Laukkanen's reunite

We had a great time this past week with the Laukkanen side of the family. Mikko and his wife Joanna and son Dashiel were visiting from London. As we don't see them much, mummo Laukkanen and Bill, Liisa and her boyfriend Johan all came to visit as well. This is everyone above (except Johan was taking the picture). We were missing Heikki's sister Kaisa and her husband, who had school and another family obligation to attend to. We really missed them though.

We spent the first part of the week at a rented condo on Lake Travis (a dammed river here in Texas-it is a huge lake). I was still unable to swim and be in the sun-which was unfair due to the 90 plus degree temperatures. But no one else was used to heat so they wanted to stay inside most of the time anyways. And with two 2 year olds and a 4 week old baby no one gets anywhere on time or even gets out of the house some days!

Here is Heikki and Markku walking into the lake. It is a very warm lake as Texas lakes usually are. But no one went swimming in the lake (I wouldn't let Markku go under water as I heard that warm temperatures lead to bugs in the lake that can cause meningitis if swallowed. So they say don't swallow the water, but how do I make sure my 2 year old doesn't swallow water? I think everyone knows I am a worrier and perhaps a little over protective! But no one else went in either....). We did try to rent a boat, but that is very expensive so we gave up!

Then we went to my mom's house for the later half of the week. My parents moved out and we took over! We had lots of fun in their pool, hiking in their neighborhood, and those who could went tubing on the Guadalupe river! They had a blast (I couldn't go this time!) We also had Markku's third 2nd birthday celebration at the country club in my parent's neighborhood. It was really fun! Markku and Dashiel even started playing together and hugging each other by the end of the week! They are so cute together. Being that I was always holding Suvi and my husband almost never takes the photos-I have very few pictures of the best buddies. Hopefully Bill got some.

Markku and Dashiel hugging

Markku's beautiful Thomas cake and his even prettier face afterwards! The train actually moved around the track!

Family on the river walk in San Antonio

We did make it to the river walk for a short walk and dinner. It was so hot that the London Laukkanen's were melting! We had to limit our travels somewhat with 2 year olds and since we also got great news--Joanna is pregnant and due in November! It was so hard on her with the heat and all the walking and the time change I am sure. I remember being pregnant in London last year (at least she wasn't vomiting on the river walk like me in downtown London!). We also tried to be very efficient and pick a restaurant quickly-we chose a little too fast and found the only restaurant in Texas WITHOUT air conditioning!! No one wanted to be a bad sport and say we had to leave so we all sat in the unbearable heat and sweated it out-and then complained later as we felt the air pouring out of every other restaurant on our walk back to the car! Luckily I had to feed Suvi and we found a nice cold hotel lobby to cool off in.

I wanted to post more pics but the site won't let me. I will have some on the Picassa web site though. I wasn't the best at taking photos since Suvi is not letting me put her down very much. She is getting so much bigger and she smiles at us now when we talk to her. She turns her head to look at you-she definitely loves her brother's voice. She is holding her head up for a few seconds and can even stand on her legs for a few as well. She is even outgrowing her newborn sized clothes. I can't believe how fast time is going-she is 5 weeks old now. She had really bad baby acne this past 2 weeks so I didn't take too many pictures of her directly. It is starting to clear up now I think...she doesn't care but I sure seem too. She is so beautiful I want everyone else to think so too!