Marching On

Happy Spring! One highlight of this month has been a visit from our friend Nick, who got his PhD with Lars in Minnesota and is now doing a postdoc in Berkeley. He came out to interview at Cambridge and stopped by our neck of the woods for the following weekend. The weather was great, so we took the kids on a looong walk to a pub on the Thames, only accessible by foot, bike, or boat.

Housemade apple-rhubarb juice: don't get used to this, kid

After beers and lunch, we went for a walk by the river. A network of dirt trails ran among the trees alongside the footpath, and Tor decided it was a "treasure trail." So he spent half an hour running up and down hunting for treasure, but mainly just found a series of birdhouses in the trees. Fortunately, that proved cool enough for him. We repeated the "treasure walk" last weekend at a wooded area on the outskirts of town. It's a good way to motivate Tor to walk instead of reclining lazily in the stroller while we get all the exercise.

"What lives in here? Maybe a gnome or somesing?"

Let's just buy a barge and be done with the house hunt

Five photo attempts, all yielding this face

Lars bravely gave Tor his first home haircut, using only scissors. It turned out quite respectably. Afterward, I realized that one quality of dryers I really value is their ability to remove hair from the laundry. I'm still shaking clippings out of the clothes that went in with that blue towel.

"I'm the king, you're the princess, and Dad is the barber."

"My hair is going in two directions, so I look like Daddy."

Tor continues to drag Lars into his room most nights. They frequently end up in some position akin to this one:

Get these men some coffee

Those of you on Facebook have already seen this shot, but it merits inclusion here. This month was Lars's 32nd birthday (gasp!) and we had a little family party including dinner at Atomic Burger, where the walls are covered with superheroes. Afterward, Lars opened a few presents and I tried my hand at baking with a kitchen scale, yielding mediocre cupcakes but good frosting.

Col "T. rex" Hansen

The weather was in the mid-teens (high 50s, for you Americanz) the weekend before last, and as mentioned, Lars and I undertook a five-mile-round-trip walk to Shotover Country Park while the kids napped after church. They woke up for the second half of it and we had leftover birthday cupcakes (secondhand for Col) while sitting on a log.

Overheating after the uphill slog

Spring!

Just this past weekend our friends the Lascus came down, so Sonia and Tor got to have another sleepover. Lars and I enjoyed grown-up company, the kids got along swimmingly, and we all got hailed on on our walk to the Museum of Natural History. Then we stopped by Lars's department and the Cornish pasty shop before heading back home and saying goodbye.

"When you said you wanted to play with Transformers, I thought . . ."

First ants-on-a-log experience. Result: eviscerated logs.

Ironman's Iron Castle

Homeward bound and ready for a nap