Eva-Lena Och Robert

The Monday after my birthday Eva-Lena and Robert came to visit for the week from Sweden. Eva-Lena was my "host mother" when I was an exchange student in high school, and Robert is therefore my "Swedish brother". They were in NC visiting my "Swedish sister" Anna, who is studying at Pembroke. It was so good to see them, to have them see where I live and spend time with my family. The last time I saw them was when my mom and I took Owen to Sweden for Madde and Andy's wedding. Owen was only five months old then, so Eva-Lena really enjoyed seeing the little person he has become. We did the usual touring of downtown Providence and Barrington, and then went to the Willards for a night too. I made Eva-Lena make some of my favorites like her Swedish meatballs and pancakes, and then we had some American classics too like having pizza delivered.
The Roger Williams Park Zoo was having a pumpkin festival, which is very American, so I made sure to take them to see it. After an extremely long line, in which I bought Owen a glow stick to entertain him, we made it to the pumpkins. They were very impressive and well worth the wait.



See all the tiny lights on the trees? Those are actually hundreds of mini pumpkins on strings of lights. Very cool!






Teagan and Eva-Lena hanging out. I missed doing this with Eva-Lena and it reminded me of all the time we spent together just talking the year I lived with her.

Teagan was showing off some her party tricks like clapping and "so big".

It was fun to see how Teagan really warmed up to Robert. At one point I came downstairs and found her asking him to pick her up, and then she just snuggled in on his lap on the couch.

The beach in Barrington.


The playground.

Mimi had just taken in another horse, Pilot, so we were excited to meet him. Pilot is an old family horse, unlike Moonbeam that she rescued from the racetracks. Because of this, Pilot is easy to ride. Owen and I took a little ride bare-backed. I can't wait to really ride him. I think this might have been Owen's first time on a horse. Eva-Lena and Robert really enjoyed the Willards'.

I thought I took more photos of their visit, but I guess it was really Robert taking most of the pics. It was a nice visit though and fun to catch up. Tack!