After our British Isles adventures finished, the kids and I flew directly to Norway to visit Mimi and Mormor and my brother Thomas, who was also visiting. It was nice that the two vacations were geographically close to make flights sort of easy.
Derek continued his spree of wanting me to take pictures of him being 'awesome'. He was also wearing his mask so he could pretend to be Wesley from Princess Bride.
Mimi and kids mowed our croquet field as evenly as they could. Weather was very warm and sunny during our trip.
Another surprise was the kids constantly wanting to mow the lawn. Mimi has a manual mower in Norway, and the kids loved using it. They kept begging for us to get a push power in Maryland so they could mow our lawn here too. Then their idea was to get paid for mowing the lawn every week. I told them to negotiate with Nate, and the idea mostly died off, though they continue to occasionally discuss it months later. Nate thinks a manual mower like they want to get would just end up taking up space in the garage and that the kids don't understand how much bigger our yard would be for them to mow.
The kids also played a lot of soccer in the yard.
On a bench near the hiking trail in Tverlandet:
These next pictures are from the beach in nearby Ausvika, which continues to be my favorite. I like the views, the coastal trail hike, and the ease of finding crabs for Derek is a big plus.
We found lots of large crabs. Derek (and often Lydia) make crab homes with sand, seaweed, and water, and collect the crabs before releasing them when we leave.
The beach just down the hill from my parents in Hopen isn't nearly as nice, but we do find crabs there too with some effort.
The huge excitement this summer was when Derek, Lydia and I discovered a nesting ground for baby eels at the beach in Hopen. Mormor said they get quite big when they are full grown, but these little cuties were only several inches long. I liked looking at their miniature fins and texture close up. Each time we went to that beach, we found between 2-6 baby eels. They are kind of hard to locate under rocks, and it really needs to be low tide or they are impossible to find and catch.
We always like watching the farmer mow the fields and come back multiple times over days to bag the grass up into marshmallows.
This hike brought us to views over Saltstraumen and the fjord.
We had never been on this particular Saltstraumen hike before, and Alltrails had us parking and starting in a weird spot. We could have avoided this part of the hike through the grass by starting elsewhere. We'll know for next time I guess.
Lydia was so excited to make it back to the rental car, that she gave it a huge hug!
Karina was a big help in Mormor's garden.
Derek helped Mormor in the garden too and managed to negotiate being paid as well.
This crab was vicious to Mimi and pinched him hard and wouldn't let go. I don't blame the crab for wanting to be released, but it was kind of funny.
We all started on the hike up Steigtinden Mountain, (pictured below), but it is a very tough hike. Eventually, Mimi took the kids home, and Thomas and I finished the hike alone. The mountain top is 1,392 meters or 4,567 feet above sea level. Ironically, the kids quit the hike right before we got to the really pretty parts that are ironically also flatter to hike.
Steigtinden views:
Some more crabbing photos, including a close up of the super cool baby eels:
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