Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Monday, May 16, 2011

Where does she get that from

As we were sitting at the table the other morning, Z spilled some milk (...again, but it was not worth crying over). I would love to say that it was the first time, but that is not possible. I think, though I am not sure, that it was the first time that meal. Anyway, I am getting off track. In a joking voice I called her silly Z. Then she said that she was just like Mamma, Uncle Markus and Mormor (M's mother). I guess we know what side of the family her spills come from. Perhaps that means that only M should clean up the spills...probably not.

Thursday, August 07, 2008


Cadbury Chocolate Factory

We have been trying to find things to do while we are in England. It is easier said then done really, since our kids are so young. So when M found the factory tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, we decided that it was a “must”. In my mind, it was going to be a cross between Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory and the Coke Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. My fear was that it was going to be closer to something like the tour of a box factory (Simpson’s episode). In the end, it was closer to the first two, just without the Oompa Loompas. I guess they did something close to Oompa Loompas.

When we found it, it felt a little overpriced. If it ended up being good, then it wouldn’t be. If it was excellent, then it was a value for the price. When you pull up to the factory, you are not really sure if it will be good. We walk in (actually we ran in, since it was starting to rain) and got the tickets. The tour is in two parts. The first part is the actual tour of the factory and a little history of chocolate/Cadbury. It was alright. The kids were not interested in it at all, other then the snacks that they gave to eat on the way. It was not until the Disney like ride through Chocolate Land happened that the kids were interested in the tour part. Here you got to follow like drops of chocolate on the way to the Cadbury Factory. N thought that it was great (here is where the kind of like Oompa Loompas happened). I actually liked the factory tour. It always amazes me how much gets produced and how it is produced. I loved watching the video on the Cadbury Egg production.

The second part started with a stupid video about how they came up with the idea of putting 1.5 glasses of fresh milk in each candy bar. I guess it was cute, but a little much maybe. After the show, you got to produce your very own candy treat- milk chocolate on top of your choice of treat. I picked popcorn, N had wine gums and M had cereal. Z loved it. She was covered in chocolate before it was over. Everyone was taking pictures of her. It was all over her.

The girls liked it, but I think that the highlight for them was a combo of the snacks around the factory and the playground with swings, probably more the other one. They were happy though, and we thought that it was excellent. They did have an elevator, just not a glass one.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Back Home

After being on the road for over 6 weeks, we are finally home. Over the next month we are going to be blogging about all of our adventures, and we had lots of them. I will also (in theory) be posting some recipes and drinks on the 80 Meals blog as well, so you need to check that out as well.

Here are some of the highlights to come:

Camping in Denmark
Day Out With Thomas
Sea Life
Cadbury Chocolate Factory
Oxford
Monet's Garden
Disneyland Paris

and much more.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Steam Days in Didcot England






Swedish Classic Update


Vätternrundan 28 days
Vansbrosimningen 57 days
Lidingöloppet 133 days
Vasaloppet 281 days


biking 40km @ 27km per hour and 6km
swimming 0
steps 18,919
skiing 0
other 0

Monday, October 01, 2007

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

So we have been on the road for two weeks thus far, and everything has been good...so far. Travel to Kandersteg Switzerland was long. We got there though. N loved it. She thought that Switzerland was the greatest place on Earth. I can not argue with her too much. For her it was all the cows with bells, dogs and trains every five minutes. We see trains all the time, but something here just triggered her excitement with them. Z is a home person. She was miserable the entire time. In fact, she got sick. One night she had a fever of 104.

The highlights for us were the hiking (not nearly as adventurous as usual) and the cheese fondue. Doris, a friend from when we lived in Kandersteg, owns the Hotel Crystal. She made us the best cheese fondue that I think that we have ever had (and I ate one every week for almost 2 years). It was fabulous!

Monday, September 17, 2007

The Finish island Åland

After spending three weeks in Texas with my family, it was time to spend a little time with M's family as well. It has almost become a tradition that they rent a house for a week and then we and M's brother comes for the week. Normally it is somewhere in Sweden, but this year they hired this amazing house on Åland. The house was the best that they have ever hired. It was right on the beach and it was big and clean. Not always a feature on rented summer houses. Other then the cost (1,100 euros per week), I would totally think about going there again.

To get to Åland, you have to take the boat. Well, I guess you could fly as well, but the boat is pretty easy. The trip is fast and it has tax free on board, so you can stock up on your "needed" goods as well. Once there, it is short distances between everything and easy to navigate.

A little history of Åland. It belongs to Finland, but it speaks Swedish rather then Finish. It also has it's own postage stamps, post system, airlines and license plates. It is basically its own little country, but not really. Helena Drysdale takes about it in her book "Mother Tongues: Travels through Tribal Europe". For those who know Sweden decently well, it is like Gotland or Öland, just without the large crowds.

