Utah Trip Christmas 2017 Part 2 - Temple Square and Utah Jazz

What Spencer wanted for Christmas this year was to go see Utah Jazz play. He got his wish! But since the girls and I are also Jazz fans, we made sure his Christmas present included our tickets! That’s how we roll! The game we picked was Utah Jazz vs. San Antonio Spurs on December 21^st.

Since the arena where Jazz plays is just a couple of blocks away from the Temple Square, we decided to go there first to look at the Christmas lights. It was majestic! We had a wonderful time, and as a bonus we ran into our friend Svetlana who is serving a mission there.

With Svetlana (in the blue hat) and her companion Sister Deighton, who happened to be the best friend of Sister Dixon who is serving here in Kazakhstan.

We had a question that we needed to ask Family History workers, so we went to the Family History Center. While we were getting our answers,  the kids spent 30 minutes in this awesome interactive room learning about the origins of their names and other great things.

Here is Nika using an app that takes a picture of your face and tries to figure out your what nationality you belong. It put her in the Russian costume! Ha!

An outdoor Nativity

Salt Lake Temple at night.

Looking into the Reflecting Pool.

So magical!

Lina

Lexa

Nika

Sophie

Papa with the girls.

After visiting the Temple Square, we wanted to go eat at the mall across the street but their food court was just crazy with all of the Christmas shoppers, Jazz goers, and the like, so we decided to go eat at the arena. That one decision cost us a lot of money but fun was had by all! Since we showed up a whole hour before the game, Spencer took us to the gift shop just for fun. A couple of hundred dollars later we came out as fierce Jazz fans! Spurs, beware!!! We decided to eat at Papa John’s pizza which was another $90. It’s a good thing we don’t do this very often, otherwise we would have gone bankrupt. We found our seats, and the game began! It was a very intense game (especially because we were sitting right next to a group of Spurs fans) until about the last 6 minutes of the game when it became obvious that Jazz would win! The victory was sweet and a confirmation to me that we didn’t waste our money earlier in the night. As a bonus, we also got free Chick Fillet sandwiches the next day because one of the Spurs players missed both of his free throws in the 4^th quarter. I have never heard so much noise made by excited fans when it happened! It was an awesome game to witness in person!

Spencer wanted a picture in front of the Jazz Note. 

Armored in our Jazz attire, let the battle begin! 

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After witnessing this beginning, I am a true believer that every show should start with fire! Or at least with a cake and ice cream!

Here are two favorite players: Donovan Mitchell (looking up) and Rudy Gobert in his fancy maroon suit. Both of them had injuries and weren't playing. 

Fan zone in action!

The game is getting too intense! Only biting of ones fingers can help to ease the growing anxiety. 

Will he make the basket?

And of course our Jazz Bear is the best!!!

To be continued...

Twins

They laugh, they fight, they tease, they cry, they give "thumbs up", they hug, they annoy, they love, they live! Let me introduce you our dynamic duo: Lexa and Sophie! We love you to pieces!

Ice Village at Night

We have had winter here since the end of October and we'll probably have it until at least the end of March but most likely the first week of April. Yep, we have six months of cold, brutal winter. Most days it is actually OK and stays around -10 C (14 F) but some days it gets much, much colder and with the wind, it is just not fun to be outside. We do love winter though, and all of the winter activities that come with it. One of those is sledding. The city builds a few ice villages for kids and adults to go sledding, and the best one is by Khan Shatyr which is not too far away from us. You can also sled on the river banks, and we did that our first winter here. This year we decided to go to the main ice village at night to have fun and to see all of the Christmas lights. It was really fun even though it was a cold night.

The big Christmas tree in the center of the Ice Village

Kids are having fun sledding

Crash!

You can't really see it from this angle but it is a big Rooster wishing Happy New Year!

Those huge ornaments you can see all over Astana during the winter holidays.

Ice igloo. Fun!

Frozen but happy! Time for hot chocolate!

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!