Give me a “C”

...... for Charleston, Carowinds, and Crowder Mountain.

Well, one of the reasons we like to get out of Ann Arbor for the winter is to be more outside and have places to go, and the past few days have certainly not disappointed us!

Wednesday we headed deeper south towards Charleston in South Carolina - a 3 1/2 hours drive. But at the end of that waited awesome company:

The most beautiful surroundings

And so many palm trees❤️

We are lucky to have friends in Ann Arbor, who have family down here and opened their house to the 6 of us (woof) without any hesitation. And what a house! One of those homes you would otherwise only see in movies with goldfish in the pond by the entrance, garden paths made of crushed sea shells, and room after room filled with antiques. We even got a guided tour of the harbor by Walker, who is way more updated on US history than we are (or probably ever will be - ahem). Only down side was a somewhat creepy drive back to North Carolina in the dark as we were all exhausted.

We have also visited “winter fest” in Carowinds. The teenagers of the family tried to get in as many daredevil rides as they could possibly get away with, while the rest of us enjoyed the lights and decorations:

And today we went hiking on Crowder Mountain for 3 hours straight. And what a hike! The path took us on the rim of the mountain tops with plenty of rock climbing

Even the dog does not want to go downstairs tonight due to worn out legs.

We have also squeezed in some more North Carolina family time with a visit to the aquarium:

And Teresa and my credit card and I even managed to find an Anthropologie sale:

So overall we have had a wonderful visit down here. We still have one more full day before going back (to the terrible cold😢) tomorrow so stay tuned.

Merry Christmas from North Carolina

Christmas break this year is spent away from the Michigan cold. I am certainly not missing the temperatures:

It is actually quite cold down here as well as a cold front has decided to cross the eastern side of the US as a late christmas present for everybody.... but I’ll take southern state cold over northeast cold at any time.

The drive down was wet but uneventful (in a good way). Bailey got to ride an elevator for the first time in his dog life. Not a big success🙈

And we got to visit a Walmart deep in the mountains where everybody wears mossy oak outfits and looks (and talks) like they just stepped out of Duck Dynasty. That did not stop us from a dog potty break though

This time we have rented a pet friendly Airbnb house. Or half a house as we do share it with the owners. They invited us to Christmas Eve service at their church - elevation church. That was - ehm - quite an experience. I don’t think it technically counts as a mega church but for people like us, parking attendants, smoke machines and laser lights, live broadcast of the sermon from somewhere else, and free earplugs for everybody due to the insane decibel level, was very different from what we usually do😳

We spent Christmas Eve with our family down here (and I absolutely forgot to take any pictures whatsoever, but ya’ll know how Christmas Eve dinners usually go right?).

On Christmas morning Luca woke us all up at 7AM on the dot. And after a solid gift frenzy and some quality time spend on the phone with T mobile about activation of some new iPhones, we walked the dog and went to the movies. And luckily found an open CVS where we could get some frozen dinner as we forgot to prepare for that before the stores closed the day before:

Yesterday (which was...... Tuesday...... I think...... #christmasbrain) we spent the day with Birgitte and Doug (and Hannah) at the Billy Graham library. I admit that my expectations were not exactly high.Especially not when we started out meeting the mechanical talking cow:

But it was such a good experience after that. They had several rooms connected, each dedicated to a certain theme of his life. I didn’t know much about him walking in, and I had no idea what he managed to accomplish. He was one of the first western pastors to break though the iron curtain and go preach in communist countries and the room with video footage from him visiting Romania, Moscow etc, which you got to watch sitting in the shadow of the Berlin Wall while being blinded regularly by the search light from the guard tower almost gave me goosebumps.

Again - I totally forgot to take any pictures, but Teresa did ask me to snap a photo of her in front of the giganormous Christmas tree by the entrance:

And as I write we are driving even further south to Charleston in South Carolina to spend the day with friends from Michigan❤️

Driving south for Christmas

Once again we are not spending Christmas in Ann Arbor. We don’t have any family here and it is just too cold to hang around with nothing planned. And once again we are headed towards Charlotte in North Carolina - something we look tremendously forward to. Last night we made Edith’s famous little marzipan cakes. She was Kristian’s grandmother (and the aunt of Birgitte and Kate, that we are about to visit) and she made these for every occasion imaginable. We hope they will like them down there.

