Saturday, July 18, 2015

Finland Day 3

Day 3...started out with breakfast at the hotel, and then we picked up a car seat for Aden.  Second fail for the travel agent as she forgot to reserve one with the rental car.  We were told that children three and older didn't need a seat, but better safe than sorry.  Rauno found a place that rents them, and for only 15 euros, we have one for the entire trip.  We also picked up a map and a couple Cokes, and we headed off to Jyvaskyla.

Arto and Rauno live in Jyvaskyla, so we were following them, but about 10 minutes into the 3 hour drive, we lost them.  Lucky for us Arto had programmed their address into the van's navigation system, so we eventually made it.  During the  drive we stopped at a rest area had had some lunch.  Burgers and fries for us, and a chicken salad for Grandma.  We are very lucky most people we've bumped into speak English, and pretty well too.  Much better than our Finnish, although my mom keeps surprising us with an entire conversation from time to time.  Aden has learned to say Maitoa (MY-toe-ah) which means Milk, and Aili and Alex are picking up a few words here and there. 

Arto and Rauno are brothers, and they live together in a small apartment.  We spent a few hours there just hanging out and talking.  They showed us photo books from their two trips to the United States.  The first was in 1977, and the second was in 1995.  It was fun to show the kids pictures of me, my parents, and several cousins, aunts and uncles in the books.  Helped them realize that we really are family, and they're not just weird people we're hanging out with while we're here.  My Aunt Mimi hosted Arto, Rauno and their mother when they were in the states, and there are pictures of downtown Chicago, Aunt Mimi's apartment, Aunt Aili's house, Aunt Mimi's church, and the two houses I lived in while growing up.  There were even pictures of them visiting Great America (Chicago's Six Flags) in 1977!  Boy have times changed.  What hasn't changed is Lincoln's New Salem from 1995.  I just looked a lot younger and thinner in the pictures!!  :)

Aden was pretty good, but he started getting restless, so we decided it was time to check into the hotel.  We were going to meet Rauno and Arto for pizza, but it looked like a big storm was coming, so we decided to stay in and order room service instead.  Aili had a chicken cesar salad, Grandma had some kind of chicken, and Alex had salmon and shrimp pasta.  I only ordered a salad, because I knew I'd be eating what Alex didn't.  :)  The food was really good.  The kids are happy to realize that most of the food here isn't much different than what we eat at home.  I encourage them to try new things, but am happy that they find something to eat in general.

After dinner Aili, Aden and I walked down the block to the Shell Station/Burger King to pick up some Maitoa for Aden.  I figured he needed to run off some of that bottled up energy.  It had rained, so Aden found some good puddles to jump in, and we had fun waiting for the crossing lights to turn green.  By the way...all you people that are suffering from extreme heat...the temperature reached a high of around 71 today!!  Ha, ha, ha!!  Both hotels we have stayed in have had playrooms for the kids, so Aili went back upstairs, and Aden and I spent some time in the playroom to further wind him down.  Must have worked, because about 3 minutes after I put him to bed he was out cold! 

Tomorrow, we head to Koningkangas to visit my Great Grandmother's church, and spend some time with a few cousins that we haven't seen yet.

More updates to come!

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