Trip to Utah Part 2 - Fun Times

This post is kind of a potpourri of the different things we did while in Utah this summer.

Our summer vacations to Utah always fill up with fun adventures.  One of the traditions that we have had is to enroll our kids in swimming lessons in Payson while we are there. Before we moved to Kazakhstan our kids weren't strong swimmers.  After our first adventure to Thailand they understood that to have fun in the water meant they needed to swim better, so they've been diligent about learning. They took two weeks worth of lessons and all passed their levels and their classes and are all getting to be quite strong swimmers.

Twins kicking and not having any fun at all.

Diving (Sophia)

Sophie has some water in her ears.

Lexa

Fun times with the Sillardsons.

Lina swimming.

Diving. Lina had to overcome her fears of diving - and did so like a champ.

Nika.

Nika diving.

Nika.

Oma gave the girls some nice summer hats for a fun picture on Lina's birthday.

Sisters!

Polina always has her birthday somewhere different and fun.  Her birthday this year was in Payson. After swimming lessons she wanted to go to Hu-Hot for her birthday lunch.  We were supposed to meet her cousin Karlie there.  That morning Karlie found out that she has type 1 diabetes.  She had to get to the hospital to get her blood chemistry under control, so when she was settled, we went and visited.  We took the party to her.

With Karlie at the hospital.

Birthday cake - angel food with berries.

We made up for the missed birthday Hu-Hot by going back on the last day we were in town.  Karlie and Aunt Rachel were able to join us this time!  Look at those smiles.

The girls wanted/needed covers for their ice skates for when they dress up in their fancy skating costumes.  Yulia turned it into a project over the summer and helped the girls learn how to sew at the same time.

Working on the pattern.

Sewing (Lexa)

One adventure this summer was that Alexandra had to get glasses.  It is much easier to tell the twins apart quickly now.

Another feature of our summer was that the girls did cooking at Oma's house again.

Sophie pooped out from all the adventures.

While Nika and Lina were at Girl's camp, the twins had an adventure with mom and Oma!

The last few years we've tried to do different hikes while we are home visiting.  This year we hiked up to Stuart Falls (behind Sundance Ski resort).  We went up on the first day it was opened - snow kept the Alpine loop closed until much later than usual this year.  The hike was beautiful.  It misted a bit on us on our way up.  On the way down we got a bit of a soaker going.  It is always amazing to me just how quickly you can get totally away from the urban valleys of Utah into the wilderness.

Hikers!

View across the valley toward Sundance.

Trees that had been knocked over by an avalanche.

Plenty of snow still.

At the falls.

The falls were beautiful and very full.

The girls and papa.  Lina didn't come with us because her stomach hurt.

The expedition leader.

Alexandra without her glasses.

Mama and Papa made it!

We had a family reunion with our Willardson family members and stayed overnight at aunt Kathi's house.  Saturday morning we stopped by the Logan Airport to see the planes at the fly-in breakfast that they put on once a month.  A lot of the planes are kit planes that people built.  They were fun little planes to look at.  There was an Apache helicopter parked there as well.  It was being flown to Fort Rucker (home of Army Aviation) for repair. The pilots who were flying it each had over 30 years of flying experience.  They were tinkering with it, putting in fluids, and calling on their phone.  We stayed and waited until it took off.  It was fun.  I had seen them quite a bit when I was in Iraq, but none of the kids had ever been up close with a real military helicopter, so that was an adventure.

Pilots inspecting.

We got to go up close and look.

Pilots telling us about the bird.

Cache Valley in June.  Lots of Snow on the mountains. Beautiful deep colors.

Leaving Cache Valley.

The simple things that we do are often the most meaningful.  Spending time with family, in nature, or just taking advantage of little adventures when they come up is rewarding.  Even though we didn't have a lot of "grand adventures" planned during the visit, we had a grand time nonetheless.

Summer Trip to Russia 2018 - Lake Baikal - Part 2

Wednesday morning we woke up to a thick fog and a cool morning.  We had planned on going to the museum, and then hiking up to a lookout point to see the view.  It was also Lina's 12th birthday.  We sang happy birthday and had treats for breakfast before heading out.  The museum was at the other side of the town and it was about a 3 mile walk to get there.  The day was nice and cool and we had a good walk.  The museum was quite neat.  The highlight was getting to look at different samples from the lake and shore under microscopes.  The kids loved it and we spent about 45 minutes doing that.  There was also a nice aquarium with native fish and creatures as well as a "submarine" simulation that showed the underwater life of the lake.  The lake is over a mile deep in it's deepest part  and has a unique ecosystem.

