First a short summary of the autumn so far: the new kindergarden season started in August as usual, and this time we have two male "head" teachers, both at Abi's and my unit. It's great to have a better balance amongst the staff, and we both really enjoy kindergarden. We go on fun trips almost every week, plus Abi's unit goes to the "House of Literature" where they are read to almost every Tuesday in addition.

Later this autumn we went to the cabin just to enjoy the autumn colours and crisp nice mountain air. What's great this season is that Nicklas and his mum and dad have rented a place almost right next to us! We went over there to play with Nicklas, plus we've been swimming together at the large pool at the SAS hotel, and we even went bowling there. This was both Nicklas and my first time bowling, but we did well all considered.
We also made it to cousin Linus' 7th birthday in Halden, where cousins Eiril and Alva had come to visit too. Linus had the most amazing birthday cake with Yoda from Star Wars on it.

TheBIG event this autumn however was our California holiday in late Nov/erly December. We had looked so forward to it, not only to go to "exotic" America of course, but of course to see both daddy's American family plus the London crowd again, who all flew over there as well. The main reason for this trip was daddy's cousin Marshall's wedding, but since we spent almost 2 weeks there, we had plenty of time for other stuff too.
After a loong but fairly good flight via Frankfurt, we arrived in San Francisco in the evening. Sadly for mummy, a nasty cold was already building up that day (and eventually almost everyone caught it).
We were so extremely lucky that we got to stay in really big and fabolous house in aunt Ellen and uncle Bernie's neighbourhood just outside San Mateo. We shared it with grandma, grandpa, Guy, Sharon, Michael and Ethan.
So what did we get up to? Well, let's see...one of the first things we did was meet up with daddy's cousin Adam, his wife Pilar and their sons Dylan and Aidan who are 4 and 2. Last time I saw Dylan, we were both babies. We went to the airport museum outside San Francisco and had a look at fighter jets, helicopters and other planes. We even sat inside an engine! We also went to a children's amusement park called Gilroy Gardens. The hot air balloon carousel was a favourite - but we enjoyed the other stuff too - like driving our own car, riding the ferris wheel...etc. We visited the Golden Gate Park and drove to Sausalito - a lovely little town on the other side of Golden Gate bridge. Grandma, grandpa and mummy decided to walk back again across the entire bridge, but since that would have been too far for us to walk, daddy and Ellen drove us back instead. Mummy said she really enjoyed the walk and the great view from the bridge.
A big event was cousin Ethan's 2nd birthday, which we celebrated by going to the Oakland Zoo with our American cousins. There were plenty of animals to see, including bats (!), pelicans, elephants, giraffes, monkeys and goats. You name it. Afterwards we had a party at the house we stayed in, with pizza and cake. I think Ethan enjoyed his birthday and gifts too.
We all got dressed up for uncle Marshall and his fiance Jen's rehearsal dinner. This is a very American thing - a dinner a few days before the real wedding. Grandma had bought us these cute knitted dresses for the occasion.
Since going to America without doing tonnes of shopping is almost a crime (everything there is so cheap it's almost like they give stuff away for free) - quite some time was spent at the malls, but as long as we get some food and snack breaks, we're usually good.
See all the photos in my California 2009 album