Track & Field Day!

The kids recently had a Track & Field day at school.  The fun afternoon was capped off with a hotdog roast and a trophy!


All of the kids made flags to represent their team - Sophia was on the blue team...

...and Ben was on the yellow team.

Sophia had fun cheering on her teammates.

And doing the obstacle course herself!

Ben dominated at the egg and spoon race.

Gröna Lund

We spent a Sunday afternoon in May at the local amusement park going on rides.  We were there just a couple of hours, but hit quite a few rides!  It wasn't a very nice day, so we didn't have to worry about lines.

Sophia and I started out on the swings.  The swings actually go out over the water and give great views of the city and Djurgarden, the island where Gröna Lund is located.

Ben and Aaron then took a ride on the flying elephants!

 Ben and Sophia went on the kid-size ferris wheel a couple of times - the only ride that Ben could go on without an adult :-)

Carousel ride on the pigs.

 And a roller coaster train.

The cars!

Teacups.  Glad Aaron did this one - I wouldn't have been able to handle the spinning.  Notice that Woody even made the trip!

And back to the carousel.  But this time, we rode the elephant.

 
Fun times!  

Drottningholm

We had a lovely day in May visiting Drottningholm, current residence of the Swedish Royal Family.  Drottningholm is in an island in Lake Malaren, so we decided to take a boat there, even though we could have driven.

We packed a picnic lunch and sat out on the lawn, pretending that we were royalty - ha ha!

The property is SO GORGEOUS!  The landscape - trees, ponds, gardens, lake views -  were so beautiful - my pictures don't do it justice.  

Athens

When my parents were here, Aaron and I had a chance to get away for a couple of days, so we headed to Greece!  (Thanks Mom and Dad!!)  We had a great time and (as Aaron puts it) saw a lot of stones and statues pillars.  (NOTE:  Updated to reflect Aaron's actual comment!)

Our first stop was the Acropolis and Parthenon.

View from the Acropolis - the city appears to go on and on...

All of the stones that have been moved are numbered, although it is hard to see in this picture.

We stayed in the Athens Riviera instead of in the city.  It was a nice compromise since we didn't have enough time to get out to an island.

We hung out by the pool in our swim suits...with jogging suits on top!  You can see that the pool was not very busy.

We had a fabulous dinner at a Greek "tapas" restaurant.  We loved being able to try so many different dishes.  Our favorite dishes typically included cheese :-)  Grilled Halloumi and Dakos....mmmmm.  We are toasting with a warm, honey liquor, which was not my fave.  We liked this restaurant so much that we went back again on our last night!

We went to the stadium where the first modern day olympics were held.  We didn't make it to any of the 2004 sites, but I guess they aren't anything special to see.

The Temple of Zeus.

Greek beer!

Changing of the guards

There were stray dogs all over!

We had dinner below the Acropolis & Parthenon one night - very nice views!

Oh, and we popped by Zurich on our way home!  We had a really long layover and decided to head into the city for a couple of hours.