Catching up with our lives - summer 2019

We got back to Kazakhstan from our trip to Utah at the end of June which meant that we had most of the summer here. It was the first time that we spent most of the summer in Astana. We usually would have a trip to Utah and a trip to somewhere else like Russia, but this time we just stayed in Astana. This meant we had to occupy our time with something fun and productive. So, here are some pictures showing what we did this summer after we got back from America.

We celebrated 4th of July by going to McDonalds at the Mall across the street. 

Our twins put on a fashion show which all of a sudden gave me a scary thought: they are growing up way too fast!

Our summer in Astana was really hot this year but most people were gone on vacations, so it felt like our kids were the only kids on campus. To get them to go outside every day we decided to get them skateboards (they actually paid for half with their own money). It was a great thing but we ran into unexpected problem: when they would skateboard on campus, the guards would often run after them telling them that it is not safe! Really?!

Yuki has been true to herself and enjoyed all of the attention she could get from her fan-club which became even bigger with the new group of students that arrived in August. 

We made an outing one Friday night out to the Expo site to see the Musical Fountains. 

The fountains were neat but we have seen bigger ones in our life (we did live in Las Vegas after all!)

The neat thing about having the biggest mall in Central Asia just across the street from us is that quite often they do different exhibitions there on weekends. This one was a quilting exhibition (I noticed that most of the quilts were done by Russian artists, it must be not a Kazakh thing)

This one was one of my favorite quilts - an entrance hall in the Opera and Ballet Theater here in Astana.

This summer I decided that I needed a new hobby for myself and decided to try cross-stitching. This was my very first project. I think they turned out cute!

This summer I had a brilliant idea to challenge all of our kids to really learn cooking, so for a couple of months in the summer each girl took a day of a week (every week for almost two months) when she would be cooking a family dinner. They were to come up with their own menu and do all of the cooking only asking me for an advice when needed. This challenge turned out AWESOME! Each one of our girls took this challenge to heart and cooked extraordinary dinners. Sometimes they even came up with new recipes that were exceptionally tasty! They are much better cooks right now than I was going into college! After this experience we decided to work on a family cookbook which will have all of our favorite recipes and which we are planning to publish before our first daughter goes to college.

Sophie is cooking

Lexa is making biscuits 

Lina is making garlic toasts for her chicken-n-dumpling soup.

I do not have a good picture of Nika cooking this summer but here is one of her specialties - beignets. It is definitely going into our family cookbook!

Once other American families from our church came back from their vacations, we had a fun family Taco Night together with some games that quickly became a hit! Here is Spencer going against Nika trying to shake out the most beans from his cup with a little hole.

This summer we had to say good-bye to some of our dear friends. Here we are with the young volunteers from our branch, sisters Beagly and Sever who both left to serve in other cities in Russia and Kazakhstan.

And here we are saying good-bye to one of our favorite couples, the Adairs who moved to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to open a humanitarian services office. 

At the beginning of September we had a nice development on campus - they brought a mini bazaar to us with all of the fresh fruits and vegetables! I was in heaven! These melons are my favorite!  

School started in the middle of August and with that began a new basketball season for Spencer. As our tradition, we had our basketball team over for brunch one Saturday in September. Some of the basketball girls were in America this summer on their work-n-travel visa, and were very excited to see some of the foods they came to love while in America.

And now it is fall!

Our spring family life

We had a few family events this spring. First of all, at the end of April our twins, our youngest, turned big 1-0! From now on they will be in double digits for the rest of their lives! We spread out the celebration over three days due to some scheduling issues. Spencer cooked a birthday dinner for them the night before (deep-fried chicken and buiscuits). Then we had a birthday cake and presents on the morning of their birthday. And finally, the following day we went to our big mall across the street for some fun and dinner. The twins picked to go Everikum (an interactive science museum), so we bought all of them tickets and sent them on their way. They had a lot of fun going through a mirror maze, a haunted maze, playing a variation of paintball and doing some science experiments. Happy birthday, Sophie and Lexa!

