Jari went to Finland for 10 days, leaving the 22nd of June and coming home on the 4th of July. He was able to meet folks he hasn't met, experience the food and culture of the country he was born in, and enjoy suviseurat for the first time. It was a bit of an exhausting trip. He was ready to come home by the time he did. That is good! While he was gone we did things like:
1) mom went to work occasionally
2) mom drove kids all over creation
3) we all cleaned house frantically on the days we had showings
4) we listened to numerous books on tape
5) mom quilted, and quilted, and quilted some more6) we visited
7) we had friends over
8) mom never made it around to baking dad some pulla before he came home :(
9) we played MANY games of Settlers
10) we went exploring!
Alyx, Brock, Anna & Tia had never seen the Grand Canyon. We have talked about doing it for the past year and just never managed it. So, last weekend we spent on the road. On Saturday we visited the Canyon. It was HOT. We visited 2 overlook spots and the kids were DONE! I was a bit fried. Wondering why on earth I ever thought this could possibly be an important thing to do. Ugh. They never even saw Grand Canyon Village or the head of the Bright Angel Trail! Oh well. We did do the IMAX .. it was delightfully cool in there.
We spent Saturday nite in the town of Williams. We ate pizza that was yummy and learned that the town has a re-enacted cavalry band that marches through the town (I think) 5 nites a week. They also have a cowboy shootout in the street those nites. The town is so sweet! Am going back for an entire weekend sometime soon. Oodles of cute little shops and fun historic things. It is known as the Gateway to the Grand Canyon and is where the train trip starts if one wants to do that kind of thing. Kids were anxious to go swimming at the motel ... so we cut our town sightseeing a bit short. To find out that the pool was not heated and it was quite chilly. Tia did a fair amount of swimming .. the others walked to Dairy Queen .. and came back with a dozen beautiful roses for me!! How sweet they are.
Sunday we ventured to the Grand Canyon Caverns. The only association with the Grand Canyon is that the air inside of the caverns comes all the way from the Grand Canyon. 56 degrees year round at 21 stories beneath the earth. Quite neat .. my second trip there. 
Then off to Montezuma's Well to tramp around in 117 degree weather. Would recommend seeing these places at a cooler time of the year. I skipped Montezuma's Castle. Was tired of opening a wallet constantly .. maybe some other time.
Stopped at Juha & Annette's for a nice visit. The house across the road has a pond that the kids were able to go swimming in. They went for Rhino (no .. not the animal kind) rides and we all had a good time. Then back home. We had Anika Wuollet with us for the weekend .. she flew home on Monday. Brock spent Monday at a water park birthday party .. Anna & Tia went somewhere for the nite. And the rest of the week came rolling right along.
4th of July. We cleaned house/yard in the morning for what was suppose to be a "between 10:30 and noon" showing. At 12:20 I texted the realtor with a what's up message. Oops they can't make it. Will be there on Thursday instead. House got clean anyway. After grocery shopping and salad making ... and a 20 minute shut eye for me .. we went to a BBQ at Vic & Mindy Andersons. A houseful of folks there. Joni and Ami w/family, Jeff and Mona w/Nora, Becca, and many others. Was a fun day of visiting. Came home, picked up a cooler and munchies. Had this bright idea that we would pick up Jari from the airport and watch fireworks from the top level of the parking garage. Bad idea. Am happy no one else joined us. It was incredibly disappointing. Marvelous to see hubby/dad come home. His luggage didn't come with him tho', so was going to have to make it through an entire work day on Thursday without any good Finn licorce or chocolate. What a challenge!! After watching the airport dud fireworks we hit the freeway and drove under them. That was better. We all decided that fireworks without the sound are just not the same. We were way too far away for any kind of stunning display. Today is Thursday. I made it through a day of work with a bunch of nutty people. Full moon is past ... I think the remnants of the full moon are all with us as patients. I am getting progressively closer to transfering to hospice. Jari's luggage came today. Glad we don't have to go clothes shopping. Chocolate ... licorce ... iitala ... marimekko ... lots of fun prizes.
Hoping to see you all sometime soon. If the house doesn't do something marvelous like selling ... we'll see you up there the end of July or beginning of August sometime. Will keep you posted.
8 comments:
Can't wait to see you up here. Too bad it isn't now as Brock, Anna, and Tia will be missing out on bailing hay this weekend.
Sounds like a fun weekend you had. I can't wait for you to move to Alaska and we can explore there. If you don't sell the house soon, I may have to fly down to AZ - not yet, it's way too hot. I'm feeling very ready for a vacation. I guess there is always a quick weekend to Seattle and that will count:)
Keep us updated on the house selling process.
