Our Tropical Summer in Norway!

Our summer visit to Norway this year was exceptional. It was hotter, drier, and sunnier than anything we’ve ever experienced before. The kids (and I!) went swimming in the ocean more this summer than all previous summers combined. The air temperature was consistently in the mid to high 80’s, and the water temperature was 80º F at the end of our visit. Truly unbelievable.

Island home in Kragerø Norway

The star marks the spot of my family’s summer home on an island in the Kragerø area of Norway.

We spent our whole visit at my parents’ summer home on an island in the Kragerø area in southern Norway. A highpoint of the visit was seeing Sonny and Doobie’s transformation from cautious bathers to crazy, playful ocean swimmers. Continue reading

Reconnecting with my roots

Every summer we return to Norway to see my family. Each trip tends to be very similar to the last one — we spend time at the same places, we do the same activities, we see the same people, we eat the same foods — but that’s what we’ve come to expect and look forward to.We're back

We try to plan our visit so that our time overlaps with my sister and her kids’ visit. Both my sister and I want to have some time for all of us to reconnect and make new memories together, but we also want each of our families to have some quality time alone with our parents as well. When all the cousins are together, we love seeing them enjoy each other’s company. When each set is by themselves, we value the special time they have alone with their grandparents.

Arriving at island home via boatWe usually spend about half our visit at our parents’ summer home on an island in the Kragerø area (3 1/2 hours by car south of Oslo). I can’t imagine a summer without spending time there. It’s how I grew up, every summer spending weeks at a summer home on the coast, and I want my kids to experience the same. Continue reading