so pretty

I heard that Germany battled heat up to 35 degrees Celsius. Well, we battled rain! Lots of rain! Erlend still went outside and work with gravel in the driveway (Proud of you!) But the upside of bad weather is that afterwards it looks like this outside:

isn't it so pretty?

YAY!!!

Today I received a certificate in the mail that stated that I have passed all my Norwegian exams! I am so relieved and happy and I wanna take a moment to thank the world's most awesome Norwegian teacher/ mother-in-law. Tusen takk, mamma Bodil, for at du hjalp meg med å lære norsk, du er best!

Gratulerer med dagen, pappa!!!

Gratulerer med dagen pappa!! 

Du er den beste faren jeg noen gan har hatt!!! Og ikke bare det, du er også den beste svigerfaren Anne noen gang har hatt, og vi er temmelig sikkre på at du blir den beste farfaren til barnet vårt.

Vi er glade i deg. Gratulerer igjen.

just in case you are not on Facebook :-)

We posted this on Facebook today, but of course it is also our post of the day on our blog.
We went to our first ultrasound today and got to see our baby for the first time and hear his or her heart beat. Everything so far seems to be normal, fine, healthy. We are so thankful to our heavenly Father to bless us with such an amazing little gift!

anything odd?

When we looked out the window at our Bible Study today we saw something odd and my brother in law James took a picture. Anything look weird to you?

traditional bonfire

Every year around midsummer Norwegians burn a big bonfire celebrating the longest day of the year.
I was told that two years ago Ålesund, the city we live close to, had the biggest bonfire in the world!

food, football and fiery colours

Today we were invited to a BBQ at Erlend's sister's place (Takk skal du ha, Marte og Lidvar!), then we went to watch the Germany game (half final here we come!) at Erlend's brother's place (Tusen takk, Helge!) and on the way home we saw an amazing sunset.

good bye

Today my sister and her family left again :-(.

 Samuel waving goodbye

Look how sad he was to leave

apples attacked

Apples did not have a good day anywhere close to a member of the Schmitt-family... :-)

 Samuel went to town on one with all 7 of his teeth.

Chrissi shot an apple to pieces, look, in front of her!

Aquarium

Today we went to the Aquarium (we have the biggest saltwater aquarium in Northern Europe here!).

 little boy - biiiiig tank

 Samuel loved touching the sea creatures in the interactive room

the big boys liked it, too :-)

a charmer

I am absolutely in love with my wee nephew and he is doing a good job here making everybody fall in love with him by smiling at everyone.

 oh those eyes, those eyelashes!

he wanted to put the lens cover back on my camera while I was taking pictures of him :-)

Sightseeing

Today we took our visitors to Ålesund, then we split up and the girls and baby went to the mall and visited people and the boys went to Trollstigen and all that other good stuff like a biiig hydro plant.

They are here!

Family from Germany is here to visit us and we could not be more excited! After some food Erlend took the guys to the beach and I enjoyed getting know my little nephew again. And yes, you can expect a lot more pictures of him during the next days and ramblings about how adorable he is :-)!

he sucked the live out of that cloth :-)

serious preperations

The long awaited visit of my sister, her husband and our little nephew is almost here. They said they will arrive tomorrow night and we are so excited! Have been preparing rooms and beds, filled up our fridge and borrowed some toys (Takk skal du ha, Marte!) We are ready for them to come!

cars, trains and even a ball with flags!

I bet Erlend is going to try to teach his wee nephew something about those flags :-)

Go Deutschland!

Watching the game Germany vs. the Netherlands! Go Germany!!! Looking good so far!

For Sarah and Emma

We went down town the other day and found something that reminded us of Sarah and Emma and of how much we miss them...

An OFF CENTERED SPATULA!!! 

They have them in Norway now, so you can come home without the fear of being deprived 

of one of lives essentials :-)

another work day

Erlend and I both worked at Trollstigen today and he took a video. Have a look!

Sunday meeting

This morning we enjoyed another Sunday Bible Study with friends. We talked about what the Lord has been teaching us and we studied about what the Bible says about the Lord´s supper. Interesting stuff!
We also got to enjoy some snacks together.

Coca Cola sermon

Tonight Erlend got to share about missions at a youth meeting. In the beginning he held up a Coca Cola bottle (without a label on it) and asked what it was and of course everybody knew what it was. Everybody in the room had tasted it before. One of the bosses of Coca Cola once said that nobody should die before having tasted Coca Cola - what a vision!

We have something so much better to share then a sugary drink - we have the Gospel! How much effort are we willing to make so that everybody can "taste" the Gospel before they die?

 reading through the notes one last time...

we hope that the young people were challenged tonight

horses and hedgehogs

Today we had some more beautiful weather so after work I got to enjoy a nice ride with a friend and another friend's horse (thank you for taking me, Helen and thank you for letting me borrow you horse, Dorthe!)

And then on our walk back from the beach after a little bonfire night Erlend found a little friend...

s'mores and stuff

We had a wonderful evening at the beach with friends today.

 Guess what that beach is called! Loosely translated it is called Røsvik beach, 

now how cool is that?

 we were there til 10 pm and it did not get dark one bit, which is still weird to me

 Erlend and the other guy working up an appetite

 That is how Erlend likes his meat - with nothing else,
except maybe extra meat on the side :-)

Well done, Astri, now that is a proper s'more!

Trollveggen, Troll wall, Trollwand

Today I went to guide a tour at another famous sight of Norway - the so called Trollveggen. It is the tallest vertical rock face in Europa and pretty impressive when you stand at the bottom and look up. It is about 1700 m high and at its steepest, the summit ridge overhangs the base of the wall by nearly 50m. Cool, ey? :-)

light, very light

Guess what time it was when I took this picture out of our living room window!

10:00pm (in the evening!)

I am still getting used to the looooong days here, but I love it, feels like I have more energy!

check it out

A few days ago the new website of NTM Norway was launched! Go and check it out at: http://norge.ntm.org

A long tour and a flat tire

Today we guided our first tour over the world famous Trollstigen (Troll ladder). Top Gear voted it as one of the roads you have to drive before you die (I guess, it would also preferable if you don't die while you drive it :-)).

 I stole this one of the internet, we certainly did not have this kind of weather today

 On top of Trollstigen it was snowing, but what are 10 cm of fresh snow when there are already 2 meters?

When we came to where we had parked our car we (umm well, Erlend) had to change a flat tire. I thank God that we did not crash when the tire burst but that it happened right when we pulled into the parking lot and I thank God for a husband who can smile even while he is changing a tire after a 10 hour work day!