The twins asked for a lemon cake with a lemon cream-cheese frosting. Yummy! 

Making a wish.

Going through a mirror maze at the science museum. 

May 9 was a big holiday here – a Victory Day to commemorate a victory in WWII. In the morning I took Lina to pierce her years. A long time ago we told our kids that when they turn 12, they can decide if they want to pierce their ears, and ears only (one hole in each). Lina was turning 12 in June and wanted to do it but she wanted her ears to be healed by the time her birthday rolled around, so I took her in to a beauty salon for her early birthday present. Everything went very well and was painless. A side note: Lina’s birthday rolled in and out but her ears are still going through the healing process. It wasn’t as easy as she imagined!

That afternoon we went to an Ice Show which had a famous Russian figure skater Adelina Sotnikova as a main character (the show was Snow White) who was also an Olympian Champion in 2014 but got hurt the following year and left the sport. Since our kids take figure skating, I thought it would be good for them to see one of the famous stars of this sport. The show was great. Afterwards we walked to our big mall which is just a couple of bus stops from the Hockey Arena where the show was, and we had a celebratory dinner at the Ocean Basket (one of a very few restaurants in our part of Kazakhstan where they serve sea food). We all ordered different kinds of sea food which was pretty good.

Took our seats and now waiting for the show to start.

Snow White with her prince.

Family dinner.

I normally don't post pictures of just food but this plate of squid made in three different ways  from Ocean Basket was pretty delicious.

In May we also had a church activity for Mother's Day where the women of our branch (a small church unit) got together and cooked some tacos and brownies, and had a nice time together.

Here we have Americans, Kazakhs, a Mongolian, a South African and a  couple of Russians if you include me, who is taking this picture.

At the end of May the girls had their end of the year recitals. The guitar one was a concert for just the kids in their class followed by a tea party but the flute one was for the parents, so Spencer and I went to see that one. It was Sophie’s first recital (Lexa had experienced one in her guitar class already), and both of them were very excited. An amazing thing happened: their teacher started the recital right on time! A side note: nothing in Kazakhstan ever starts on time! Ever! We loved their teacher even more for that! The girls did great, and we were very proud of their accomplishments!

Sophie is on the left and Lexa is on the right.

Kids with their teacher whom we absolutely LOVE!!!

Afterwards we called the older girls and asked them to meet us at the … big mall across the street! It seems like the place where our entertainment takes place. We had a little dinner to celebrate the end of the school year and all of the kids’ accomplishments. 

Goodbye school year, hello summer!!!

Trip to Utah - Part 2

On one of the days during our Utah trip we went to the Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Temple Square is beautiful all year around but we especially love to visit it during Christmas season because of all of the Christmas lights and in the summers because of all of the flowers. Generally, we try to stop by whenever we are in Utah, and this time we had a special reason. There is a wonderful sister-missionary serving on Temple Square right now. She is from Ukraine but last year she was working in Kazakhstan (she is a professional gymnast), and so we got to know her very well. When she was leaving on her mission, we promised her that we would come see her one day and bring some Ukrainian candy, a little piece of home to her. And so we did!

Svetlana, when she finally realized who is behind the camera. 

Yep, we came to see you from all the way across the world!

Oma posing with our kids under the tower of the Salt Lake Temple where she and Opa got married.

While at the Temple Square we stopped by a new exhibit at the Church History Museum.

Nativity sets from around the world

One of the days Oma took us to UVU to see a stained glass window at their library. It was very impressive! It showed a history knowledge in the world from the beginning of times to now. The window was made of several sections that went in a semi-circle and that were covered by a bullet-proof glass on the outside.

I couldn't even get the whole view. It is huge!

One of the sections

Our niece and nephews came over to spend a week at Oma’s house with us while their parents went on a mini work/vacation type of a trip. The cousins had so much fun together playing games, watching movies, annoying each other and … just being cousins!

Playing an old Russian game called "rezinochka" 

Girls' sleeping quarters. The boys were sleeping in the "basement".

