This Sunday was my birthday, Mother’s day and Valentine’s day, all in one day. I know at least one person who was happy he got away with buying one present this year! I must admit that I didn’t mind getting one present; it was a trip to Reykjavik, Iceland this spring! The trip comes with two travel companions – seems like E had already decided it wasn’t gonna be a romantic weekend for two in the name of Valentine 
I really don’t mind, though, as they’re good friends of ours!
F’s been in great shape these past weeks, and Saturday at my cousin’s house was no exception:
This year’s summer vacation is now over. We had a great time in Provence, staying almost two weeks in a house near the tiny village of Flayosc with a couple of friends and their daughter who is only a month older than Frida. The house had a large pool and a nice view of… nothing but green hills and villages far away
Before we went on vacation we were enjoying the summer at home. Here’s Frida chillin on a bench in the park with a friend.
Frida didn’t miss her friends at home for a second as she got to share toys all day long with an old friend of hers.
Frida had en eventful vacation! She ate delicious French food.
She played in the pool.
She played on the floor of the outdoor kitchen.
She had lots of time to play with mom and dad.
And she slept at night – which gave her parents some time to do other things.
One day we went on an excursion to beautiful Lac du Verdon, with its green lake and deep canyons.
Even though we had a great vacation, it’s always good to get back home!
Finally it’s my turn to take a couple of weeks off work!! Tomorrow I’m off to Oslo, and on Monday I’m catching a plane to Rome, Italy. As I’ve never been to Italy before, I’m excited to see as much as I can of a country that I’ve heard so much about
Earlier this summer E brought our Canon Ixus 850 camera to a bar where somebody managed to spill beer on it. As this was a new camera (bought last December), we were hoping for the best, but a camera that only takes pictures of black nothing isn’t very useful… The Ixus is supposed to be a good quality camera, but I was never really satisfied with it. Because we needed a camera for our vacation, I decided to do something I’ve thought about for a while, namely buy a digital SLR camera. I remember liking the Canon SLR EOS 500 I bought in ‘94, so I again chose Canon over Nikon. The 400D was in my price range, but I wanted something more versatile than the cheap standard lens. After some googling and talking to a couple of photo experts at work, I decided that Canon’s EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM and Sigma’s 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC Macro would suit my needs. They’re both good all-round lenses, and more zoom could lower the quality of my pictures. I ended up buying the Sigma. Even though it lacks the image stabilization and has less zoom, I’ll be able to use lower shutter speed – and the price was considerably lower.
As the proud owner of a brand new SLR camera, I’m hoping my vacation to Italy will provide lots of opportunities to try out the features of my 400D. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get to posting some pictures here. Have a great couple of weeks y’all!
