We are back and better than before!

We arrived yesterday morning to 2 degrees C, but a clear and beautiful morning. We had just been in Boston for a visit for 2.5 weeks for the haggim. It was a wonderful visit, full of lots of family time. But what can I say, there is simply no place like home! After sleeping for only about 3 hours for the night Zelia woke up before landing ready to be home. When she woke in Swampscott that morning she said to Jacob " It's Skagastrond day!" She talked non-stop from then on and when we were getting our luggage she said to me, I will show you where is Iceland and she ran to a picture on the wall and pointed to the map! The drive home was hard as we were exhausted but as usual Jacob was a hero and we were here by noon. We unpacked (not a joke- 5 bags full of things that needed homes), saw Jack, showered, ate and all slept together for a long while. Zelia was thrilled to go back to leikskoli this morning and we are back in business.

The holidays were lovely. We spent Rosh hashanah in Swampscott and got to see everyone, what a treat! Some of my favorite moments were running with Baki, then another day with Aba and yet a few more with Lauren. Both nights were delicious and rowdy:)

We had a beautiful naming celebration for Lazer Harry Cheatham Kasper, born August 5, 2010 in Reykjavik at "home". He was 3.44 kilo, 7.8 poinds, and 51 centimeters, 19 3/4 inches. It was the most amazing experience surrounded by a spectacular birth team, Jacob, Ima, Aba, Kathie, Aude, Zelia, Kristbjorg and Maria. Rabbi Cherie helped us organize the ceremony and lead it. She was so thoughtful, I am really grateful for her...she thought of so many things that I was just not able to even consider. Now we have a great little book of all that was said and written for him.

The next week was quiet and we got to spend a lot of time with Mama Zee and Zelia went on an adventure with Jacob and Terri to Chicago to visit her great grandmother Fran. What a great trip.

For Yom Kippur we stayed at Terri's in Newton. We had a really nice quiet and delicious meal together for Kol Nidrei. We went to Kehillat Israel that night and the next day. It was a fabulous congregation. I was hesitant becuase of its large size, but it was SO welcoming, so knowledgeable, really wonderful. I LOVED that the Rabbis took every moment possible to teach.

On Sunday we had a lovey visit with Dennis and Marie, listening to music, eating on the porch, talking and walking. The weekend ended with dinner at Adam and Hallie's house with Jocie, Noah, and all the kids, lots and lots of fun.

We are back in our regular much quieter lives now, waiting for Sarah to come and then we will go to the garden to dig up our potatoes. I am making this for dinner...yummm, sort of like a quinoa/vegetarian bip bim bop Delicious Big Bowl.

I need to begin to prepare for teaching the dance elective at school, think about yoga/pilates for the adults, and my guest lecture on Soloveitchik...

Jacob´s 33rd birthday and Our front yard this morning

Yesterday was absolutely the most beautiful day of the year so far. Once Zelia woke from her nap we picked Jacob up and headed to Blonduos. We tried to do some errands, which were mostly unsuccessful but we got some wine for tonight´s birthday celebration. Then we headed to the pool and it was just lovely and relaxing and very fun. Zelia was beginning to swim on her own with her water wings, and go down the slide and dunk all the way under the water in the landing.

This morning we woke to begin celebrating Jacob´s 33rd birthday and found this when we opened our front door -check out the pics! Soon we will take the ice cream cake to Jacob´s work to share with his co-workers, yummmm. Tonight we will have wine, steak pomme fritts and possibly more ice cream cake! We are also hoping that Gisli and Gerdur may return to feast with us.

Jacob also got a good text this morning from the slaughterhouse that says we can come and choose our ribs and brisket, woohoo!

Summer so far

Well after a blustery beginning to July we have had the most spectacularly beautiful days and today wins so far!!!! After breakfast, hanging laundry, and kneading dough we headed out to do some errands and play in the park. Short sleeves and sunshine!

Gisli and Gerdur came for a long weekend. They arrived late on Friday night but so did Jacob and Anna and a suprise - Danielle!!!!! So we had another late Shabbat dinner. The hallah was delicious and the fish fresh and lovely. Anna brought a portuguese dessert and we all ate well and were exhausted. Danielle, Gerdur and I sat up late knitting and it just felt so good to be with good friends.

The next day we all slept late, ate pancakes and headed to Saudarkrokur and then to Grettislaug, the beautiful hot pot. It was great, coming in and out of the sunshine and the heavy fog in the mountains. Danielle left Sunday after a late breakfast and we enjoyed the sunshine and the smoker smoking chicken. It was so beautiful out we ate outside and got nice tans:) This was the first time Gisli and Gerdur ever ate a dry rub smoked chicken and it was a HUGE success!!!!!!

On Monday Gisli and Gerdur enjoyed hiking Spakonufell and then we all ate dinner before they headed out with our camping gear for an adventure.

