Another year has gone by for us in a blink, and life has continued to treat us well. The boys are all maturing and growing well – Matti is with 10 years almost as tall as his mother- and both, Thomas (8) and Matti (10), have now also mom’s shoe size. It seems that we are at the turning point soon, where the kids outgrow their parents.
In January 2001, I (Nikki) lost my permanent part time job as dental hygienist with Dr. Vendeland in Renton. However, I continue to fill in for other hygienists now and then in different offices on a very flexible schedule. The children’s busy life and all their activities have truly taken over my life. Matti started playing a second instrument (viola) in September, and also Antti (7) started to play violin. So we spend more practice time with the kids, and it is fun to play in various arrangements as trios, or quartets or quintets, with 2 celli, piano, and/or violin and viola. Matti is starting to play quite challenging pieces on the cello, where even Juha and I, as accompaniment, have to practice seriously. Thomas has just graduated to the cello Suzuki book 3, and Antti has graduated to the piano Suzuki book 2. (On the average it takes about 1-2 years to get through one Suzuki Music Score book.) Thomas has been thrilled with the electronic cello that we just bought a week ago in anticipation for our sailing voyage. He has been experimenting with all the different electronic possibilities and will follow in Juha’s footsteps with his curiosity for electronic gadgets.
All boys have kept up with their tap, jazz and ballet dance lessons in the fall, but in the winter/spring they will rather go downhill skiing with Dad, than hitting the dance floor. It has been snowing here a lot in the mountains recently, so the kids are looking forward to going skiing during Christmas break.
All three boys (5th, 3rd and 1st grade) are also doing very well in school; for Matti it’s the last year before he goes to middle school, so we enjoy this precious time with him in elementary school even more. My volunteer job in the boys’ class rooms include twice a month teaching art lessons, reading weekly with the first graders, and doing all kinds of odd jobs as a “room parent” for Thomas’ class. I see it as a privilege being involved in the kids’ school life and getting to know all their buddies real well. We are very lucky.
Our travels in 2001 included a 2 week trip (mom and 3 boys) to Fort Myers, Florida, to visit the German grandparents in February/March. It was as always very relaxing and wonderful with white sand beaches and green/blue, shark-free waters. July brought us 5 days to New York City where the 3 boys danced with their Dancing School on Broadway, so Shows, and all the other tourist attractions. This was especially a mind and horizon opener for Matti, who realized that he had experienced history on 9/11/01. From New York City we flew on to Germany, where we spend 3 weeks and did a fantastic trip with grandparents, their three cousins, uncle and aunt in 3 cars through former East Germany: Dresden, Spreewald, Postdam….It was culturally and also naturally (Spreewald) a highlight of the year.
Our wonderful visitors this year included Juha’s sister with husband Wally and adoring little Anna (2) in June. We had 5 fun days together filled with outings to the zoo, Matti’s birthday party and family time.
For Labor Day weekend in September, Juha’s mother joined us for 5 days, and we had a wonderful sail trip to Sydney (Vancouver Island, CD) with her.
Juha did in July a fantastic single-handed 10 day trip to the West Coast of Vancouver Island (Barkley Sound). Now, that he returned safely, I’ll trust my life to his Atlantic crossing skills.
Our new boat (Nauticat 42) is under construction at the moment near Turku, Finland, and will be ready in June. We will have the basic conveniences of a home, even a sauna, which we haven’t had before. Once the boat is ready, we will start our journey through Europe, which will take almost 6 months. We will sail all the way down to the Canary Islands, and then across the Atlantic starting end of November, as part of the annual Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. There will be over 200 sailboats dashing across the pond at the same time, although it is not very common to see any of the other boats after a day or two of sailing. We arrive in the Caribbean sometime before Christmas, and then celebrate an unconventional Christmas for sure on the boat in the tropics. Well, that’s about as far as we will get in 2002, and if everything goes smoothly we will sail on through the Panama Canal to the South Pacific Ocean.
We will put the kids through the Calvert home school program (which probably will be the toughest part of our journey), we will take electronic musical instruments along, and lots of books. We are planning to have a satellite based phone/internet connection (Iridium) to keep in touch.
Greetings,
Juha, Nikki, Matti, Thomas, and Antti