Abel

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of March our beautiful son Abel was born! 

We are having an amazing time getting to know Abel and getting used to our new tasks, being parents.

The stork on our window made it into the local newspaper as a full page picture, because it is a tradition they don't have in Norway. Neither are the 'beschuit met muisjes', that were imported from the Netherlands by visitors.

 

A big thank you for the kind cards, good wishes and gifts we received!

 

The boys are back in town

Because Douglas could not travel too far from Harstad due to the baby that was expected soon, Douglas' brothers came up to Harstad for a weekend of skiing, sledging and fun. They tried the slopes in both Narvik and Harstad, and were our dates for the Havets festbord, the annual sea food dinner at Statoil Harstad. All in all a great weekend. Thanks for flying up here guys!

What a difference the sun makes!

The winter is such a wonderful season, especially when it is cold, there is a bright shining sun and you are looking at a stunning view. We went for a walk to Trondenes and managed to make som nice pictures, showing an 8 months into pregnancy big belly on Claartje and eat waffles. 

4 days later it was snowing like crazy again, creating a real Christmas feeling. 

Both conditions were nice, but in very different ways.

Big in Japan

Douglas attended the GHGT-11 congress in Kyoto from the 19th to the 21st of November on CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology. After a fantastic congress he took some days off and travelled around to Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. Japan is a magical place!

On the Top of Haukebøtinden

With snow very early this autumn Douglas joined some colleagues and walked from sea level on skis up to the 900 m high top of Haukebøtinden. After reaching the top he skied down the mountain missing rocks and trees sticking out of the thin 20 cm layer of snow.

The magical winter

      

               

The splendour of winter is a feast for the eyes especially all the magical sparkling ice growing crystals on the grass and the soft blanket of snow on the trees. The photos were all take in the fantastic nature around Harstad in the first cold period in October.

Fancy dress in Harstad...

In October it was time to dress up for parties. First the Vildfest at work, where Douglas won a price for his outfit and after that the Halloween house-warming-party of Issy and Tommy. Claartje went as a ghost, Douglas managed not to speak to anyone because he went as a mime-artist.  Both great parties!

Weekend in Bardu

In October, just after Douglas got his hunting license, we spend a weekend with Gard and Anita at their place near Bardu to do some shooting. Great food, a very nice area, a fantastic walk and clay pigeon shooting made it a great weekend. Douglas got better at shooting the more he did it, Claartje started off good, but it went downhill from there...

Geology trip to Andøya

In September we helped organize and joined a trip to Andøya with Young in Statoil, the Young professional network in Statoil. We went to look at the only outcrops of Jurassic age on the Norwegian mainland if you ignore the fact that Andøya is an island (it is the rocks in the picture that we are standing on). We had a great trip with an overnight stay in Bleik, a BBQ and unfortunately some cold temperatures and rain. But we did see the outcrops, the casing of a well that was drilled on the beach a long time ago and some flowers.

Visitors

    

In summer it was time for visitors again, from the Netherlands, Norway, France and Germany .

With Peter and Sally we walked the longest and highest ti-på-topp, with amazing views and also some snow at the top. With 115 we did the shortest ti-på-topp after a nice evening in town.

Mirjam and Dieuwke we dropped far in the Lofoten on probably the nicest day of the whole summer.

Tim helped cut the neighbours tree into smaller pieces

Marijke en Hans started and ended their Northern-Norway holiday with us.

Gerard, Marie-Odile en Nicolas joined for the Big Moose BBQ

Esther en Ralph dropped by during their trip in Scandinavia.

Kornelius came to visit for the second time, now bringing his brother with him.

It was great to show so many people our beautiful hometown and surroundings. Thank you all for visiting!