My first Hen Night!

Last weekend I joined a group of ladies celebrating a friend's last hurray as a single women - the Swedish version of our bachelorette party. Their tradition for the bride-to-be (and groom-to-be) is to completely surprise the guest of honor. Karin, our friend had been told a myriad of lies to get her to the start of her party and she even had an overnight bag conveniently packed!


As I side note, the stories I heard about the guys version of "surprised" is a bit more harsh. The "best men" usually go to elaborate schemes to throw the groom off by giving them instructions and an embarrassing costume to wear on a bus and sit in a bar only to wait for for no one show up! Then days or weeks later, the real "kidnapping" occurs.

I was on the team to shop for the food for the overnight. We had a detailed list from the team that was cooking the dinner. Did I forget to mention all 8 gals were Swedish...thus the list was in their mother language. I was just given an assignment and off I went in the grocery store. You can imagine my surprise when I was saw that the 8 Sea Breem fish still had scales, fins and eyes that were staring past me.

After the shopping we headed outside of Stockholm to a country club wardhus (restaurant/gathering place) where we SURPRISED Karin and had a wonderful lunch. We then traveled more into the forest to a summer house on the archipelago where we started with the wine and Karin's pampering. We had hired a skin therapist to give her a pedicure and facial. The food was wonderful even if a bunch of ladies cooked whole fish on a charcoal BBQ. I was so impressed with the "chef" and even tried replicated the fish and sauce when I got home. (OK - I admit is when I serve it for Dwight and me I bought the fish filleted already.)

As the night got later we enjoyed sitting by the water and telling stories. One of the girls had a relationship quiz that Jesper (the groom-to-be) had answered so we asked the same questions (again - all in Swedish so I just listened) to see if Karin could guess what her sambo (serious boyfriend) had said.

Several of us woke in the morning for a brisk walk in the forest and then a quick dip in the sea! I was surprise to see that I was the only one to swim in a bathing suit! The water was cold and very invigorating. With the body soap that was a staple on the dock, it turned out to be our bath for the day. We all had bread and veggies for breakfast and then headed back home to our families. Dwight, William and Davis had a fun guy's night.

NEW PHOTOS of the BOYS

After several comments regarding the photos on from the last blog entry, I decided to post a few of my own favorite photos. Yes, you are correct in assuming Dwight was the composer of the previous blog entry and although he's writing is far superior to mine, I tend to believe I am the better photographer. However, my new friend Stacey took these photos and we were very pleased!

William is riding his bike!

POSTED BY DWIGHT

Actually he learned how to ride it without training wheels almost a year ago in Atlanta. However he didn't work on it too much and wasn't "into it."

However he recently caught fire and can really go now.

See the video below.

Also other pictures which include Davis on the back of Elizabeth's bike, William with Darth Vader at Legoland, Davis with his Iron Spindle hat on and many more.

Hope you all enjoy!

More Witherspoons in Sweden?

Technically I guess the answer is no, since Rachel (my sister) is a "Long" and no longer a Witherspoon, but blood is blood and I can't believe the Swedish government allowed two of us in their country at the same time!

Rachel, Emily and Ethan were just here for about a 1.5 weeks and we had a wonderful time exploring Stockholm and the archipelago. One of our trips was to Vaxholm where we caught a ferry-boat to the island of Grenda. Once on the island we used a portable grille to cook up a picnic. The weather was a little windy right off the water, so that was a bit of a challenge, but once we walked inland a few hundred meters, the weather was really nice.

Rachel and the gang also explored the Vasa Museum (see earlier post on the Vasa), learned the Stockholm transportation system (see also post on buses are for losers) and ate the local food (fish eggs are fish eggs even if you call them caviar).

They also learned how to sleep in Sweden when the sun is out for almost 20 hours per day!

Here are a few pictures from their trip!

PS - the picture you see with the crowd of people is a Swedish Midsummer celebration. They are raising the "May Pole" - yes the celebration takes place in June, but its a May Pole. Go figure.

At any rate, it is too bad we don't have sound on these pictures, otherwise you would see my wife, my sister and her family dancing around the May Pole snorting like pigs...yes...pigs.

:-)

Hi from Denmark!

We drove over "the Bridge" today and crossed into Denmark from southern Sweden. It was a really easy drive and we got turned around just once. Unfortunately our good camera lens is on the fritz, so we are now taking pictures with our phones.

Copenhagen is a beautiful city, but we noticed right away there were a lot more tourist (lots of Americans) than in Stockholm. Elizabeth and I figured out a Euro-pass will get you here, but not to Stockholm. We walked around today..weather is close to perfect. Had some GREAT ribs tonight...Davis drank beer and William got some new Knight PJs.

We will post more later this week from Lego Land! All praise Marty Moose!!

P.S. from Elizabeth

HOMESICK...BUT WHERE IS HOME?