Fog was covering the lake and the mountains the entire day.

Water, kids, rocks.

In Listvyanka they had these little creatures all over along the banks of the lake. I wished I took pictures of others.

One of the many little streams that come down from the mountains and feed the lake.

A little lighthouse.

 After the museum we stopped and ate at a little cafe.  We also ordered cake and so we had an extra little bit of party for Polina.  My kidneys were hurting, so I went back to the hotel, but Yulia and the girls went and found a horse-riding place and the girls all did a ride and had a wonderful time doing that.

Walking back from the museum

At the cafe the kids entertained each other with mystery games while waiting for our orders.

We were not sure if we'd get to do the real horseback riding due to the heavy fog over the mountains, so I took this picture of our birthday girl with the first horse we could find!

A little church in the village while we went looking for the horse tracking place. 

Us wondering in the village.

We found the place, and they went and got the horses for the kids and the instructors. They didn't have enough horses to put me and Irina on, so we just let the kids to have all the fun. They tried the kids in the fenced area first to see how they held themselves on their horses, and then took them on a trail through the forest. Irina and I waited at the cabin.

Nika 

Sophie

Lina was in heaven!

Lexa's horse was the laziest (or the smartest?) horse I've seen in the long time.

They had also huskies on the farm. They use them for dog sledding on a competitive level. I didn't take the pictures of huskies but found a couple of huge bunnies happily hopping around!

In the cabin they had this map that shows where the people come from to do horseback riding and dog sledding with them!

A cool stove in the cabin! The front room of the cabin was for the customers, the next room was where they did pottery master classes. The rest of the hose was the living quarters for the family.

A beautiful sunset on our way back to the hotel.

Thursday Irina left to go to a different part of the Lake, so we were on our own.  We had a light day planned.  We went to the Nerpinarium, a little aquarium that has shows with the fresh water seals, or Nerpa, that inhabit Lake Baikal.  Lake Baikal is the only place in the world that has fresh water seals.  The seals did a little show and it was fun, but also a bit sad.  The seals were found as babies, abandoned or orphaned, but it is still sad to see them in captivity.  The rest of the afternoon we went to the little souvenir markets and let the girls get something for the trip.  We ate dinner at a little cafe (Cafe Alibaba) run by some Tajiks. The food was reasonably priced and pretty good.

Some goats on the mountain. These are probably domesticated.

A crew of explorers.

A view of the lake from the mountains. It was covered with fog once again.

People tie ribbons so they could return to the lake again.

Rock skipping. Again.

 Friday we woke up and ate and finished packing and checked out of our hotel.  We had bought bus tickets the night before.  We made it to the bus stop in plenty of time.  In fact we had to wait for 30 minutes for our  bus.  The bus was not quite what we'd planned, it didn't have a spot for luggage, so our bags were kind of shoved into the aisle.  Every time the door opened to let on a passenger or to let a passenger off on our way to Irkutsk, we were afraid that the bag would fall out.  It only did once, and it was recovered.  The drive back was okay.  Our driver sped a bit and caused the engine to overheat, which meant pulling over, checking the engine, and then waiting for things to cool down.

Goodbye, Lake Baikal!

 We had the driver let us off a few blocks from the bus station, but near the Tram stop. We were able to get on the tram and go straight to the train station quite easily.  There was a Subway right off the tram stop, so we each ate a sandwich and then went to the station.  We got situated and then Yulia and I went across the street to buy some food for the train.

Our train was coming from Vladivostok and had about a thirty minute stop in Irkutsk.  We got loaded on, and settled in for a 16 hour ride to Krasnoyarsk.  We had a perfectly fine train ride and arrived in Krasnoyarsk at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and were met by Ludmila. Our biggest adventure came on our ride from the train station to the apartment when a car slammed into the back of our bus as we were pulling out of a stop.  The car was going about 40 miles per hour and was crushed.  We had to get off the bus and take another bus for the last two stops.  It was a great opportunity to point out the importance of seat belts and of paying attention when driving.

On the train again.