"Beetle juice, Beetle juice, Beetle juice!"

If you say "Beetle juice" out loud three times, you'll revive a sleeper-blog from a crazy Swenadian family.

Oh you did it now!


Hola! Didn't expect to get an update from this blog in your feed, did you? Well, this busy bunch is heading for Spain and then on to a cruise to Portugal, Gibraltar, Morocco and then back to Spain. We have a bit of time to kill somewhere south of the Alps so we figured we'd give this blog a go. Spare time is not something we've had a lot of over the past 1,5 year, hence the hiatus. Sorry about that.

So, let's get you up to speed on what we've been up to:

- Work, lots and lots of work for both Mr and Mrs. Almost too much work to be perfectly honest.
- An amazing 4000km RV adventure around Western Canada to incredible places like Lake Louise, Banff, Jasper, the ice fields and Edmonton's West Edmonton Mall
- A bunch of fun-filled and crazy hectic Color Me Rad Races around Scandinavia
- Ethan and Hudson have turned 2 and 4 and then 3 and 5(!)
- A record breaking hot summer of boating, quad biking and swimming up north in Piteå
- We spent our first Christmas alone as a family
- Ethan has started to loose his milk teeth
- Uncle Josh spent a couple of months with us in Sweden
- A whirlwind of trips to both near and far from Axmar and Piteå to Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Chicago
- A whirlwind of awesome visitors, also from near and far

There. You are up to speed. Like you didn't miss a beat.

Hasta mañana!

Tour de Canada 2013: Blue Bombers home opener! (We made national TV!)

Shaena managed to score us a couple of great seats for us at the Winnipeg Blue Bombers home opener game and the official opening of their brand new football stadium in the end of June. We made sure we were thoroughly kitted out in bombers colors, complete with wigs and foam fingers, and made our way to the stadium. Once there, we had the opportunity to meet and greet Bombers football legends Milt Stegall and Matt Dunigan and our funky hair got so much attention so we even made national TV(!) Video clip below, of course.

Another treat was also the halftime show. As this was the first real game of the season and the opening of their new colossal stadium, they had brought in a whole parade of old Bombers players and Tom Cochrane (“Life Is a Highway”) performed. The Bombers lost (as they do nowadays) but we had a brilliant evening!

In Swedish colors, hanging with Bombers legends
Milt Stegall and Matt Dunigan

Tour de Canada 2013: The boys Canadian birthday party

Last weekend the boys had their joint Canadian birthday party and in true Harrison-Helin spirit, someone joined in on our celebration over Skype. This time it was Auntie Emily who unfortunately could not make it up to Winnipeg but wanted to see the boys open their pressies. Gotta love technology! Even though you are miles away, or even on the other side of the planet for that matter, you can still call in and join a party!

The boys were showered in awesome gifts and G.G and Nini had whipped up a beautiful cake with colored frosting (colors chosen by Ethan). Needless to say; we had two very happy and very tired boys that went to bed that night.

Oh, and for the record: Our sons do own pants; they just choose not to wear them very often! ;)

Tour de Canada 2013: Beach day at Grand Beach

I have a feeling there will be lots of beach- and pool days this summer as the sun on the Manitoba prairie is h-o-t! Our first beach day of the summer was at Grand Beach about an hour outside of Winnipeg (another item on Shaena's to-do list).

A fantastic day out with the boys and it is really cool (and a bit scary) to see how they develop and how they are getting more and more daring as they grow older. Ethan is next to fearless when it comes to water and does not fully know his limitations and he doesn’t hesitate to find out!

Tour de Canada 2013: Visit to the Winnipeg Zoo

Howdy!

Shaena and the boys have now been in Canada for just over a month and it has already been two weeks since I collected my luggage at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport and reunited with the rest of Team Harrison-Helin.

On one of the first days of my arrival we paid the Winnipeg Zoo (item #2 on Shaena's to-do list) a visit with Auntie Nini. A zoo is a zoo and we’ve been to a few on our trips over the years, but this one was definitely a nice one and we had a great time checking out everything from butterflies to Polar Bears… to Deere and Bobcats…

The only thing that was a bit weird was that the zoo’s main attraction right now is named Hudson. Hudson is a polar bear cub and his name is plastered absolutely everywhere. They even have a Hudson-gift shop and a café and when we sat down for ice cream tried to get our Hudson’s attention, people must have thought we had gone off our rockers!

The lions sleep tonight?

Steller's Eagle

Gators

Are there any ugly Peacocks?