The highlight of the week was the wine tasting. Åland is also home to Finland's only winery. They offer tours and tastings. The wine itself is OK. It is not something that I would run out and stock up on it because I love it so much. Though it was decent. It is the atmosphere of the place that is the highlight. I missed most of the tour (Swedish Only) because of Nova, but I did make the tasting. We tried four different types (you can see pictures on www.DnMAdverntures.com if you would like to get a better idea).

Probably the most traditional known things in Finland, is the Sauna and it is not too different on Åland. The place we stayed had a nice one right on the water. We did not beat ourselves with birch branches, but we did hope into the "freezing" Baltic. When I first moved to Sweden, I was not too crazy about saunas, but now I really dig them. If we ever have a summer house, we will have a sauna.

In regards to food, we did not really eat out. Everyone shares with the cooking throughout the week. The one thing that we did get though was Åland Pancakes. I thought that they were good, especially with raspberry jelly and whipped cream (you can get a recipe for it on www.DnMAdventures.com). Though the last night M and her father got sick. Then her brother and his fiancee and finally Nova. Important to note is that I never got sick!

OK, so that catches me up on our travels. Now that I am caught up, I will be doing better...I hope!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

St. Louis Cardinals

Ever since I was little, St. Louis has been my favorite team. I am sure part of it was that it was my father's favorite team (OK, all of it). My favorite player, Ozzie Smith. So Dad and I try to catch a St. Louis game when we can. Last year we took a trip to Houston to see them, this year we went to St. Louis.

In my great wisdom, we left early in the morning on Saturday. Part of me argued that it would be pointless to leave Friday night since Dad would have to work and that we would be tired. The reality of it was that I was not overly interested in leaving the girls for two nights. The drive was miserable, but we managed OK. We got to St. Louis about 3 pm and headed over to the Bud Brewery for a tour. We didn't get in, way too many people. So then we headed to the Ballpark.

Now, we got there three hours ahead of schedule. This never happens when you go to a game with my father. He is the one who shows up late and leaves early. We were no the the only one early, about 20,000 people were there. I am not kidding. It was the special, you could meet the players and everyone was there. It was amazing. The thing about St. Louis is, it is a baseball town. I bet that 80% of the people there (male, female, child or adult) were wearing some sort of St. Louis clothing. It was totally incredible. The game was 100% full. Several factors were probably involved in that- weekend of the 4th of July, Saturday night and they were playing Bond's Giants; but it was still full.

The Giants took a good lead over the Cardinals and managed to keep the lead through out the game. Had we been at a Texas Rangers game, it would have been empty by the top of the 7th (in reality it would have been empty from the start almost). No one left the game until it was over. The place was still full when the game was done. I went to the first playoff game that the Texas Rangers were ever in. The "fans" had left by the top of the 8th. It was sad. When we left, we were the last people there.

I have to make a comment about the Ballpark. Places like that, and the Ballpark in Arlington, is the way baseball should be played. The place is beautiful. Even a non-baseball fan (if such a thing is possible) would appreciate the beauty of the place. Plus with all the statues of former St. Louis greats, it caught the history of it as well.

If you want to see some pictures of it, go to http://www.dnmadventures.com/.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Texas in July

Part of me feels like I should be skipping this entry all together. The Texas Trip was the end of June and the first three weeks of July. Though it feels like such a waste not to write about all of the adventures. So instead of about 15 different posts, it is going to be one big one to make me feel good about it.

We took US Airways, the first time for that. I think that it is kind of nice that a museum is still flying. They have to have some of the oldest air crafts in the sky today. It was fine though. The girls did good and the staff were very friendly. Our plane landed 2.5 hours late, so we were told that we missed our flight. In the end, our 2nd flight was late and we ended up getting it. Only thing was that our bags did not get there. We did not think that they would, since the girl at the American Airlines counter had to run us through security.

That is OK though, right. The bags should be sent on the next flight. Well, we went to Texas for three and a half weeks, we never got our bags. Imagine traveling with two girls under the age of two with no clothes what so ever. A big shopping trip and lot of new clothes. Which will be good, as long as the bags come. The first one did, the week after we got back to Sweden. The second did about two weeks ago. After 90 days of the bags being missing, we still have not gotten our last one. The last time I talked to American, the lady was rude and just a real witch. So, we will wait some more.

The first weekend we were there, we went to San Antonio. Been there so many times. Once, the water was drained out of the river walk (to my surprise). This time, it was full. In fact, super full. Texas got more rain this summer, then they got all of last year. We really went down there for Sea World. The plan was that we go on the first day, but my cousin lost her keys. The next day we went and N loved it. She was not that impressed with Shamu, but the coral reef was great. I decided that I wanted to show that I was young and road on the Great White roller coaster. I felt like crap the rest of the day. It sucks getting old! Right as we were leaving, it started to our down. We just made it to the car when it happened and it continued for several hours.

