Weekly Photo Challenge: Express Yourself

by Christine M.January 29, 2015

Mia and I along with the crowd expressing ourselves by dancing and parading down the street at the Market Square in Helsinki, Finland during Vappu!

This is one of my favorite shots from while we lived in Finland. This was our last month there and it was during the Vappu (May Day) celebration. After a very dark and cold winter, it was the most exciting day we had seen in Helsinki all year! Although it was still gloomy, it was amazing to see so many people out and about and truly having a great time. We had no idea so many people actually lived in Helsinki!

This candid shot my husband managed to get after we danced around for a long time with this crowd is my favorite not only because it shows the genuine good time Mia and I were having on our faces, but also because of the people of Finland it shows in the background. There are so many expressing themselves: The bright pink lady blowing her whistle, the lady with the plaid long skirt banging on her tambourine, and the guy behind me showing the peace sign. I also had no idea there was a guy that looks like Kid Rock to the left of us and a very sad faced guy with pink bunny rabbit ears to the right of us! Good times!!

Winter in Helsinki & Aurora hunting in Lapland tonight

by Christine M.March 27, 2014

All the snow has melted here in Helsinki, and it is finally starting to really look like spring after a little tease we had a few weeks ago. Mia was lucky to wake up on her birthday to a beautiful fresh snowfall, which I am hoping was the last one for the season. I am way behind again on a blog post, but I have plenty of photos to share from around beautiful Helsinki during the winter as well as a few shots from a few places we have visited in the area. I am very happy to say that we managed to survive the darkness and a winter in Finland. We brought Florida with us and were very lucky as we heard this was the mildest winter in Finland in the last 20 some years!

My family and I are flying up to North Finland (Lapland) this evening for one last shot to see the northern lights. We are also signed up for skiing lessons as we have all never been snow skiing before. We only have about two months left here in Finland (yes, we are on the move again… this time to some place warmer)! I will post photos next week from our adventure this weekend and hopefully some aurora shots will be included. I am better prepared this time and have a tripod packed and ready to go… Aurora hunting here we come!!

Mia in front of the beautiful Helsinki Cathedral.

Helsinki Cathedral through a window…

Mia and her daddy in front of the Helsinki Cathedral.

Helsinki Orthodox Church.

I spotted this guy ice fishing while on a ride on the metro.

Mia having fun one day on the metro. Hmmm… I wonder where everyone was that day?

Relaxing at Starbucks!

Birds camping out on the frozen sea!

Mia and I on the bridge we cross often… with the frozen sea in the background!

Mia and her crazy stuffed fish! I wonder if people thought she really caught a big fish!

Doggy footprints in the snow!

Mia's woke up to this beautiful snow on her birthday after we thought all the snow was gone for the year!

Mia woke up to this beautiful snow on her birthday after we thought all the snow was gone for the year!

Birthday snowball!

We enjoyed viewing an art show close to our apartment one Sunday afternoon (Kaapeli).

I enjoyed visiting the Iittala factory with some of the other moms from Mia’s school.

One of my favorite artists now (Tove Jansson) – a lovely Moomin display at Iittala!

Me with the Moomin mugs at the Iittala factory in Arabia!

This is our porch covered in snow after a crazy storm one night!

Reindeer anyone? It was surprisingly delicious! It’s a popular dish here in Finland!

One year Blogiversary and reuniting Mia with her dog (hopefully)!

by Christine M.November 15, 2013

Mia and her best friend having fun (she calls Audrey her BFF)! This photo was taken the morning we moved to Finland.

Mia and her best friend having fun (she calls Audrey her BFF)! This photo was taken right before we left for Finland.

Happy Friday! It is hard to imagine that it has already been one year since I started this blog. What a year it has been!! My husband moved to Finland this month last year while Mia and I stayed behind in Florida so that Mia could finish Kindergarten. It was a rough time for our family while we were apart and we now joke that deciding to be apart for 7 months was the dumbest decision my husband and I have ever made as a couple in the 17 years that we have been together!

Well, we have been back together for almost 6 months and are enjoying our family living in the same place again! However, we had to leave Mia’s dog Audrey and our dog Ollie behind at my parent’s house in Florida. Ollie is very old at 13 and Audrey is very big at almost 70 pounds and we were not too sure about bringing them here as we would be renting an apartment and would have to travel. We also plan to spend a couple of months each year back in Florida. Audrey was originally my parent’s dog, but Mia and her became like two peas in a pod so she became Mia’s dog… A day hasn’t gone by since the move that Mia has not talked about her best friend, Audrey. It has been really tough, but Mia has been super excited that she will get to go home to see her dog tomorrow (well, maybe). We just found out yesterday that some employees at the airline that Mia and I have tickets with (FinnAir) may be going on strike. We really do not want to let Mia down so we will do our best to find a way to get her home to her best friend. So far, our flight is not one of the ones cancelled!

