The Kalmbachs Visit Sweden

On August 17th, Sofia's 1st birthday, we arrived in Sweden to spend 2 and a half weeks seeing friends and family and enjoying a little international vacation. We had a great time staying on Emma's parents sailboat in the Stockholm area and surrounding archipelago and also had a chance to rent a car to go to the south of Sweden to visit Emma's Mormor (grandma). During the first part of our trip we also attended Emma's friend since birth Helena's wedding. Emma was the Maid of Honor and almost didn't make it to the church in time since our ride was stuck in traffic!!!
We met Johanna's son Alexander for the first time and attended his baptism/christening. It was a very busy visit with everyone - we enjoyed our trip immensely with sailing and sightseeing and great dinners with many of our friends.

Midsommar Fest in Fresno

We celebrated Swedish Midsommar at our house on June 24th. Unfortunately, it was too hot to be outside to partake in "Kubb", so instead we danced the little frog dance (sma grodorna) around the living room and made wreaths to wear in our hair for the ladies! Everyone enjoyed Swedish delicacies such as meatballs, pickled herring and aquavit! Skal!

Camping!

Over the 4th of July weekend Carl came to visit and we headed up to Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks to see BIG trees, mountains and to explore new trails. Over the weekend we hiked to the summit of Little Baldy (elev. 8,044 ft), hiked along the Kings Canyon River Gorge and hiked around a mountain meadow surrounded by Sequoias. Camping with a baby for 2 days was a little trickier than normal camping but Sofia is already a camp princess, preciding over bark, rocks and dirt - loving every moment of it!

Fire on Hwy 152

I was driving home from our Salinas store this evening and had just gotten over the top of the pass on Hwy 152 when traffic came to a dead stop. I then noticed some smoke over the hills in front of me. At the same time I saw two airplanes circling rather low. As we inched forward I could see ahead what appeared to be a blackened hillside next to the road. Right then one of the planes swooped down and dropped its load of fire extinguishing stuff (orange) just ahead of me over a hill that bordered the road. At this point I was talking to my brother on the phone so he could check the caltrans website for reports. As he told me what it said, I encountered it. Fire in the road, burning cardboard in the road. Our eastbound traffic crossed over the gravel divider and entered the oncoming lanes. Fire and smoke and burning debris was blowing everywhere. I witnessed three tanker planes drop their load on the fire that had spread on both sides of the road (and was in the divider in spots as well.) Made for an exciting drive to say the least. It appears a truckload of cardboard overturned at some point. Still not sure what set the fire ablaze.