Speaking about the rain, we decided that we would go to Texas in July since the weather is usually nice in July. It is hot, but that is what air conditioning is for. It rained almost every single day we were there. It was crazy. I have never seen anything like it!

We did eat good while we were there. N's favorite was mac and cheese and hot dogs. I think that she would have been happy to have that for ever meal (instead we had it for almost every lunch). Her cousins thought that it was great, the first couple of days, then they grew tired of it. Here is a couple of places that I would recommend if you are in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area:
  1. Loco Coyote- it is located in Glen Rose and the food is amazing. The place itself is a dump, but the food is great (a picture of it is on www.DnMAdventures.com).
  2. Lone Star- Also in Glen Rose but in the town itself. Good BBQ and a nice "feel" to it
  3. Hamburger Bar- Cleburne Texas, I wrote a blog about it a while ago. It was not as good as usually. In fact, I was very disappointed. With that being said, it is still worth it just to see the place (a picture of it is on www.DnMAdventures.com) .
  4. Movie Tavern- Great idea, tavern food while you watch a movie. The food is fine, but it does not matter. The room is dark and you can't see it anyway. IT is a small chain all over the States.

The Fort Worth Museum of Science was having a exhibit on Star Wars and how it works. It was excellent. OK, I am a little biased, since I do believe that Star Wars is the greatest movie ever made. With that being said, I also think that it was done in such a way, that someone that does not care for Star Wars (M for example) could appreciate it. Well worth a visit, where ever it is now.

We also went to a Texas Rangers game. It was the first one for N and Z. N thought that it was great. Lots of music to dance to, fireworks, clapping and the best part was...ICE CREAM! I was just happy to get to go to a game. That is one of the worst parts of being in Sweden- no baseball!

The trip was good and we had a lot of fun. It felt like we were messing with trying to get our bags back half of the time and the weather was crap the other half. We had several things that we wanted to do, but just was not able to. Maybe next time we will.

If you want to see some pictures from the trip, go to www.DnMAdventures.com.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007


Here is a picture from this weekend of camping. Thought you might enjoy it.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Sorry to interupt this regularly published blog (cough cough, I promise I will get better at it), but I thought that I tell about the adventure we had this weekend. We took Z camping for the very first time and the second time for N. It was a place in Enköping Sweden where M grew up. She has been wanting to take me there since I moved here, but this was the first time. We went with my brother in law and his girlfriend.

On the Texas adventure (which I will finish writing sooner...or later), we bought a new tent. Our small camping tent was a little small for the four of us. So we got a four person tent. It is huge. I think our entire flat could fit in there. Which is fine, not like we are going to be hiking with it (22lbs). The problem was that it was about 35 mile winds as we were putting it up for the first time. The wind was blowing so strong that the tent was actually flat. We managed to get it up, barely. Of course, then the wind stopped. Murphy's law.

Both girls loved the tent, especially N. Z loved the sleeping bag. They shared with us, but they are going to get their own for Christmas, yes we have already bought them.

If you want to read more, then you can read more on the American Dad blog site. The address is located on the side!

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Travel To Texas

I would love to say that the travel to Texas was smooth as can be, but I would be lying. I can say that the travel to the airport went smoothly. The long term parking worked great. In fact, better then expected. Check-in to the flight was fine. We managed to get the bulkhead seats to Philadelphia, always nice. The plane looked as though it was going to leave on time, they even asked for all people traveling in first class or people traveling with children to line up. Which we of course all did (giving up our seats). Then we continued to stand in line for the next 2 hours and 30 minutes. It was miserable! Can you imagine standing in line with two kids under the age of two for that long- through lunch time and through nap time? They finally brought out a snack at the very same time that they started to board. So we did not even get one. Once on, the flight went well, meaning no real problems. N wanted to roam around and Z wanted to be walked around, so neither of us got to sit pretty much at all during the flight.

Since we left 2 hours and 30 minutes late, of course we arrived late. The ironic part is that we paid extra to have a shorter layover in Philadelphia- 1 hour and 45 minutes. Add to the problems that I got called in for an extra security check (I think that the first security guy was having a bad day), and that we were switching airlines, the chances that we were going to make our flight was slim to none. The American Airlines flight was several hours late, so the wonderful girl ran us through security and we were the very last people to sit on the plane. We literally had to run to get onto the plane before the doors closed. The girls slept the entire way there. When we finally arrived at DFW (3 hours late), we had to circle over and over because of bad weather. Finally we were given a window to land and a bumpy landing it was.

Out to the baggage carousel we go, knowing that our bags would be there waiting and my parents there with a big smile on their faces. Neither of them happened. We know our bags were not going to make it on the flight, though the guys at American did not want to help until they were sure. The parents read the arrival board and it said that we were going to be landing in 15 minutes.

In the end, after only 24 hours of traveling, we arrived at the parent’s house.