Spelunking

Sunday:

This morning we started by heading out to the ocean. It was slightly overcast and really windy, but we didn't go there for swimming (except for my sister, who actually brought her swimsuit that crazy little thing :), but the reason we went was to sit on the beach and have lunch.

We found out that there are caves just over a mile out, so we set out on a little trek.

The first part of the trip was on a really nice flat path, but halfway there it turned into a dirt path with lots of roots and rocks, and then after a little while it turned into something of a mountain path. Good thing we were all young and healthy. :)

The caves were a little bit disappointing, pretty much just a hole in the wall, but it was still a very cozy location for our chicken wraps that my mom and sister made.

After lunch we had to rush back home for our meeting at 4 pm.

It was kind of sad to say goodbye to all our friends at the meeting, but at least we will see them all again in just 2 years...

After the meeting I had managed to get some people together for a soccer game. It ended up being just 9 of us, so the game didn't get too long, especially since I was so out of shape that a couple of runs up and down the field got me gasping for air. Of course I still managed to lead my team to victory. :)

While I was playing, my family and Kathryn went to a family in the congregation and got some pork-thingys grilling.

We sat huddled at a table in the chill night air and chewed down on the food while worrying about having to leave... :(

Monday:

Today was the beginning of the end for us. My sister and Sam were driving us down to where they live which is a bit closer to the airport. We stopped at my grandparents and at a couple of stores on the way down, so we didn't get there until 10 pm. Just one more day to go. :(

Nooks and Grannies

Friday:



We went to visit Kathryn's grandmother in Njurunda. She's moved recently to a smaller apartment, and lives there by herself. She can't see or hear very well, but her mind is very clear. We brought some flowers and baked goods. We had fika and enjoyed catching up on Njurunda news. The congregation has dwindled down to around 50 pubs. since we lived there. Sort of sad. Ingrid has been spending much of the summer på torpet (a small cabin in the woods). She also had some interesting pics of Kathryn and Kiki as kids, which we won't describe. :)

After we got back, we rushed over to a couple in the congregation for dinner. We ate fläskfilé that had been baked in the oven with chorizo sausage and spicy sauce. Also a delicious salad with melon. And might I mention, red red wine.

After dinner, we picked some berries and cherries in their back-yard.






Saturday:

Today we went to see my grandparents again. We got to see Pelle and Marie again, too. They had been spending some time with my grandparents after their convention. It's hard for my grandmother to see people leave, so today was a rough day for her. (Karin and Mark - they hälsa er).

We played a Swedish game called Kubb. We picked one up to bring back to the states so you all get to learn how to play it.

When we got home, we ate hamburgers and watched a Chinese love-story with Swedish subtitles (last week it was one in Italian).

Service Day

Since we have been a bit lazy with our blogging, 3 days are combined here.

Tuesday:

We were way overdue for a day in service, even though we're on vacation. We're trying to make sure that we're not too much in the hole when we get back.

Fortunately the weather was perfect, a light breeze and comfortable. We started by stopping by a territory mom had in town. It seems that the territories are smaller here in Sweden. There were only about 50 households on the territory she had, so we went through it quickly.

After that we went to a couple of my mom's returns, one of them an old lady whom I haven't seen in 6 years. She had the whole cargroup come in for a few minutes.

Back at the apartment we had a quick lunch and then we headed out towards her rural territory. The territory is about 20 mins outside of town, so we ended up stopping at a candy store on the way. We bought a couple of small bags that didn't last too long. After spending half a day out, we went home to get ready for the meeting. After the meeting, we went to a sister's house for some delicious "smörgås tårta". Kathryn has the recipe to make it when we get back.



Wednesday:

Today we went to see Kathryn's family in Myrbodarna. All the cousins were home. When we first got there, we had fika outside. We had open faced sandwiches, kladd kaka, and a cake we picked up from a bakery. It was covererd in chocolate and filled with a pear cream.
I also carried Abby around all day. We finally bonded again. I'm trying to fit her in my suitcase when we come back. (Don't let Jonathan or Hanna know.)
Lasse and Jon are building a small cabin on a neighbor's yard. It's in a place called Skatan (1km away), so we drove over there to see it.
They also gave us an idea of what to do in our backyard :)
In the evening we had a big barbeque on an open wood fire. I got all bit up.




Thursday:

Service and bookstudy! No pics.

The Nyman Chefs

Kathryn and I got some time for ourselves today. In the morning we went downtown with my mom and sisters for some random shopping, and also to meet Kathryn's aunt and uncle who are sortof stranded in the harbor here in Härnösand, since Karin, Kathryn's aunt, gets seasick in the rough winds. We decided to bring some dinner over to them, since we were cooking for an army anyways. We had lunch at a Swedish hamburger-chain called Big Boy, which I am sure my in-laws are gonna find hilarious.

When my dad got home from work (yes, he is retired, and still decided to go in to work for a week when they asked him... I can tell you, that won't happen for me :)) my mom and sisters went back home to go with him and pick raspberries. They ended up getting 22 pounds.

Kathryn and I walked around doing some shopping for the food we were gonna make, chicken marsala.

It felt like old days when we lived here in Sweden and had no car so we had to walk all over the place.

We managed to finish just in time for my family's return. The Food came out real nice, and everybody loved it.

