The Sorensens

Can a miracle be repeated? On Wednesday, we welcomed our daughter into the world. Her name is Ingrid Gwyneth, meaning “beautiful happiness/joy”. She was born at home, 6lb 11oz, 19.4 inches long, healthy and alert at 3:58am, May 28th, 2008.

Labor was wonderfully short and shockingly easy. A couple of days later both mother and baby are doing very well. Jenny is losing weight, Ingrid is gaining weight, and the rest of us are keeping busy.

I have taken to calling her “squeaker”, as she lets out a good squeal when she wakes up hungry. Sounds like such a girl! :)

~Haakon

We’ve been having a rainy day in Seattle–consistent overcast, showers, and 63/17 degrees. I usually love the sun and the heat that we had been having, but today I am enjoying the rain. Something about the comfort of being all snug and warm in the house appeals to me today. I don’t feel the need to rush out and enjoy the sun while it lasts; I can just be. Trygve is sleeping peacefully (at the moment, touch wood), there are brownies baking in the oven, and I can actually enjoy a hot cup of tea in the mid afternoon without breaking into a sweat. I apologise to all my friends in Edinburgh who are probably craving a warm, sunny afternoon and an excuse to sip a cold smoothie, but here I am enjoying a break from the heat and savouring a nice cuppa. It makes everything better!

Cheers, Jenny

This past week I have been doing the most epic commute I have ever attempted. Each day I travel from our home in Rainier Valley to Poulsbo. This is about 30 miles in total, though I don’t bicycle across the water. Rather, I bicycle to the ferry, then bus from the ferry to Poulsbo, then ride the remainder of the trip to work. At a little over two hours one way, I am spending over twenty hours this week wearing spandex. Perhaps you would like to try it? You needn’t cycle, you could just wear spandex half of your day at work. Go on!

It is an interesting commute. Going across the water is beautiful. I particularly enjoy watching the ferry unload, and seeing all the bicyclists and motorcyclists come off first. It is a veritable horde of cyclists rampaging out of the gates. Such fury! Such power! And then the motorcycles which are of course a bit of a letdown after the bikes.

Would I want to do it for any extended period of time? No, it is far too much of my day spent traveling. But it is an interesting diversion for a short while.

~haakon

For the past month on so we have been delighted to ride around on our new bike, Morag. This past week I have really put the bike to the planned use and have been very pleased. On Tuesday, I transported among several other things, a microwave from Ballard to South Seattle. Woohoo!

The amazing thing is how much of a non-event the ride was. Yes, the bike was a bit heavier, but it handled everything just fine. The only rough bit was that Seattle pulled out the stops and dumped rain on me for about half the trip.

My next favorite haul has to be on my commute in to work. I stopped in to the local QFC to get a dozen donuts, but the bags on the bike were all full with my laptop, clothes, lunch, etc. I didn’t really want to put the box vertically in the bags as I was worried about them getting crushed. Fortunately, it had sprinkled lightly and so the wooden snap deck was a bit damp. I optimistically set the cardboard box just flat on top of the snap deck, and the moisture kept it from slipping at all! And so I cycled the remaining half mile into work with a box of donuts sitting casually on my back rack. The reward was sweet!

~haakon

Here is a high speed catch up with the Sorensens…

32A Warrender Park Terrace is ours no longer. We organised, the removal men came, they drank tea, they worked their back sides off, and at the end of two days we had an empty flat. After some serious scrubbing and some generous friends who were willing to take our remaining food (we had an ungodly amount of pasta and olive oil), we handed our keys over to Braemore and walked away with a sadness in our gait.

After some sad but lovely goodbyes, we set off for Scandinavia. I have to add here that Trygve has been an amazingly good traveler and a trooper with all the change we have put him through in the last month.

Stockholm was as beautiful as we imagined it would be. We stayed in a small, quaint hotel in the Old Town that exceeded our expectations. It was a bit of a trick figuring out how to share a room with a seven month old person, but after the first night we adjusted. Our highlights of Stockholm were the Vassa Museet and wandering through the streets of the Old Town. The strangest thing about Sweden was being in a foreign country where we didn’t speak the language at all, but looked so much and felt so much like we belonged. After four lovely nights we caught the train and rolled our way to Oslo. We had a rough start in Oslo as I rolled my ankle walking away from the train station and had to slowly limp our way to the hotel. Needless to say we took it easy that evening. The next day was Sunday and they take their ‘day of rest’ very seriously in Norway-everything was closed except for 7-Eleven and a Deli deLucca. We learned that day that Norwegians like to watch a lot of skiiing-Cross Country skiing. A bit boring after more than ten minutes. Luckily things picked up on Monday. After a quick trip across the street to buy a brace for my ankle, we were off to the Viking Ship Museum and the Nordic Heritage Museum. The skill they have with wood is impressive!

We enjoyed our time, but were glad to be heading off again. The whirlwind continued with a quick stop in Edinburgh and a wonderful last dinner with close friends—curry, cup of tea, and good conversations. It definitely made our last night in the city we’ve called home memorable and bittersweet. We are going to miss Edinburgh and our friends there greatly!

We are now in Florida and have been enjoying the slowed pace, help from grandparents, lovely weather, pool time, sunsets over the beach, good conversation, and today we are off for a bicycle ride. This is the perfect way to transition back and wait for our stuff to make the crossing. Couldn’t be better really!

Cheers, Jenny