From November to April our girls had a lot of musical contests in which they participated. The twins were playing flutes with their group of girls and took second place in the international festival .
Here they are goofing around on the piano in their classroom while waiting for the results.
With their group and their teacher, Bayan Beketovna.
On stage receiving the award.
Veronika and Polina formed a duet which they called Americano and performed at a Russian Talent Festival where they also took second place in the string instruments category with a Sting's song "Shape of My Heart".
Showing off their certificate
Later they played and sang the same song at the National Contest for young guitarists and won "Judges' Choice" award.
Polina and Sophia took a carving class for the last two years, and this spring their work ended up at some contest as well.
Polina's spoon in the shape of a parrot.
Sophie's spoon with a tree branch and a ladybug.
At the beginning of March our figure skating coach texted me that all of our girls are urgently needed for the Opening Ceremony of the International Youth Hockey Tournament. So, our girls and a few others from their synchronized figure skating team went. Some girls were leading teams out on the ice, and others were carrying flags of the countries of the participating teams (there were teams from Belorussia, Slovakia, China, Kazakhstan, and two teams from Russia). The girls only had two practices (just like about everything in Kazakhstan, it was a last minute deal) but did very well.
Waiting for the practice to start.
Getting instructions from the tournament organizers in the biggest hockey areana in the country.
Before the Opening Ceremony. The girls in purple t-shirts were the ones leading the hockey teams on the ice (Sophie is second from the left, Lina is fith, and Lexa is last), and the ones in national costumes were carrying the flags.
Flag bearers. Nika is in the national Slovak costume.
The teams were coming out of this big snow lepard (a mascot for the national hockey team). You can see Lexa there in a purple shirt who was the first one out with her team from Russia who ended up taking the first place in the tournament.
There is Sophie with her team from Slovakia (in blue) and Nika carrying their flag.
In March Nika and
Lina had a guitar recital in lieu of the International Women’s Day
celebrated widely in this part of the world. It was a combined
recital for both guitar teachers who are also a husband and wife. All
of the kids did great, and I was amazed at how far Nika and Lina
progressed since they first started taking guitar lessons two years
ago. We are so happy that they decided to learn to play and that they ended up with a great teacher! Here are some pictures and a video from the event.
Nika and Lina getting ready to play their duet.
I think this was the theme song from "Titanic"
The final song. Nika and Lina's teacher, Danira, is the girl with a guitar.
Here is a little video clip of Nika and Lina's duet.
A week after we got
back from our trip to Barcelona, we went to Almaty for the country
conference for our church (LDS church- we're Mormons). Normally just about
everywhere else in the world they have stake or district conferences
but here we have neither stake nor district, so the leadership
improvised and did a country conference instead. :) For the first
time the members from the entire country of Kazakhstan got together.
We had people from Astana, Almaty, Atarau, Aktau and even from
Bishkek, Kyrgystan. Spencer and I were both translating there as well
as giving talks. Our girls were doing two musical numbers for the
talent show there, so we all had important parts in the conference
and needed to be there however we had quite an adventure getting
there.
Every single time we
come to Kazakhstan from anywhere outside of the country, we need to
register with the police department. We have at least 2 weeks to do
it but we usually register as soon as we get in. It is a simple
process: we just submit our passports and in about 5 business days we
get them back with the registration. We submitted our passports after
coming back from our trip to Spain forgetting that we'll need them in
5 days to travel to Almaty. We turned our passports in on Monday and
were leaving on Friday night. Thankfully we got them back on
Thursday.
We were taking an
overnight business train. Normally it takes anywhere between 17 and
24 hours to get to Almaty from Astana if traveling by train. It just
depends on how many stops that train makes in between. Flying our
whole family plus my mom who was visiting us was out of the question:
too expensive for a two-day trip. So we decided to take a business
train that is more expensive than a regular train but a lot cheaper
than a plane. It makes only a couple of stops on the way and so it
only takes 12 hours over night. Very handy!
We ordered two taxis
to the train station. It normally takes 15-20 minutes to get there, I
planned an hour. Well, that night we had a snowstorm, and so the
traffic was unusually slow. One taxi was late. When the first taxi
showed up, my mom, the twins and I took it leaving Spencer and the
older girls wait for the second taxi. Their taxi was 20 minutes late.
