Trip to Solonyeshnoe - Part III

One day we went to the cemetery to clean the grave sites of our family members. The girls went to work alongside and were a great help. My mom and aunt were telling stories about each relative, so the kids got a chance to get to know my side of the family better.

Here are Nika and Sophie are hard at work weeding the grave site of their great-grandfather.

Lexa, Nika, and Babushka weeding another grave site.

Some of the things that were part of our everyday life while in Solonyeshnoye:

Tried to catch at least one of the two farm cats.

They don't have an indoor plumbing, so every day we needed to pump water from the well for drinking, cooking, and washing.

Did laundry the old style

And we had to do laundry almost every day because of this! Lexa could find mud almost anywhere!

Washed dishes by hand

Prepared for winter by stacking the firewood.

Went on walks to the river and looked for mushrooms in the forest.  

The greatest thing about our trip to Solonyeshnoye was that the kids got reacquainted and became great friends with their second cousins Varvara and Katya, and later with another cousin Roman. There are just not that many cousins on my side of the family, and the last time we went to Solonyeshnoye everybody was still too little to play together. This time kids had a blast!

Having a picnic with Varvara just on the other side of the stream right outside of the house.

They dug up some earth worms, made their own fishing poles and went fishing to the river.

Of course, they couldn't catch anything until Varvara;s Dad came to the rescue with a real fishing pole.

And within the first minute a fish was cut! 

Our crew and Varvara

Then we went to Mirny, another village where one of my cousins lives. We stayed there for a couple of days, and the kids spent the entire time riding bikes. I think it is because we do not have bikes in Kazakhstan, and they are really missing them.

Dancing party with my cousin Irina and her son Roman

 And then it was time to say our goodbyes.

Before our bus ride back to Biysk, with Baba Lida, Glaya and Babushka

Baba Lida (my mom's oldest sister), my cousin Tanya, my mom, and Nastya (my second cousin and Varvara's mom)

At the bus station with Aunt Tanya and Uncle Kolya

At our train in Biysk with my cousin's Ira's family

The kids couldn't pass an opportunity to climb this train engine

Best friends forever now! It is great especially because we are a family!

It was a great visit and we hope to see you guys more often in the future! But after three weeks of adventure it was nice to get back home to Papa.

Happy to see each other!