It's really cold in Finland, so I am hopeful to be in sunny Florida tomorrow!

It’s really cold and dark (sunsets at 3 something now) in Finland, so I am hopeful to be back home in sunny Florida tomorrow!

I also wanted to thank all of my friends, family and fellow bloggers for following along this past year on my blog! When I started this blog, I had no idea what I was doing. I still have a lot of work to do and a lot to learn about blogging, but I am so grateful for the experience so far! A great big thanks to all of the people who have viewed my blog from the following countries this past year:

Thank you all from the above 47 countries for viewing my blog this past year!

We are Now Official Finland Residents… We have a Sauna in our New Place

by Christine M.August 16, 2013

Saunas were invented in Finland and are a very important part of the culture here. There are only around 5 million people in the entire country (there are around 20 million just in the state of Florida where we just moved from). We have heard that there are over 2 million saunas here in Finland. That’s a lot of saunas for only 5 million people! And I know what you are wondering… and the answer is YES, they do go naked here in their saunas!! We have also heard that sometimes after a sauna they also go jump in a hole in the ice into the freezing water of a lake or ocean… and yes, still naked!! Yikes! I wouldn’t mind trying this, but only if I had a wetsuit on!

When we were looking for an apartment here, we were very surprised that pretty much all of them included a sauna. When we came to look at our apartment, I remember us looking at the sauna and thinking that it could be another bedroom or a walk-in-closet! The apartments are much more expensive here and a lot smaller, so we were thinking of other uses for the space at first!

Well, we moved into our place about 2 weeks ago, and decided to give this sauna thing a try. We were also battling a cold that we picked up from our London trip and thought that maybe the sauna would help a little. Our first evening trying it out ended up with me at one point coughing like crazy and having to run out of it!!! I think we were way too excited about pouring the water from our wooden spoon and bucket into the sauna heater with the rocks! All that steam just about killed me!! Lol

We have used our sauna about 5 times so far and have learned not to pour so much water into it anymore and are beginning to love the experience now! I am starting to wonder how we ever lived without one!! No wonder Finland has saunas everywhere. The Finns love their saunas, am I am finally understanding why. You feel so relaxed after the sauna, and are able to go right to bed afterwards and sleep like a baby. This is great for me since I have always been a night owl and now I am finally able to get to bed earlier!

Here are a few photos from our sauna:

Our sauna heater with the cool rocks… still not too sure if we are using this thing correctly.

Eukalyptus mix that we used while we were battling our colds and our wooden spoon and bucket.

Eucalyptus mix that we used while we were battling our colds and our wooden spoon and bucket.

Starting to heat up the sauna… this is our temperature gauge.

Our sauna has two platforms to lay on and a moveable bench on the floor.

I’m sure this Florida girl we will be hibernating in our sauna this winter! I’m not going to want to leave the apartment once it starts snowing here, but at least I will have our sauna to thaw out in! 🙂

The Tall Ships Races 2013 in Helsinki, Finland

by Christine M.July 21, 2013

Above photo: The breathtaking Mexican Tall Ship, Cuauhtemoc!

Above photo: My favorite photo I took from the event, the breathtaking Mexican Tall Ship, Cuauhtemoc!

What an exciting time to arrive in Finland! We were very excited to be able to experience The Tall Ships Races right here in the neighborhood that we just moved to!

Over 100 vessels were here this weekend for the races which began on July 17th and continued until July 20th. The event ended with the Parade of Sails, when the ships go onto the next Tall Ships Races location, the Port of Riga, Latvia. The races will later end in Szczecin, Poland the first week of August, 2013.

We enjoyed viewing all of the beautiful ships on Thursday, July 17th after they were all docked:

The highlight of the event was watching the departure of all of the beautiful ships during the Parade of Sails event on Saturday, July 20th:

Mia enjoying the Parade of Sails!

Mia and I having a great time on Saturday!

We were a little sad to have to say goodbye to all of the ships. What an amazing experience it was to see so many beautiful vessels in one weekend/location:

For more information on this event, please visit:
http://www.tallshipsraceshelsinki.fi/

Our Visit to the Office

by Christine M.July 9, 2013

Mia and I were finally able to see where her daddy has been working since November. We had a great time visiting the office on Friday and meeting some of his co-workers. Many were on their summer holiday, so we will try to visit again after the summer is over. Mia thought that her daddy’s office was a very cool place to work!!

