Bech-Svalgaard Family Home Page

Updated November 14, 2005; by Mikael

Dear everybody!

Again, it has been a long while since the last update so this time I will cover several seasons and continents. As the summer went into final gear in Denmark, we had our usual summer-party in the countryside. On the picture below we are merely warming up:

...and here the feast is getting into full swing:

As usual, the kids do a parade of dress-ups; here its Ingrid and her best friend in Denmark, Rebecca, posing:

Back in Copenhagen one saturday afternoon Ingrid made this drawing of her mom with her feet up:

In September Anton, my sister Meretes little boy, turned three:

This year we hosted the annual Svalgaard-Juul family gathering. Since we live very close to the childhood house of my mom Irene and her sister Margit, we did a small inspection tour of their former premises:

Irene and Margit! I wonder what the current owners of the house were thinking?

The Svalgaard-Juul kids at dinner-time (from left: Ingrid, Peter, Jonas, Kasper, Tobias and the hands of Joakim):

And now for something completely different....

This year Signe had a conference in Boulder at the same time as the Danish schools had fall break. We celebrated this happy coincidence by buying tickets for the rest of the family. Getting to meet up with old friends and surf around in our second home-city again was just too tempting. However, before arriving in Boulder we had to endure the worst round of airline delays any of us had ever experienced (and again on the way back!!):

Chekking out the rocks of the Rockies:

Ingrid bridging the continental divide:

In the first four days we stayed with Signes former boss, Betsy. Not long ago, Betsy bought herself a hot air balloon. 'Yes!' - she's that kind of woman. One sunday morning we all got up very early and went hot air ballooning with Betsy and a bunch of Colorado hot-air-balloon geeks. At such occasions a ground crew is highly welcome and everyone quickly got a job assigned. Here Signe and I are holding the skirt while a fan blows air into the balloon:

When we went out to this event we had no idea that we would actually get a ride; but one of Betsy's good friends, Mark Caviezel, took us up and away:

Incidentally, Mark is a very cool guy. He is an aerospace engineer with all sorts of awesome achievements on his CV and now he is heading a start-up company (Strato-X) with the following business concept: 'two people, two days at 100,000 feet'. To see what the view from up there is like, click on the link and sign up for your own ride with Mark!

Betsy and her son, Carl, with the four of us:

On our must-do list of places to go was of course Peters former pre-school, Sunflower. We just walked right in with no advance warning and had a great time. Not for a second did Peter stop smiling!

Another day, it was Ingrid's turn to smile. Of course we also had to go to Creekside Elementary to visit old classmates and Ingrid's highly beloved teacher, Ms. Sheila. Here's a smiling reunion of Elliot, Karen, Sheila and Ingrid:

Ingrid was hanging on to Sheila like this for about 99% of the duration of our visit:

Next on our must-do list was 'Tom's Tavern', the best burger-establishment in Colorado. The employees could still remember us from the last time and we made sure they knew we were in town this time as well. Peter said that the burgers were as good as last time, however he was convinced that they made them smaller now..!

Enjoying even more American hospitality, we spent two days at the house of our old next-door neighbors: Karen, Sarah and Irene Hillson. Here Karen and Ingrid are setteling in for the night:

The last six days of our stay we rented a house in downtown Boulder, since my dad Leif and his wife Vera, plus my sister Christina were coming over from Texas and California. The house was a real home, belonging to a local TV reporter; and came with a very cute cat (Jenny), fish and grazing deer in the yard.

My sister Christina is a super-star for all of us, especially the kids. She is also a super-shopper; here's the result of a quick excursion for most basic nessecities:

'Good, clean family relaxation in the safety of our own home':

Christina and the kids made this fantastic cake:

Time is running out, soon we have to go back to DK!!! We will miss all our US-based family and friends.

After an even worse trip home than on our way out (delays, delays, delays) we're back and here I am in the basement of our house where a water pipe popped just as we came back. Weather you regard that as good or bad fortune depends on your general outlook on life, I guess....

That's all for now!

Love - Signe, Mikael, Ingrid and Peter

Mikael (mikael@leif.org)

Signe (sba@dmi.dk)