Jyväskylä

I wonder if there's a person in Finland who doesn't like fish? It would be like a person in the U.S. not liking chicken... There are just so many lakes and so many fish! I loved eating it everyday! My kids aren't quite into it yet though. 

Uncle Kalevi is quite the fisherman though. He always gets big ones and on this day, he smoked them for us.

Venla & Selma

Samuel

The boys were more than just interested in seeing the fish- they loved touching them!

I want one of these shade conversations swings in my yard- nice for chatting.

licorice, wild strawberry, rainbow, cola, tutti frutti

Since it was Saturday, we planned to go into the city for a little shopping. We stopped in Muurame at the little street fair. The big things were licorice and fish of course!

witch whistle, sour rainbow, toffee licorice, sour cola, raspberry licorice

eating licorice

fish fry

It seemed so funny to cook up all this fish for a fair?

The girl gave us one to taste and I was surprised Ollie wanted to try- so I gave him the first bite and he got the head- yikes! He liked it! I can't get the kid to eat fish at home, but he ate it here. 

It was good! But I prefer my fish de-headed and de-tailed. 

It was funny to see carrots, potatoes and other veggies being cooked up too. Healthy. 

little fish, big fish

Okay- now we see the fries, mixed up with makara and... more veggies!

At least the heads are removed on these fish?

We got a quart of cherries to munch on. 

Linc and his new wooden snake toy.

We went back to Marketta's house in Muurame for lunch. These girls made us a delicious burrito bar.

the backyard

Linds and I stayed mostly with Aunt Marketta when we spent the summer here as kids. It was so fun to see it again.

Marketta and Kalevi's house

Next we headed to a bigger city- Jyväskylä. I love all the bikes!

We spent some time in the marimekko store. Their patterns are so cute- and so Finnish! I've seen marimekko stuff on design blogs a lot. They have super cute fabric. We got some towels, pillowcases, plates and water pitchers to take home.

So fun to do a little shopping! But the stores all closed around 5 PM on a Saturday night!! So we only shopped for an hour or two. We did pretty good for an hour no?

Ari, Linc, Adam, Eric, Jarkka, Mom

Eric, Jackie, Linds, Will, Tagen, Maija and Samuel

Adam wanted to try a little Hessburger- (the first fast food we had in Finland!) They only put like 3 ice cubes in the coke, so it was warm right away. So funny. Why do we like ice so much? 

We got back just in time for the fish to be smoked. 

chatting with Jaakko & Satu

Marika & Selma

Marketta spoiled the kids with ice cream all the time- sweet!

Linc & Adam making the same face

We headed back down for one last swim. We still had Sunday left at the cottage, but bad weather was coming in. We loved all the warm days so much! We were so lucky!

Adam brought the camera in the lake with him to get some shots of the little cabin. 

He took some artsy shots too. 

I love the light in these pictures!

Jarkka

Risto

Adam, washing his hair in the lake.

Jaakko & Satu

It's crazy that we were out so late every night with the kids! Oh well- they actually slept later in the morning, nice for a vacation.

tired (happy) boys

little Will

My mom was showing us on the map everywhere we had been and the route we would need to take to Helsinki on Monday. Hyvää yötä Suomi! (Good night Finland!)