SUMMER '10

We are in the middle of my three week holiday. We are touring Denmark this year, currently at Jesper's parent's house. And of course it brings back memories of last year where our wedding was held close to here. We went to Aaroe yesterday, that litte island just on the other side of the wedding site - it was a great visit.

And we have been lucky with the weather, nothing but sunshine day in and day out. We have introduced Jonas to the beach, and he loves it. He is usually a pretty careful boy but being at the beach and wandering into the ocean does not seem to scare him at all. I think he really enjoys spending time with the both of us and getting 100% attention.

We are heading back to home next week some time and then it is back to work again.

Summer time!

Well, it looks like summer has FINALLY arrived. After a long and very cold winter the sun may have come to stay for the summer - or at least that's my hope.



My dad bought a little World Championship outfit for Jonas since the soccer turnament is about to be kicked off - a little too big, but nevertheless a cute thought.



For those of you that don't know this, Jonas will get a little cousin in September - Johanne and Ole are going to be parents - we are of course so excited to meet this little new guy!!

A visit in Haderslev

A couple of weeks ago all three of us had a nice long weekend in Haderslev at Jesper's parent's house. Jesper came straight from Germany and even though Haderslev is not that far away we all enjoyed a nice little get-away. On our trip to Haderslev Jonas and I travelled by train - it got kind of late and I thought I'd put Jonas to bed in his carrier, but I was wrong - he literally entertained two coupes of the train (and it was packed since we had a national holiday the following day) and all I could do really was to watch - made no sense to start to play tough mom at that point....



Jesper and I got to go out one night. As some of you know, Haderslev is not the largest town even seen, but a new cute little place had just opened and we decided to eat dinner there. It was great food, good wine - we had a Tina wine - and very nice with an adult night out.





Now all the national holidays are over and we are looking forward to summer vacation. In Denmark everyone has at least 5 weeks a year, and most companies want employees to take at least three weeks in July/August. We don't have any crazy plans for our vacation - I wish we could have gone to the States (it has simply been too long and Anne's wedding would have been the perfect occasion). I miss the States all a lot still which I find strange (will that ever go away?). I mean, it has been 7 years since I returned to Denmark now and still it comes back to me - I do miss it! I have a secret dream to go live there again for a couple of years - don't know if it will ever happen - but it is my little dream:-)

Oh, and yes, the little guy has started to talk quite a bit - so cute how he repeats words that we say.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day came in May and my sweet little kid had of course remembered this day - he walked in with red roses and a cute little balloon.

A visit to the Zoo

Jonas and I went to the Zoo in Copenhagen today with my parents (Jesper is in Germany with work). It was Jonas' first visit with us (he had already been with day care). I knew I should not expect too much, but really... His favorite "animal" was a chicken. We showed him gorillas, girafs, camels and what not...

But he chose to run after a chicken. And me, I got a little nervous being around the chicken, so I just tried to stay away and take a couple of pictures instead.

General Prayer Day

I am up for a little vacation - well vacation may not be the right way to put it but tomorrow it is a national holiday here - called General Prayer Day (Smitty, sorry if you don't know that word either). And that's why spring is so nice here in Denmark - lots of national holidays where there is no work! The day before General Prayer Day it is a tradition to eat wheat buns - looked like Jonas like them.

Still need to take some pictures of our little house - gotta be the next post.

A little of this and a little of that...

Hello!!

It's time for an update from Copenhagen. Here is a recap from the last couple of months.

March:

Went to Paris with Jesper for a long weekend. It was a great little get away. We had both been before so no turisty things that we needed to see. Must admit it was really nice with some Jesper-and-Tina-only time. Paris is one of my favorite European cities and I have not been there for the last time.

Went to Budapest with work for something called TNS University. It was a lot of classes on different kinds of market analysis - sounds interesting, right:-) Spring had just started in Hungary and we did get to hang out in the city. It was not the greatest city in the world (the call it Eastern Europe's Paris actually, but I just didn't feel it), but it is always fun to see a new city and hang out with good colleagues.

