This and that

Mike imitates the poet, Lins Ferlin's statue. They look quite similar!

Beautiful Swedish countryside

The house Mike's Grandmother grew up in!

Cute pigs at Linne's estate. Carl Linne, the person who gave all the Latin names to plants. He was born in this area, and there is a museum like place at his birth place.

This is the house he grew up in...one room.

Extra Curricular Activities!

My coach, Jeremy Storie, told me to do some cross training on my vacation, and this is what I came up with...

"Oh thank God, I made it up"....
"Aggg, what happened to the other ski!"... Mike looks like he's about to drown....
I think Mike's enjoying himself!

Next, Mike and I rode to a Moose Park. There are 3 families of Moose you can feed, pet, and take pictures of....
Can you pick out the Moose?
Oh, and I got the Birthday treatment too...Breakfast in bed, singing, and gifts! I like this tradition!!

Swedish Cooking!

One of my objective, and yes I had vacation objectives, was to learn some authentic Swedish cooking from Mormor and Gunnel.

For years, I have been trying to re-create Mike's birthday cake from his memory. It was great to learn the REAL recipe.
First, you cut the cake into 3 layers..
Then you add the smashed bananas..
To the other layer you add the fruit sauce (like a creamy jello)...

Cover with whipped cream (that has NO sugar in it)...

Add whatever fruit you like....and tadaa...

My next Swedish Cooking lesson, was in Bulle. A very common cinnamon bread roll served at coffee (which is pretty much every time you visit someone. I've learned the women in Mike's family always have some in the freezer in case of unexpected company). And being as it's so tasty, and common, I thought it a must to learn.

After rising the dough, we roll it out into a rectangle, spread w/ butter and cinnamon.

The using scissors, cut the rolls.

Add egg to the top for a nice brown finish (thanks Mike)....

And bake! Look how nice they look. Notice the size difference. Can you tell which ones the American made?

The Murdin twins Celebrate 36!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you....
The way you celebrate birthdays here, is you bring breakfast in bed, singing 'Happy Birthday', and give gifts. This is Daniel. As the Murdin family, we had to divide an conquer...3 went up to Michael's room, 3 to Daniel's.
Mike's struggling to get his eyes open. But he's showing off a awesome cycling tan! No he does NOT have a white shirt on. And that's Kristina w/ him.

Later that evening we had a big celebration. Mike's Uncle and Cousin (Jan-Olof and Martin) both had birthdays recently too, so we had a big party for everyone. Although I think I heard Mike grumble, "Just feels like a watered down Birthday Party".

It take the full concentration of Mike's two remaining brain cells to fly the radio controlled airplane (that is his cousin Martin giggling next to him).
The whole family gets into watching the plane fly. Kerstin (on the far right, Mike's Aunt, Martin's mother) has recently recovered from a near head on w/ the out of control plane, flown by Kristina.

One for each of the twins. I made the one for Mike, Kristina made Daniels.
Mormor (Grandmother) had told Mike and Daniel they were too old for having their own cakes...but she was just kidding, and we surprised them w/ the SECOND cake!

a few extra pictures...

Mike's absolutely favorite place to eat breakfast. And now I know why. So relaxing, and comfortable!

My daily Swedish lesson. Trying to learn the new sounds that are in the Swedish language...this will be a long lesson!

My birthday tea party. That's Gunnel, me, and Mormor. Who brought me a surprise cake as well! What you see on the table is Bulle (like cinn buns) and Chocolate balls (both traditional Swedish cakes....only they are severed BEFORE the cake)...a tradition I'm thinking of taking on!

Poppy the puppy!

We arrive in Almhult to Mike's parents' home, to meet 'Poppy', the 8wk old Black Lab puppy. And it was love at first sight! Isn't she cute!

A week later she looks much older, to me. But still so precious!

A little 'Friskis och Svettis' Frisky and Sweaty...the swedish term for general gyms that have all kind of exercise classes...and I, of couse, LOVE that name....So Poppy joined in my Friskis and Sweaty class!
She's learning to retrive, kind of. She's not the biggest fan of giving it back!

Finally, we wore her out!

Kopenham highlights

Since I have not been good about keeping up daily, a summary will have to suffice.
This small trip to pick up Kristina's bike made me so sore, holding my legs up, and not being able to sit straight made it like one long sit up...and check out that tire pressure on the back wheel...
Next we went on a tour on a boat around Copenhagen's shores
This is the famous mermaid, from "The Little Mermaid" story...
Here is Nyhavn (I think) a popular shopping area for tourists.

Damn Tourists! Mike is so funny, he always get embarrassed when I pull out my camera, 'We look like Tourists' he always says...well Mike, WE ARE!!

What you see over my right shoulder is a Bike stop light...and yellow AND red means 'almost green'

Now we go...neat huh!

I don't speak Danish, so this sign really made me chuckle (yes, I am still 12)

Ok, so we went for the famous HUGE ice creams of Denmark. And boy oh boy did they live up to their names. We did have to wait in line for 1/2 hr. These kids got the biggest ones...what you cannot see is there are 6 scoops of normal ice cream UNDER the mound of soft ice cream...

I decided to go w/ 2 scoops plus soft ice cream, whipped cream, and strawberry sauce...cause I'm on a DIET. Mike went for 3, what a pig!
Next we went to Tivoli, the oldest working amusement park in the world. Since most the cool rides were closed (because we got there at 10pm), we settled on playing a friendly tournament of carnival games. Here Mike shows his skill at frog catapulting...but Kristina was the winner of the tournament...I was 3rd (yea, of 3).
This is a electric massaging wooden chair thing...what I'm sitting on rotates, and I hold on...it was so funny, but pretty effective. This was at Kristina's work...that is like a dance studio, we took a 1hr 50min Yoga class I talked about before.
We also saw the last stage of the Tour of Denmark. They did 10 finishing laps in town...it was awesome!