Back in the Saddle Again

Well, this first picture is suppose to be at the end, but this blog isn't working with me today. . . 

We've had a hard time readjusting to "normal" life and getting back into the routine since our trip. But I guess one "consolation" about having to come home to Houston is that we can grow oranges and other tropical fruit here. This is my first mandarin from a tree Jon bought me. We picked it today and it was really good!

We were doing a Science experiment for Grace so she got out her protective eye ware for it . . . 

At least she looked good!
I caught Collin first thing in the morning (wearing the "jaminas" that he made with Grandma) drawing in the sun room window . . . 
We have a Homeschool CoOp on Fridays where we meet with other homeschool families for classes etc. We start with a rousing Baptist "Praise and Worship" complete with prayer and a few rap or hard Christian rock songs, then off to classes. Collin in chess . . . 
And Grace in her Acting Out class where they acted out Chicken Little. Of course she wanted to be the little chick . . . 
Scenes from our every day life . . . enjoy!

Good Things Finland

As with all good things, our trip came to an end and so must the blogs about it. So, with fond farewell to Finland, here are some things we love about it . . . 

Mass transit (Jon had me in all the pictures that were memories of when I lived there). Not unique to Finland, but we made good use of it and it was so nice not to have to stress about driving! . . . 

Stockmanns (to be posh, say it with a Valley Girl accent "Stocka"), where at a "dear" price, you can get all sorts of goodies (we never came out of there empty handed, as you can see). . . 
One of the things I remembered most about Stocka, was pear ice cream, which they still have. WHY don't we have more pear things here?!  I loved that Jon's love of it was almost more than mine! (This is such an attractive picture) . . . 
This might just look like a rock by some apartment buildings . . . actually it is, BUT there are hand holds on there for getting a little rock climbing in while you wait for your bus (which we were) . . . 
AAAAHHHhhhhhh . . . the Arabia Factory Outlet . . . where you can find all the gorgeous Finnish designs at a discount price. To quote Jarna, "the Finnish economy thanks us" . . .
I just love seeing a known book in another language and even different pictures. Collin thought it was GREAT . . .
Ok, I'm not a big candy person. But I guess because when we lived here I was 14 and had a huge sweet tooth, a lot of my memories are of the candy and gum. Let's just say that my 14 year-old sweet tooth came out of hiding with a vengeance! We came home with about 20 pounds of Fazer chocolates and Jenkki (xylitol sweetened gum, with flavors like pear and salt licorice) products. Our fav? Fazer blue (milk choc.) with licorice bits in it and the Functional Pastilles (just breath mints but I love the English translation).
Licorice ice cream. Finland is a licorice lovers dream . . . It's also a lactose intolerant persons dream -  you can find everything in "low lactose", including all ice cream flavors . . . 
AAAAaahhhhh . . . Aarikka . . . even their store signs were pretty. Again, the Finnish economy thanks us . . . 
For a little Finnish trivia, there are 5.2 million Finns and over 2 million Saunas (pronounced sow-nah). Usually apartment buildings have a sauna in the basement and every "flat" has its scheduled sauna time. Jarna has a town house, so they had their very own sauna which we used almost every night. . . 
Jon wants to build one in our house . . . In Houston . . . 
Unfortunately some of the things we love are some that I can't share:

The tastes of Finland: chewy black bread, salt licorice, pear, berries. 

The sound of Finnish being spoken. I think it's beautiful!

The smells of Finland: coffee, forest, freshness . . . 

We can't wait to go there again . . .

Finland cont.

To post all of our favorite pictures of Finland would take up too much space, and quite frankly, bore you, so here are some (still a lot) different views of Finland. On the street in Porvoo (about an hour NW of Helsinki). . . 

