Our Christmas Trip to Utah - Part 2: Outdoor Fun!

We had a lot of fun outside while we were on our visit to Utah this winter.  The valley didn't get too much snow, but the day that it did snow, the twins went outside and took full advantage.

Sophie and Lexa playing in the snow.

Sisters!

Our big outdoor adventure was taking the girls skiing at Sundance on Wednesday, December 18 - the day after our Utah Jazz adventure.  It was the second part of Christmas adventures for the girls.  Yulia found good deals on the tickets and equipment.  We thought a lot about my Dad since it was his favorite place to ski.  Our girls never got the chance to ski with him, which is one of our regrets.

I don't ski - I missed it as a teenager and just don't have a love of fast things (unlike my speed demon wife).  The girls all got their gear and we got them on the slopes and I spent a lovely day reading and typing at the lodge.

The girls took to skiing like ducks to water.  They had been night skiing two years earlier when we visited and they picked right up.  They spent two hours skiing, took a short break to eat lunch, and then skied until 3:30 when it was time to come off the slopes and turn in the gear.  It was a really perfect day - not too cold, a small cloud cover so it wasn't too bright, and snow that was wet, cold, and groomed.

Getting skied up and heading to the lift.

Mama and the twins heading up for a run.

Riding the lift.

The view from the lift toward Timpanogas mountain.

Cool customers!

Mama is a happy skier!

Twins going down the slope.

Beautiful mountains!

Mama and Nika

Mama and Lina

Lina coming down the mountain.

Nika coming in fast!

Nika and Lina spent a lot of time on their own!!! Ladies love skiing.

Sophie, Lina, and Nika going up on the chairlift.

We really had a nice time.  We didn't give a lot of presents for Christmas, but we had some wonderful experiences and adventures.  

Our Christmas Trip to Utah - Part 1

For the second time in the six years (at least going on six) that we have lived in Kazakhstan, we decided to travel during winter break back home to Utah.  The University will pay for two trips a year, but we liked staying in Astana and celebrating New Year with Babushka on the quiet campus. We also love our family and we had the need for Nika to take exams for her BYU online high school, so we braved the winter weather again.  We also took advantage of the extra trip to bring back things that we won't need so we have less to bring back when we come home to move to Texas in the summer of 2020. (Well, Yulia took advantage and packed a bunch of stuff.)

Our trip changed from the time we booked the travel in September to when we were flying out.  We were supposed to fly Astana-Frankfurt-Chicago-Salt Lake City.  The itinerary was changed (we suspect because of changes to flight schedules from Chicago to SLC) to include a stop in Denver after we landed in Chicago.  In both itineraries we had tight connections (1 hour in Frankfurt and just under 2 hours in Chicago).

We started early in the morning - leaving for the airport at 2:30 a.m. on 11 December).  We were worried once we checked in because the flight tracker showed that the flight from Almaty (Lufthansa flies from Frankfurt-Astana-Almaty-Astana-Frankfurt) was late.  We were happy when we learned that the flight had left on time.  It landed in Astana on time and we boarded with no problem.... and then the auxiliary power unit (APU) went out and we were plunged into darkness.  Long story, short, our flight was delayed by about 40 minutes taking off.  We resigned ourselves to a rough adventure of missed flights and delays.

We made up time in the air, though and landed only about twenty minutes late in Frankfurt.  We also arrived at the Z terminal - the same one our flight was out of.  Joy! They made us completely exit the security zone and re-enter security during shift change. Misery!  By the time we got through security, the boarding time for the flight was at its end.  We ran (literally) from security through the duty free and down the concourse.   The doors on our flight had been closed, but they opened up boarding because our family of six plus one other family arrived just then.

United had already begun the process of re-booking, so they broke me and the families itinerary up and gave us new seats.  We were told we could sit in our original economy plus seats, though, so we boarded.  We had to kick out some opportunistic passengers who had moved into our empty two rows of seats. They were unhappy, but they were our seats and we were not going to back down....

Our flight to Chicago left a few minutes late, but we landed in Chicago on schedule.  At the same time as four or five other international flights.  The immigration and customs lines were all understaffed and we were herded into one mega line that it took us 90 minutes to get through.  When we got through to the baggage carousel, we were missing one bag - the one bag that had all of mine and Yulia's clothes.  We went through and went to recheck our bags and we were told to go directly to customer service.  We had missed our connection to Denver.

It took about twenty minutes to re-book us on a flight to San Francisco and from there to SLC.  We went to our next terminal and through security (with a few adventures) and then picked up some lunch/dinner to eat as we waited 2.5 hours for our flight to San Francisco.  Long story short - we made it to Salt Lake 7 hours late and our bag and our rides (my mom and sister in law, Shellee) were there waiting.  All's well that ends well.  We were in Utah.

At Astana Airport waiting for the first flight.

In Chicago.... looking loopy after 24 hours of travel.

The Mountains of Utah.  It was warm and snowless in the valley mostly, but the mountains are awesome.

After resting for a couple of days, Nika started her testing at the BYU distance learning testing center.  She got A- on most of her exams (in Algebra 2 and English she got As on the exams), but earned As in all of her classes.  While she was taking exams, I was working at the BYU library.  There were some books I needed for a paper I am working on - so I got the books and used the scanners there to scan the chapters I needed.  I also did some writing.

In summer 2018 we met with some of my high school friends.  Nika and Dan's son, London correspond via gmail still and they told us we should all get together.  Dan and I arranged to meet up before his family went to California for Christmas.  We went to their house for Sunday dinner - delicious tacos and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  We had a great time visiting and catching up.  Dan gave us a signed copy of his latest book - The Star Shepherd.  I am looking forward to reading it still - I haven't been able to get it away from the girls yet.

