Happy 3rd Birthday Ethan!!!

3 years! It is almost surreal to think that 3 years ago on this day we had Ethan in a hospital in Edinburgh! So much has happened since; lots of travels, lots of adventures, lots of new skills like walking and talking, new friends, new experiences... and we've had so, so much fun together along the way! Time has just whizzed past and baby Ethan is now a big brother!

By now 'Aunty Nini's Theme-Birthday-Party-In-A-Box' has become somewhat of a tradition and this year Nini has set us up with a Thomas The Tank Engine-themed party, so we'll be throwing a Thomas-bash for the boys once all their friends are back from summer holidays to near and far.

Happy Birthday Ethan!
Today is your day and we'll be sure to sugar you up good on cake, 'tootties' and juice!
That's what birthdays are for!

We love you and we are so proud of you!

What seems like a very long time ago -
Ethan getting mad over Sweden-Canada
hockey results. :)

Happy Namesday to me, Happy Namesday to me!

HudsONE

Piteå's northern harbor

Picking flowers for farmor!

Ethan sings

Walk this way

Shiver me timber! Cap'n Ethan is by the helm!

Glad midsommar everyone!

I am sure you are all busy celebrating Swedish Midsummer around the world right about now; however if you have forgotten any of the steps or how to get off to a good start with your midsummer's preparations, here's a quick recap (in English):
 


...and here's the lyrics to 'Helan Går', just in case you accidentally tossed your midsummer's song book in the spring clear out:

Helan går
Sjung hopp faderallan lallan lej
Helan går
Sjung hopp faderallan lej
Och den som inte helan tar
Han heller inte halvan får
Helan går
(Drink)
Sjung hopp faderallan lej

 Glad midsommar!

Happy 1st Birthday Hudson!!!

A 'Hudson' could be and mean many things. For example: it could be a car, a movie, a river, a bay, a town, a mustard brand, a soap brand, a WWII bomber plane, a wine, boots, jeans, a famous explorer, a famous rock star’s real name, a watch, a Hollywood actress, a recruitment company, a hotel or a programming language to name a few.

To us; Hudson means only one thing – Our adorable, fun loving, happy little Hudson Eskil and he is turning 1 year today!

Incredible that it’s already been a year since this little fella decided it was time to come out and meet the world! We've had a fantastic first year together and we can hardly wait to see what the years to come have in store!

Happy Birthday buddy! We love you!

A very young Hudson

Shop 'n' Roll

Rock 'n' Roll at Pite Havsbad

Early morning fun at the cabin

Wifi connection improvement - cabin style!

Road trip play-by-play

It's the witching hour and we have just gone crazy! Only 5 hours to go judging by google maps! When it comes to directions that is obviously a truly reliable source.

Peter and I have made a road trip pact to be completely ghetto for the remainder of the journey. So instead of "wow" we're saying "this s@?! is dope".

A big difference I've noticed from long haul drives between Sweden and Canada is that Sweden is lacking timmy's pit stops. In Sweden's favour though it helps that the sun doesn't go down! Check it dawg!

Our homies in the back passed out from their 40's a few hours back. They were chillin and free styling for awhile.

2:02am: first caffeine boost - check! 7 hours after take-off but better late than never.

2:03am: sing-song to Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Ethan awake and looks terrified. "Go back to sleep buddy!"

2:05am: Bohemian Rhapsody - Ethan is now certain that his parents are insane and pretends to sleep. Safest that way.

4:10am: Burning the midnight oil. Literally. Also, stuck behind a dairy tanker truck on a narrow road and the midnight sun makes overtaking impossible.

5:25am: made it safe and sound!

2:23am just south of Umeå

So mom...where do you want to go?

On the road again, just can’t wait to get on the road again

Since getting back from Greece, Shaena and I have been in full-on project mode pretty much every single day. We've been busy bees to say the least and our kitchen whiteboard (yes, we have one of those) has been frequently updated and wiped as tasks have been added and completed. Awesome project management, if you ask me. We’ve been spring cleaning, organizing and preparing for our road trip up north and tomorrow is finally D-day. Drive Day. An 11 hour evening drive where we’ll be putting 855 kilometres of highway behind us with two crazy kids in the back of the Harrison Ford. Hopefully they’ll feel the subtle vibrations of the E4, fall asleep, and stay asleep.

Wish us luck!

Oh and on a side note: The boys birthdays are just around the corner and they've actually received their first birthday pressies today! Ethan's best bud Kieran came back from his trip to England with more Thomas-trains, Ethan-birthday candles and a really cute 'Ethan-i-raptor' dinosaur piggy bank for Ethan (duh!) and a wooden boat toy for Hudson, and this was actually Hudson's first ever birthday pressie! Thank you Kieran, Anneli, Peter and Hayden!

On the road again -
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends.
Insisting that the world keep turning our way
And our way
is on the road again.
Just can't wait to get on the road again

A fun new colour app!

