Bronx Girl Knits!

I is for Iceland - Part III

I didn't go to Iceland for the scenery, beautiful though it is. At the moment, aside from Rinaldo and the boys, Iceland is home to all of my relatives. Now that's actually a slight exaggeration of course. There are cousins out there somewhere here in the states but I have no idea where they are. We have never kept in touch. So when Asthildur was born it suddenly made a trip to Iceland far more important than it had been before.

My Aunt Jolee is my mother's twin sister (fraternal though they have a very strong resemblance). She is the one in the middle with the glasses:
I think that Avery really enjoyed getting to know her. He's met her when she visited before but he misses my mother a lot and I think Jolee really helped with that.

Of course it was a great chance for me and Ingileif to catch up and for me to get to know the country that she loves so much a little better. Inga (as we call her) would visit here every other year when I was a kid, so we know each other pretty well. There are a lot of shared experiences that people have with siblings so it's always cool to reminisce with her:



Avery has a ton of cousins on Rinaldo's side, some of whom he is extremely close to. It was good for Avery to get to know what a cool cousin he has on my side of the family as well:
Then of course the most important part of the trip, meeting the newest members of the family. Linda is Ingileif's wonderful wife. I got to know her a little bit when my mom was sick. As a nurse she would occasionally explain certain procedures (over Instant Messaging!) and it was really great to have a professional in the family for stuff like that. Finally getting to meet her was great. She is sweet, funny and intelligent. If we could just fix her one character flaw, the fact that she's an Arsenal fan. Oh well no one's perfect, we must love our family unconditionally;)

Avery really loved Linda. The fact that she had a Playstation 2 was the first icebreaker for him. She even agreed to play a game with him:


Poor Linda it's all fun and games playing Need For Speed - Hot Pursuit with Avery.



At least until the cops show up...











The next day they got smart and invited Ingileif's goddaughter, Arny over to keep Avery company:
They hit it off really well. Now Avery has a friend in Iceland that he can keep in touch with.

Of course Linda isn't the newest member of the family:
Asthildur Emma, Ingileif and Linda's beautiful daughter. We all fell completely in love with her. She is sweet, loving and oh so happy. She was absolutely a joy to play with.

After this amazing trip the only thing I can say is I plan on making the trip a regular thing. It's wonderful to have a family that you not only love but you actually like a whole lot too. So what do you say guys? Can you put up with me again in 2008? I'll bring the whole family next time!


Next up yarn porn...he he he.