finland trip, part two

 once we arrived at the train station in kokkola, we looked for petra's mom, raija who was meeting us there. it was fun to see her, and try to communicate.  we felt such a love & gratitude for her from being in contact prior to the trip, and for all her tremendous help with family history work.

we went to her cute house, where she fed us a delicious lunch and tried to explain some family history while we waited for petra to get off work. i have to admit at some point i got tired of trying to keep up/understand, and fell asleep on the couch! soon after that, petra came. it was really great to see her, after close to 15 years!
we went to petra's house next, and met her husband esa. we ate dinner, had a visit from her sister & her cute kids, and then went to sauna.

petra was going to loan us some mittens/hats, since we heard that the family we were going to be staying with the next few days wanted to take us on a boat ride, and we were worried it would be cold. i about died over these amazing mittens that her grandmother knitted and her mother had mended. there was no way i would dare to borrow them, but i had to take a picture!

the next morning, after eating a delicious breakfast using petra's cute moomin dishes, we headed out to meet our cousins. we had to make a quick stop at the store for mary to get some clothes/toiletries, since she still hadn't gotten her lost luggage (mine showed up at petra's house). then we were off to mikko's house, who was the family member that petra had been in contact with on our behalf.
he wanted us to come to his house first, before we headed to meet the rest of the family at a rented cottage. it was really exciting to go to his house, meet him and his family, see family pictures, and have a delicious "coffee" with good food and herbal tea for us.
from there, petra went back to her house and we were on our own with these newly-met relatives!
we headed to the cabin to meet the rest of the clan. we parked behind the picturesque red and white cottage, and walked around the corner to a crowd of people all ready to meet us!

 what an amazing experience, to be welcomed and embraced by these people- family- who we'd never met. many of whom had traveled long distances to come. it was like this big family reunion, that we got to be a part of. a little overwhelming at first, but it quickly became more comfortable and didn't take long at all to really grow to love all these people!

here are the siblings in age order (minus one who didn't come): mikko, esa, leena, eeva, kirsti, irma, and pirjio. we originally thought these were my dad's second cousins, but looking closer at our genealogy with them, we determined that they are actually our third cousins. kind of a bummer to be more distant, but they said they call third cousins "sugar cousins" so that was a fun consolation.

most of these siblings had spouses and children/grandchildren who were there, or came and went throughout the weekend as well. lots of people to sort out! we were kicking ourselves for not taking group pictures of each individual family!

 and this is arvo and pirkku- pirkku is a cousin to those siblings, and grew up with them. she was so sweet, and he was so funny.

here is viirpi, and her daughter jutta. viirpi is esa's daughter, and was the best english speaker in the family. we really grew to love her!

after we had a meal (they eat a big meal in the middle of the day, and then a morning and evening coffee) that included salmon caught & smoked by pirjo's husband, timo, they made my day by telling us that all the women were going to go antique shopping!

 we went to this cute old building in this little country town- so many red & white houses/buildings!

 this cute girl was teaching us how to count in finnish on our drive over. and then we would teach her in english. and then she played my ipod, which needs no language!

it was lots of fun shopping with all these women! here are mother and daughter, leena and paijve (who was also a good english speaker) trying on hats.
i was super excited to find a red wooden accordion-folding sewing box, along with a few other little trinkets.

after shopping, they took us to see the family cabins that were close by.

here are mikko and esa's cabins, and a bit to the right is pirjo & timo's cabin. i loved the simplicity as well as the details in these cabins!

 and the view from the porch is so amazing. i can totally imagine spending a summer here!

 here is the inside of esa's cabin- i loved it! there's a living area as you step inside, a little kitchen to the right, bedroom behind the curtains on the left, and a loft above.

i loved the old dart boards, the curtains, and these crooked stairs..

 before we left for the boat ride, pirjo motioned us to come back to their cabin.. timo wanted to show us his moose trophy! he seemed like the epitome of the stoic finnish outdoorsman!

here is irma and i on the boat. i loved her! she was so fun, and in looks reminded me the most of my grandpa. even though we couldn't understand each other at all, there was no love lost.

here is paijve and mary! paijve came from vaasa, and she spoke english pretty well, so we feel like we got to know her!

and here is a video of the boat ride (my first time trying a video, so i hope it works!)
long, busy post! but that's how our time was- packed to the brim! we really loved it.

**go ahead to part three, or back to the beginning!