A Glorious Day

We managed to pack in four different experiences for the Norwegians today.  The day started off with a little walk down our street to feed the local birds.  Our neighbor has trained the chickadees and nuthatches to be handfed.  It doesn’t get better than that.  Plus, a nice walk in the woods early in the morning is a great way to start the day – unless, of course, it involves getting stung by stinging nettles along the way – which were hard to avoid.  The younger boys stayed home, but a neighbor and her daughters joined us, so it was time well spent.

Amy, the mom to our two add-on boys from yesterday, came out before lunchtime to join us on another hike she wanted to go on, so we packed up a lunch and she and her kids, joined us and the Bjerknes’ for a drive over to Fidalgo Island.  It was a gorgeous day to be outside and the cool of the woods kept us all from sweating from the hike (it really wasn’t that strenuous.)  After about a twenty minutes, we emerged from the woods onto a bluff that overlooks the San Juan Islands and Canada.  It was a great spot for a picnic, but a little nerve racking to have so many kids to keep away from the edge, which plunges straight down into the sea.  The Norwegians thought it looked like home.  And it does.  That’s why so many Norwegians live around here, I’m sure.

Amy and her boys went back home after the hike but we headed on over to Deception Pass State Park.  The park ranger tried to discourage us from entering the park by saying there were no parking spaces available and the park was overcrowded, but we trusted God that we’d find a place to park, and we did.  We had loaded up the kayak so Janne and I took it out on the lake while the boys swam and Kory and Haavard sat by the beach watching the waves and people come and go. 

It was gorgeous and warm on the lake, and also quiet and no one could ask us to do a thing, so we lingered.  Kaleb and Andre went out in the kayak after we were done, then Sondre and Haakon took their turn while Janne and I collected rocks on the beach.  Everyone thought the day could not have been better, but we were far from done.

We drove back home for a quick dinner of frozen pizza and pop  (American style) then drove back down to Oak Harbor to go the drive-in movie.  It was one of the things some of them wanted to do in America, since they don’t have them in Norway.  It wasn’t a disappointment at all and they were all just giddy with delight over the whole experience.  All the boys sat out in lawn chairs in front of the car but Janne and I enjoyed the comfort inside our van – until the battery went dead, anyway. 

I was in a panic, since the van wouldn’t start, but we just sat in the dark and listened to the end of the movie with surround sound from all the other vehicles, and we prayed.  The van started up just fine when the movie was over and we were home by 12:30.  Whew.

It was a full day, and went off almost exactly as planned.  Day three is complete, with eighteen more to go.  We’ve only just begun.

It was good we had things to do to keep our minds off the tragedy in Norway.  It’s just too sad to think about.  It’s like an innocent child being molested.  Norway may never be the same.

Unexpected Pleasures

I loaned the traveling Norskies my cell phone for their road trip to San Francisco, so I called them tonight just before six o’clock to see where they were, and they were already in the city and had just gotten their first glimpse of Alcatraz. I talked with Tobias and he sounded pretty excited, as they were pulling up to their hotel on Fisherman’s Wharf. I’m so thankful they made it safe and sound. My job is done.



Kory had to run down to Seattle this morning to drop off a “specimen” for testing the level of mercury in his body, so I decided to go along with him. I found out last night that a friend of mine (Grammy J’s daughter, JaRon) was having hip replacement surgery today. She just found out about it herself yesterday, so we were all taken by surprise. I wanted to go pray for her before the operation, so Kory dropped me off at the hospital and went on over to Lunde to do a few things there. We had a nice little chat and the surgery went well, thank God.



While I was at the hospital, I got a call from my old high school chum, Paula, who now lives in Colorado. She had just landed at Sea-Tac with her husband, Paul, as they are in town this weekend for our 35th high school reunion (which I won’t be attending). She wanted to know if she could meet us for lunch, so it was all too coincidental and convenient that we were already in Seattle, and happened to have the time available. They took us out to Ray’s Boathouse and we were lucky enough to sit out on the deck (see photo). It was absolutely perfect weather for such a thing; not too hot, not too cold and just enough sun to make one feel lucky to be alive and able to enjoy the day. It was nice to have a few relaxing minutes to catch up on what’s going on in their lives, as their youngest daughter just got engaged and the wedding is in September.



The weather made us all want to linger a bit longer in the sunshine, so as we drove past the Ballard Locks we decided to get out and go for a stroll. The fish were jumping and the seals were at the ready, eating them up. We walked through the fish ladder and saw the biggest salmon I’ve ever seen, and even though I’d just eaten lunch, it made me hungry for some grilled fish. Yum. After a lovely walk through the gardens there, they dropped us off at Lunde and headed on out to Issaquah for the first of many reunion festivities this weekend.



