Grilled pizza

Iso got a pizza stone for his grill and we helped him try it out. Delicious.

And we made some lettuja!

Pruning

This tree is too close to our front walkway and so big that it blocks much of the view from inside. It was adorable twenty years ago.

Mark had trimmed some of the branches closest to the path, but he said that I could cut some of the lower branches off. The trimmings filled two garbage cans.

Much better.

Flat on the floor

When Millie doesn't like how things are going she folds in half in protest.

Pool time

We spent a couple fun afternoons at the pool. Swimming, lounging, eating snacks, jumping off the diving board (Nora), going down the water slides.

The kids are clearly more comfortable in the water after all their time in the lake.

Penny loves wearing the goggles.

Blueberry picking

We were the very last customers of the summer at this blueberry farm. I called to ask about coming to pick blueberries and she said that they were closing at noon today. We hustled out of the door and hit the road.

The kids did a great job this year, both Nora and Henry picked a lot of berries. Helena had a respectable amount and Penny spent most of her time eating them I think.

Finland : Homeward bound

We woke up and had an early-bird breakfast at the hotel. The regular continental breakfast doesn't start until 6.

These people are full of energy.

It was so nice not to have to drag all of our luggage back and forth between the airport and hotel.We checked our last bag and the stroller since they said we couldn't check it at the gate.

The Helsinki airport has had these floors for as long as I can remember.

Henry has grown since our last trip.

We found our gate and enjoyed our last few moments of freedom. Our first flight was on Finnair with Markimekko-designed napkins and cups.

We had a close connection in Paris and had to run. I was carrying Millie and wished we had tried harder to keep the stroller.  We coached the kids on our bus between terminals about moving quickly and staying near an adult. The flight was delayed slightly so we had some time once we found the gate.

Back in Seattle, just missing one bag.

The flight went pretty smoothly. One kid vomited as we were landing. And again in passport control. That was miserable. It was hot and they were understaffed so we waited for about an hour. Once we collected our luggage and loaded the cars we decided to drive home. We had considered spending the night in Seattle to recover a little, but we wanted to be done traveling. The kids were all asleep before we left the city.

Finland : Helsinki

Our flight leaves tomorrow morning early so we are spending the night at the airport hotel in Helsinki. We left this morning so that we could spend the day in the city. Liisa and Dad came with us.

We took the bus from Lahti to the airport. They let us check most of our bags, so that's one thing we won't have to do in the morning. We left our carry-on luggage at the hotel before we headed into town to do some shopping. We are still under our luggage weight limit. We walked down the Esplanadi popping in to different favorite stores (Marimekko, Aarikka) on our way to the market.

We looked at souvenirs for sale and bought peas to snack on. We ate them while listening to some young girls playing violins.

 We had coffee at the Karl Fazer Cafe, sharing different fancy desserts.

We had dinner at the same restaurant on the top floor of Stockmann's that we did last time, but it wasn't as good as I remembered.

High chair design is still great.

We went back to the hotel to try to get a little sleep before our long day.

Finland : Last day

I hate leaving. There is the practical difficulty of gathering things that we've spent the last three weeks scattering around, packing and finding room for all the new things we've purchased, and the sadness that comes with leaving the place and people I love. 

We took the boat out. 

There was a final sausage roast and sauna. Penny loves ketchup and at some point will usually start eating it more as a main dish rather than condiment. Here she's collected a few extra plates and is going to town.

Group photo. 

Henry drew a picture of the Moomin house in the cabin guestbook.

And lettuja.

Finland : Kirsti's birthday

The Americans went to visit Urajärvi Manor before lunch. My mom and aunt used to go there when they were children. We looked around the grounds while waiting for the guided tour of the house to begin.

Check out the beds. They were extended at night and collapsed during the day to provide more room.

After the tour we went back to the house for lunch. In 2009 we had reindeer and potatoes for my birthday and we decided to make that a tradition.

And I always have a strawberry layer cake.

Helvi and Osmo came to have coffee with us.

It was good to celebrate here.

Finland : Winding down

The end of our visit is coming. Which lends a bit of melancholy to everything. But we're still here, so let's do our best to enjoy it!
There are ripe wild strawberries. My mom taught the kids to string them on grass.

Baby in the luggage is a gag that does not get old.

We had grilled chicken and potatoes for dinner, with cauliflower gratin.

The yard here is just beautiful. They have done an incredible amount of work.

When they serve ice cream here they chop the whole liter into cubes rather than scooping out of the carton.

We spent some time in the evening looking at family mementos. My grandfather was part of a car touring club in the 50s and 60s. These are some of his grill badges and medallions from their events.

Finland : Taking it easy

Another al fresco breakfast.

The weather was perfect again.

There was swimming, boating, magazine reading, hanging out in hammocks.

Penny browsing Kiplinger's.

We ate home-smoked trout and Greek salad for lunch. Ice cream for dessert.

 

Almost all of us having coffee.

We stacked some wood inside their new shed. The builder had made a framework along two walls where firewood could be stored. The kids helped load wood into boxes from the outside stacks, ferry empty boxes, and handed off pieces of wood.

See that level? This is serious business.