One day in Denmark we went to Tivoli to see the christmas show.

Lucas got a ride pass so that he could jump on whatever ride he wanted, and Aiden was happy cheering.

We also saw the 'real' santa (Julemanden) and went past the Lego store.

While in Denmark it was snowing for a couple of days. The boys love playing with it.

On the first day after arriving we went past the little mermaid from HC Andersens story and also past the residence of the queen, Prince Frederik and Princess Mary.

This year it was my dad's 80th Birthday. I took the boys back to Denmark to celebrate with him. Aiden has been once before when he was 1yo, and it was Lucas' first time.

This lady used to be my dads babysitter when he was just born (she is 92yo)

Both Aiden and Lucas were playing soccer again this winter.

Especially Lucas is starting to get pretty good when he gets 'hungry' to take the ball.

This year we took the boys skiing for the first time. They had been practicing their roller blades at home to get used to the motion, so it was a bit easier to get them started on the snow. It was the first time for the boys to see real snow.

We went with another family and stayed at Thredbo.

It also happened to be on my fiftieth.

In mid July the instructors of the Sydney dojo planned to visit the Brisbane dojo. They encouraged me to come along as I will be up for the next big grading soon and it would be a great introduction to some of the best instructors and karateka's in the country.

I also found the official lineage of our style listed on one of the boards.

We just finished another grading as a family. This time the boys and Kim graded to their first brown belts and I graded to my third brown belt.

We were supposed to have graded about a month ago, but because of Kims dad's funeral we had to postpone it for a month.

It therefore turned out to be just a mini grading with just the four of us as a family.

Now it will be quite a while before any of us are grading again. The boys need to get a fair bit stronger before grading for the next belt based on the feedback. I will need to start working towards the black, so Kim will probably be the next one grading towards the end of the year.

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