A bit about us...

Olivia: Olivia is the youngest of the Purves family, having been born in August 2005 at home in Dunbar. As such, this is therefore her first trip abroad, and it'll be the first time she'll have met her Russian grandparents, and Auntie Olga. Quite how she'll enjoy the ferries, we don't really know at the moment. However, Sandy seemed totally at home when he went on the Superfast ferry to France at three months old, so we're hopeful that things will go smoothly. Olivia is at present mastering the art of crawling, and so is loving the fact that everything is now (almost) within her reach!

Sandy: Now approaching the end of his 1st year in Nursery school, Sandy is four years old. He has many varied interests already, including forever asking how things work, (examples recently include "What makes sure that we don't stop breathing?" and "How long will the sun shine for, before it finally burns out?", building things, reading books (both Russian and English), TV and riding his bike everywhere. Sandy is very much looking forward to his holiday, and has been building cardboard ferries in his Nursery!
He is an experienced traveller already, having been to France, Russia (3 times), Sardinia and various placesa round the UK with us. Sandy has already agreed to act as "translator" between Anna's parents and me, and as his Russian is as good as his English, I have no worries that he will keep me up to date with everything that I need to know!

Anna: Anna is the backbone of our family, looking after Sandy and Olivia while I'm at work. This she does brilliantly, and I am very proud of both her, and the job she is doing with our children. She lived in St Petersburg until she came to the UK in 2000 to marry me, and is now a well known figure around our home town of Dunbar. Anna's interests are primarily based around the children (as she has no time for much else at the moment!) and she has made many friends and aquaintances through both Sandy and Olivia. Anna is currently learning to drive, and this is going well! Before Olivia was born, Anna ran her own childminding business from home. She is planning to re-start this after our holiday, probably in September. She, like the rest of us, is looking forward very much to the trip to Finland, as she will be meeting up with her parents and sister for the first time this year.