to have Grandma send us one next year! (gotta love Wallmart specials!)

Midnattsloppet

This 10K race weaves in and out of downtown Gothenburg and was the funnest 10K I've ever done. The Midnattsloppet (Midnight Race) started at 10:30pm, pitch black and in the pouring rain! At first the rain was bothersome, but after you're already soaked, you don't really feel it anymore. (I actually thought it had stopped raining until I looked up at the lamp post and saw it coming down faster than ever!) But, running in the rain is so refreshing and cools you right off.

Chris and I are fan's of the 10K run. As soon as it gets hard, it's over. I think I'm gonna stick to running 10K's from now on! No more long, strenuous, tiring, half-marathons! And it was fun doing it together (when I say together, I mean, we were there at the start together and then met up afterwards). There are about 14,000 runners, so it's quite big and is filled with energy the entire way. It was great! We are def. doing it next year!

After Race Pictures:

Goal was under 55 min and I got 54. (Next year, under 50)

Chris's goal was under 40min and he got 38!

(I promise those droplets on my head are rain and not sweat. Don't ask me why you can't see the rain on Chris's forehead.)

Cute little clip we put together yesterday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSUMtTtBF14
(note: bussig=silly and kryp ut=crawled out. Sometimes we speak Swenglish)

Swedish Summer Update3

(Click on picture to come to slideshow)

Summer for us is now coming to an end. Chris has started work again this week, after a well deserved 4 week vacation and the kids start school next week. One thing that I love about Sweden is the long vacation you get. Swede's get 6 weeks paid vacation per year. Most take 4 in the summer (the month of July) and 2 during Christmas. It's WONDERFUL!!! This summer was a working-on-the-house summer. Although we didn't go anywhere exciting, we got A LOT done on the house (pictures to come). And the kids enjoyed a relaxed, long, summer. Although, the weather hasn't been all that summery here, every time the sun did shine, we dropped whatever we were doing and headed to the beach or the lake. It never got higher than 80F and is now already back down to high 60'sF! It already feels like Fall out there, which since moving to Sweden has become my new favorite season.

Anyway, here are some more pictures to enjoy. Chris's parents were here for a visit from Salt Lake and we enjoyed getting together with the family a little more often because of that. The second to last night they were here, we enjoyed a wonderful family gathering out on the islands with swimming, grilling, hiking and singing!

We miss our American family and wish so badly we could've come again this summer. Last summer was all too good. But, we're excited for Aunt Heidi and Uncles Dave and Steve to come out for Christmas!!!

Swedish Summer Update2

click on the picture to see a little slideshow of what we've been up to!

Beginners luck or skill?

A couple weeks ago, I had my first opportunity to go fishing. One a Saturday a month and whenever needed, Chris and I work extra as a Personal Assistant to a 68 year old fisherman. He was in a bike accident nearly 10 years ago which left him sitting in a wheel chair, totally paralyzed from his chest down. Obviously it has been adifficult transition for him as his entire life has needed to be readjusted. However, this past spring, he invested in a handicap-friendly motor boat and has been able to be out on the sea again since his accident. He has taken it a step further and has started a small sight-seeing business with his boat where he takes other wheel-chair-bound passengers on a tour of islands around Gothenburg. It's actually quite popular and the boat's big enough to fit 5 whee chairs!

So a couple weeks ago, I got to go on his boat with him as he took out 2 of his old buddies on a little fishing trip. Thinking, that spending the day on the ocean, fishing sounded quite easy and relaxing, I quickly told Chris I'd be more than happy to work this shift (since we're both employed, we can kind of just choose who goes. It's actually really nice). Little did I know that it was far from relaxing! Because I was the only passenger not in a wheel chair, I kept busy. From making sandwiches and coffee for everybody, to getting the bait, to pouring in more gas because we ran out, to opening the hatch to see what was wrong with the motor when the boat suddenly died. :( I even managed to throw up two times because of the choppy waters! However, amongst the running back and forth, I was able to actually catch 4 mackerel which we fried for dinner that night when we got home (at 10pm!). First time I've eaten mackerel. They're were really good!