Jacob is out on a boat today and should be returning soon. I am beginning to think of all the things we need to pack to leave for Reykjavik on Saturday and we are counting down the days for my parents and Kathie to arrive!

Zelia news...she stopped using diapers almost 3 weeks ago and it has been wonderful for her, she did it with no help from us, I never expected it! She is excited for the baby to come but every once in a while she says...it's not coming yet:)

The Impossible Task of Playing Catch-up

Since it has been such a long time since I have written and because so much has happened I realized I was avoiding writing with the impossible task of catching up with all of it! So, I will do my best to mention some highlights but I will not attempt to "catch-up".

We have had a month full of visitors which has been a lot of fun and made June and now almost half of July fly by. First we were in Reykjavik and met Terri before heading to Isafjordur for Jacob's graduation. We were all able to stay together at Gisli and Gerdur's summer house which was great and got to spend lots of time together. Zelia was having a blast with everyone there and having lots of fun with her Grandma. Since Terri had already been in Isafjordur so many times it was great to be able to just relax and visit all together. On Thursday we all boarded the bus to Hrafseyri, the birth place of Jon Sigurdsson, the father of Iceland, where there was a really nice ceremony for graduation. Eight of the nine students graduated, and of those, 6 were there including Tanja who came from England, Astrid from Germany with her mom and Danielle who just returned for a year in Iceland to work. It was exciting to sit there and watch this first graduation of the program, knowing there were about 18 heading for graduation the next year and between 20-25 new students arriving in the fall - what a success!

After the ceremony which included wonderful traditional Icelandic hats we headed to Dynjandi for lunch. Unfortunately the flies were swarming and I mean swarming....think Memorial Day in the Maine woods...except not biting! Zelia was playing the entire time with Heidis a little girl a year older than her who is Gerdur and Gisli's grand daughter....they are expecting another about the same time as I am:) Back on the bus for dessert and later a BBQ at the school that evening. It was really a wonderful day that felt like a real celebration for the students and the program.

Once back in Skagastrond we were bascially on our regular schedule with a nice day trip around the peninsula and a visit to Akureyri where Terri bought Zelia her first bike!!!! What excitement. After about a good week Zelia got it! She loves her helmet too:)

Before Terri left Stephanie (old college friend of Jacob's) and her fiance Matt came for the night and we had a blast with them. We didn't have a long visit due to some flights changes but it was lovely to see them, catch up and enjoy the pool together in Blonduos. Zelia fell in love with Matt.

Then we had a week on our own where I began my sumardansskoli and had 4 students sign up. We danced every morning for 2 hours, atlernating days with classical ballet, pilates and modern, yoga and improv. I was surprised to learn that that was Zelia's last week at leikskoli. I scrounged to find someone to come in and be with her in the mornings while I finished my second week of dance.

Tanja came to stay with us for a few days after her artists' residency program and before returning to Enland and on Saturday Paul showed up for the week! We had a blast together. We all went to Grettislaug, our new all time favorite hot pot...sorry there are no pics, but you can see some on FB....In the mornings Karen would come and be with Zelia who frankly was more interested in being with Paul while I went to dance. Then whenI got back we tried to do different things. Unfortunately some of our plans were redirected when 60 mi/hr winds began to blow! We did manage to get Paul to Saudarkrokur to the tannery and the pool, to Hvammstangi to the wool factory and Blonduos for the pool and Skagastrond. As far as water experiences go we did pretty well! We also managed to serve him many Icelandic specialties but I am still surprised when I keep thinking of more. He is an adventurous eater so it was fun!

The two dance weeks flew by and the girls did great. On the last day parents came to visit and watched a wonderful improv. The head of the school would like me to come and begin teaching sometimes in October or November 2-3 times a week in the elective program. Sounds perfect!

Before leaving us this Saturday we were able to have a lovely Shabbat dinner with Aude, Siggi, Herdis and Anna (Jacob's intern from Portugal) and Paul. It was a late dinner since Aude and family were driving from Reykjavik. So we began with dinner 1, pizza from Kantrybaer:) Then we had dinner 2, introducting our guests to Shabbat and hallah! Before we knew it, it was midnight and time for everyone to go to bed!

Paul left early for the drive and after a pancake feast we all headed back to Grettislaug and had a blast, including a small picnic on the rocks of the hot pot. Today Siggi and Jacob headed to a river to fish (the same river Paul caught his first and second trout!) to fish and we met them a few hours later for another lovely picnic this time on the bank of the river. See above pictures.

