Juhannusta

Today is the midsummer celebration in Finland. They call it juhannusta(midsummer). It is a big celebration. It is the longest day of the summer. From now on it is going to slowly get darker earlier. It saddens me in a way because it feels like summer is going by way too fast!!

During the day we went to one of the  beaches in Espoo.

Ezra was able to do his favorite thing. Throw rocks and play in the sand.

The water is FREEZING!! Here is proof that I was the first to get in.

Serenity came in next, but only only because she accidentally fell all the way in. She was crying, but gave a big smile after I told her how brave she was and that her and I were the only brave ones that got in the water.

So of course Steve had to show off and dive under the water after that.

Josie was up for the challenge until she realized how cold it was. 

Alex was too busy reading

It was a beautiful warm day as long as you stayed out of the water. haha.

We took a short break 

Than round 2 we wanted to make the most of this long day so we went the opposite way of the crowds and found a garden park in Espoo and played until the sun went down ( sort of because it doesn't really seem like the sun ever goes down here)

I think this was right around 10 pm

These two are so funny together

Our attempt to get a family pic with a mini tripod. 

Wonderful day. 

Taking a hike

So I haven't blogged in awhile, but I have found some quiet time and wanted to write about a good day we had today. 

We went to a national forest in Espoo, which is about an hour or so away from us on bus, probably a lot closer with a car. When we got there automatically we could smell that camping smell (the good one of the trees and being outdoors) and we knew we need to come back with sleeping bags next time. 

I took this picture because it reminds me we are in another country! Finland is starting to feel more like home and so sometimes it is nice to be reminded to keep the adventure alive because we don't know how much we will actually be able to do here and I don't want to say oh we should have done that or we should have gone there. 

Stopped to take in the view and to have a little snack. We did a 2km walk around a lake. 

2 km is about as far as you can get when you are trucking around a stroller. lol. Next time we will be more prepared.

There was this cool walking path on the trail that was made out of boards. Serenity and the girls loved it. They felt like adventurers. 

The trail was cool. It would have been even cooler if we didn't have a stroller. haha. The wheels were still too wide to go along the path, so Ezra went with dad and I two-wheeled the stroller.

I fell behind a bit and started taking pictures of lily pads. For some reason I started obsessing about them because I realize now I have over twenty pictures on my camera. haha. Anyways I think the main thing was that I have never really seen them floating around on a lake before and I was hoping to get a picture of a frog jumping across them(maybe that only happens in cartoons).

Obsessed I tell you. This picture was taken from a little island that we reached crossing a floating bridge. I was in lily pad heaven. haha.

All in all we had a beautiful cookie filled day.