This bird looked like something that
had come straight out of the dryer!

Daddy and Huddy checking out
the Bisons

At the butterfly house

Two beautiful butterflies

The many faces of Huddy

We also saw Deere...

...and a Bobcat...

...and even a Cat! Looked dangerous,
good thing it was fenced in!

UPDATED: Summer is a comin!

Howdy!

Here's an update on our progress with the Canada to-do list:

A week today and we will be in Winnipeg (or at least on a flight to Winnipeg). It has been almost 4 years since I've been "home" and over the last few weeks I have been compiling a list of things that we will do on our epic summer adventure:

- See how money is made at the Mint
- A day trip to the Winnipeg Zoo (to meet Hudson the Polar bear and climb in the dinosaur eggs)
- Celebrate Canada day at the Forks with our multicultural getups (VIP tickets sorted! Thank you Grandma!)
- Listen to Fred Penner sing at The Winnipeg International Childrens' Festival
- Kick back and chat with the old Laura Secord gang
- Enjoy a much appreciated Ice-cream at BDIs
- Brave the tiny rides at Tinker Town
- Zoom the slides at Fun Mountain
- Wade in the pool at Vimy Ridge
- Shop till we drop at Polo Park
- Enjoy the big rides at the Red River Ex!
- Get colour bombed at Colour Me Rad
- Visit Grandma at Camp Manitou
- Be a beach bum at Grand Beach
- Take a stroll down Wolseley
- Cruise down Portage on a Sunday night
- Belt out some hits at the Fox
- Enjoy a tim bit or two
- See if our table is available for dinner at Earls'
- Watch the Gold Eye's knock it outta the park
- Drink ourselves silly in the student section at a Bomber game
- Be civilized and check out exhibits at the Winnipeg Art Gallery
- Laugh our heads off at Rumors Comedy Club
- Check out some Bisons at the Fort Whyte centre
- Eat Bison burgers (found a free BBQ outside Grandma's house) at the Morden Apple festival (mmm)
- Be Sandy and Danny in the Grease Sing-a-long movie at McPhillips Casino!
- Cheer on our friends in the Dragon Boat Festival
- Swing like a monkey at the new jungle gym at Assiniboine Park
- Eat some gelotti like the mafia in Osborne Village
- Zipline at Adrenaline Adventures
- Hop aboard the Paddlewheel river boats
- Take a tour on the Heritage trolley
- Compare IKEAs
- Watch in amazement the talent at the skateboard park at the Forks
- Go see "aplanes" and "hichochocs" at the Aviation Museum
- Have a spooky evening out and hop the ghost bus
- Choo choo it up on the Prairie Dog Express
- Order $5 pizza from slices
- Bake apple pies with Granny
- Pool party bonanza
 - Meet some old and new friends

That being said, this list is potentially endless. It shall be a summer that will go down in the history books of the HH crew.

Here we come Canada!

A Royal hitchin' today

It was a big day in Sweden today. Princess Madeleine married her American new hubster Chris O’Neill and royal families, celebrities and some of the world’s richest people attended the wedding. That Chris is a well-connected man! A lady from the Walmart Walton family and the restaurant guy that dated one of the Olsen twins were there.

Can you tell I didn’t really pay attention? ;)

A little somethin'-somethin' from the P!nk concert

When Pink hit up Stockholm with her ’The Truth About Love-tour’ in the end of May, we were there. Both Shaena and I were completely amazed by the concert and I can safely say that her concert was definitely one of the best live concerts I’ve ever seen!

The video clip below is her encore where she is strapped in a harness and is literally flying across the entire arena whilst also singing flawlessly at the same time. Pretty wild!

You wanna know what our correspondents in Canada are up to?

It’s been a week and a bit since our correspondent team boarded their flight to Canada to get an early start to the summer. Since day one they’ve kept themselves busy in parks, malls, at Grandma’s camp, at the zoo and they’ve even been to a Bollywood dance recital! Full on in true Harrison-Helin spirit!

Here’s a bunch of photos of what they’ve been up to over the past week:

Shaena, Huddy and Kangaroos at the Winnpeg Zoo

Squeaky

Ethan the dino baby, also at the Winnipeg Zoo

Huddy and an Emu

Pretty Peacock

Another dino baby

Hudson the dude meets Hudson the polar bear

Happy campers

Barrelled Hudson

Represent...

...viking style

Two very excited Jets fans!

Hudson @ Hudson News