We had planned to take our guests to the local folk museum this morning, but they slept right through that opportunity. They both took sleeping pills last night because they’ve had a hard time getting a good night’s sleep with the jet lag and all, and I hated to wake them. It didn’t help that we were up until midnight last night, so I knew they needed to sleep in. I finally woke them at eleven this morning, since Turid invited us to lunch at her studio at noon. They slept right through breakfast, too. Oh well!
Turid is one kind-hearted woman and she put on a nice spread of salads and luncheon stuff in the heart of her art studio in Aalesund. It was a real treat. Afterwards, we drove into the city to try and hit all five thrift stores. I don’t know what I was thinking. We barely made it through two of them. There’s just too much to look through and too many decisions to make. Poor Stuart, he’d start looking at something and Judi would holler at him to come look at what she was looking at. There was just too many cool things to sort through and I’m sure if suitcase space wasn’t an object, they would have cleaned out the stores.
I should have taken Judi and Stu to some real stores before we hit the thrift stores, though, just so they could get the full sticker shock into their system, as they were hemming and hawing about the prices of things in the thrift store! Wait til they get a look at what new things cost in Norway. We did find a souvenir shop that kept them occupied for more than an hour as many things were on sale and they found several treasures to take back home to their families.
Once we started walking around town a bit, we got the jaw dropping expressions from not just Stuart today, but also Judi. We couldn’t go too far without having to stop for photos – something I can totally appreciate. Our town is pretty fine and I’ll never be bored by its beauty.
The hours just slipped by this afternoon and they aren’t used to everything closing so early, so by five o’clock we had to drive back home as there wasn’t a reason in the world to stay in the city. I made a quick dinner and after we ate, Kaleb took them on a tour of the mall next door. They both felt like just vegging out at our place after being on their feet all day, but once we looked at the calendar and realized how fast the time is going, they decided to seize the opportunity while they could. Kory and I used the time to start packing up for the 12 day trip we are taking on Friday, as the next few days are looking fairly jammed with activities.
Kaleb turned 12 1/2 today and spent his afternoon with Henrik again and came home in time for dinner. He’s looking forward to us being gone for 12 days and he’ll be able to have a record breaking 12 night sleepover with friends. He already has this weekend lined up to be with Toban, but the bulk of the time he’ll be with his friend Andre, who is coming to stay with us this summer in America.
Tante Aslaug dropped by for a little visit tonight, too. She hadn’t seen us since we’ve been back from Israel. Kaleb, Stu and Judi came back while she was still at our place so she got to meet them. Then afterwards we took Stu and Judi down to meet Tante Kari. She’s been coming by our place the last few days, not finding us at home and wondering what we were up to. She wanted to greet our American guests, also, so we spent a bit of time with her tonight, trying to translate the conversation between her and the Americans. It’s been fun for Stuart to meet everyone, as previously they just seemed like characters in a novel to him. He’s read all about them since I started the blog, but now he can see they are real people.
It rained off and on all day today and not once could we even see the tops of the mountains. It was a great day to be shopping, but I sure hope the weather clears up by tomorrow. We’re going on a road trip to visit Stuart’s half-third-cousin-once removed who lives on a farm where their great-great grandfather lived. Strangely enough, those two guys look like they could be twins. Stu’s cousin called and they have planned a huge day tomorrow with other relatives coming over, a trip out the cemetery and possibly up to their cabin. We thought we’d just be spending the morning with this one guy, Kaare, but I think he’s planned the whole day for them to be together, so I’m sure it’s gonna be good.
Kory has been working on drawing faces as he knows he can draw buildings pretty well, but the human face is still a challenge. He’s getting better. Judi doesn’t like her photo taken and won’t let me post pictures of her on my blog, so I took a photo of the picture Kory drew of her this morning. Ha ha!
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