In the beginning of July we drove to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon it is quite a tripe not so bad time wise but the difference in landscape, as we leave Yuma and head west to Phoenix the landscape is rocky mountains and lots of Saguaros and other cactus spicies, after Phoenix it is still desert and slowly as you start decending towards Flagstaff the landscape starts to change from beige to little green to GREEN, I love green!! Then you see the prarie and then trees and forrests, the change is rapid and so beautiful.

When we arrived at Flagstaff we actually saw a little bit snow on the side of the road!!

In mid June we drove to San Diego to attend a Swedish Midsummer fest held at Balboa Park.

 We arrived early so we decided to browse around in the park first to enjoy the green scenerey and being able to be outside with out suffering heat stroke. While walking around in the park we met a lady and her parrot, she asked if Ella wanted to hold her and so she did. I think that the pictures will speak for themselves.

Denis and Ella enjoyed looking at the fountain and trowing pennies in it. With the stroller we couldn’t get to close to the water so we enjoyed it from a distance.

At two that afternoon we walk over to the House of Sweden  – http://www.sdhpr.org/Countries/Sweden.html

and enjoyed some Swedish små kakor (cookies) and enjoying the midsummer celebration, first on stage with choirs and gammel dans – after that it was time for the midsummer pole dance – it was a lot of fun and unlike Sweden we where guarantieed good (to hot for dancing) weather but still it was almost like home…!!

Instead of giving Ella a whole bunch of toys this year we decided that a trip to San Diego’s Sea World would be a great gift -  she loved it, she got to choose between breakfast with Elmo or Shamu…

What can I say she loves that red monster, Elmo!

After breakfast we moved on into the park and saw and did lots of different things like: Watching the Killer Whales through the wall of the big glass pool, that was cool, only a few inches between us and them.

We moved on to the Dolphin pool, Denis and Ella tried to touch the dolphins and succeeded.

The biggest event of all was of course the Shamu show in the big pool, that was great but with the sun and heat the girls thought is was a bit too long… still a great show.

There are so many things to see and do a tSea World, here Ella is holding a Sea star and on the other picture she is posing infront of the pink flamingos.

We all went on a cabel car ride while at Sea World much to my dislike… but Ella really wanted to go and oh well we all survived.

Here she is, it is bright and early  (5.45) so Denis could attend this 4th event of her life, waking her up by singing to her and eating cake in bed… but we decied to do this in the kitchen this time so we wouldn’t wake up Emma.

 

   

That evening our friends Sylive, Dan and Shane came over for dinner and swim and to Ellas delight they brought a cake and candles.

Emma has turned 1 year old  and this past year has gone by so fast.  We’ve been through a lot of changes moving from Germany to what some times seems like the last outpost here in Yuma.

Our little precious Emma, is almost 14 months today ( I’m a bit late posting this but oh well) , Denis’ sister Shannon flew from coast to coast to celebrate Emma’s first bithday with us.  We all had a great time having her here, we miss her soo much…

The pictures you are about to see are of Ella decorating Emma’s cake and then Emma eating her first Swedish style birthay cake with strawberrys and wipped cream, yum yum yum.

One day when we where in the pool playing Emma got so tired that she feel asleep on Aunt Shannon’s sholder, so sweet. The other one is of Ella and Aunt Shannon riding in the back seat and having a great time doing just that.

A few pictures from the pool, I will post more of these soon, since most of you “back east” are still wearing winter shoes and jacket we really don’t want to over do it and tell you that it is only 28C in the pool…

 Ella and Emma are showing off their teeth… or not, Emma has 6 of those tidy whity ones now.

Emma loves her singing puppy she got for christmas and she is showing it by laying on the floor cuddling with it and moving with the music. She has also reached the ago of I’m walking by holding on to things… She will have to hurry up if she is going to beat Ella’s walking a week before her first birthday, she will need to be taking those steps the next couple of days… not betting any money on that though

Going out to dinner, got to dress up a little bit… and then have lots of fun…

Hi everyone,

I’m sure you are thinking it is about time they post some new pictures and I totally agree but I/we have been (are still) kind of busy…

We are all doing very well, Ella LOVES the pool, Emma not so much but I’m sure that is just a matter of time.

We still have plenty of moving boxes in the garage but only a few inside, we are slowly making this house into a our home.

Enjoy the pictures!

Ella and Emma playing in the backyard with water…

The girls love corn on the cob…

Visiting relatives in Phoenix, Ella and Denis also went to their first Nascar race, sorry no pictures from there.

Here you see Ella and Jeffery playing together and Ella with Jeffery and Aubery’s turtles

Some more kids pictures and some of the “older kids” too, yes I did take picture of other people too.

Ellas first time on a horse

In Svalöv where Ellas morfar works they had a fair while we visited. The main event for us was Ella riding a horse she had been talking about it for a whole week now and finally we were there and off she went with grandpa Leif, in the beginning she looks scared, perhaps she was imagining a small horse… but after a few minutes and short walk with morfar she came back grinning from ear to ear   

After five weeks of being in Sweden we where ready to go home, especially Ella she was ready to go home the last week all she was talking about was her friends back home, Kindergarten, going shopping at the Commissary, sleeping in her new big girl bed and the rest of her “babies” that she left at home.

We tried to take it fairly easy but we still did and saw a lot of things. We also rented a cabin for two weeks when Denis came, that was a real treat just the four of us and 10 min walk (with kids) from the beach, we couldn’t swim in it but oh well you can always pick seashells and just enjoy the view and the smell of the ocean and the wind in your hair, I do miss the beach A LOT! Oh yeah my family and friends too !

Emma was Christened on September 16th at Klinten in Örkelljunga in Sweden the same place that we Christened Ella and yet again we where lucky with the weather.

Here we go the pictures, I know that, that is what you all have been waiting for anyway!

First a couple of pictures from beautiful Ängelholm.  

We went and visited Samuel and Felicia oh yeah, Sandra and Mattias where there too… so cute our little ones.

We did meet up with Sandra again at Capella Play in Hyllinge, for those of you who doesn’t know what that is it’s like a big indoor playground with lots of fun things to do for the kids and sometimes a relaxing cup of coffee for mom. This day we meet up with Titti and Algot aswell. 

 That is all you are getting for today, I’m getting tired and I still have a little one who need just me in the middle of the night…

As promised I’m posting some new pictures of my beautiful daughters.

I took Emma to her pediatrician on Monday for her U4 check-up and she is doing just great, she was weighed and measured and boy has she grown… She is now 69 cm (27.2 inches) tall and weighs 6.7 Kilograms( 14 Lbs 7 oz). 

Everyone is doing well and we are enjoying being just us girls spending a lot of time outside in the nice weather and having picnics or just going to the bakery for a pretzel or two.

A few of the pictures where taken today for example the one in the pink dress that Ella wore at our wedding.

Enjoy the pictures and hope to get back with some more soon.