Assortment of Holiday Photos

Another trip to wonderful Laholm in the summer. This time my Dad and his family joined us as well and gave me the opportunity to take a Hagström guys family photo. The only one missing was 12 year old Brodie who lives in Australia with his mother.
Here is an assortement of holiday photos.

Dad


Dad and male offspring


Relaxed holiday mood




My favourite girls




Don´t worry, I helped him shortly after taking a few photos


My niece

Gåxsjö

We visited a little village called Gåxsjö on Saturday. It celebrated it's 600th anniversary!

Henrik's friend and Henrik (centre) checking out the lake.


Gåxsjö church shortly before a rainstorm.


Parkour Henrik!

Holiday

With only one week of paid leave left this year (Lorienne is still on maternity leave) we decided to spend it wisely and travelled down to Laholm to visit my brother and his family. We haven't seen them in 5 years!
Anyway, we packed my newly aquired Land Rover Defender 130 and drove down the 1000km in a two day trip, spending the night in Sala with Henrik and Rhiannon's two other cousins Tyr and Liv. We arrived in Laholm late afternoon the next day.
Although we had a lovely stay I truly believe Henrik had the best holiday out of all of us. He really spent every possible second trying to keep up with his older cousins and slept late in the mornings which otherwise never happens.
Here is an assortment of photos from our trip.


The Landy is great, you can even attach your baby to the back of it.


Henrik enjoying a run past the wheat fields


Rhiannon getting to know her cousin Max


Ivo and "Tuppe"


Max the archer


My brother and his family


At the beach


At home in the apple tree


Brothers at sunset


We pulled off the road and found a lake with a sandy beach on our way home. The water was luke warm. We decided to camp there and couldn't have found a more suitable place. Since it wasn't official it was also free.
I could do this more often, but I'd like a roof top tent.

COPYRIGHT!

It has come to my attention that some of my images are being printed. While this is flattering, I ask those who wish to have printed versions of my pictures to contact me first. I own the copyright of all the images on this website and even if you print images with the noblest of intentions you are still using my material without permission.
I always reduce the quality of the images to make them unsuitable for print so if you would like a copy then all you need to do is contact me for a more suitable version.
From now on I will also add a copyright logo before uploading images.

Storulvån

Skis? Check!
Food? Check!
Warm clothes? Check!
Family? Check!
All the family stuff? Will check again.

A skiing trip in the mountains is quite a project when it involves bringing little children with you. The idea was my impossibly optimistic cousin Kalle's to begin with and we were lucky to have the opportunity to rent a neighbours log cabin in an area called Storulvån.



Besides figuring out how and where to put everything in the cars (we ended up borrowing a huge trailer from another neighbour), you also have to work out how to fit the essentials for dragging children up mountains in World War II toboggans. That is where the real adventure begins. Also where the struggle begins. Snow is slippery and mountains are steep. World War II toboggans are heavy.

Lessons learned on our skiing adventure:

Don't try to save money by not getting proper climbing skins ( furry straps with sticky glue on the back, attaches to the skiis and enables you to ski upwards without slipping, kind of like a nordic spiderman).

Don't use army surplus toboggans from World War II to transport equipment and children up steep mountains. People were tougher back then and were trying not to get shot by germans, ie they had more incentive. I had my optimistic cousin insisting on a view.

Don't drag your kids up (or down) steep mountains, stay in the valleys even if the view is better further up. Kids don't care about views, but they do care (a lot) about crashing face down in snow while stuck in a toboggan.

One gets very sunburned even if it's winter and snowy outside. All it takes is sunny weather. I am a piggy pink as a result of not taking the above in to enough consideration.

Chill out with good food and wine in the evening when you're back at the cabin again. You deserve it.

Storulvån is a magnificent place and I would like to go back again, but I will keep this trip's lessons in my back pocket for the next time we go.


My impossibly optimistic cousin


WWII toboggans


Beware of snowblindness!


I felt a bit like I had the opportunity to play with the big boys on the deep side of the pool which I appreciated.


Saving precious Parma Ham from soggy sandwiches


Hot Cloudberries and icecream, an aquired taste.

South Africa

Today is windy and overcast and gone are the clear sunny days without a breath of wind. The weather forecast promised snow in the mountains tomorrow which means winter is taking one step closer.
To cheer myself up I went through some photos from our trip to South Africa at the beginning of this year. Hope you enjoy them!