A church from the 14th century in Porvoo . . . 
Looking from the church out the front gate, down the hill and off into the forest . . . 
Esplanade in downtown Helsinki . . . 
The lake behind Jarna and Timos flat. Finland is known as the Land of Many Lakes. . . 
A pretty typical street in Vantaa, the city outside of Helsinki that we lived in . . .
In front of the Helsinki temple . . .
View of Tampere from a tower and one of the highest points in Finland (FYI 69% of Finland is forest). . . 
On top of the tower with the view behind us . . . 
Heather growing outside a shop window . . . 
A pretty front door to a house . . . 
The heather growing outside Mikko's house . . . 
Hamenlinna castle (taken from a speeding train window) . . . 
Another scene from Porvoo . . . 

Finnish Friends

In case you forgot, the first reason for us going to Finland was for a class reunion of 8a, the class I was in while we lived there. Jarna had a girls night a few days before the reunion so we could get a lot of girl talk in. It was interesting that they all look the same after 20 years!!

 Jarna was one of my best friends when we lived in Finland and we've stayed in touch ever since. She, her husband Timo and their daughter Kiia were gracious enough to let us stay at their house the whole time we were there. It was really fun to get to hang out with them so much. They were SO good to us! Here we are at lunch in Porvoo . . . 

Jarna and I doing what we do best - chatting . . . 

I have also kept in touch with a friend from our ward, Mikko. We took the train to Tampere to spend the afternoon with him and his family which was another great day. This is Mikko, Marja and their twins, Akseli and Aino. 
As a treat for our reunion, Jarna took us to get our hair done so we would look our best for the big night . . .
At the reunion: Me, Jarna and Katja. I still think of her as Juusto, her nickname that also means cheese. . . 
Kalle I. and I . . . 
And the classmates:

It was really good to get caught up and see old friends. I hope it's not another 20 years until we get together again!

Feasting on Finland

So Jon basically took out the Finnish forest one animal at a time from the floor to the trees, with a few other foods thrown in on the side. To start you on this feast for the eyes, here's a little snack of pulla and tea to tide you over. This is a sweet bun flavored with cardamom and some fruit tea we enjoyed at the Fazer cafe in Helsinki . . . very Finnish (Ok, not really since we didn't have coffee with the pulla, but still). 

Jon started at the floor of the forest by eating some rather good garlic snails (can you believe I tried a bite?) . . . 

He took a detour from the forest to sample the fields with this very tasty beef with some balls of potato, pate, fish and even some dilled cucumbers from a lunch buffet in Porvoo . . . 

He picked up again with a double dose this time of reindeer liver on the left and a combination of moose and regular reindeer on the right. This was on the lunch menu of the Modern Art Museum in Helsinki . . . 
The Finnish national animal is the bear (it's also on their favorite beer) which you'll remember was Priority Number One on Jons To Do list in Finland. We went to a Russian restaurant called Saslik that has a "Bear Party" every autumn by having all sorts of bear dishes. Jon ordered some medallions of bear that were flambeed at the table. . . (sorry about the blurry picture)

He said it tasted like the most tender steak there is. . . I hope it was good with the price tag that came with it!
And last, but not least, he had goose at a Finnish restaurant called Aino. . . 

Since getting back he keeps saying how much he misses Finnish food. He couldn't get enough of the pear gelato at Stockmanns. Me? I ate about 3 gallons of carrot soup, all the rye bread and Karjalan Piiraka I could, with a generous supply of pulla and chocolate thrown in for good measure. 

Suomenlinna

Moi again from Suomi! Jon and I spent our anniversary yesterday at the beautiful island of Suomenlinna. The fall colors and clouds in the air made it almost perfect. I could have used another 10 or 15 degrees of warmth, but we actually did get hot during the day because we bundled up so much. We really have had great weather since we've been here. 
This is the bridge connecting 2 of the main islands that make up Suomenlinna.
It started as a sea fortress so there are bunkers and guns all over which also help to make up the beautiful scenery.
It's so quaint and picture postcard perfect it's hard to remember that people actually live here until you see things like this in the windows:
This was such a good anniversary and a great way to spend it with my honey in such a picturesque place that neither one of us has been to. Love ya babe!