One night we took the older four kids to the temple. It was Nika's first time to go inside.

Almost every summer when we are in the US, depending on our trip schedule, we sign our girls up for swimming lessons. All four of them are pretty good swimmers but we want them to develop good swimming and diving techniques and besides that it keeps them busy and they are having fun at the same time. A win-win situation for me!

Sophie is diving in.

And at the end I’d like to share some of my favorite moments from our trip.

That's how our mornings would often start.

That's how our afternoons often went... Oma was reading a book called The War That Saved My Life to the girls and got me hooked on it too.

We went to Payson Grotto in our last week. I love that hike!

We went to visit Mike and Suzette, their boys, and their dog in Brigham City. Here are the kids trying to decide what to do with themselves. Jade the dog is the only one with a clear idea!

"Would you like to play with me, Human?"

We loved spending time with family and friends and going on adventures this summer. But there's an end to every fun adventure and we had to once again come back to our ordinary lives in Kazakhstan. Oh wait, not this time. This time we were bringing Oma with us. Stay tuned for her adventures with crazy kids of hers in a far, far away land.

Summer 2016 Trip to US Part II - Reunions

We didn't do a good job of documenting our trip to the United States this year.  Part of the "problem" was that we were very busy while we're there, and then we came back and immediately went to Russia.  Yulia and the girls stayed for an extra three weeks and I came back to Astana to get ready for, and begin the semester.  I needed to be here to welcome three new faculty members, and to make sure things were ready for the new semester for the department - I've been the Department Chair since August 2015.

We wrote a post about our big adventure at Disneyland.  That was one of the highlights of the trip. The other main highlight was the opportunity to spend time with our family. We had the wedding reception of my cousin's daughter the first day we were in the states, which was a good opportunity to see family from my Dad's side.  The son of my oldest cousin on my Mom's side also got married this summer.  My mom has been kind of his adoptive grandma while he's been studying at BYU before and after his mission to Brazil, and so it was fun.  We also had our annual family reunion with everyone in conjunction with his wedding.  My oldest niece, Abree also had her mission farewell and left for Peru, so it was a busy time for all of us.

At O'Hare waiting for our last flight.  We were all ready to be done traveling by this point!

Cousins playing UNO at Oma's

The lazy river at the Payson Aquatic Center.  We went here a few times and had a good time.

All of the girl cousins.  Aubree (rear left) getting ready to leave us for 18 months to Peru.

Lina is our nomadic birthday girl.  She is our summer birthday and celebrates it in different places each year.  This year was at Oma's! She got glasses this summer.

Lina with her farm cake. It's nice to have a talented mom. Yummy. 

The cake.

Bowling on Lina's birthday because it was too cold to go swimming.

The twins at the pool. 

We met our friends at Temple Square.  It is nice in the summer.

The girls at the Christus statue.

With our friends.

Playing Ticket to Ride with the cousins.

Cousins having fun at Oma's house.

Trip to Salem pond.

Parents enjoying the shade at Salem Pond.

Trip to Palisades Reservoir.  It was colder than when we were there last year - and much higher.

Hiking to the Grotto up Payson Canyon.

What a crew!

We weren't the only ones with this idea.

Max and Danielle: A lovely couple and a lovely wedding day!

At the reception.

Family reunion at Payson Pioneer Park.

Our girls putting on a show.

Hanging out at Oma's house.

Other highlights of our time in Utah included the opportunity to spend time with my brothers and sisters and our nieces and nephews.  We made a trip to a museum at BYU that was about anthropology, and which had a huge focus on textiles from south America.  It was interesting to see, and was a fun time.

At the BYU Anthropology Museum.

Springville Art Museum.

The museum has a large Russian art collection and we loved looking at it.

Cousins!

We made outings to go see "Finding Dory" and just little trips around town as well.  Overall it was a quick four week trip. We are grateful we have the opportunity each summer to spend so much great time with the family.  Next year we'll do a better job of documenting things while we are there!

Getting ready to fly home to Astana.

Sunset Over the Atlantic. On our way home.