Over the past two years I think almost all of my blog posts have started out with something like….
“Hey guys, remember me, the person that used to blog all the time?”
And here I am again, after not writing on my blog in over five months, and I am going to start this post out saying the exact same thing.
Hey guys, remember me?! The person that used to blog all the time?
While my opening lines have not changed, life sure has changed!
Let’s just say Summer of 2018 was definitely a memorable one…
That’s right, my Viking and I are officially travel partners for life!
Like I said, it was a really, really good summer.
I sure do love seeing my Viking with that ring on his hand;)
I have a full wedding recap post in the works (I know, a second post, can you guys believe I might actually blog twice in a month?!) so I will save all the wedding talk for then. But for now I just have to say that having both of our families in the same place to celebrate with us was the most amazing time.
In other things we got up to over this past summer …
We spent 6 weeks in Oregon with my family
When your whole family is together you make sure to fit in several cheesy family photos ;)
Our six weeks in Oregon was everything I could of hoped for and more. We enjoyed relaxing family dinners, soaked in the beautiful Oregon summer weather, and loved every minute of watching my family bond with our little man.
Let me just say it again…
It was a really, really good summer.
I am not going to lie, spending my first year as a new mom without my family around (although I was very lucky with lots of visitors) was really, really hard. I missed my family like crazy and it was a bit hard to not feel like my little Viking was missing out on having that side of his family around. So when H and I were planning our trip back to Oregon for our wedding I was thrilled when the possibility came up that H would be able to work remotely for a few weeks meaning that we could spend even longer in Oregon.
Those 6 weeks with my family were spent with the biggest smile on my face.
When you don’t get to see your loved ones all the time you really do appreciate every single moment you get with them, and all the moments we had with my family this summer, they will be forever cherished by me.
Speaking of these special moments, there was an extra special one that happened during our time in Oregon…
My sister had a baby
When my sister first told me she was pregnant I remember feeling so sad that I would miss out on her pregnancy and being there when my nephew was born. Living so far away from family I know I will have to miss out on many special occasions, but having recently become a new mom myself this was one I did not want to miss. So when the possibility of being able to be in Oregon right before my sisters due date came up I was beyond thrilled.
I feel so lucky that everything worked out and I ended up getting to be with my sister for the last few days of her pregnancy, holding her hand in the hospital room and getting to kiss my nephew when he was just a few hours old. Even better was getting to bond with my sister in a new way as we both start our journey together as new moms.
And watching our sons already start bonding, gah it was major cuteness overload!
Our Iceland family joined us in Oregon
For a long time now it has been a bit of a joke that I lead a double life, my Iceland life and my Oregon life. Well, this is no more as these two worlds of mine finally collided this summer when 30 of our closest friends and family from Iceland made the trip to my hometown in Oregon!
Showing my family from Iceland around my beloved hometown was soo much fun! Finally, after almost 8 years they got to see where I came from and meet all my friends and family.
I was super nervous actually to have everyone over to Oregon, I mean what if they didn’t like it and they came all that way just for us??! Thankfully though everyone seemed to love it as much as I do (at least that is what they told me) and I hope this means they will have many more trips back to Oregon to visit us if we move back there one day.
Wedding Shenanigans
Okay, I know I said I have a post coming soon with more wedding pictures, but I am just too Type-A to not keep this post in chronological order so it has to be mentioned again. And I just wanted to put in another wedding pic or two:)
Since our wedding included a lot of out of town guest we actually had almost a week full of wedding fun. While it was a bit hectic planning all the wedding shenanigans it was the best week ever.
A very brief summary…
My bachelorette party kicked things off where I spent a day enjoying my favorite wineries in Oregon with a group of my best friends that included my childhood friends and my Icelandic ones,it was a blast. The Viking then headed off to Vegas for his bachelor party with 10 other Icelanders in tow where they got hit with a major rain storm bringing the most rain to the strip in years! I joked with them that they must of brought the Icelandic rain to Vegas. From there we had a dinner that my grandparents hosted where both of our families all met for the first time after H and I being together for almost 8 years!
This dinner is one of my favorite memories from the trip. While it was a simple family BBQ it meant so much more as it was the first time we had all our family in one place with us. It was truly the most special time and I couldn’t be luckier to have amazing grandparents who made it happen for us.
We ended off the wedding week fun with a pool party in my parents backyard for all the Icelanders in town as they arrived to Oregon in time for a major heat wave, especially for them ha. More than once I had one of them come up to me and ask why I would ever leave somewhere that had such nice weather. I told them the thought had more than once crossed my mind during those 9 month long Icelandic winters.
Okay now I am rambling but seriously this wedding week was too much fun!
For a long time I couldn’t really picture what the Viking and my’s wedding would be like. I mean how could we possibly have all our loved ones with us when we were from places so far apart. The fact that it did happen, it just made our day (and summer) that much more special.
Enough with the wedding talk…for now.
The Viking and I Headed Honeymooned in Cabo
After a crazy busy two years of juggling our MBA, little H, planning a wedding and everything in between my Viking and I finally got the time to completely relax, just the two of us.
I won’t lie though, saying goodbye to our little man was ROUGH! We were away for five days and I defintely shed some tears during that goodbye. But he was in good hands as both his grandparents, and great-parents, spent the week with him on a camping trip at the Oregon coast.
With our little man being spoiled by his family that left H and I to fully enjoy the most relaxing honeymoon.
This is by far the most relaxed trip we have taken together, and we loved it.
Let’t be honest, we spent basically everyday poolside fulling enjoying the pool bar and sunshine. We did get crazy and sneak in a few adventures like exploring downtown Cabo and all the fun dance clubs, taking in a sunset hike, and crossing off something on my Viking’s bucket list, swimming with dolphins.
Our honeymoon was the perfect way to recoup from all the fun and start off our married life together.
After our honeymoon we had one last week in Oregon to soak up as much sunshine that we could before going back to Iceland where some big changes where awaiting our little family.
Daycare for little H, New job for me
After a very special 14 months of getting to be at home with my little H the end of our summer fun in Oregon also marked the end of my maternity leave.
Those first days back at work after being home for so long where an emotional rollercoaster. On the one hand I was thrilled to be back at work and getting to put my mind to work, as well as socialize with adults. But on the other hand I was so sad to leave my little guy after spending every day of his life thus far together.
This new chapter in our lives though is an exciting one. While I returned to my same employer I took a new position that will bring new and exciting challenges and projects. This position does come with a more demanding schedule and task list, but I am loving being able to put to use all the skills I learned in my MBA and have already learned so much in my two months being back.
And for our little Viking, while the transition to daycare was probably harder on me than him, there has been many days of tearful drop-offs. Wow those are rough! Thankfully with each day they are getting easier and easier and our little man is really thriving in his new environment.
Things are finally starting to settle into a nice routine here for my little family, and while I have loved the past few years of chaos I am looking forward to a little bit of a slower paced schedule, for a little while at least.
And with more free time opening up my desire to sit down and write has finally come back, so hopefully this means more frequent blog posts!
Speaking of blogging, wow the blogging world has really changed in these past few years. I am so proud of all my blogging buddies doing amazing things with their online spaces, but don’t expect anything crazy happening here. I just want to come and write my life stories and happenings with my Viking boys. So if that interest you then I hope to see you around.
Thanks for reading, and making it through this very long post!
Question of the Day?
Any questions of what we have been up to lately that you want to see answered here on the blog??
