From Riga With Love

Life ain’t bad, not bad at all. We’ve had a great/interesting/fun filled/stereotypical weekend with Uncle Cormac from Ireland on our ‘Fiesta cruise’ to Riga, Latvia!

We boarded the ship in the harbour here in Stockholm, after which we made our way to our respective cabins to make ourselves comfortable. Not long after we entered our nice enough A-class cabin with a window, loud music started playing from the next cabin and a bunch of guys were well on their way to drunkville. At 5pm “Great!” we thought and Cormac kindly offered to swap cabins with us (however his did not have a window). “Heck no!”, Shaena said and marched down to the information counter and demanded to speak to a manager. Not long after, we were upgraded to a Luxury cabin! (which really was at a comparable standard with the crappiest hotel room we’ve ever stayed in!)

Other than that; time on the boat was spent hanging out in the kids playroom, enjoying a big buffet dinner, having drinks at the top deck Panorama Bar, people watching (lots of it!), dancing, watching Mexican themed shows and generally just having a good time!

Once in Riga we had about 5 hours of time ashore before it was time to depart again so we headed in to town and had a coffee and Shaena got a slice of birthday cake before we hit up old town. You wouldn't think so but Riga is surprisingly colorful! I had my mind set on a grey and dull but still nice and well kept old town but lots of buildings were nice and bright and painted in pastel colors and they even had a really modern shopping centre in the middle of old town. Supposedly Riga was the only major Baltic city that was spared during the Second World War bombings and hence it’s nice architecture and well kept historic buildings. Then again; in other areas of the city, buildings were grey and run down and covered in graffiti so there you go.

All in all a weekend well spent and Riga is well worth a quick visit. We’ll definitely be going on more cruises. Just hope the next one will be in the Caribbean instead of the Baltic Sea!

"Seeeese!"

Our welcoming committee when boarding the 'Fiesta cruise'

Family photo in the Panorama Bar on Deck 8

It is.

Self photo! Riga edition!

"Hey Riga! 1963 phoned and wanted its public transport back!"

Watching, waiting, commiserating

Eastern European stereotype at its finest. A run down old communist style apartment block and a LADA parked in front!

No one can blame Riga for not taking care of its homeless cats!

Cormac suffered from terrible land sickness when he got off the boat, poor guy!

Cormie and Huddy

The main square in Riga's Old Town

Family church photo

St. Peter's Church

St. Peter's Church street...obviously

A Rigan alley

Daddy and buddy

The Monument of Freedom

This street performer had created his own snare drum type sound thingy from an energy drink can (check out his foot!)

Care to guess what the Rigan street vendors hawked mostly?

Oh and guess who got picked up on the dance floor by the Rigan ladies!

Mmm lunch!

Big 3-0 long weekend of bliss and awesomeness!

It’s Shaena’s birthday on Sunday. The Big 3-0 is coming up for her as well and soon we’ll both be officially o-l-d. To celebrate, we are doing a long weekend from Friday till Monday and our good friend Cormac has flown in from Dublin to join in on the celebrations! Last night we hit up the south side pubs of Stockholm city and had an absolute blast! Our new friend Anita also joined the festivities so there was a Swede, a Canadian, an Irishman and an Aussie that walked into a bar… Can anyone think of a good joke?

As we all know by now; there is always a morning after the day before and the kids still haven’t figured out when it is a good time to be respectful to their parents and sleep in, so we were up early for a waffle breakfast and then off to ‘Lek & Bus’ for an energy-burning-session. The session did the trick and as I am writing this; Shaena, Cormac, Ethan and Hudson are all sound asleep at 3pm!

The big adventure for this weekend: A cruise to Riga, Latvia! Yep, The Harrison-Helins plus Cormac will embark on a cruise ship, cross the Baltic Sea and celebrate Mrs. Harrison-Helin’s big day in a new country! It’s gonna be a hoot!

This is the ship we'll be on:

Hudson - 9 things at 9 months!

1. You are always full of smiles and giggles whenever you see Mommy, Daddy or Ethan...or anyone else for that matter!

2. You love eating polar brod and jam!

3. You can't really be bothered to roll over. You can do it, you are just happy to be still.

4. You love to watch your older brother do anything and he is the only one that can make you laugh uncontrollably!

5. You are a great sleeper. Last night you went from 7-7:30 with one quick cry/feed in the middle of the night.

6. You love being tickled under your chin and arms.

7. You just had your first go on the swings and couldn't get enough!

8. Everything goes in your mouth right now, including Ethan's socks. Yuck!

9. You are saying "babba, rarra, pappa" and have such a huge smile when we say anything to you.

Not much longer to go till you're 1 buddy! You and your brother are going to be hilarious together!! Can't wait to see what you two will get up to. Love you butter!

