a bit of this & a bit of that

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

{finland, day 17, sepänpuisto}

day 17 started by sienna baking pulla & cinnamon buns with my brother-in-law. yum!

then we met with my sister suvi & her kids stockan kellon alla :) and headed to sepänpuisto, a playground in downtown helsinki. it was yet another majorly hot & humid day.

oh how we love this little guy! Y

these two would be the best of friends if they just lived closer to each other. sigh.

enjoying the A swing again. i wish i had one of these in my backyard! :)

needless to say we had ton of fun at the playground.

hesalaisille lukijoille: sepänpuistossa on myös kivat autot lapsille ajettaviksi. me oltiin siellä lauantaina joten missattiin ne mutta varmaan tosi kiva juttu lapsille.

i love this picture! noel fell right when i took the picture. priceless! :)

love this building! this one could be my christmas visit house. :D

ihana rätticitikka!

we walked long ways back to downtown.

the crane by the way is for bungee jumping! we saw someone being lifted up there and watched him jump. s-c-a-r-y!!! there is NO way i would ever do that!

there must have been a scandinavian navy cadets competition of some sorts as each country's cadets marched in the market square area. norway's cadets were carrying a trophy so they must have won.

we ended the day by going to a fancy pizza restaurant to eat. more of these kind of days for me please! i know, i know, i'm the one who moved million miles away. sigh.

{finland, day 16, pihlajasaari}

these two pictures are from yyteri. i forgot to put them here earlier. i took these picture just hours before the big storm that happened during the night. you can't tell by looking at the pictures, but the wind was blowing like crazy and the sand was flying all over the place. i had to have my back against the wind or the sand would get in my eyes. some crazy people were still swimming in the sea!

day 16:
after a tired and cranky morning, we headed to pihlajasaari, an island just off the coast where people go to suntan & to swim.

leaving the harbor on a boat. i wish the boat ride would have lasted longer.

sienna swam in the sea and played with the sand. nice, relaxing day by the sea.

i'm not into suntanning anymore. i burn too easily and i've realized that sun is the worst culprit when it comes to wrinkles. i hate the feel of sunscreen.

so i found a shady spot and just enjoyed the scenary and watching sienna swim/play.

the island has many beaches and a café.

going back to mainland.

kaivopuisto is one of my favorite places in helsinki. i used to go for long walks here. i'd literally walk for hours. until my feet couldn't take it anymore. loved it!

palaa

tää pää

kelaa, pelaa, esittää

sä tunnet tiet

minut viet

meren rantaan taas

missä puhaltaa

tuo tuuli joka puhdistaa

tän palavan pään

ja kaiken jälleen uudesti nään

ei jää

tää pää

mut nyt saa hetken

levähtää

sä tunnet tiet

minut viet

meren rantaan taas

(osa samuli edelmannin palava pää laulun sanoista)

another possibility for a summer apartment. a nice view of the sea. how to win the lottery when we don't even buy lottery tickets... :D

Monday, September 20, 2010

{smack in the middle!}

yesterday i enjoyed going through my husband's childhood pictures and school report cards etc. i'm trying to get going with family & personal history projects. it really is fun work but sometimes it's a challenge to find the time to do it.

i realized that i need to write in my journal more often (more than a few times per year). i bet sienna would love to read one day about my thoughts when she started kindergarten, for example. we need to capture the moments of our lives. trust me, if you don't record them somehow, there's a good chance you won't remember most of it.

so just a little reminder for us all to make sure we record our family's history in some form or shape.

i scanned some pictures of his mom & dad too. isn't this picture from 1974 the best? they were going to a 50's style party.

the funniest thing i came across was an essay that my husband wrote when he was young (i don't know exactly how old, maybe about the age he is in the above picture?). the essay was about his parents and here's the part that made me laugh so hard:

"My dad works at (school name) as a teacher. He says if he doesn't get out of it he'll end up smack in the middle of a mental institution."

!!!!!!

can you imagine his teacher reading this?

too funny! :D

happy monday everyone!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

{finland, day 15, turku castle, part II}

here's a teeny tiny sampling of the kind of things we saw inside the turku castle.

this large wall hanging was my very favorite thing at the castle. it's not an antique but it's made by a modern fabric artist whose name i can't remember for the life of me.