Dwight and I have been on holiday for only 6 days and we both commented that we had felt a bit homesick for the first time since leaving the States. But we were not sure the place for which we were homesick. Honestly, I think we both missed the sugar white, sandy beaches and warm Gulf water of the Red Neck Riviera. For those who are able to make a trip to this part of the USA...it is a jewel. And to be only a half day's drive away, we were really spoiled. The beaches here are nice but we could not help missing our home away from home (away from home) in Seagrove. We actually decdied to cut our by two days because we want to get back to Stockholm and enjoy our wonderful home in Stocksund near the Baltic.

The drive through southern Sweden was beuatiful. A lot of farm land that we noticed was immaculate. I mean it looked like these farm house and fields were settings for postcards for the area. But every farm was like that...no peeling paint, no old tires, no run down trucks in yard and the land was manicured with perfection which is quite interesting since we noticed in Stockholm, yards and lawns are hardly even "kept". When Dwight bought our weed eater, he commented that his electic razor could probably do a better job at edging. Luckily, we found out weeds are quite welcome in most yards in our neighborhood...everyone seems to have embraced the natural look.

Anyway, we left the beach and were thrilled to have all gotten some sun and relaxation. Dwight and I were like kids arriving at the Royal Raddison in Copenhagen today. Dwight was excited to have a bellman, elevator and wireless broadband. I immediately dumped all my personal effects of the VANITY (imagine that...what a luxury!!!) and planned a bath for the boys and (bathtubs are scarce in Europe) and a one for me. Did I mention it was to nice to find kleenex and soft toilet paper in the room. Needless to say we are glad to be staying in an American hotel and look forward to our time in Copenhagen.

A long way down the holiday road

Those are the lyrics from the theme song of National Lampoon's vacation. That could also be the theme son for the 8+ hours we drove from Stockholm to Ystad on Tuesday.

Rule # 1 about road trips...don't talk about road trips (elizabeth: that was for you!) .

Rule # 2 about raod trips...19 month old kids aren't meant to be locked into a child seat for 8 hours.

Poor Davis...strapped into his safety seat. Any of you that know Davis know that he is full of energy. Sometimes taking Davis across town can be a challenge. He is never in a bad mood...he just wants to play.

This trip was so long that even William was ready to jump out of the car. Just add in dad's back pain and we were all happy to see the resort - well sort of.

I think we all hoped the mere site of the resort would make us forget the long, uncomfortable and 8 dollar per gallon trip to the south of Sweden. However the weeds growing in the cracks of the sidewalk right in front of reception was not the omen we were hoping for. Neither was a third floor room with no elevator (did I mention that we brought everything in our house on this trip?!).

Maybe customer service would save the day? Nay (Swedish for no) it wouldn't. The thing you have to realize about Swedish customer service is this: there are two kinds - slim and none. Slim is defined by asking your waitress for the check and getting it 45 minutes later. None is self explanatory.

How many resorts in America would build a deck around the pool in the middle of July? And of those, how many would let the workers start SAWING and HAMMERING at 7 AM?

If you are reading this don't dispair about our trip. It has really been pretty nice. We have relaxed, sat in the sun, swam in the sea (I will talk about the Swedes obsession with swimming in artic waters later) and had some pretty good food.

We push off tomorrow for Denmark and will spend two days in Copenhagen. The boys have been troopers and are ready to go. William is DYING to go to Lego Land.

We are on a pilgramige to see a Lego! All praise Marty Moose!

Mother's Day

Vaxholm and Grinda (Archipelago)

A short countryside drive and a 45 minute boat ride and we end up on a quiet little island called Grinda where we ate on an outdoor patio overlooking a meadow and the Baltic Sea. It was what you call a perfect day!

The Field's come to visit

Our first visitors came only days after we moved into our house and we were so excited to host Mimi and Papa and "Olden" Thomas and Tia Milena. Thank you for making the trip to Stockholm. Please feel free to confirm with our visitors that our guest quarters are very accommodating if you are trying to decide whether or not to come!

We loved having family to have champaign toasts with on Mother's Day and were excited to do a bit of sight seeing in Stockholm and the Archipelago. Thank you to my dad who is responsible for most of the photos on these most recent entries.

Sprinkler Fun

While Dwight is in Singapore, I thought I would find time to capture more thoughts on our Swedish adventure. As I mentioned to one of my long lost "so called" friends (who will remain nameless since I might disown her if she does not download skype) that I was so thankful that my job as a mother has not changed...even in the midst of everything else being SO different. I still sleep lighter sometimes holding my breath that a little one is not going to awake; I still fret way too much about how well the boys are eating; I still feel the importance of teaching them what is right and wrong and wish I did not raise my voice as much in doing so; I still love playing games with William (even if he continually makes up new rules as we go); I still can't kiss Davis enough; and I still check on them every night and thank God for our many blessings.

What I really started this blog for was to add photos because these are worth a thousand words...maybe more...