The kids trying to pose (one of Dan's girls is missing from the picture because she was down with flu that day)

The grown ups (in my hands is a signed copy of Dan's book)

On Tuesday, December 17 we went to Salt Lake City in the afternoon after Nika had finished her tests for the day.  Last time we went to the US we went to see a Jazz game.  The girls really liked it.  Rather than doing presents - since we are trying to avoid accumulating more stuff - we offered the Jazz game for a Christmas present this year.  The kids jumped at the chance.  We got tickets in the second row of the second level in a really nice location on the court.  We also wanted to go and see Temple Square.  It wasn't really "Christmas feel" when we walked through since it was still light and there was no snow.  We did make it to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and saw the big Christmas tree, some carolers, and the "Light the World" service vending machines.  It was a nice little visit.

Then we went across the street and had lunch before walking down to the Vivint Smart Home Center to watch the game.  The kids and I all got through security and were scanning our tickets and I looked around and Yulia was missing.  She was stuck at security.  She wasn't allowed to bring her big camera in with her.  Our car was parked half a mile away.  I ran it to the car while Yulia and the girls browsed in the team store.  When I got back, we all picked our Jazz gear, paid for it, and then found our seats for the game.

The Jazz were playing Orlando.  The team won - in an exciting and fun game.  Last time we watched, they also won.  But Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell didn't play in that game.  In this one they did, and we had a great time.  The experience was worth it.

Salt Lake Temple

Watching the carolers

Alexandra

Polina and Veronika

The whole family

We had fun buying some vaccines!

Temple after we ate and were walking to Jazz game.

Beautiful night view of Temple Square.

Walking to the Jazz game.

Comparing foot size with Rudy Gobert!  Rudy wins!!!

Jazz Uniforms through the ages.

Tip off!

Girls watching the action.

Yulia and I in our Jazz gear having a fantastic time.

Our fall in pictures

I had some interesting experiences with the medicine here in Kazakhstan. We have great medical insurance here but the quality of medical treatments is really hit and miss; everything depends on the doctors you get. When Nika had her surgery last year, we got to a good doctor. When Spencer had his ordeal with cancer, we went through a few doctors before we finally got to a good one. I wasn't so lucky. I have been having an unexplained pain for the last 4 years, and I went to a number of doctors here a few times, every time to no avail as far as my concerns would go. But every time they wanted to treat something else. Last time they thought I had some inflammation in the rib cage, so they prescribed 5 days of IV treatment. IV treatment is something they freely use here to treat just about anything. That and shots. This is how they administer most drugs. You need antibiotics? Sure, here is your shot, or even better ... here are your 10 shots! I had to choose between shots and IV, and since I had to endure IV for only 5 days (vs. 10 days of shots), I went with it. Here is me enjoying my choice at our health clinic on campus. There was no gain but no loss either, so I guess all is well.

Sophie is our absolute animal lover! She loves all animals but especially our dog Yuki. Yuki usually doesn't like cuddling (like in the picture bellow) with anyone, but she lets Sophie do it. This is how I often find the two of them.

We had our friends, the Thomas family, over for dinner and Halloween celebration here on campus. The kids were very excited to do real trick-or-treating among our four apartment buildings. While the kids went on a candy hunt by themselves, the adults had a great time visiting.

Our combined crew of trick-or-treaters.

Getting ready to go out for the candy loot!

As usual, our girls were very creative Halloween artists!

Our entrance door from outside.

I was very proud of myself for creating this Pinterest worthy dessert: witch fingers! (shortbread cookies with jam and almonds)

In November Spencer had his 41st birthday. Contrary to what he may have thought as a child, he didn't die at such an old age! Just got a bit wiser, that's all!

In November we also went to a Korean Cultural Night that was held at the Ballet Theater. That theater was built two years ago and is very modern looking. Before the night started, the Korean ambassador gave a speech  about different projects that South Korea and Kazakhstan have together. The cultural event had dancers and melodies performed on traditional Korean instruments. The dances were very unique.  They were the complete opposite to the energetic Russian dances I am used to. In a way they reminded me of shaman dances of Siberian tribes. Very interesting!

Spencer's childhood friend, Jon Peterson, came to Astana in November to teach a 2-week course at Nazarbayev University. Jon and his family lived here a few years ago, and became our family overseas. It was really nice to have him here and to remember the "good ol' times".

Our Thanksgiving dinner with Jon.

Our church branch had a Thanksgiving get together at the Thomas's house. We had super yummy potluck dinner and then played a fun charades game with a Thanksgiving theme. It was a fun evening.

Here is Sophie showing whatever it was she was showing for all of us to guess.

Our Christmas Program at the church was much earlier this year because all three families (all three happen to be American families) were leaving in the first part of December to various vacation destinations. One went to Dubai, another one went to India, and we went to visit our family in America. Here are our Primary children singing a Christmas song during the meeting. This was the last time all of them were in the same class together because the three girls in the back (two of them are ours) have moved up to the youth class with the ringing of the New Year.

It is 2020 and the University went above and beyond in preparing for the New Year Celebrations! When I took the two pictures below, they didn't have all of the decorations up yet but it was very festive already!

Babushka and Sophie are in the background. 

We had a long fall this year and a pretty mild winter so far but winter nonetheless. My favorite time is when we have a fog in the night and early morning and then the sun comes out, and we have a Winter Wonderland! Of course, we will have this Winter Wonderland for 5-6 months, and by the end of the season we will all be fed up with it but for now it is a pure joy!

The front of the university.

I am just loving all of it!

 Well, as I mentioned earlier, for Christmas we went to America to visit our family and so our next post will be about our adventures there.