Our Summer Trip to Utah - Cousin Time Part 2

The first week we were in Utah, Oma threw a "birthday party" for our girls and their cousin Karlie who all have birthdays within 4 months. She bought them all these cute shirt (the first time I saw the shirts, I thought they were doll clothes, and you will see why) and had a family history party where girls wrote in their journals the stories about their ancestors.

A ladder of cuties!

Listening to Oma's stories about their ancestors.

These are the shirts that Oma bought for the girls before they put them on! Magic!

Every summer when our big family gets together, we make a hike up to Payson Grotto and have a little picnic afterwards. It became sort of a tradition since we discovered the place 3 years ago. The hike itself is very easy and very short but is beautiful nonetheless. Anybody who is able to walk can do it. At the end of the hike there is a nice waterfall. We love going there!

Waiting for others to arrive to start the hike.

Emma and Lina

Aubree and Aunt Suzette

Aaron was not so thrilled to be caught on camera!

Spencer is holding the wall!

I finally got Uncle Mike!

David

Nika. Love those freckles!

If you don't see Lina, look up! This time she was on top of the waterfall.

 We also had quite a few gatherings at the Payson park in different family combinations that looked like this...

Add caption

Oh, look, it's a giant faucet! Kids and water - a never ending story!

We also had a lot of meals together, played many games, made some crafts, watched America's Got Talent. Thanks to our family's passion for this show, a lot of our cousins are now hooked without any chance for recovery. OK, may be I am exaggerating, just a little bit. 

Watching one of our favorite shows together!

I love big family dinners!

Working on projects and crafts.

Making friendship bracelets.

Cousins are the best!

To be continued....

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 Fun in Solonyeshnoye - Trip to Altai Part II

We did lots of fun things while we were in Solonyeshnoye. One of those things was riding horses. My second cousin Anya works at a horse farm. They raise and train mostly Orlov trotters but also have a couple of work horses and one of some American breed. Anya rides Orlov trotters during races but she also takes care of them all. She invited us to come over and tour the stables. Those were some nicest stables I have ever seen. Anya showed us around and told a story of each horse that was in the stable (a few of them were out at a Federal championship race in another city), and then gave girls a ride. The only horse we could ride that day was the work horse (other good mannered horses were at the race), and they didn’t have a saddle for him, so Anya just led him with the girls on top. They had fun nonetheless. And since I mostly rode bareback when I was a kid, she trusted me to ride him on my own. :)

In the stable

The girls are in love with horses

Yep, totally in love!

Almost ready to be mounted

Lina is in heaven!

Sophie

Lexa

Nika

And me!

This is the cart that Anya rides in during the races

A mother horse with her baby in the pasture

 And while we are on the horse subject, every day we would have this little herd of horses walk by our house. I just love horses!

One of the days my cousin Galya, Nika, and I went up in the mountains to gather some tea called badan. This is a famous herbal tea from Altai and it grows up in the mountains around the village. Our family loves this tea, and Nika was very excited to gather her own. My cousin also taught her which wild mushrooms are good, and Nika was very good at finding them. It was a great day!

Solonyeshnoye in a beautiful valley 

Badan leaves. These are new leaves. The ones that are gathered for tea are 2nd or 3rd year leaves (they are dark brown)

Nika gathering tea.

Sharik (translated as "balloon") was our loyal companion

Nika

After the tea is gathered, it needs to be washed and then dried. Here is my mom washing badan leaves.

We went down to the mountain river Anui a couple of times while we were there. The kids wanted to swim in it, but because it has rained for three weeks straight, the water was very cold and somewhat muddy. They were disappointed that they didn't get to swim but were happy to at least wade in it and skip rocks. Summer is fun!  

Anui with some cows coming to drink

Playing on the river is always fun!