A few weeks back Kasper and Daddy headed to Espoo for the second in a series of what will hopefully be an ongoing saga of boy's weekends with Niki(30 something) and Daniel (3). We caught the train which is an adventure in itself if you're 4. Kasper very much enjoying listening to the iPod while Daddy very much enjoyed the resulting quiet time. Off at Espoo to be collected by Daniel and Niki and whisked away to Nuuksio National Park. I guess the Auckland equivalent would be the Waitakeres as it's a large chunk of forest within 15 minutes of Helsinki. As the snow was yet to come and it was a balmy +2c we had a gentle walk in the forest around a lake with a stop to cook makkara over an open fire in a shelter on the way.
After the forest we headed to Flamingo Spa Water Park in Helsinki. There's heaps of these kind of places in Finland as they're a great place to go in winter. Basically it's an entire swimming pool complex (as well as 10 pin bowling, cinema, casino, spa etc etc) inside a mall. The water park was great with awesome slides for the kids, lots of water-wings and toys to use and a choice of 4 massive pools. Kasper and Daniel had a great time while Niki and Daddy made sure they kept afloat. After the swim we headed to Niki's Mum's place for a huge feed and a well deserved sauna once the kids crashed out.
The next day as Niki lives in Riihimaki just round the corner from Anni Mummi we headed over to her place for a lunch time visit. As she speaks no English and Daddy very little Finnish Kasper did a bit of translating and we got by. Kasper helped make lunch and then really enjoyed playing and reading with Anni Mummi for the rest of the afternoon.
Trained home to Turku while already plannning the next boy's weekend away. Cheers Niki and Daniel!
Niki and the boys at Nuuksio.
Kasper following the red diamonds.
When we stopped for lunch Kasper wandered off by himself and sat down on a rock by the lake. I asked him what was up and he said I just wanted to enjoy the view by myself for a bit because it's really pretty. Nice!
Anni Mummi's Jeep battling K's (well Daniel's actually) Robot.
Anni Mummi!
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