April:

Easter came and Jesper's parents were here - we are now done with our little yard and we are ready to cook out on the terrace when the Danish weather will allow it.

Jesper got at new mail box for his birthday - yes, we have a house now.
To celebrate Jesper's birthday we went to an American Steak House called MASH. Don't really know if it exists in the US but it was so great. Usually, I am not much of a meat eater, but nevertheless I had a good steak and best of all, a real American caesar salad.

Oh yeah - heaven forbid I forget to mention the little one. He is doing fabulous. Here are a couple of the latest pictures

Fastelavn

Many of you guys may not now what this means, and that's totally OK since it is Danish. I did not know the English word so I actually had to translate it for this post and here we go: Shrovetide.

In Denmark we have a tradition around Shrovetide where the kids are dressed up in costumes, kind of like the American Halloween. So the good moms sew their kid's costumes, but since I really have no idea how to do that (do not even have a sewing machine) I bought two outfits for Jonas - Winnie the Poo and Spiderman. Jesper got the final word on which costume Jonas had to wear for day care when celebrating Shrovetide there and Spiderman it was. Here is a picture taken right before we left.



This took place in February, and yes, it means that I am late with my posts.
More updates to follow since we have moved into our new house as well!

Trip to Vienna

My weekend in Vienna went by so quickly - had a great time with collegues and clients!!Just getting to the hotel was awesome.


My closet and the bar right next to it:-)

First night was pretty easy going - went to a traditional Austrian beer house, their specialy was weiss bier. Although it is not my favorite kind of beer I of course had to try one from their own brewery - and yes, it was good! The menu card itself was a huge beer - see picture below.

On Saturday we saw some handball since that was really why we were there in the first place. After the Danish match the girls decided to go shopping and wow, did we do some shopping!Saturday night was out at a great sushi place in the middle of Vienna. Here is my dessert - yum!

Sunday was sightseeing by bus - and also time for a small nap for me. Later Sunday we saw the final game between Croatia and France ending up with France as the winner. Flew home very early Monday morning and then back to work - great trip!

Leaving on a jetplane

Just for a short trip - going to Vienna to see European Championships in handball. Handball is a big sport in Europe and I am going with my work to see the boys play in Vienna. I am of course excited to see the games but also to see Vienna - it is supposed to be a great city!

This is also my first time away from Jonas. I am sure I'll miss him while gone but I must also admit that I am looking forward to getting a couple of nights sleep without someone calling in the middle of the night:-)

Jonas will be with dad all weekend:-)

Work is going really well - I guess it has taken a while to get back into it after my maternity leave, but I am getting there.

We get the keys to our house on February 1st - did I mention that already? If yes, it is just because I am so excited. Jesper's parents will be in Copenhagen to help us with painting etc. And even though the house is not that big, it has a couple of extra rooms so there is a very good reason to visit Copenhagen (hint, hint you girls out there!)

Guess that's it from now - next update will be with pictures from Vienna - yeah.
Have a great weekend everyone!

PS: the bird is just a toy, not a real one for those who might have thought that

Walking...

Jonas is still not all that stable on the legs and he uses his arms to stay balanced.

Yesterday Ole and Johanne wanted to see Jonas walk on webcam - well it was not all that hard, having an opportunity to get to the computer he ran towards it as soon as I opened up the lap top. On the picture below he is having some problems getting by
the computer cords.

Jonas 1 year!

This week we celebrated Jonas' 1st birthday. Can't believe that one year has passed already, even if I know it sounds more like an old cliché than anything else. I think Jonas enjoyed all the birthday singing most that day - and hopefully the layered cake (a Danish tradition) I had made as well.







We moved out of the apartment just before the New Year and this means that we are staying at my parents this month. We get the keys for our new house on February 1st, then some painting etc. to do and hopefully we'll be able to move in mid February.

Some more random pictures of the little guy. He is walking now, still seems to be a little nervous about it and it looks really cute I think.