17 months

Gavin is now 17 months old. This post contains the best photos from the past month.
He's getting taller, finally growing some hair on top (instead of just the patch of frizz at the back), and he has now been to 19 countries. He has 12 teeth, and for the most part he's a delight to be around. Right now his favorite thing to say is thank you, but he also loves to say dad, cheese, high-five, please, more, no, Jesus and bye. Activities he enjoys include dancing without inhibition (and sometimes without music), making animal noises, identifying his body parts, poring over his many books, making vehicle noises, sucking his thumb and playing outside.

pastry heaven

 I'm having to re-think the top 3 most delicious things I've ever eaten because of this cinnamon Danish pastry we shared in Copenhagen. Its not just the most delicious cinnamon roll I've ever had, it just may be the best thing I've ever eaten. It was that good. It's worth 2 photos, so here it is again.

 The next pastry was in Sweden and it tastes remarkably like a family recipe I like to make called, of all things, "Scandinavian almond pastry." I'll have to ask my Mom where the recipe came from (or you could always leave a comment, Mom). It's delicious, and who knew we were making something so accurately named!

You'd expect delicious Danish pastries in Copenhagen, but nothing prepared me for how amazing they would really be. There was also a rhubarb cream Danish pastry that was incredible (not pictured).

Copenhagen

We had a great time in beautiful Copenhagen. I love the colorful houses in the above photo! And below is the famous Little Mermaid statue.

Speaking of statues, one of the Copenhagen highlights was seeing the original Thorvaldsen Christus statue, along with the 12 apostles. The Christus is so beautiful!

Here are a few more Copenhagen photos.  A separate post will follow highlighting Danish pastries. 

a bit of Sweden

 We stayed in Malmö, Sweden, over the weekend. It was a pretty little town and a nice base to visit Copenhagen, Denmark and also nearby Lund, Sweden.

Malmo has a few nice parks Gavin really enjoyed. This big slide was a favorite.

We're glad we visited Lund, but it was rainy and not very lively on a Saturday. Here are some photos of the town  and university.

 Lund has its own unique sausage that apparently can only be found in Lund. Jacob and I felt there was a reason you couldn't buy it elsewhere, and we didn't even finish ours. But there was a huge fan among us. He ate an entire sausage himself. A really big sausage. And loved it.

Springtime walk

Gavin and I took a beautiful walk to a neighbouring village this morning. The path along the river is always pretty, and today was no exception. In addition to the duck we shared the path with above, we also saw lots of super-cute little ducklings. I love to see these fuzzy little ones floating in the water.

Where there were no ducks the water was still, providing really pretty reflections.

In the part of the river nearest our house a family of swans has a nest every year. Gavin and Jacob have been walking over almost daily to check on the progress of this year's eggs. The mom was still sitting on them today.

As you can tell, Gavin was pretty thrilled by the experience. He LOVES birds.

Easter recap

We had a great Easter weekend! Saturday we participated in the base's egg hunt, mostly because we wanted to give Gavin the chance to interact with the animals. He wasn't too thrilled with any of them, but he loves telling us their respective noises.

 On Easter we had friends over and enjoyed a meal, along with our own egg hunt. Gavin enjoyed being with his beautiful friends (all girls) and wearing the bunny ears. He also loved the egg hunt.

Hazel was NOT fond of the ears;
this is the only photo I got before she ripped them off.

Gavin always enjoys Hazel's company, and on Easter he also enjoyed brand-new friends Myla and Ainsley.

Thanks to our friends for the great company and great food. We hope everyone had a great Easter!

Goodbye tea

My Mom's visit has been too brief! We had a last lunch today at Peacock's Tea Room in Ely. It was fun and delicious. We also plan to eat another scone before she leaves tomorrow. But we wish she didn't have to go!

Mallorca

[Note: I had a major fever and was pretty unwell while we were in Mallorca, so we only got photos during the times I wasn't in bed. Overall it's a beautiful place that I wish I had been well enough to fully enjoy. Thankfully our hotel had a great pool that Jacob and Gavin enjoyed while I was sleeping.]

We finished our Spanish adventures on the beautiful island of Mallorca. The weather was beautiful, but not warm enough for outdoor/beach swimming. But the island had plenty else to offer. The below photo was taken during a changing of the guard we happened upon.

We ate lunch at this windmill, including the below prawn dish.

The stained glass windows reflected such beautiful colors into the cathedral.