I had some terribly hectic work days Monday and Tuesday - those kind of days were the whole day is planned in 10 minute intervals and I got to wolf down my lunch in a secret hiding spot in the basement. All scientists kind of have those days once in a while. And I decided to book a haircut Thursday and take it easy. It is always a gamble getting my hair cut here, and this time I made sure to google pictures of what I liked:

And what I really did NOT like:

And it turns out that I am quite happy with my hair this time 👍🏻

While I was in the mall I encountered “the mall power walkers”! Yikes. Old ladies in tracksuits and sneakers carrying water bottles and a “Do not underestimate me. I WILL push you out of my way” look on their faces while they dragged their poor husbands through every nook and corner of the mall in high speed. I didn’t even know that this was a thing😳

And I decided to browse the stores a little bit. Who knows, maybe I could find a niceChristmas outfit. I found some awesome striped pants on sale relatively fast - that kind that you could match with literally any style or color of top. If you could find one in the right size that actually fit when tucked inside the pants that is........ and 3 hours later I left the mall completely deflated and with a somewhat “not what I hoped for but OK” top. Shopping is really not my thing anymore.

This morning Teresa and I went to get our nails done.

It is my first time ever with acrylics and even though the nail lady kept asking if I really wanted them that short, I still feel like they are super long and in the way.How do you peel potatoes with these things?

And now we are in the car. Somewhere in Ohio. After an intense battle between Teresa and the dog about who got to have the good seat. I had to drag him off the seat several times so Teresa could get in and every time he jumped right back in resulting in the two of them getting stuck in the door because they both tried to get through at the same time. LOL. Møghund! (Danish for brat dog).

2017 throwback

This year is about to end, and once more I am surprised when I look back. Days in Michigan in the winter feels long and monotonous, and I tend to forget all the wonderful experiences we have had throughout the year. So here it goes - highlights of 2017:

The year started sunny and beyond beautiful in the Bay Area, where we got to spend January 1st in Bodega Bay:

 Followed by some serious chocolate and icecream overlad:

Then we got back to Michigan and decided to get out and about just a little bit. But Detroit zoo did not really meet our expectations.....

February was spent by the pool side as it is the prime time of synchronized swimming:

And of course I always suffer from super serious cabin fever at that time of year and try to use sheer willpower to make spring arrive early. That never really seems to work, but Luca was a good companion to get out with me and cut down some trees to put inside in a vase..... to stare at...... until they bloom

We also got to walk llamas for the first time EVER! Who even knew you could take them for a walk?

And then came April and spring break and a wonderful trip to Toronto, where we got our cravings for big city atmosphere satisfied:

In May I had the pleasure of going back to Copenhagen for the first time in years. It was one of the most exhausting trips I have ever made. Science, collaborations, meetings, friends, family and "romkugler" all mixed up in way too little time. It felt amazing to be back home, while at the same time it made me realize that we will probably not come back to live there - and that is OK.

We also took a trip down to Cincinnati in Ohio, for a(nother) synchronized swim meet. Those Ohio girls - the synchrogators - were amazing. And it was fun to watch all Teresa's hard work come together in the routines:

The end of May also brings pool season. Highly anticipated in this family:

And last, but not least, it was also around this time we became a two-cars-family. I truly think this was one of the best days in Kristian's life in a long time:

I decided to spend a sunny early summer weekend on my biggest DIY project ever. Re-upholstering a couch. In the middle of it I felt like it was a very wrong idea, but luckily the end result turned out to be something I am quite proud of. Here is our living room during the mid-couch-crisis:

Then we got to go North on the first camping trip of the year. Lake Michigan in the summer..... aaaaah :-)

Followed by another and longer camping trip with my sister who came to spend a few weeks with us. But first Teresa needed to spend her birthday gift:

And if any of you ever wonder if you can kill a teenagers dream of becoming a pilot by giving them an instructed flying lesson? Well, that does NOT work.......

While we were up north we got to take Christine to one of our all time favorite spots in the state: Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor (Man, I could really eat one of those grilled cheese sandwiches they have right now):

 And then came start of school. With Luca being quite nervous of moving into Middle School (usually not the best of times in any kids life - probably related to that super awkward age). Well, he loves it. And embraces everything he can get away with including school sports:

And we have come to the point in life where we can add helping kids with college applications to our parent CV. Here's Ulrik's mandatory contour drawn self portrait for applying to Art and Design school:

Our parenting skills also upgraded to "teaching teenagers how to drive". Or well, Kristian's parenting skills that is. I do not gracefully embrace the experience of being stuck in a car with a teen behind the wheel. Ahem.

We got to spend sunny, warm, and wonderful autumn days with a visit to the Frederick Meijer Gardens:

With runs in Detroit:

Succulent binging (is it even possible not to love succulents?)

And getting our fingers stuck in Halloween deco at Target:

Now it is the time of year where Christmas is right around the corner, and where Luca's love of lusekatter has become so overwhelming that he spends his own allowance on saffron:

We can't wait to escape the cold for a bit and drive down south to North Carolina, where we get to spend Christmas in our wonderful extended family here in the states. So long Michigan winter (and please please please do not be too harsh on us next year, OK?)