Helsinki, Finland

The kids and I went on a quick little trip to Helsinki, Finland by way of cruise ship. We traveled with some friends of ours who are also expats and in our ward. Hubby's were not invited on this little get away! We left Stockholm on a Thursday afternoon (ship set sail at 5pm) and arrived in Helsinki on Friday morning. We had about 6 hours to explore the city and then had to be back on the ship Friday afternoon. We got back to Stockholm Saturday morning at 9:30am. So yes, it was a quick trip!

Here are some photos...

 The entire gang! 3 moms and 10 kids!

Just hanging out together was what made this trip so fun and enjoyable.

Jaxon and Maggie showing off their dance moves :)

Maggie got a lot of attention from the big girls!

Yes kids, another group shot.

Uspensky Cathedral, Russian Orthodox cathedral in Helsinki.

It is the largest Orthodox church in western Europe.

We took a short ferry ride to Suomenlinna, a Unesco World Heritage site. 

This island used to be a sea fortress.

   On this island is an old submarine that Jaxon HAD to see. 

What was most fascinating about this place was the "Hobbit like" area that surrounded us. 

The kids were having fun running around and exploring this place.

Several cannons surrounded the edge of the island. They were huge!

After we took the ferry back to the mainland, we joined some friends for lunch. 

It was great to catch up with Ben and Jonna and try some local Finnish food 

at one of their favorite restaurants, Zetor.

Jaxon and the rest of the kids had a turn playing with Ben's google glass.

Finland is Jonna's hometown and her husband Ben is from Salt Lake City. They are here while Jonna finishes her music album and Ben finishes up with school. Great things are in store for both of them!

Aisa and Lana ordered this big beauty.

Not sure exactly what you would call this but it is basically a reindeer sandwich.

I ordered a mushroom risotto. So yummy!

Aisa, Lana, Jonna and I in front of the Helsinki Cathedral.

The kids amused themselves while the mom's went to a quiet dinner...both nights :)

Thanks Lana, Aisa and kids for making this trip so much fun!

Halloween 2014

We decided to celebrate a bit of Halloween in our house so in honor of this crazy 

holiday we carved some pumpkins, baked pumpkin seeds and even had caramel apples!

Confession! I tried to make "traditional" caramel apples but the caramel was sliding off the apples so I decided that it was MUCH EASIER to just turn them into Apple Nachos. I think that this will be a new tradition in our house and it is easier to bite into them too. Here we poured some homemade caramel sauce over the sliced apples and then sprinkled with some crushed Daim candy.

Caden, Jaxon and Darby all carved a pumpkin.

Darby's pumpkin is Mike from the movie Monsters Inc.

I also decided that an easier way to dry the pumpkin seeds, is to put them in the oven for a little while to dry. Then I take them out to season and oil them and then back in the oven they go again!

Jaxon is 12!

I cannot believe my baby is 12 years old now!

We invited some of Jaxon's friends to play Laser tag after school one day and 

have pizza and ice cream. I think they had a good time!

Aaron was going to be traveling on Jaxon's actual birthday so we celebrated our family dinner two days early with Jaxon's request of pulled pork sandwiches
and then one of his favorite cakes...

better than anything! This cake has other names too :)

Dance Recital

Darby had a dance performance at the palace again this year. However, this time the King and Queen of Sweden were in attendance and after the show they went back stage and Darby got to shake their hands! She was so excited!!!

We were not able to take photos but here are a few from after the show.