Lees in Værløse I

Busy, busy days!

It’s the last night of July as I write this, and everyone else has gone to bed. I alone remain awake to tell the tale…

However, we were so busy just preparing for the anticipated busy-ness of this visit that we’d fallen behind even before we started (in terms of blogging). So this blog includes some July catch-up along with Part I of the Lee visit.

Those of you hooked up on Facebook have already seen some documentation of the goings-on chronicled below, but those were mere phone photos. Now you get actual camera photos!

Commentary will be sparse because there are more than 100 pictures to follow and it’s almost 11 already and since I’m on Maddie duty tonight and tomorrow morning, I want to be in bed by midnight.

So, first up: our visit to the cats. These photos seem almost insignificant now, but since we plan to integrate these creatures into our lives beginning a few hours after the Lees depart for Paris, they’re a valuable part of the family historical record.

Also for the record: yes, once Maddie scared Emma away from the food dish she managed to get a chunk of cat food into her own mouth before I could stop her. You’ll see that on the video.

Random summer shots:

Let us not forget the joy of losing an expensive stovetop to lightning…

The summer sky is mischievous but beautiful…

The walnut trees are doing very well, but still a little blighted:

The weekend before the Lees arrive, Trine takes the girls up to the summerhouse with Vibeke and Jørgen…

I stay home and paint, a much more onerous job than I’d anticipated, but with worthwhile results.

The Lees arrive… with a mermaid costume for Molli Malou!

Off on a fishin’ trip to Søndersø!

(Debbie’s pictures of this little trip are vastly superior, and although I have them on my computer I have promised not to share them for many reasons, all of them good.)

Sophie and Molli Malou are now the “Ninendo Cousins.” This is a scene we encounter for a significant chunk of every day. Be grateful I am not sharing the soundtrack…

The eldest and the youngest have developed a special rapport of their own:

Which isn’t to say the four girls don’t thrive as a unit.

It just doesn’t seem that long ago we were smothered in snow and pining for the Lees, and here they finally were!

Our first trip to Copenhagen begane with a visit to the post office museum, where the girls designed their own stamps!

We also stopped by Nikolajkirken, where Trine and I got married (as anyone reading this knows — and will appreciate the following photos for the juxtapositional value):

Strøget.

Nyhavn.

Ice cream.

Jump rope.

Photo op.

American peanut butter at last!

Ah, the Viking Museum trip! Worthy of so much more narrative than I can provide right now…

Sailing the fjord in a Viking ship!

Here’s the ship we sailed in:

Gift shop bloodbath!

And that’s it… that’s really it. Gene arrived the following day, and today we got up to Bakken, and we have photos and videos galore from all that, but they will follow in another post. The main thing is: voila! I am semi-caught up on the blog! Meaning so are YOU!

And hey, I have time for another nightcap before I shut down for the night…