When the cat is away, the mice dance on the table...or so they say.

At work Swedes will always teach us their idioms. They don't usually translate so good. I learned this one a few weeks ago and it is only fitting for the past few days. Gini went back to Utah for her sister's wedding and her other sister's farewell. So we said goodbye to Gini and planned to hang out alone for a week.

This is us saying good bye at the airport.

When Gini left I set a few goals for Owen and I to accomplish while she was gone. 1) Get Owen to become obsessed with something other than Cars and Cars 2. 2) Mount Owen's seat better on Gini's bike and put a kick stand on her bike. 3) Don't let Owen get bit by any snakes (I had a dream the night before Gini left that Owen was bit by a rattlesnake. I was nervous the whole first day for snakes.). 4) Make sure Owen doesn't just eat fast food and chicken nuggets. 5) Think of a good surprise for Gini when she got back.

Goal 1: So the first day I went home and I bought Finding Nemo for Owen. He quickly fell in love with it. It still isn't his number one but it is quite close and cute when he says "shish" and points at the TV. However, we have these toy cars that he can't put down. Any waking moment, he says cars and just wanders around until he has one in each hand. It is really cute.

As you can see he didn't even put them down to eat. This was spaghetti dinner, and it was easier to take his shirt off and hose him off afterwards.

So I feel like I accomplished that goal.

Goal 2: Gini and I brought bikes back with us in June, and we bought Owen a seat. When I mounted it the first time I rushed it a little and it wasn't too stable and it was really high. Gini's bike was always close to tipping over so I made plans to fix that and make it safer for the two.

Before, you can see it is pretty high and only connected to the seat stem.

The seat is lower, and mounted to the frame now. Much better.

I even took it out and rode it around the town each day she was gone to make sure it rode well. Owen LOVES going for bike rides. The first fifteen minutes of each ride is a mixture between "GOTTA GO!!!" and squealing and giggling. It is really cute.

GOTTA GO!!!

 Goal 3: No snake bites...check.

Goal 4: Owen only ate fast food once, and chicken nuggets for the first meal. I cooked pasta, chicken tacos, beef tacos, and a hot dog.

This was us eating a hot dog in the car.

First dinner, it was really good.

Goal 5: So I racked my brain to come up with something original that would ease the transition back from the states. When Gini and I moved here we had a moving come and pack up our stuff and palletize it and put it on a boat to Sweden. When we got our pallets 8 weeks later, there was one box missing. The only thing that we have been definitely been able to tell was in there were all of Gini's cookbooks. She was crushed. She had one that was a gift from her sister that included a bunch of recipes from all their friends. Gini cooked from it 5 days out of the week when we lived in Utah. Gini was able to get the word document from her sister. Today Owen and I spent the day putting it in book form so she wouldn't have to use her laptop every time she was cooking. I can put it on here because she won't read this until she gets back to Sweden.

I also included these extra pictures.

We went to parks and went down slides

I bathed him on a regular basis.

Shirts however, were optional when we were hanging out

But we did go to church and have a fun time playing afterwards

We might have watched too much TV....

He couldn't get close enough.

We played before bed.

He was laughing, it is dark again though and so the flash came out and caused him to squint.

But most importantly, we missed our mom. She is the best, and we can't wait to shower her with love when she gets back!