Boat ride with little Lova
Johanna, Thomas, Wilmer, Arvid and Lova
Cute little sleeping cottage with a great view
We came to Johanna's after our day of swimming at the local pool with Berrit! It was great seeing Johanna for the first time in 18 years! She had come to America as a teen and us girls were just small tots! It was so great to catch up, revel in memories and hang out with this hot mom of three! We met her children, Arvid 7, Wilmer 4, and Luva 2. What great kids - so cute - and Lova is quite a fireball!
We had tacos as we waited for her husband, Thomas, to come home from work. As soon as he was home we threw on some huge warm coats and off we went at sunset for a boat ride to the island our Great Great Farfar, Gustav Gustafsson, work on. It was very special to stand where he stood and think that he is a part of us, but could of never imagined us! I mean, come on, who could of imagined Kirdy and Kelsey ;)
That night we continued our sauna craz and took our 4th sauna in 2 days! Awwww bliss!
Our Great Farfar was ship wrecked and brought back to Åland, but then tried again and ended up in America.
All of us went to pick up Arvid at school and he showed us these bumps on the grass in the school playyard. These "hills" are graves of Vikings. Pretty interesting to have
a school around graves. We then went to a Russian lookout from WW1. We saw the blasted rocks and climbed the lookout tower.
We headed back to Johanna's for fika, where we met Mona (another cousin)! What a crazy awesome woman she is. Soon to learn she is like her mother, Ulla, in that they both laugh a lot!!! Very fun to be around.
Mona took us to her house, which is actually the old house Gustav and Axel both lived in! It is very special to the family. Magnus (husband) and Mona completly renovated it into a beautiful home, keeping the same structure and even the classic look and feel! Here we stayed in an old sauna as our cabin (it is completely redone into the cutest little living space).
Tryggve (Bo and Gladys' brother and Mona's dad) and Ulla had us over for dinner. Mona, Magnus and their children, Ellen (11) and Einar (9), joined us for dinner with Tryggve's delicious soup (love the idea of the man cooking!!!). We enjoyed many laughs and conversation at that table. Amazing how connected we feel to people we just meet! Oh how we love having conversation with our family. Each person is so unique and lovely. It is great to get to know each one at an individual level.
We stayed up late each night talking with Mona and Magnus! Magnus showed us his breath taking underwater photos from their diving adventures! We had to examine each photo because, they were so good, they didn't seem real!!
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