After dinner we sat on Karin and Göran's boat and had some coffee and skorpor (something in-between a cracker and a cookie). It was pretty nice up til the point where Kathryn and I started getting a bit sick from all the rocking.

At 9:30 we headed back home with a beautiful sunset.

Public embarrassment

Today I had my first Swedish Public Talk. I was already starting to regret accepting when dad asked me, since worrying about writing a talk isn't all that conducive to an enjoyable vacation. Well I finished the talk with just a couple of days to spare, so at least I had the time to practice it a couple of times before it was time to give it.
My grandparents and my aunt came over in the morning, so we had some waffles with freshly made blueberry and cloudberry sylt (kinda like a runny jam) and heavy cream. Yes, we do talk a lot about food in the blog, but it's just that good :).
It was really nice at the meeting when we got to meet all the friends from our old hall. For some reason they thought I had gotten taller... I'm thinking they all got shorter.
The talk went ok I guess... at least no one complained, and I was happy when it was all done with. Now I can start relaxing for real. :)
After the meeting we went home to a family for a nice meal and some entertainment. My dad has a deck of cards with biblical characters on them and 10 clues that will help you figure out who it is. He let me have the cards since they're in english anyways, so if you're invited to our house (or even if you invite us) you might be up for a challenge. ;)

Woodsmen

Today we relived a childhood nightmare. Every summer we went picking berries, and Mom and Dad really wanted to see if they could get some cloudberries since they're almost out of season. The problem with cloudberries is that they only grow in remote areas in bogs, so we had another long car-ride ahead of us.

On the way there we stopped in at my other set of grandparents to say hi. Grandma had some freshly baked bread to offer us. It's called segkaka (translates "chewy-bread") and I was happy to have a LOT of it.

After that we squeezed back in the car and headed further into the woods.

The place where we ended up is really remote, you can drive for a long time without seeing a single house, and the ones you see might be a little bit scary at times.

A lot of the berries were already getting over-ripe, so we had to cover quite a lot of area looking for them, and since its in a bog, every step you take you sink a little bit... kindof like walking on big pillows... quite the workout.

Mom brought some sandwiches, coffee and hot chocolate for break, and I made quite a nice fire if I may say so myself.

We ended the day with about 20 pounds of cloudberries after picking for about 3-4 hours. Not the greatest yield, but it sure will be making for some great tasting desserts these next few days.

Back home we just got lazy and ordered some take-out (which by the way is called take-away here in Sweden... don't ask me why)

Kathryn had been craving her chicken roll (chicken, vegetables, garlic-sauce all rolled up in a pizza bread) for 2 years now, so she sure enjoyed it.

Grandparents

Not much going on today. We had a slow morning hanging out with Hannah. Since we couldn't fit 6 people in the car, Bitja slept one more night with my aunt and uncle, and was coming up by train in the morning. My grandparents were picking her up in Sundsvall, and we were going to pick her up from them, but her train wasn't due until the afternoon, so I spent some time working on my talk. I probably should have made sure I had my talk done before I came here, but I am a procrastinator by nature, so I have to suffer well.
Hannah made us some Tjockpannkaka (Thick pancakes baked in the oven) with some blueberries for lunch, and then we headed down.
Seeing my grandparents was real nice, since I haven't seen them in 2 years. They made us some hamburgers and we got to see some family photos. It's pretty neat to see how I went from a really cute kid to an amazingly handsome young man.
My grandmother also showed me a jewelry box I made in 3d or 4th grade that she is still using. I was pretty amazed that it still was in one piece. I wonder if I squandered carpentry skills by not pursuing the trade...
We did a quick stop at IKEA on the way back to pick up some coasters that Mark and Karin wanted. They recently remodeled the store, and now it is laid out almost exactly like the one in Paramus, NJ. I guess we witnesses aren't the only ones who strive for world-wide unity :)
Back home we sat down and enjoyed a TV-show. Hannah and I were the only ones who stayed awake for the whole thing.
We forgot our camera the whole day, so pictures will be posted when we can steal them from my parents camera.

Booooooring

So today was the day of the big trip back to the north of Sweden. it is a trip of close to 1000km which is about 600 miles. As you can guess, it takes quite the toll on the rear end. Fortunately we didn't take the whole trip in one shot, since we probably would be completely numb.
First we stopped at Gränna, which is a small community right on the shore of Vättern. It's a quaint little town, famous for making polkagrisar. Imagine those small red and white mints, only as a foot-long stick, and not as soft either. They're perfect for pulling out teeth if you're not careful. We stopped and bought a couple. You just have to...
Back in the car for a few more grueling hours, and then we started looking for where Anna-Karin, Kathryn's cousin lives. Hanna and Abigail are there visiting, so we just had to be there. :)
Abigail was sleeping when we got there, she had fallen asleep just a few minutes before we got there. For entertainment there were the family's 7 dogs and 2 puppies though. Yeah, you heard me right, 9 dogs. :) When Abby woke up she was really shy, and didn't really want to play with me... really depressing.
Fortunately we brought a drawingpad and crayons, so soon I was helping her color a turtle. All was well again :) Hopefully she will still remember me when we see her in august...

Anna-Karin made some stir-fry that was really delicious, together with some home-made rolls.
We spent the rest of the day sleeping all the way back home, and that's it.