Endless sunshine

 June 2024

Summertime in Skellefteå is absolutely magical. The temperatures are just right, everything is green and bright, the sun stays out all night, and there is so much energy in the city. 

At the beginning of the month, we jumped into Guldloppet. The kids ran around the square, Andrew did the 6K, and I ran the 12K with the sister missionaries. We got rained on just as we were starting the second half of the race, and it was glorious. Haha

With warmer temps and endless sun, the kids spent a lot of time exploring outside. I think they were working on a scavenger hunt here that Adaline made for them. 

I'm not sure why these pictures were taken, but I love that this everyday moment of hugging my kids before school was captured. Normally, I take them to school, but they must have been headed out with Andrew this time.

Happy birthday to me! Aside from missing friends and having it feel different in that way, it was really a fantastic birthday. Andrew and I went to lunch and a cozy and delicious restaurant, there was a multi-cultural potluck at the kids' school, and I got ice cream!

Foods made by people from all over the world! It is such a unique experience to get to live here.

Since we moved here in January, when everything was covered in snow, we had no idea how many flowers we would find in our yard come summertime. I usually sit in front of one of these back windows to work, and I constantly see people stop to admire or take pictures of these lilacs.

June is filled with holidays, and the next one was Swedish National Day. We had a little picnic, got rained on, practiced our stick horse jumping, listened to a choir, and made it on the local news! What more could you possibly want? 

Alex practicing for his future career in hobbyhorse-ing:

Later, we had a primary activity with an obstacle course. Everything feels fun when we can spend so much time out in the sun.

This picture was taken at 11pm. Getting close to the summer solstice! It gets so hard to put the kids (or ourselves) to bed at a reasonable time when there is no cue that it's getting late.

It makes me so happy to see them playing and enjoying each other's company. One of my biggest goals as a parent is to help my kids become friends with each other. 

End of school shenanigans! Adaline earned an award for being a role model and also performed a fun rhythm sticks routine with her class (from a culture in Oceania, I think). Alex sang his heart out to "I Love Red", and Michael and Matthew participated had an end-of-year ceremony that involved the king of the mountain trolls song. It was fantastic. They've all grown and changed so much since the start of the school year back in California.

Of course we had to celebrate with ice cream!

Shortly after the end of term, we met up with a family from school at Tuvagården for bike riding, hanging out, and more ice cream. The only pictures I have are the ones Alex took on my phone.

We are almost to the very peak of summer. This picture was taken at 1:15am. Try convincing your body to go to bed when it looks like this outside, ha! I had no intention of staying up so late this night, I just completely lost track of time. 

Hitting the gym in the middle of a run.

Another great thing about summer is looking for different parks to try out. I love that they have different playground equipment than we're used to.

Annnd midsummer! The biggest holiday in Sweden (maybe?). We made flower crowns, danced around the midsommar pole, ate ice cream, and chatted with friends. It is such an energetic, outdoorsy, magical day.

Later in the day, we biked around the forest and played at a park. I think we did a great job of celebrating by spending as much time outside as possible.

Jumping pictures are rarely a good idea, but they soon became the theme of the day...

I mean, come on.

Cute row houses.

It kind of gives you whiplash the way the amount of sunshine changes so quickly.

Once school ended, the kids started only going to Fritids Mon-Thurs, and we had Fridays at home together to hang out. We spent a full day making a playhouse out of cardboard in the sun room. We added a window with curtains, and flower box, and fireplace trap door, and a secret compartment for storing games. It is so fun to get creative with these kids. 

To cap off a great birthday month, I used my birthday money to finally buy a bike! Now I can keep up with the kids and start riding bikes to school. It is amazing to have a bike in this town because everything is so close. I love being able to hop on a bike and get to the store, the library, or go out for lunch.