world's most beautiful swing?

i think top 3 of my 100 best qualities in life are: my good looks, my modesty and my golf swing.

photos for holmgren seniors

this one is for you Toots - i know you have missed my sunset photos! from our walk in laguna beach on my birthday.

(CLICK THE PHOTOS TO VIEW THEM FULL SIZE.)

pretty in orange! this one is for Mama Lisa. please note the orange theme: dala horse, elin's orange (?!), cotie's candle holder, the flowers on the table that elin and i picked for cotie, the blanket on the couch, the flowers outside on the balcony to the left of nicole, the pillow on the couch, and last, and also least, the flowers on the balcony table between elin and cotie. Mama Lisa must be proud!
(yes, unfortunately that is ingo boy climbing on elin.)

birthday week!

calle's beautiful cufflinks - a present from anna, christian and the little guy. very stylish & exotic, and are sure to be the source of many conversations when he wears them.

my birthday gift from toots & mama lisa; a fig leaf ficus (which I have dreamt of for 3 years)... no, it didn't come with the silly little cat at the bottom.

the fig leaf ficus again, accompanied by our newly framed lichtenstein!

pre-birthday sushi night w/ lea, trevor, and philip
calle's birthday gift from papa och mama; a TaylorMade Tour Burner: "the cadillac of drivers", calle maintains
my birthday dress from sista sista, elin

as calle celebrated his birthday on the 17th of march [i.e. st. patty's day; the reason for all his luck] and i celebrated today, march 25th, we have enjoyed approximately two full weeks of "birthday". it all started with our weekend in palm springs (which was the weekend before calle's birthday) and lead up to a wonderful mid-way shared celebration in newport coast last weekend, and is now approaching the "wrap party" this weekend, mainly consisting of relaxation.

we have received cards from many of our loved ones, birthday wishes & gifts from friends and family alike, and birthday songs in english, swedish, danish, and beyond.

our wishes have come from the pacific ocean on the coast of california to the beautiful state of colorado; from oregonions, south african retirees traveling in zimbabwe, sisters and brothers-in-law in the cold of stockholm, and everywhere in between.

on this 28th birthday, we feel more loved than words can express, and more thankful than we can explain.

during this time of great happiness, yet in a world of great uncertainty, we are forever thankful for your thoughtfulness, love, and friendship. may your days be filled with as much as happiness as ours.

calle & ingo enjoying birthday breakfast in bed

cotie taking her first slice of delicious pancakes with berries prepared lovingly by her wonderful husband

a little tiny wedding post (with more to follow)

this post is especially for my family afar...

on december 26th calle & celebrated our marriage by renewing our vows in gorgeous somerset west, south africa.  although we have hundreds of amazing photos from our beautiful three week stay, i wanted to share just a few of our vow ceremony.  

i hope you enjoy; there are many more to follow (be patient, i promise to send them soon).  love, nicole.

weekend in palm springs

early on saturday morning trevor and lea came and picked nicole and me up to go to palm springs for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. while the drive there proved to be very foggy, palm springs showed itself from its best side with blue skies and 80 degrees. yes! (maybe not much of surprise, since palm springs has 355 days of sunshiner per year. "just like london!", sister anna would say.)

palm springs has a population of about 40,000 - most of whom are retirees. a couple of decades ago, palm springs and palm desert were ghost towns during the summer, when temperatures reach over 100 fahrenheit on a daily basis, but with the influx of retirees, the city now hosts a lot more "full timers". still, during the peak months of january through march, population rises to over 80,000 with the "oldies" driving around in their golf carts on the streets.
when people talk about palm springs, they generally refer to coachella valley, which has a total population of about 300,000 and consists of 9 different cities that all merge together. the most famous ones are palm springs, palm desert and la quinta, mainly due to the enormous number of golf courses that these cities offer.

i hope you enjoyed learning some facts about palm springs!

after unpacking in our friend philip's room who graciuosly let me and nicole take the king size bed, trev & lea sleep in the pull-out bed in the living room while he had to settle with the rollaway, we walked over the the IW Club for lunch where we enjoyed good food in a great place overlooking the indian wells golf & resort golf course.

after lunch we laid out by the pool for a while, along with gwen stefani, gavin rossdale and their super cute kids. the hotel we stayed at was the same hotel where all the tennis players competing in this week's atp tour tournament stayed, the grand champions hyatt resort.

the afternoon was spent playing 18 holes of golf on a very nice links style golf club in cathedral city (boys), and laying out by the pool (girls). for me it was the first time playing a links course, and even though i enjoyed the large greens, i have to say i much prefer a creek, mountain, sea side or park course. excellent quality though, and we had a great time.

after enjoying a few beers in the jacuzzi of the hotel, we headed out to dinner. having spent quite some time doing extensive restaurant research, i had made reservations at sullivan's steak house in palm desert, which turned out to be a great choice. the five of us enjoyed an exceptional dinner with terrific australian wines and delicious steaks. the restaurant was a typical steak house, with dark wooden decore, dim lighting and waitresses that made philip go cross eyed.

