Sommerhus Weekend

We spent this past weekend at Trine’s ex-step-family’s sommerhus outside Vig in north Zealand. We were out here somewhere (use the navigational controls to zoom out and get a sense of where we were), about a fifteen minute walk from the water’s edge. I have a lot of pictures and video of everyone, but will try to restrict myself to Molli Malou, since it is, after all, her blog.

We picked her up Friday just before her usual naptime at vuggestue. We were hoping she’d take her whole nap in the car on the way up. She did.

But it was a shorter drive than her usual nap, and she woke up while we were parked at the grocery store a mile or two from the sommerhus. It had been just over a one hour nap, but she wasn’t too cranky. It was sweltering weather: we unloaded our stuff at the house, then the three of us went straight to the beach.

The beach was perfect for Molli Malou (I don’t have any pictures: it’s just beyond the dunes in the pictures above). It was sandy and very gradually sloping into the bath-warm seawater, so we were able to go twenty or thirty yards out into the water without it coming above her knees. She was ecstatic. No pictures, unfortunately, because our camera’s bad enough as it is: moisture would have been the last nail in its coffin.

Back at the house after the beach, Molli Malou fell in love with two things right away: the swingset and Lise. (She remembered that Lise had given her the trike for her birthday and actually thanked her for it a few times when we first arrived.)

The various families trickled in all afternoon and evening, most of them miserable after two-hour drives in horrendous weekend traffic.

Molli alternately entertained herself in the little wading pool and the sandbox… and by throwing herself at anyone willing to pick her up and chat with her.

There were something like 28 people on hand by dinner-time Friday. Obviously there wasn’t room for everyone in the house, even with the added room made available by their friend and neighbor across the road. There were a lot of tents.

There was a lot of poker on Saturday. Here are Uffe and Jakob…

And the three sisters, Lise, Anne, and Susanne…

Molli Malou doesn’t play poker yet, so she stuck with the swings.

Sofie joined her for a while, but Molli Malou’s passion for Sofie’s doll made their relations a little strained for most of the weekend.

I know it’s redundant, but I can’t help myself. I think she’s adorable in this dress.

…but she’s pretty cute in a sweatshirt, too.

The place was swarming with little girls of every age. The three sisters pictured above have seven children between them: six boys and one girl (Uffe, Jesper, Jakob, Joachim, Nikolai, Christian, and Marie). So far those seven children have six children of their own: five girls and one boy. One more child is on the way, and if it’s another girl the generations will have completely flip-flopped: six boys and a girl producing six girls and a boy.

The girls were a little too old to take much interest in Molli Malou, but she was fascinated by them. And their toys.

A group picture was taken Saturday evening. This is just my half-assed shot taken while Nikolai set up his good camera for the real one.

In the real photo, Molli Malou sat on the grass with Jesper for some reason.

Molli Malou really had the time of her life, and the only real fits she threw were when she was overtired or when one of the other girls declined permission for her to play with one of their toys. (Why hadn’t we brought any of her dolls up with us? Why did we think Barney and Po would be enough?)

Of course, when she’s in a good mood even rocks are enough to entertain her.

…but when she’s ready to go home, she damn sure lets you know it! (Look closely: she even figured out how to put the right key in the ignition!)

With Molli at the wheel I was able to relax on the drive home yesterday, and managed to snap this strange sight on the highway back toward the city. (They’re apparently Denmark’s biggest eel exporters, but still… I couldn’t help staring into the cab of the truck to be sure there wasn’t actually an eel at the wheel…)

I got some great video and will cobble it together later this week. And I am now officially welcoming suggestions for what our next camera should be: we want something with a good lens, at least 5 megapixels, and better-than-average shutter response time. If any of you have had experience with such a camera, kindly recommend it. (It goes without saying our budget is limited, right?)