Without further ado. . .

Family Vacation Photos! The thing about blogging is that you feel bad when you don't post. And since I've said for over a week now that I would post some pics from our road trip, I've felt the the weight of not having posted them rest heavily on my shoulders ever since. I NEED to get those pictures up, I would remind myself, as if people were waiting with bated breath.

It's a little ridiculous, actually. If you think about it, I'm a little like that obnoxious uncle when you were growing up who thought that other people really WANTED to see his family vacation slideshow. Slides. Remember those? Anyway, if he didn't subject innocent visiting family members to his slideshow, their lives would somehow be incomplete.

Here's the world's biggest ball of twine.

Here's me in front of the world's biggest ball of twine.

Now here's one of Aunt Mae in front of the big ball of twine.

And Cousin Lulu. . .

Twenty minutes later.

That big blur is little Juniper running after pigeons. See the pigeons, there? Those smudges. So hard to get those moving pictures! Harhar. You may have noticed after the tenth blurry image or so.

And look! There's a side-view of the big ball of twine.

So while I'm sure the world outside my little bubble has continued to move along despite my not having posted my pictures, here for your viewing pleasure. . .a trip through northern Scandanavia!

Because I said I would.

First Stop: Overkalix, Sweden

Overkalix is a quaint little village on the banks of the Kalix River. Many of the houses are painted red with white trim and the lawns are beautifully manicured. However, the only reason we stopped here is because the hotel had a big pool. You know you live north in the world when you drive down to SWEDEN to lounge by a pool. Oh, and the weather was better earlier in the day.

Bathing Suits Optional -- Laney was so excited to take a dip that she put on her floaty things before I could get her bathing suit on.

The kids in the pool

And that was about it. We really had a lovely time, but I don't think there is much blog-worthy to write about. . .except that I really wish some parents would keep their very loud, splashy children out of the baby pool -- especially if they're, like, 12 years old.

Stay tuned for the exciting next segment, in which we visit Santa in Rovaniemi, Finland.

I apologize in advance to my beautiful, loyal readers for my erratic posting in the past two weeks or so. We'll returned to regularly (ha!) scheduled posting on Monday.