new friends. archipelago. easter holiday.

april 22.

reese enjoys pulling her breathable blanket over her head at the end of naps.

she's so adorable peeking out from the covers.

mr. cool wearing his super-awesome basketball sweatshirt en route to see our new friends, the siller family (jackson, doug, linn, riley).

from vasastan we took the green train to slussen, then transferred to the saltsjobaden local train.

door to door 75 minutes. city to country.

ben prepared his view out the local train window.

a picture of the grand hotel in saltsjöbaden, literally "the salt sea baths". the town was developed as a resort by knut agathon wallenberg, a member of the wealthy and influential wallenberg family, from farmland which he bought in 1891 through a newly created railway company.

a view of the ceiling at the siller's. they were renting this place, a 105 year-old hunting lodge, from a swedish day-trader who took his family to majorca, spain for the year.

swedes really do know how to live and enjoy life. the gassler's are taking notes and will bring sverige home. 

doug siller hid the eggs and i helped as the ladies (leslie and linn) took the babies (reese and riley) for  a walk. when they got back the egg hunt was on.

leslie guided the boys to the eggs in the backyard.

jackson located the eggs and linn helped him open the candy.

backside of the lodge.

ben and jackson with bags full of eggs and candy.

doug drew treasure maps for the boys to locate the "super-eggs".

no super-eggs here.

not here either.

the boys regrouped and with doug's help, got back on track.

jackpot, super-eggs found at the trampoline.

happy easter.

view of the siller hunting lodge as we walked back to the train station.

fika, dinner, egg hunt and conversation was awesome. half swede and half cali(fornia) couples and kids are awesome.

april 23.

ben used his muscles to lift up the gigantic compass rose at the fridhemplans t-bana (subway) station.

view of nybroplan aboard the 80-year old s/s stockholm steam vessel. 

we took advantage of my 5-day easter holiday to explore. we were off to vaxholm, gateway to the archipelago, for a cruise on the s/s stockholm.

vasa museet (museum) from the ship.

the siller's joined us for the afternoon cruise through the archipelago. 

ben and jackson spotted some pirate ships.

doug got his camera ready as the boys sat on the ship bollards pretending to pilot us away from the pirates.

here is a swedish fishing cabin located in the heart of the archipelago.

the ladies and the babies on the appoarch to vaxholm.

our table aboard the s/s stockholm.

vaxholm.

waxholmbolaget ferry, this would be our chariot back to stockholm.

vaxholm castle was originally constructed by gustav vasa in 1544 to defend stockholm against shipborne attacks from the east. the castle was constructed from 1833-1863.

we disembarked from the trusty s/s stockholm and headed into vaxholm for lunch.

bye bye, old time steam ship.

we had lunch at hamnkrogen. les and i both had the salmon and quinoa salad. delicious.

an old volvo.

an interesting waste depository at the vaxholm hotel.

we took the high-speed water bus ferry home. ben and jackson watched imagination movers on leslie's ipod.

blue sky view atop the ferry.

bus stop at a random archipelago island, no problem for this vessel.

in sweden, it's all the blue sky, the sun and the great quality of life.

did i say quality of life, or cost of life, which is the highest in the world. we are still not sure how everyone here affords a country cabin, designer clothes, an expensive flat in the city, a volvo, and is taxed 60% on mid-range salaries.

ben on the lido deck.

we took the ferry back to gamla stan, then parted ways with the siller's.

ben enjoyed this flag and asked me to snap a pic for him.

easter morning. ben has been a good boy, so the bunny was good to the ben.

reese enjoyed the easter morning egg hunt.

happy
easter.

CLICK MY PICTURE...NO REALLY....CLICK ME.

the weather was gorgeous so we headed to vasaparken for a easter day lunch picnic.

ben snapped this one of the family.

nuttella and jelly, ben's new favorite sandwich.

reese and i worked on tummy time as ben and momma went to play.

awesome easter dinner prepared by chef leslie.

candied sweet potatoes, asparagus and mushrooms, apple slices, cranberry sauce, salad, and chicken (veggie chicken for me).

thanks for an awesome easter leslie. 

group shot. timer set to 10 seconds. ben in his new star wars undies.

reese has easter dinner.

april 25.

ben and reese communicating.

view of vasastan from the kungsholmen bridge.

lemon trees in sverige?

leslie found the neighborhood ice cream shop. it's on.

reese doesn't understand leslie's love for ice cream.

of course, leslie understands.

it official...our name has been added to the tenant list at vikingagatan 18.

chinese food.

leslie liked.

i liked.

ben and momma high five over ben's empty plate.

peep that new wristband. spidey is so cool.

ben's plate, he liked too and ate everything.

the girls went home and ben and i went to the park to get some play time in before our holiday ends.

tuesday means back to work and school. 

dirt.

  click here to watch and listen. 

ben prepared a dirt shake for dessert.

cool man pose next to the smart car.

a perfect salute to finish the holiday, swedish beer, low alcohol content of course (3.5%).