Los hermanos de baño

Handsome Hudson 9 months

Leave them alone for 1 min and come back to find this...

You know it's spring when...

...the tricycle is race-ready and our little buddy get to wear his cool new sneakers

...and the snow is gone and piles of grit is left on the ground. Shovel up!

Paddy's Day memories

It's Paddy's Day today and we couldn't resist going through our old photos from the Dublin days and St. Patrick's Day of 2007 when Shaena and I got to walk through the streets of Dublin in the St. Patrick's Day parade with our good friends Matt & Naomi. The party that followed the parade was a good one to say the least but instead of posting a bunch of party pictures, I included a few pictures of Matt fire spinning on their rooftop on Paddy's night; a rare but very cool talent! These are the things that make us miss Dublin!

Greek Gods' finest!

Matt fire spinning

“I’ve got 99 countries but Azerbaijan ain’t one, hit me!”

You know it, I know it, we all know it. Google Analytics updates are the best! So, here’s another one:

From 2009-09 our blog has been checked out by people in no less than 99 countries or 1595 cities around the world. It is really interesting to see that we’ve got traffic from some of the most dangerous or most remote countries in the world; places where you would normally assume that internet access would be either restricted by the government (or lack of government) or have very limited reach, like Iraq, Sudan or the remote village of Dededo in Guam.

Also makes you wonder how these people found us, but I guess a lot of these passer-byers are Next-bloggers who have stopped by in their search for something else. Who knows, but now you know.

Have a good St. Paddy's weekend everyone!

McHudson

Spring is in the air!

Stockholm is warming up and our somewhat sleepy little suburb is suddenly coming back to life. So, this fine Sunday afternoon we headed over to Ängsjö park here in Kallhäll to breathe some fresh spring air and clock some outdoor play time. Ängsjö is a huge park with beaches, strolling areas, a cowboy and Indians adventure area, swings and slides, a café, among other things. We had a great afternoon and we’ll definitely be back for more play and picnics this summer!

Ängsjö park

Cutie patootie

Patootie and another cutie

"Gunga Mommy, gunga!"

Up, up in the air!

The indian side of 'cowboys and indians'

Brothers in arms, manning the cowboy fort

The return of an old classic - the Peter/Shaena self photo!

The Big 3-0

Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of this dude landing on Earth so of course my lovely thoughtful wife had secretly and sneakily been planning and tinkering away on some super-sweet surprises! First thing in the morning I was presented with a birthday card that even made this hardboiled Swede go all mushy!

When I got home from work later on; the ‘fridge surprise’ in the photos below was presented to me and my very own mix tape playlist was playing in the background! Soon after getting home; my mom, Roland and Fanny arrived from a long drive down from Piteå and joined in on the celebrations. (As it happens; Fanny is moving down to Stockholm and in to her new apartment today!)

After a lovely dinner and a glass of wine it was time for what I believe to be the best part about celebrating ageing: Pressies! If is safe to say that I got spoilt silly with tickets to a comedy show, a gift certificate for clothes, my favourite bottle of whiskey, two really cool Slash screen print t-shirts that Shaena had made, a flight experience where I’ll get to fly a plane with an instructor… and tomorrow the party continues when a custom made red velvet cake will be delivered and we’ll have even more people over for din-dins!

On top of all this awesomeness I’ve also been spoilt with contributions to the ol’ bank account (which of course is a gift that is always welcome when you have two high octane supercharged kids in the house!) and last but definitely not least; I have received countless birthday messages and phone calls from literally all around the world!

Sum of it all: I am a very, very lucky 30 year old!

Thank you very much everyone!

A mix tape, a playlist, a 'Birthday Boy Remote' and a pressie fitted to the fridge
- what more can one ever ask for?

My very own mix tape!

All the top hits from the 7th of March of each year since 1982!

A one of a kind screen printed Slash t-shirt!

The lads

King of the bongo

Mama was queen of the mambo
Papa was king of the Congo
Deep down in the jungle
I started bangin' my first bongo
Every monkey'd like to be
In my place instead of me
Cause I'm the king of bongo, baby
I'm the king of bongo bong