Ulsteinvik family

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This continues yesterday's blog where we arrived at Guri's. Guri is daughter to Gerd and Idor. Idor is Dad's cousin, son of Arnulf, Grandpa Oluf's brother. Got that? Forty-one years ago Craig and I drove into Ulsteinvik and met this young couple, Gerd and Idor. The next connection was in the early 1990's when Guri stayed in Minnesota with Mom and Dad. She shared her photo album of that time with us.

So here we now are. Guri, her sister Lisbeth and brother Viggo are married, each has three beautiful children of their own. We expect further visits to the American family, too. All the children now learn English at an early age. What a great evening it was. We were able to meet everyone except Viggo, who just shipped out on Thursday. Guri's husband just returned home. He is a quiet, multitalented man. I suspect he did much in the kitchen. It was our first opportunity to eat Norwegian hamburgers, which I really liked. I am not sure how they differ, but they are excellent. I also really like the potato salad here in Norway. We were served svere, a local famous treat, again, and it disappeared quickly.

Now for a bit about the families. Guri coaches handball, which in the US is Team Handball. It's a great sport, essentially unheard of in the US. Her son played the cornet for us, and her husband played the accordion, her youngest daughter sang a song in English. Vidar also showed us a very professional video about krill fishing and processing of krill in the Antarctica, where he goes every three months - fascinating to see the huge icebergs, whales, fur seals. He has a very nice camera so takes great photos, some that are posted on Facebook.

Lisbeth coaches gymnastics. Her daughters excel in it, as well. Their father, Odd, is a school principal, and yes, when students start learning English, they have fun with his name. He is the principal where Gerd teaches parttime. Here is a question I had no answer for: why do we call our sport "football" when the players only handle the ball with their hands? European football (soccer) makes more sense to me, too

Viggo's wife came with her youngest daughter, while her 18-year old daughter drove separately. She has just gotten her drivers license, and Viggo, Jr & friend arrived with her. There are seven granddaughters and two grandsons. They are happy, healthy, lively in the best way. They are smart, courteous, delightful to be around. We are so happy that we had this evening with them to see what fun and joy they have as a family.

The best photos will come from Vidar, and Guri has posted many of them on Facebook. Meanwhile, I will show a couple of ours for now. However, there is no capturing the fun we had!

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