At the drive-in

Isn't he handsome

Hands in the air like you just don't care!

Happy Sweden Day!

I Googled 'Funny Sweden' to find a funny illustration of Swedes
on Sweden Day, but instead I think I just found the perfect
Swedish/Canadian home for us!  It's mobile and looks spacious enough.
A couple of pink plastic flamingos in front and we are in business!

Mrs Kravitz checking on Hudson

How to sleep-train your dragon

The downside with traveling with kids is that their routines, and especially their sleep routines, get messed up completely. Com-plete-ly. It is understandable though as they have to sleep in a new bed, new room, etc but it’s a pain in the neck to get the routines back on track once your holiday is over.

So, now that we are back home after our fabby holiday - it’s time to pay the piper! Ethan (who was sleeping through the night by himself in the top bunk) now only wants to sleep in ‘mommy’s bed’ or have someone lay with him until he falls asleep. “No way, José!” – we said and decided to suffer through the '3-night cry-it-out method' that Super Nanny taught us. Gotta love Super Nanny! The same lady gave us the 'Time out'/'Naughty seat' which works like a charm...most of the time.

The method itself is excruciating to go through as kids seem to be born with a 'pull all the heart strings at once-gene', which enables them to scream and cry for England; however we are on the third night now and hopefully we’ll have a routine back after this… until we travel up north in two weeks time! And then it’s back to square one.

Hudson on the other hand is perfectly happy to go sleep by himself whenever and wherever, as long as he gets a few drops of milk in his little tummy.

Mikri Poli Crete, we heart thee!

A perfect holiday is what it was, plain and simple. All inclusive charter trips is definitely the way to travel with children! We had such a good experience with our charter travel company Fritidsresor start to finish and the devil really is in the details when it comes to creating a lasting first impression. When we got off the flight in Greece a smiling group of tour guides greeted us and treated us to a glass of sparkling wine before we got on the transfer bus to our resort.

The resort itself then? Awesome. Our hotel room was right by the pool area and as close to the beach as possible and we were pleasantly surprised when we walked into our room and saw that it was friggin huge and had not one but two separate bedrooms, a bathtub and a great shower and a fridge! ;) It was also serviced 6 out of 7 nights which was really nice.

Our ambitions with this holiday was not to do, do, do but instead to relax and hang out and we had said before we left that it would be more than ok if we didn’t leave the resort at all for the full 7 days. Normally when we travel, we are itching to see and do, but not this time around. This time we just wanted to take it easy. So we did. Our daily routine looked roughly as follows:

Wake up – shower – lather up with sun screen – go for breakfast (pancakes with strawberry jam was a winner!) – take a dip in one of the 4 the pools – snack time with ice cream, toasties and a cold beer - kick a beach ball around for a bit or go to the playground – watch cartoons – lunch time – go to the beach (the beach was fantastic; great sand and shallow water) – go for an afternoon siesta – lather up some more - another dip in the pool and visit to the playground – dinner time! (overload of feta cheese and tzatsiki) – dance time at the Mini Disco – bedtime for the kids – TV-time for the parents. Repeat 6 days in a row.

On the last full day we decided to rent a car and go for our first Harrison-Helin x 4 road trip. We hopped in the car and explored the mountainous south east tip of Crete. We drove through loads of tiny villages, up and down countless mountain roads and dipped our toes in the water at Vai beach.

All in all, a fantastic trip and we’ll def be back to the Greek islands for more!

"What? You've never seen a chocolate
ice cream beard before?"

"Kalimera!"

Sunset over Makrigialos and Petra Bay

Ethan and mommy at sunset

Styler

The Mikri Poli resort

Ethan and daddy having a hoot in the pool

Toes getting dipped in the Libyan Sea at sunset

Our little beach bum

Goddess Shaena

Handsome Hud figured he'd just not wear clothes that day

Our pool area

The Libyan Sea

Ethan was here

Flower growing through a fence by the roadside

Prophet Helias' church

Note in the men's room at Vai beach

Hudson - a happy road tripper

Beautiful view from our car window

A 'Death box' - The Greeks put up these miniature chapels
by the side of the road to commemorate relatives
who have died in car accidents.
Quite a few of them on the mountain roads!

Vai Beach

Breathtaking view from our drive in the mountains

The Green Beach

All inclusive beer - best served
ice cold in a plastic cup by the pool!

Yes, it's a shower

Ethan throwing shapes at the Mini Disco

A walkway between beaches

Cretan mountain goats

Mommy and Ethan in the hotel amphitheatre

Beach Boys? Or Pool Boys?

Ethan mastered play structure climbing whilst on holiday

Flowers planted in old feta cheese and olive oil vats
Doesn't get much more Greek than that!

The Green Beach again

Ethan taking the plunge

Cool beach dude

Bamse likes this

Greek salad, Greek tzatsiki, Greek bread and Greek beer

"'Sup dawg?"