sweetie

foggy sunrise

I woke up early this morning to a beautiful foggy sunrise, took this picture, fixed some coffee and then read this:
"I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me,
for I have redeemed you." Isaiah 44v22

real norwegian food

raspeballe (potato dumplings) and salted pork is the classsic thursday evening meal across norway (and the north sea!)

beautiful day at sea

a very happy man

so øystein is a very happy man, not just because he's about to celebrate his 24th birthday...

impuls meeting

crashed in on the team planning their summer bbq, ahem, I mean, err, deciding on very important strategy

sightseeing flight

on the flight out from stavanger on saturday the pilot took a low-level diversion and gave us all a close-up view of the famous priekestolen, or pulpit rock, which overhangs the beautiful lysefjord by 600 breathtaking metres, and is supposedly the birthplace of the crazy norwegian sport of base-jumping

unpacking

there are few things the kids love more than unpacking daddy's bags when he gets home from a trip...
especially when there's surprises inside!

tananger dagener

and visit the tananger dagener - literally the tananger days - which is the local community summer festival, at the edge of the water at the inner harbour in warm sunshine

nydellig!

got to catch up with the lovely atle and anette and their beautiful little girl sarah this evening

brotherly love

as you can see jojo is very affectionate to his baby sister

mal's world

just a glimpse!

having fun on the trampoline

skye's ballet class

summer project

so my summer project will be re-roofing this cute little play house for the kids

skye's swimming

skye is getting into swimming

crocodile rock

legend has it that a very nasty crocodile was tormenting the good people of yorkshire until one day when, fed up with all the gnashing and snapping, uncle laurence roared at the crocodile so loudly that it was literally petrified and now we can enjoy crocodile rock without any fear

cool girls on the road

old skool

church

the old church in brønnøysund

beautiful day in brønnøysund

had some spare time before check-in so had a little walk into the (clean and tidy) town of brønnøysund in northern norway, as you can see there's a dramatic backdrop of mountains and fabulous fjords in the foreground

new departures area

got to use the new departures area at bristol airport today, built into the walkway area it removes the need for buses which used to drive passengers out to waiting planes

underway

dropping the boys and their bikes off at temple meads

crazy-packing-fest

as usual before any major undertaking, someone stays up all night packing...

the adventurers arrive

miriam and richard arrive bristol parkway ahead of geoff and rich's lands end to john o'groat's cycling adventure

seven league boots

new arrivals walkway

used the new arrivals walkway at bristol airport today, very swanky

oslo

had my first proper visit into oslo tonight, albeit briefly, for dinner with christian
and managed to successfully negotiate the oslo subway system

It's a girl!

Woohoo! We thank God for the safe arrival of Megan Hope.

oh how he's grown

this was taken by uncle pat at marianne and sherif's wedding in november 08

north sea sunset

bobbing around in the north sea

this is the view I had today...

after 30 hours of sailing and some stomach-churning force 9 gales (yes, I threw up!) we made it out to the rig late last night
we'll be waiting here - properly in the middle of nowhere - until the drilling starts on the rig, when we'll collect the contaminated drilling waste and take it safely and cleanly to shore for treatment

yay, snow!

happy christmas

God, with us?

"When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity
and took on the status of a slave, became human!” Philippians 2.7

stretching growing building learning

2009 has been a year of stretching, growing, building and learning!

Skye and Joseph had their first horse ride…
…well, Shetland Pony ride!

Mags went with her friend Sarah to LA, Phil had more Norwegian adventures in Stavanger, Tromsø, Bergen, as well as Stuttgart, Germany and Aberdeen, Scotland.




As well as becoming a very top doctor, Uncle Rich got a lesson in spelling and bathtimes – watch out for the invisible lion!





With architects, designs, planning permission and contractors in place the building epic that is our new home finally moved to the ‘bricks and mortar’ stage in May.






Skye’s fairy princess (and frog prince) birthday party was legendary









July brought surprising news – a new baby is on the way!






Behind schedule and over budget, but very pleasing all the same, we moved into our new home at the end of August – the kids loved riding in the moving van almost as much as getting their own bedrooms!







Just a few days later Skye started at her new school, which she is really enjoying.






Phil’s new work took him out of prison and back into engineering, this time (by helicopter) to North Sea oil rigs. It leaves lots time for daddy-day-care, volunteering with church and the prison work (as well as the decorating!)



Joseph has grown in many ways, notably in his love for Bob the Builder (see the hat), Postman Pat, Thomas the Tank Engine and shouting, ‘You Crazy Prawn!’ (err see Uncle Rich for that). In November we had a crazy party for his 2nd birthday too!





A new thing for us is the church community we’re part of – meeting in homes and running kids clubs linked to the local school. Like our advent lunch (shown) it’s very nutritious: local, growing organically, animal (& child & family) friendly, fairly and simply trying follow Jesus in everyday life.

We’re grateful for the support, love and encouragement so many friends and family have given us so generously this year – you’ve carried us a long way, thank you!

With loads of love from all of us

P.S. We’re also on facebook!

what's this all about

so this is what we're pondering as a family and with our church family

a 13 year treat

ok, so anyone reading this blog regularly will notice that we (sometimes) leave big gaps and sometimes backfill with snippets of what we've been up to. well not tonight. oh no, in fact, it was such a special treat to catch up with friends and spiritual heros cassie and esther that it made straight onto the blog in the same evening! changing the worlds of bradford and bristol these ladies were also big uni pals of ours, so great to see them still going all out for jesus, still beautiful, we love 'em and thank God for them - let's not leave it 13 years till the next time we catch up again, eh?

(yeah, ok, so since the last post we also moved home, skye started school, we had almost every family member visit us, planted a new church and phil went to a new job in another country on a helicopter...
we'll get round to posting some stuff about all that soon too)

jojo gets some grandpa time

track!

we went to visit phil's pal john on his farm in wales today.
have a guess what made jojo's day...