Trip to Tallin and Mac & Cheese in the Mission Office

On Monday when we went walking, we noticed how much greener everything was.

 On Monday, we had FHE with the temple couples. It was at the Matis' apartment. 

They had invited Brother and Sister Karumo to come. He was in charge of the temple open house. 

He told us about all the invitations that they sent out and how they planned things 

and how there were so many more people attending than what they could have ever anticipated. 

It was so interesting.

 Or course we had delicious treats afterwards.

Pres. Aura gave us permission to go to Tallinn for the day, 

so on Tuesday, we all took the Eckerö Line Day Cruise to Tallinn.

 We found a table in the cafeteria to sit at.

 We bought some food to eat. This is what Nathan and Charlotte bought to try.

We always enjoy seeing the school kids going on a field trip.

It looks like they do the same in Tallinn as they do in Finland.

One of the fun things about Tallinn is all of the fun doors that they have.

We went on a free walking tour of the city.

Here is one of the viewpoints.

 We enjoyed our day in the old town area.

We had lunch at a pancake house. 

We think it is the same place were Amy and Mark ate a few weeks ago.

We sat next to this frog painting on the wall.

We enjoyed watching the ship come in and then have it open up and the big trucks start driving out.

We should have counted how many we saw drive out. 

It was unbelievable, they just kept coming and coming.

 On Wednesday and Thursday, Nathan and Charlotte did things on their own during the day.

On Thursday, we went for a morning walk. we noticed that our shadows are not as long as they used to be.

Everything is looking much greener, but the sun can be deceiving! 

That is frost on the ground where ever there is shade.

 We had Nathan and Charlotte bring some macaroni and cheese 

because Sister Laitinen had asked me about it and said that she would like to try it. 

So we made some for lunch. 

She thought is was OK, but said that it didn't taste like cheese, but more like milk powder.

 Elder Shurtz put some leftover makkara in his.

Elder Shurtz got Sister Laitinen put the screen protectors on the new mission phones 

before they get sent out to some missionaries.

 For dessert Thursday night, we tried some tippaleipä. (It is similar to funnel cake.)

It is a food the Finns have for Vappu (May 1).

We drove over to the temple to try to get some springtime pictures.

On Friday, we went to Porvoo. 

We enjoyed walking through the town. 

We saw the cathedral, J.L. Runeberg's (Finland's national poet) house, 

and his son Walter Runeberg's statues, the Porvoo museum and Holmin Talo.

We also stopped by Pieni Sudlaatehdas (chocolate shop) and the Brunberg chocolate factory.

I enjoyed seeing all the little flowers starting to grow in Fredrika Runeberg's garden. 

That evening we went to Konstan Möljä for dinner to celebrate Nathan and Charlotte's graduation.

This is a restaurant that serves traditional Finnish food that Charlotte had read about and wanted to try.

 It is definitely a popular place. We had tried to get reservations for Thursday night, but they were full.

It was crowded and we had to stand in line to get through the buffet. The food was good, but nothing spectacular.

We did enjoy the company however.

On Saturday, we went to Suomenlinna. 

was definitely warmer and greener than the last couple of times we were there, but it was still rather chilly.

Charlotte enjoyed going through various tunnels and Nathan and Elder Shurtz enjoyed checking out the big guns.

 The submarine was open, so we stopped in to see it.

 It was pretty tight quarters, 

 . . . especially for Elder Shurtz.

We took the ferry back and ate at the Kauppatori.  

Nathan and Elder Shurtz headed back home, and Charlotte 

and I did a bit of shopping before going to look at the Churches.

We got to the Orthodox Church just to find out that it closed at 3:00 (about 10 minutes before we arrived).

 We walked over to senate square to see the white church, and found that it was closed until 4:00.

 Charlotte wondered what the building across the street was. Google told us it was a library.

We walked over to it and discovered that it was the National Library.

We went inside and it was amazing! 

We were glad that the church was closed, or we never would have stopped in here.

The library closed at 4:00. 

We stopped at the restroom just before we left the building and we walked over to the church. 

It was still a few minutes before 4:00, but the people were coming out from the service that had been held in the church. 

We were waiting until 4:00 to actually go in. 

I reached to get my phone to take a picture and discovered it wasn't in my purse. 

It was not in my coat pockets either. I didn't have any pockets in the pants that I was wearing. 

I thought that maybe I had left it in the library when we were getting out things out of the lockers. 

It was almost 4:00, so I hurried back across the street, but the library doors were locked. 

When someone started to come out of the building, I tried to go in, but the security man said they were closed. 

I told him that I thought I had left my phone in there. He let me in. 

My phone was not in or by the lockers. 

I thought maybe it had been left in the restroom when I washed my hands. 

The security man let me leave my things at his desk and run upstairs to the restroom. 

I didn't see it there either. As I turned to come back out, I realized that it was in my sweater pocket. 

I don't know why I couldn't feel it when I was searching for it,

 and I hadn't felt it vibrate when Charlotte had tried calling it, 

but I went out holding it in my hand and graciously told everyone thank you as I showed them my phone. 

How embarrassing!

On Sunday, after church we drove to the Sibelius monument.

It was sunny and sooo much warmer than with our other visitors.

 We thought the "tripod" these men were using was interesting.

Look closely, it is a long handled dust pan that is commonly used here.

Then we went to Seurasaari. 

The buildings still don't open until mid May, but it was a beautiful day to walk around the island.

There were a couple of particularly interesting things.

This building looks like it is brick, 

but it is actually wood painted to look like brick.

 Nathan found this old phone booth, so he stepped inside to use his phone.

Sunday evening, it was time for Nathan and Charlotte to get packed up. 

We filled a suitcase for them to take home since they had a free checked bag.

We have sure enjoyed having Nathan and Charlotte come to visit!

The sun rose in Espoo at 4:50 and it set at 21:46 for 16:56 hours of daylight.

In Provo, the sun rose at 6:10 and it set at 20:35 for 14:24 hours of daylight.

We are loving the long hours of daylight, even though the temperature is still quite cool.