Our in Sweden

Hum the tune of Frere Jacques.  Thomas has been singing in the shower to that tune, "Our in Sweden, Our in Sweden."  Yes, Thomas.  We're in Sweden.  And here are some pictures of the trip.

Phase 1: JFK to Berlin to Stockholm

Tapping into the snacks before we even left JFK

After an hour and half sleep (we flew overnight), Thomas and the rest of us enjoyed a nice little breakfast before we landed in Berlin.

After a quick trip from Berlin to Stockholm, we headed to our hotel, where Thomas wasted no time in making himself at home.

Dad trying out his bed

Thomas trying out his bed

After some well-deserved running around the hotel, which is thankfully attached to a mall, Thomas konked out in his bed.  This is a new thing for him, as he's still in a crib at home.  Despite a few trips back and forth between sleeping with a 30 weeks pregnant Mama on a twin bed  and his Murphy bed, he had a pretty good nights sleep.

Cruising with Nana

Makeshift crib/bed

Day Two in Sweden meant Mama and Dad jetted off to see the sights of Stockholm while Thomas stayed at the hotel with Nana and Papa and got some much needed sleep.  Nana and Papa did too.

Our "on-off" bus tour

At Vasa Museum, hommage to a 17th century ship wreck and subsequent rebuild

Mike and the lion

Near City Hall

Arguably Sweden's most famous export, ABBA: McCollum style

Phase 2: Heading up to the High Coast to see our friend Lisa in Nordingra.
We packed up Thomas and headed four and a half hours north to visit a dear McCollum family friend.  After much ado over installing the carseat, we loaded him up, complete with Nana's backpack.

In the summer, Lisa runs a bed and breakfast in a small town.  We found it to be beautiful and looking a lot like Northern Maine.  Thomas and Mike wasted no time making themselves at home.

Bringing flowers to Lisa

Lisa's cellar, which reminded Thomas of his shed back home

Stacking wood on day 1!

Stopping (only for a moment) to smell the flowers

And stomping on them

Repairing flowers after stomping on them

Snack break with Dad

Thomas immediately acclimated in some ways and in others, we're still trying.  For example, he felt right at home because he could mow and rake and do his favorite yard duties.

 On the other hand, Nordingra is a bit different in that dusk did not fall until 11:00pm, so it was bright sunlight when we tried to put Thomas to bed and the sun rose at 3:00am, so it was bright when he woke up in the morning (and decided to get up instead of hitting the snooze button).  Fortunately, there were plenty of people to share in entertaining Thomas.

Dad and some horses down the street

Walking with Nana and Mama to look at the ocean

"Hey Lisa!  Your want to go look at a ocean?"

Yummy Swedish yogurt with Lisa

We visited the very cold Baltic Sea at two very different granite beaches.  The first was very Thomas-friendly, the other, very interesting to Mama, the beach combing rock climber.

Welcome to Rotsidan

"Oh!  It's so cold!"

Dad and Thomas riding a mangled stick that looked like a horse

The other beach, this one, with loads of red granite

Scoping out a future home, Mike?

Just enjoying the view out to sea

Quaint little fishing village where we stopped for a yummy salmon lunch

Once our sea faring days were done, we headed up to a nice city, Ornskoldsvik.  Thomas enjoyed the chance to run around on flat land and enjoy some of Sweden's version of Mc Donald's, Max.

Yet another horse to ride!

Ice cream sundae at Max

Phase 3: Back to the Quality Hotel near Stockholm

We headed back to the hotel that's attached to a mall with a little playground in it.  It was a fortuitous accident that we landed here.  It's been great for Thomas, but now we're ready to go back home to Mountain Road.

Phase 4: The trip back home

After Thomas' sleepless eight hour flight from Berlin to NYC and his consumption of more food and snacks than we have ever seen in our lives, we have finally made it back home.  Thomas only fell asleep right after the wheels touched the ground at JFK.  We tried the whole flight to get him to take a good, good nap, but it was in vain.  Apparently he had other plans.

Sleeping on the floor at baggage claim

Thomas has wasted no time diving back into his routine at home.  First stop: the shed.  Gotta love it...and him.

Happy Mothers

There are three happy mothers at Thomas' house this Mother's Day, one enjoying this beautiful day and this beautiful boy more than the next.

Snacks with two Nanas

Happy Mama's Day from Thomas and us.

Our Little Buddy

Our Little Buddy, who we still call Little Buddy even though he is getting big, is fun to hang out with.  He had a blast hanging out with Nana and Papa VanDusen last week while we headed out of town for work.   Papa kept Thomas busy getting the house back in order after he and Nana returned after being gone for the winter.

Power drilling Thomas

Putting some air in the tires of Papa's truck

Driving Papa's tractor!

Thomas wasn't the only one to work.  Little Buddy still calls us Your Mama and Your Dad.  I guess when all he hears is other people calling us by that, he has decided that is what he can call us too.  "Your Mama" worked with some teachers in Maine and "Your Dad" went to Dallas for work and met up in Bangor to do some work on our condo there.

Dad is pretty good with tools too.

Fortunately, he is also Nana's Little Buddy.  She stayed at our house for a few days to help out upon our return from Maine.  We took Nana to the library and showed her how we do work at a computer and get new books.

We dragged her across the parking lot and brought her to the park. 

Back home to grab a drink together

"Cheers!"

Nana and Papa were very accommodating and super exciting, but we couldn't let them have all the fun.  Today, we loaded Little Buddy up, donned Dad's sunglasses and headed over to Dad's hometown area near Danbury, CT.

If you think Thomas is stylin' in his dad's shades, you should have seen Mike in Thomas' shades!

 Little Buddy said his favorite part of the day was going to the playground and the park in Brookfield.

Lunch with Your Mama

Two handsome guys watching soccer

After a stint at the park, we headed over Stew Leonard's, a unique grocery experience in Danbury.  How on earth Shop Rite by us could ever live up to our experience today, I don't know.

Peeking in on the cows in the petting zoo,

Feeding the baby goats,

And eating some ice cream (frozen yogurt) after making our way through the grocery section.

We know that we're not the only ones who enjoy time with Little Buddy.  Hopefully the baby who Thomas tells everyone is "coming to live with us" will enjoy him just as much as we do.