No moon over Liseberg

Yesterday we continued our tradition of meeting up with people we haven’t seen in 20 years (remember my Spanish sister and LisafromAfrica?). When Jon was a teenager, his family hosted an exchange student from Norway for a year.  Although Jon’s parents have stayed in touch with the family, Jon and Eirik haven’t maintained their relationship (sound familiar??) until now. Eirik, his wife Janne, and their children Philippa and Sina drove from Oslo to Gothenburg yesterday and we spent the day with them at Liseberg amusement park. You might remember Sara’s wardrobe malfunction during our previous visit to Liseberg – if not, you can check that out here. This time we were much better behaved, and had lots of time to catch up with Eirik and see what he’s been doing since high school. He’s done quite well for himself, with a smart and funny wife, 2 gorgeous girls, a job he loves as Assistant Editor-In-Chief of a newspaper’s online division, and a new house in Oslo 3 minutes away from his parents and in-laws. Not bad. We like to think that his time in Orion with Jon’s family set him up for such success, but I guess his own parents had something to do it with it too. Probably. They must have. We’ve been so lucky to have rekindled these relationships, and are looking forward to spending more time with Eirik and his family in the future.

 

How not to ride a Dalahest

On Sunday we took Sam and the girls to Gothenburg’s Liseberg amusement park. It was great that the entrance fee didn’t include the ride pass, so Jon and I only had to pay a few dollars to get in (more money for beer!).  Just kidding. So toward the end of the day, we found this gigantic dalahest that Sara of course wanted to climb. Except she couldn’t get up. At all. After multiple tries. And onlookers were laughing. And pointing. It’s not that tall, so it wasn’t unreasonable that we adopted the U Like It, U Climb It policy and didn’t give her a boost. Or get down on all fours next to it and make like a step stool. So after about 5 minutes (yes, really) of trying to get on, she finally managed it, but not before a Swedish family had a pretty good view of London, France, and all of the arrondissements. Good thing the Swedes love to travel.