Mia and I at the entrance to the office.

A cool display in the lobby.

Mia and I sitting on one of the chairs in the store.

One of the cool work spaces!

Mia and her daddy at the cool slingshot display.

A fun work/play area.

Mia and I having fun at one of the little break areas.

One of the cool meeting rooms. Mia loved this room!

Mia had a lot of fun writing on one of the creative boards.

Mia and I in the Mighty Eagle room! These two girls are ready for business! 😉

One of the drink coolers at the office.

Mia was checking out the beautiful view at the office!

Happy 4th of July from Finland!

by Christine M.July 4, 2013

We decided to take our first journey on the train today and made it downtown. We celebrated the 4th of July at the Hard Rock Cafe Helsinki. They were giving 20% off to anyone from the U.S.A. today!
We also went across the street to check out their big department store called Stockmann. It was really nice and we ran into a reindeer!

They were celebrating the 4th of July at the Hard Rock Cafe downtown today!

They were celebrating the 4th of July at the Hard Rock Cafe today!

Made it to the Stockman Dept. Store Downtown today and found a reindeer!

Made it to the Stockmann Dept. Store downtown today and found a reindeer!

We made it! Our first few days in Finland… Wow, there’s so much daylight!!!

by Christine M.July 2, 2013

We arrived safely in Helsinki late Saturday afternoon, and have been busy unpacking and exploring all of the different areas around us. After the first day, we knew we needed to find Mia something to help her get around. We have been doing so much walking, so we found her a cute little scooter to easily keep up with us. She is really getting around great now and having a lot of fun with it!

The time zone difference (7 hours ahead of Orlando) has really been tough on us these first couple of days. It is also daylight out most of the time. The sun set on our first night around 11:00 p.m. and then sunrise was at 3:58 a.m.!!! We have to wear sleep masks just to try to keep some of the light out to sleep (we have blackout shades on some of the windows too). On our second night, we were wide awake from 2 a.m. to around 6 a.m. We went out for a walk/scooter ride at 3 a.m. and made it over to Mia’s school so she could see it. Not one soul was out! I was a little surprised since this is the capital city of Finland! We have been here for almost 4 days now, and I have yet to see a police car or officer and have not heard any sirens from ambulance or police. Seems very strange for a big city. I heard at least two or three a day in Central Florida! It is certainly a nice peaceful change. It is also refreshing to see so many people out with their families, walking their dogs, bike riding, and just simply enjoying this beautiful weather!

Danny was back to work Monday morning and we start to look at new places tomorrow. However, we are really enjoying the simplicity of going from a 4 bedroom home to a cute little studio apartment with a view of the beautiful canal…. Not sure if we really need a little bigger place anymore! We’ll see how tomorrow goes. 🙂

Last photo of Mia and her dog, Audrey before we left. My parents are watching our two dogs while we are away. Not a day goes by that Mia is not talking about her dog. :(

Photo of Mia and her amazing dog, Audrey before we left. She was originally my parent’s dog, but quickly grew attached to Mia after she was born. Grateful that my parents are watching our two dogs while we are away. Not a day goes by that Mia is not talking about her dog. They are like two peas in a pod! 😥

Made it to the Airport with all 15 of our bags! Thanks to my brother, Richard for getting us there. Whew!!

Made it to the Airport with all 15 of our bags! A big thanks to my brother, Richard for getting us there. Whew!!

In Orlando, getting ready to board our flight to Manchester.

On the plane, ready to go!! Not sure why Mia wanted to show off her toothbrush they gave her! Lol Total travel time was about 14 hours from Orlando to Finland.

First part of our flight was from Orlando to Manchester. 2 hour layover, then to Helsinki! Whew… it was a long journey!

Ready to explore! We hit the ground running (and scootering)! Mia on one of our journeys out to explore the area!

Our cute little studio apartment. Love it!

View from our apartment! So peaceful!

Mia having fun on her new scooter at 3 a.m. We were wide awake (it was only 8 p.m. Florida time)!

A cool sculpture on one of our many walks. Hope someone can tell me the name of this beautiful sculpture!

I will end with a glimpse of the perfect weather and the sunrise/sunset times!

All packed and ready to go!! Less than 20 hours until our big move…. Finland here we come!

by Christine M.June 28, 2013

Here we go!!!! We are finally all packed and ready to go! Moving to Finland in less than 20 hours!!!! Our master bedroom turned into packing central this past week. Only moving with suitcases and donated about 3/4 of all of our belongings to various charities and friends in need. Whew…. It feels great to simplify our lives and we are now ready for our adventure in Europe!! We will miss you all!! ♥