remembering on Memorial Day

Today was our first day back at work after two weeks of furlough, so we were quite busy. But tonight I am sad that I am not able to put flowers (specifically, lilacs) on the graves today.

If I were in Maine, I would be seen standing in front of graves and talking to these people:
Grammie & Grampa Reny (and Grampa Groff)
Grammie & Grampa Smith
Mama
Bill Roach
John Currie
Arnold Bergdahl
Uncle Reggie & Aunt Joann
Gramma & Grampa Treadwell
Aunt Esther
Jonathan (his tree at Camp Treadwell)
Tim's baby brother John & grandmother Berniece

"we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1)

Saaremaal terve nädal!

Debbie's 40th birthday party

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPWUoKpCn4M

In Helsinki

After Bryan & Jen left, we still had a week and a half of vacation to go. One of the ferry lines has a new ship and was offering $10 tickets to Helsinki, so we decided to go. We were able to stay at an Army apartment in the city, so we had the chance to relax and see the city as well. Chris stayed in Estonia the first two days and then joined us later. With Peter and Elizabeth, we went to the Helsinki Zoo, which is on an island.

Peter was very interested in the monkeys.

He saw that he was a little bear cub.

But Elizabeth is a bigger bear!

Poor Peter was attacked by an alligator!

Elizabeth with a real lion (it even roared while we were there).

There was an observation tower you could climb up and see Helsinki.

By the end of the day, Peter was tired; he fell asleep while we were taking the subway home.

With Chris, we visited an aquarium called Sea Life, which had sharks and other interesting animals.

Peter was fascinated by the fish too.

We saw some moon jellyfish, which we have at the beach near the Army's camp in Loksa. This shows just how poisonous it is (not much!).

We also visited Suomenlinna sea fortress, which is built on a series of islands in the bay of Helsinki.

This sign was a good reminder in that rocky place.

The kids explored the cannons at the fort also.

Peter, of course, had to ham it up.