We have had a very eventful year and many good times. The year started with Mari heavily pregnant but active and in good form, even toughing out 2 weeks on here own in January whilst I was in Adelaide, Australia undertaking an upgrade on Fiberpipes 2 Glassfibre pipe production lines (Fiberpipe is a licensee of Flowtite, with whom I have now worked for nearly 10 years).
After coming home from Australia and travelling to Germany for another cancelled Cross Country ski race we spent the winter holiday in Maris works chalet in the mountains above Rujkan. Mari is still working as a public health advisor for the county council. This would be our last holiday for a few years without a small baby/toddler so it was a good chance for Daddy to introduce the boys to Slalom. After so many hours on Cross country skis they took to it like ducks to water. Une, who is normally quite sensible and careful, showed no fear and quite a bit of talent. I was dismayed when he announced "that was fun, can we do it again" at the bottom of a 2.5km run, bits of which scared the daylights out of me, and then experienced one of the darkest moments of the year when he vanished into the distance on the second run and I found him at the bottom "looking at his watch".
Mari gave birth 17 days early on a Saturday and we were lucky that her mum was at her Chalet and could come at short notice to look after the boys. They had a great time and talked themselves into an extra large portion of honey on their sandwiches!! Kai Nevin came to the world Healthy and without complications.
Mari's dad turned 90 in May this year and we all took a trip to the west coast of Norway to celebrate in Maris sisters newly extended and refurbished farm house on an Island near Bergen. We had a very good time and were lucky to experience good weather, which really doesn't happen often. It is such a beautiful place when the sun shines.
Our summer holiday started with a week in Finland celebrating our god daughter (and nieces) confirmation.
A little later it was on to Ireland for a few days in a country house hotel in Wicklow before travelling on to Cork for my younger sister Clare's wedding. We took advantage of having the whole family in one place and Kai was baptised in my parents and oldest sisters local church in west cork. After this we enjoyed a great week in together with most of the rest of our Family in self catering Cottages on the small west cork island of Inish Beg. We almost had this wonderful estate all to ourselves and really enjoyed ourselves. All in all a very memorable and enjoyable holiday, although I did become a little bit weary of packing everything a family of 5 with a small baby needs in and out of cars and aeroplanes!
Une is now 8 and in the 3rd class of primary school. He is doing well at school and really enjoys mathematics and reading, he is also now starting to get a hang of reading English, so much so that he follows when I am reading for him at bed time and complains if I miss out words or read words in the wrong order. We have been reading the whole of the Hiccup memoirs (How to train your dragon) and are now on the 11th book and finally getting close to finding out if Hiccup can save the day... I can highly recommend these books to parents out there!!
Liam, who is 5 is now in his final year of barnehage (kindergarten) and struggled for some time with being one of the oldest and not having older boys to look up to and hang out with. Right from the start he had his big brother to look after him, and has always been physical and enjoyed being with the older boys. It took him a while to feel comfortable and enjoy being the one the others looked up to and followed.
Both boys have ended up with quite a handful of activities, and the first days of the week are a bit of a logistical challenge. Une has Baritone and Football on Mondays, Hip Hop dancing on Tuesdays, Piano and Swimming on Wednesdays. He is showing a fair talent on the Piano and at times it is difficult to get him away from it. He would probably be also competent on the Baritone if he had the motivation to practice! Liam also plays football and started hip hop this year. Having 2 boys in 2 different groups added to the already challenging logistics and meant that Kai had to be dragged out on Monday evenings so we were very grateful when Liam was allowed to join Unes group despite being 1 year too young. Their group made it to the final of the "dance off" and danced on stage in a venue in Tonsberg. The dancing school do a great job and it is really impressive to see what they achieve especially with the older groups. Both boys absolutely love it as well!!
Mari went back to work (50%) in the middle of November and I have started 50% leave. We will continue like this until May next year. Although we have applied for a place in barnehage starting in May, Kai will most likely start in August. We are not yet quite sure about how we will handle this gap, but it will most likely involve us using up most of our holidays and taking some unpaid leave.
Despite all the driving here there and everywhere and a new baby in the house, I have managed to take advantages of any "dead time" (while boys are at football and hip hop) and keep up my running. I havn't run any marathons this year, but improved my times on all other distances. We have purchased a sports buggy which I run with every time I am at home with Kai and he is ready for his sleep time. (we are now on 50/50 parental leave).
Work on the inside of the house is progressing, one of the reasons why the run up to Christmas has been extra busy and this post is so late. The first of the new rooms is almost ready and was used as a guest room for Maris sisters family who visited for the Christmas celebrations.
It's too late to wish you all a merry Christmas, but we hope you had you all had a good one and wish you all the best for 2017. Love and regards to all our friends out there around the world, Any, Mari, Une, Liam and Kai
