Lily turns 5!

Monday, January 4th, was Lily's 5th birthday. We don't know that it is her true birthdate, as the dr's just guessed her approximate age when they found her. However...we had a time celebrating with her! She feels so grown up now that she is 5...just ask her! She'll be having a birthday party with her friends towards the end of the month.

Our House

Okay, this isn't for most of you...there is a family that I met online that are moving here to Stavanger and this was the easiest way to take them on a tour of our house. They may want to move in...who knows? Anyhow, this is a quick peek into our house! It's not clean...especially the basement office and Rich's room...but he is the one who is in those rooms and I try not to invade on his space...so I just close the door! :o) Anyhow, this is our big house on the hill in Sola!

New Year's Day

Happy 2010 Everyone! I have been plugging away on this blog and I think I have caught up on everything....the Prague trip is even on now! Then I see that Tim is videotaping Rich and Lily sledding down the hill... So in an effort to keep somewhat up-to-date on the blog, I share with you the video that is merely hours old. :o) And yes, Tim did almost get taken out by Rich and Lily in one of those runs...he was too busy videotaping!




Sorry that this one is sideways. I always seem to forget that I can't turn the video once it's taken. However, I do have a smile on my face as I envision all of your with your heads tilted to the right watching Lily and listening to her. She loves to see herself on the "big computer." She kept telling me how funny her own voice sounded! Only a few more days as a four year old! :o)

Last Images of Prague

Prague from the old town market square during Christmas market time. Gorgeous! There were little devil horns everywhere...even on the horses. Also there were lots of witches on brooms as ornaments or toys. Never got the story on that either. This is one of the stalls that was selling the handblown glass ornaments with painted scenes from the Czech Republic. Yes, I came home with a few....but not one of the huge ones like this. Jane samples some of the cheeses on display Irene and Shannon are trying to keep warm..... Actually, they had warm honey meade which was really very good. It was a sweet honey wine that I actually enjoyed. I am not a drinker, so a small taste is usually all I will try. That was actually not bad. This stuff that Irene and Shannon had didn't even make it to my lips because I smelled it first. :o) Jane with her cow hat and mittens on in this funky shop Shannon found called Sanu Babu. Jane has cow pastures all around her house in Norway. She got the mittens. I got a ladybug hat for Lily. :o)

Making our way to St. Vitrus's Cathedral

We took an afternoon to walk up to the castle and see St. Vitrus's Cathedral, which we had such a beautiful view of over the Charles River. THere was a vineyard on the hills walking up there and the views of Prague were spectacular. Amanda and I stopped and took a picture of a couple of American men, a father and son from New York, and they took our picture as well. We stopped and talked to them for awhile and they thanked us for our husband's service to our country. :o) The father was probably in his late 60's maybe early 70's..(I am not a good judge of age) and he was saying he had been in the U.S. Navy for awhile...then took a job as a young man traveling around and working on a Norwegian tramp steamer. He just had published a book about it! I looked it up on Amazon.com and found it and got it just before Christmas. It is called Sea Interludes: Rogue Adventure on a Tramp Steamer. The man's name is Andreas Bradden. I am looking forward to reading it! How cool is that? He stopped the first friendly faces he saw and was happy to find that we were American. Then a conversation ensued and he found out we lived in Norway...what a stroke of luck! He'd spent some time working with Norwegians! :o) One of those very cool coincidences!