Traffic was impossible. We were in a real pickle. Spencer had all of
our tickets, and I had all of our passports. We told our driver the
time our train was supposed to leave. He said he will try to get
there on time through the back roads. But even if we got there just
in time, we couldn't leave without the second half of our crew. The
kids and I prayed so hard! We arrived at the train station with 10
minutes to spare and ran to the platform. The train was supposed to
leave in 5 minutes. And there it was … our miracle: the business
train that's never late didn't even get to the platform yet. It
arrived 20 minutes late, and so Spencer and the girls were able to
get there just in time. It was really a miracle! He also said that
their driver drove like a maniac breaking all of the rules.
Our train ride was
very unadventurous the rest of the way. We had nice 2-people
compartments with bunk beds and personal sinks in each one of them.
The girls love traveling by trains, and we've been on a lot of trains
before, and this one was the nicest of them all.
On the train
Nika and Lina were in the compartment next to ours that was connected through this door.
Babushka and Sophie were roommates for the ride.
We booked three
rooms at a hotel near the church building. The other expat families
that came there for the conference were staying at the same hotel as
well. So we got together with our friends, the Stices and the
Hessenauers and went out to a little Korean restaurant for lunch. We
had a great time visiting there. Then we broke up: some of us had to
go to the leadership meeting, and some went up to the mountains with
the youth.
Lunch at the Korean restaurant. It is fun visiting with friends!
Later that evening
all members got together for a dinner and a talent show. The dinner
was catered from somewhere. It was fine but a bit greasy for my
taste. The talent show was great. There was poetry, dances, singing,
guitar, dombra and piano playing. It was fun! Our girls performed two musical
numbers on a guitar, one of which was a song by a very popular Russian rock star from the 80s who was killed in a car wreck in 1990.
Apparently, he was very famous in Kazakhstan because a movie staring
him was filmed right there in Almaty. So, needless to say that the
girls got a standing ovation when they performed that song.
People arriving before the talent show
These girls from Almaty are performing Kazakh folk dance.
Our girls getting ready to sing a song by Viktor Tsoy.
It was a great day
that was dampened a little by the fact that just about everybody got food
poisoning from the dinner. At least we got our systems cleared! :)
Playing in the snow with Mimi and Taraz Stice on our way back to the hotel.
The next day was the
actual conference. It was a wonderful conference, most talks were
concentrated on building unity. And then it was time to say our
goodbyes and go home.
With the Andersons from Ephraim. Spencer went to school with their daughter.
We were taking the same business train
overnight back to Astana. On our way to the train station we stopped
to eat at KFC (we didn't want to risk eating anywhere unknown after
the previous night's adventures). Our train ride back home was
uneventful which is the way we like it! It is always nice to get
home!
Life has been super
busy here and I just realized that we haven't posted in over two
months. A lot has happened since then, so we'll try to catch up as
much as we can.
Our family is
doomed! Just like their parents, all of our kids volunteer and get
involved in everything, big or small! February was full of activities at the kids'
school, including “Miss Ocharovashka” (Miss Enchantment) contest
for the Elementary School grades, the same one they did last year.
This year our youngest three decided to participate in a true Kazakh
manner (meaning with only three days notice!). They had to do a
little presentation about themselves in a poem style, make a dress
out of whatever they find around the house, and show a talent. For a
mother of three cute little contestants it was a no easy task.
Fortunately we saved Nika's dress from last year's contest, so I only
had to make one more dress for the other twin, and Lina's contest
was on a different day, so she shared the dress.
The only reason our
twins wanted to participate is because they really wanted to sing a
famous Russian song that they learned earlier in the month and were
enthusiastically singing just about every night on their way home
from school. And the only reason Lina wanted to participate is
because she really wanted to play her guitar. These were the
classroom competitions, and whoever won would go on to the school
competition. I was really hoping that we would somehow avoid it
remembering all the hassle with it last year when Nika won her classroom contest. Well,
this year Lina won. I guess it just runs in the family. All the girls
had the blast though, and we were really proud of them.
Lexa and Sophie, ready to start!
Twins with their best friend, Dariya.
They are just so cute!
Lina is waiting for the contest to start.
Their teacher really went above and beyond in organizing this contest.
Lina is playing Lizginka (a Georgian folk dance) on her guitar.