This evening we have a quiet house and worked on putting the crib together. Only two weeks until we head to Reykjavik and my parents and Kathie arrive...we are SO excited. I am feeling really well, still very energetic, I will miss dancing this week. Zelia and I will spend time at the pool and watering the garden and just hanging around. I imagine we will do many many puzzles as it is her current obsession:)

Smoker, hot pots and ice cream trucks

What a summer day! After our long walk in the morning, Jacob got working on his smoker!!!! Oh yes, it was coming together with a large steel barrel, some old grills from the junk pile and hammer and pliers. He mounted it on the grill, filled it with drift wood from the beach and put it his wings.....what a sight!

As that was working, once Zelia woke from her nap, we collected dandelions for wine making and later we will do it again to make dandelion syrup and then we were off to the pool. Since the pool opened we have been going together almost every afternoon or evening. It is a small pool, 12.5 meters long and one hot pot, but it is a 2 minute walk from the house, right next to Jacob´s work. I have been swimming laps in the morning as well which has been great. The sun has been so bright and it has been so beautiful everyone is getting a tan. We played in the pool and sat in the hot pot until closing time. Other nights we have been going after dinner, relaxing, drinking coffee in the hot pot, chatting with some folks and then putting Zelia right into her PJ´s, it´s the perfect summer activity.

We came home to make rice and coleslaw and ate delicious smoked wings. We just found out that we can call the slaughter house in Blönduós and order certain cuts of beef...so we are going to make some delicious BBQ this summer....especially for Jacob´s birthday. When we were finished I thought it would be nice to walk to the gas station and buy some ice cream but as Jacob was tinkering with the broken washing machine (ugh), I heard the ring ring ring of an ice cream truck. We went running out and Zelia chose her ice cream from a picture - her first ice cream bar, chocolate ice cream dipped in chocolate...she ate the whole thing!

Sjomanudaggur 2010 - Seamen's day

Saturday we were all set for a great day....last year in Isafjordur the weather was poor and we didn't see so much happening, but this year we were told that in Skagastrond Sjomanudaggur is one of the biggest days of the year, woohooo. The next biggest day is Kantrydaggur, countryday and it is in mid-August.

In the morning Jacob was thinking a lot about his grandparents Arnice and Sam and decided to make french toast in their memory. It was sweet to tell Zelia how her great grandfather Sam was famous for his french toast.

Eventually we got ready and headed out at 10:30 to join a parade from the harbor to the church. It was a fast walk and we had to put Zelia in the stroller. There were four people at the front with the flag of Iceland and in uniform. We got to the church to hear the bells chiming and headed in for a special mass where an all men's choir was to sing. Halldor was one of the members so it was especially fun to see. They didn't sing traditional church songs but rather songs from the sea, not the sea shanties you might hear from Gloucester, but I think sea shanties none the less. It was really fun. There was a so a short memorial for those who have died at sea from here...no one recently. We headed home for a nap and to look forward to a boat ride in the afternoon.

Sadly, I had the time for the boat ride wrong and by the time we got to the harbor it had ended....everyone was gathered there though for races and games. We watched as the long row boats that have been in use for this day for about 40 years were raced. The kids were everywhere, there were grilled hot dogs and huge thick lollipops. We watched several games including tug of war, the line dancers dance, silly races with water and toilet paper and Zelia being called over by the older kids from her school. They all had these candies so she was just staring at them...yes we are the mean parents...not to worry she got chocolate cake later:)

The most fun race to watch was a times race that was a course into the harbor that the 20-somethings were trying. There were rope bridges in the water, large balloons covered in soap and they had to get across in the shortest time. Everyone fell in at least once, it was hysterical to watch.

By 4pm we headed to the community center where we had coffee and a buffet of cakes and savory treats as a fundraiser for the rescue squad which organized the day. We sat with Sigga, Halldor, Gudrun Anna and Oli and were invited over to play on the trampoline. It was a really lovely afternoon, sitting in the sun with beer, Zelia was off playing and every once in a while we could hear all of her Icelandic. It is so cool but we don't get to hear much of it so it is a treat. We ended up staying until almost 9pm when Zelia was done!

This week we began working with her to go to sleep alone and it has been a great success. We are using a sticker chart and some soft music and it took no time and she is proud....perfect!

This morning we headed out for what turned out to be a very long walk. We saw lots of horses, pet them and also a tiny foal. Jacob was picking dandelions to make a wine and it was just very, very nice. The flowers are blooming and eventually the sun really came out. At home we ate tuna melts outside in the sun and now Zelia is fast asleep. I think this afternoon we will head to the pool, keep working on our tans. yes, you read that right...we are all getting a bit of color from the gorgeous sun.

We are super excited for next weekend, we are heading to Reykjavik, will hopefully plant some trees with the Jewish community, a bit of a summer Tu B'Shvat, meet with the midwife and then pick Terri up on Wednesday morning! Zelia is getting very excited about getting her and going to Isafjordur. We are going for Jacob's graduation!

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