I love the quilt. That is awesome. I haven't been crafting at all and am envious of the beautiful quilt. Any tips on quilting it? Mom, I know you do it by hand, but isn't there a faster way? I've thought of bringing the quilts that I have been working on over to Merry's to see if she can quilt them. Then, I could be almost done and get the things out of my house. I'll probably decide I'm too cheap, and continue to hold them until I get them done by myself.
Heather
That one I did by machine .. took about 9 hours to sew the stars. Am currently doing one by hand. Should have counted how many books I can listen to while I get this done. I LOVE SUMMER VACATION!!
Am sure the kids will be just bummed to find out they are missing hay making. :(
Time to switch the laundry and get back to the quilt ..
Quilt is beautiful.
Surprise visitors this morning,
former Esko neighbors Antti and
Eila Rahkola of Astoria. Told them
we planned on stopping at their
home the last week in Augs. Their
home is where Anita and Becky first
heard children speak Finnish and
they were just amazed. Don't know
about Charlie and David; they were
probably amazed also that they
couldn't understand those kids but
the girls eyes were large as
saucers! dk
Went back to this Blog. Isä showed
me how to enlarge the pictures. (I
guess we did that a while back but have forgotten about it) Jari looks cold. Picture taken at one of Finlands lakes I presume. Also
the larger pic of quilt really shows the detail of the star quilting. Did they find anything
nice when they were panning? dk
Nice pictures of your week!
I had a great time in MN last weekend for the weddings. I didn't get to see many of the kuoppala's, but was busy most of the time with my family and wedding stuff. busy but fun! See you all in October:)
Jenny
Fun to see the pictures! Sounds like you were able to fill the time Jari was gone; glad you got to the Canyon. It is overwhelmingly awesome.
Can't wait to hear Jari's reflections on Finland. A bunch of the opisto kids got back while we were in Toronto. I have only seen Heather Loukusa, but she was grinning and seemed to have had a fabulous time.
By the way, speaking of opisto and Toronto... Liz, Auli Niemi asked about you and said to tell you hello. She had been very busy planning services, but said she intends to catch up with you now that the work of services is over.
Hopefully I can put some photos on here from Toronto, but for now they are all on someone elses computer. I was downloading them several times a day for LLC broadcasts and publications. I only came home with a few from Sunday on my camera.
Good luck with those house showings and keeping the house clean. I dont' want the craziness of a house on the market, but I do crave the thought of a clean house. I can work my tail off all day, leave for the evening and come home to everything upside down again. Such was the case last evening when I got back from a mtg. Oh well. It gives me something to do, eh?! I think a maid would be one of the first things I would spend money on if I ran into a bunch extra of the green stuff. (Well, maybe not, but it sure sounds appealing as I look around at this mess, unable to relax...) Enough rambling. Duty calls.
-b
Have you just recently been to Toronto Becky? eh?? I see Kaija's face whenever I read "eh".
It is 2:36 a.m. and this is not a case of insomnia. Was a busy Mon-Thurs. I was so tired earlier that at about 6:30 I took a nap. Am like a little kid sleeping before dinner. :) After waking up after 9, I started cleaning my room. Have paper cleaned (spent most of the day on that), shelves cleaned, my side of the closet done, shopping lists done for little things I need to complete this project ... and I've listened to half of a book on tape!!! I absolutely love audio books. The last 2 have been from the kids section at the library. They are actually really good. I think it is about time for bed.
Tomorrow afternoon Anna gets a haircut, house gets picked up, have a list that is quite long of things I need to pick up and drop off ... then to a wedding in the evening. Rachel Johnson & Flint Byman are getting married. Then ... if I'm still awake, am going to visit Joni. They are visiting here for a few weeks. Ami is gone at Father/Sons Camp for the weekend.
Heather .. we'll be waiting for those pictures!
Becky .. can't have your blood pressure going too low. Hence, the frustration of clean houses. Imagine that someday you will wish that the house was full of noise and something to sweep. I hear tell that actually happens. :)
-a
I know... I already feel threatened by the thought of an emptying house. This fall with Eric getting married, Denise going to school in Duluth,and Michelle keeping her clothes at home but "living" in St. Cloud, I feel like we only have fleeting moments together. I am missing Brian lots this summer. ...Of course there is the appeal to scrapbook that might be answered in the fall when the big ones are gone and most of the rest are in school :) The tug of interests gets active when free time is on the horizon, but cleaning just doesn't seem to win out. I am under a fair amount of pressure at work to get my degree. Can I get some classes in and get -er done? Maybe not yet this fall, but I am thinking Kathryn might enjoy going to the University. Eric and Brian each got in on a semester as newborns, maybe Kathryn taste it too :) Time will tell, and the dirt and dust will still be there for me. Argh! -b
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