Kory got stopped by one of our tenants who reported that he had a leaky pipe under his bathroom sink. One thing led to another, and four hours later he replaced the pipes, the sink and the faucet. All the while I’m unexpectedly spending my afternoon in Seattle with not much to do. I had my laptop along so Kory took me down to the library and I surfed the web until they closed up for the night. Fortunately, Kory showed up soon afterwards.



We left Kaleb home alone for the day, thinking we’d be gone just a few hours, but as it turned out, he was home alone much longer than that. He liked it. I told him after he did his chores, he needed to write me a proposal letter on how his schooling should go this fall. He decided he wants to “own school” so he can be in charge of himself. We had an interesting discussion around that concept, but the jury is still out on whether we put him in school this fall or not. I’m completely torn on the matter. He spent his day playing a new Nintendo game that Tobias bought for him, so he couldn’t have been more pleased to be home alone, in charge of himself for so many hours. I’m sure he didn’t see the light of day.



We had a family movie night tonight and watched “Ice Age 3.” Kory fell right to sleep, even though Kaleb was sitting on his lap, making sure we all knew when the funny parts were coming up (he’s seen the movie before.) I have a zillion other things I needed to be doing besides watching a kid’s movie, but there probably won’t be that many more Friday nights in our future when Kaleb wants to be home doing something with his parents, so I’m cashing in on them while I can.

And They're Off!

Everyone was up late last night and too early this morning, so Inger renamed her family “The Family of Chaos,” as everyone was pretty crabby trying to get out the door on their way to San Francisco. It was a bit chaotic, and I have to say I added to their troubles. They were delayed at least a half an hour looking for a new Nintendo game that suddenly disappeared that they bought one of the twins for the road trip. Unbeknownst to me, it was sitting on the back seat when I flopped the seat forward and tucked it down in the handy storage compartment in the back of the van. Once I realized everyone said the last place it was seen was in the backseat, I knew right away where it might be. They hit the road shortly after I recovered it, on their long adventure down Interstate 5, heading to California in our sweet Honda “touring” van complete with built in navigational system and DVD player for the kids.




Soon after they left, I called several of the Best Buy stores again to see if anyone had gotten any shipments today of the iPad mini-computer from Apple. I found a store near Eugene, Oregon, that had just received 12 of them and they had nine left, so I was on the phone right away to Bjørn, telling him where to stop to buy that darn thing for Tobias. I thought they would have been in Oregon by the time I called them, but they got sidetracked in Centralia at the outlet mall there. I got nervous and called back the store to see if they would hold one for him, since they were on their way down (but several hours from actually getting there), and they wouldn’t do it. So I’m sure Tobias was feeling a bit stressful today, wondering if there would be any left by the time he got there, as there were only four left by the time I called the second time. I prayed a lot on his behalf, as I knew how much it meant to him.



I stayed off my feet as much as possible today, (at least now the throbbing pain is gone) paying bills and catching up on a few things (like posting old blogs), but I did have to go into town to close out an account at the bank. Just as I sat down with the bank person, Bjørn called me on the cell phone to inform me that they made it to Best Buy in time and Tobias finally got his long awaited iPad. I shouted “Hallelujah,” right in the bank, then had to explain myself to the woman helping me.



Kory was down in Seattle today at the naturopath doctor getting his (hopefully) last mercury detox treatment, then working over at our apartment building, preparing the way for a new roof next week. Kaleb had his pal, Timothy, here all day so they were off doing what boys do on a summer day, and the hours just slipped by for all of us. I didn’t get the house clean, laundry folded, or all the calls returned I needed to, but it was nice to have a day to just let it all go. I didn’t even make dinner.



Bjørn called exactly twelve hours after he left our house this morning, saying they were checked into their hotel in Grants Pass, Oregon, and they made it safe and sound. It’s about an eight hour drive so they took their time, which was good. They are all ready for another late night shopping spree at the Wal-Mart next to their hotel, and they will hit the road again tomorrow morning with Fisherman’s Wharf as their final destination. I do hope they are able to get tickets to go out and see Alcatraz, as when I checked on-line last night, they were all sold out for the weekend. It’s all Tobias was looking forward to seeing, but now that he has his new iPad, I’ll bet he won’t even know they are in San Francisco tomorrow – unless that gadget speaks up somehow and tells him so.