on sunday, after spending the morning playing ping pong and pigging out on the breakfast buffet in the morning sun of the outside patio area of the hotel restaurant, philip, trevor and i took the shuttle to the indian wells tennis center to watch the world's top 100 players battle it out in the indian wells tournament, while the girls decided to go for a hike in the hills. sunday, just like saturday, turned out to be a beautiful day, around 85 degrees with a light breeze. we thoroughly enjoyed being at the tennis tournament in the early rounds, and being able to watch top class players courtside on the smaller courts. i am not going to bore you with details on what matches we saw, or who won, but it was a lot of fun and being so close to the players makes one realize how ridiculously hard they hit the ball, and how well they move.

around 5:00 pm the girls came and picked me and trevor up from the tennis and we said good bye to philip who is spending the week in palm desert, setting the odds for unibet, his employer. it turned out the girls had a great time too on their hike, crawling through caves, finding water falls and a "city of palm trees" that they described as "ewok village", which apparently has something to do with a starwars movie. i think it may be from the third movie in the trilogy, "darth vader goes to college", but i could be wrong.

all in all a fabulous weekend. palm springs/palm desert is one of my favorite places to go visit for a weekend. the atmosphere makes one relaxed, and it feels as if one is in a totally different country, at least state, even though you are just 90 minutes away from your home. i love the warm weather, the architecture, the many world class golf courses (130 golf courses in palm springs and palm desert alone!), the great steak houses and the scenery, which reminds me a lot of south africa, with mountains framing the cities on all sides.

the weather is beautiful...but calle is very sick

another beautiful weekend!

march couldn't have started any better; 28 degrees (celsius), clear blue skies and everything in sight a stunning shade of green from the recent rainfall. unfortunately calle hasn't been able to enjoy any of it because he's been sick with a high fever for four straight days.  he has literally spent the last 96 hours in bed...miserable.

he says he needs to start exercising again because he never used to get sick, and blaims his current condition on his lack of exercise.  i believe there is some truth to this & we should both begin exercising more regularly.

luckily, summer is almost here and we can start playing golf again. 

next week we turn the clock to daylight savings and we can once again play golf until 8 in the evening at least once each week [which means we can play 9 holes after work] and/or play the reduced "twilight rate" [late afternoon] when we are able to play 18 holes on the weekend.  daylight savings is our favorite time of year, as it is the only time we get out of the office and the sun is still up...

unfortunately, because calle has been sick, we don't have many exciting things to tell you about. in comparison to elin's daily adventures and newfound surfing ability, toots and lisa's non-stop party, and the joys anna & christian are experiencing as new parents to their beautiful baby boy, we are trailing far behind in the "fun" department.  i suppose a weekend in every once in a while is good for us anyway...right?

below are some photos calle snapped this week, during the few short minutes he managed to get out of bed.

please notice how ingemar's paws are pointing to the right, and his legs to the left.

ingemar's best friends: in white: douggie; in red: ralphie; in green: boris. please note that boris is the flavor of the week, currently covered in ingo-hair.

calle finally felt well enough to go on our weekly walk on the beach in laguna this morning. he brought his camera, which made him look like a possible tourist...but captured a few nice shots.

a couple of weeks ago we saw a little cute baby seal sleeping on a set of stairs; last week we saw a [wo]man whom we recognized from a documentary on tv in which [s]he transformed from a woman (and mother) into a man. it was a little odd...perhaps even scary. 

this week we thought the dolphins playing out in the water were going to be the highlight, until we saw a huge wale dive out of the water only 100 meters from the shoreline. 

it was an incredible sight.

klum klad calle didn't have time to snap a photo, unfortunately, and the next time the whale came up he was far out to sea.....and beyond the reach of our klum jr. lens.

nicole on the weekly beach walk...

this is elin's a.k.a. "snull pull's" favorite house on this stretch of beach. 

yes, we know - it's not pink. 

yes, we know - it's not made out of candy. 

but, it does slightly resemble a pirate ship cake & she claims she loves it.

guy skimboarding. or, mostly, calle playing with his new camera. 

nicole at our turn-around spot. 

after our walk we had breakfast at zink's in laguna beach, which is our favorite spot. always very crowded, but for a good reason. great breakfast and even better caffe lattes. 

once home calle went to show properties and catch up at the office, since he's been sick, and nicole enjoyed the beautiful afternoon doing chores around the house.

ingemar? 

well, he's fallen in love with a new toy - calle's cough drops, which he plays fetch with, or just chases around the house like a kitten on drugs. 

next weekend philip mardh from london is coming for his yearly visit, and we're hoping the weather will stay this nice so we can play golf and enjoy some sunset dinners. 

two weekends from now we will meet up with him in palm springs for more golf and also to watch the indian wells tennis tournament.

last year we were joined by toots & mama lisa + trevor & leann, and we had a great time despite the intense heat...

missing each of you & sending our love.

best wishes,

calle & nicole