Another week in September

Another busy week. In between the week of the last post and this one (but not the posting dates) I spent 5 days in Madrid on a work trip....so we have all been a little busy. Isabella had her first try on the bottle return machines that they have here in Finland. She was very interested in seeing where the bottles went and enjoyed putting in every one of the about 20 bottles.

We then spent a long weekend in a cabin that is owned by my work. We were able to rent it for 4 days. It was wonderful. Lovely autumn days and very quiet. It is surprising because there are many cabins there so it isn't secluded or anything, it is just that time of year when everyone is staying in the city. It was about a one hour drive there. So that was good that we could leave work early on Friday to head out there.


Unfortunately, Saturday we had to leave early to head another 2.5 hours north to go to Taneli's grandma's funeral. A long drive followed by a solemn sit down event (especially when it is first thing in the morning after a nice long night's sleep) is not a good mix with a small child. She was so noisy in the chapel and, obviously, did not want to sit down. Poor girl!


After the funeral itself, there was a lunch at the same Manor house that she had her 90th birthday at this past summer. The kids entertained themselves by pulling the books off the shelves (because the men were supervising). But it looked like they had fun. Isabella and I also went outside for a little while even though it was a little chilly. She saw a cat and decided that she wanted to try to lay down on the ground like the cat... silly girl! She also took a liking to the ladder that was outside. She tried to climb it and when she couldn't she shouted "Daddy help!". hahaha














While back at the cabin, Bella got to watch her first fire. She was mesmerised. We also passed the time colouring with Bella. I covered the coffee table with paper and then she was free to colour whenever she wanted. It was a great distraction. And I had fun drawing as well.

On Monday, we seriously needed diesel...someone had neglected to get some after our long trip. It got desperate and we eventually had to pull over after we truned off the highway one exit too early. Then Taneli had to walk to get some diesel...it took a long time. Unfortunately, he didn't think to do this trip on his own. So what I thought would be an easy 10 min trip (I didn't know how far the gas station was) ended up taking an hour and a half! Not a good unexpected turn for a late afternoon when kids get hungry. What we ended up doing was walking along the path that runs parallel to the highway. Luckily I kept her sandbox toys in the car...and a bottle of bubbles. There was no sandbox but we improvised...