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...

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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 Travel 2017: Day 10 - Schindler's Factory and Krakow

I woke up on Monday morning feeling quite ill - I was congested through my head and chest.  I'd been having some allergies, but this felt more like a cold.  I didn't feel up to going out, so Yulia and the girls went to the Schindler Factory and Ghetto without me while I slept and tried to recuperate some.  It sounds like they had a really good time at the factory - which is a museum about the Ghetto and Polish resistance and is very interactive and child-friendly.  It was also free on Monday, and they got there in time to get some of the few tickets remaining for early in the day, so everything worked out okay in the end.

[Yulia will tell more about the museum in the captions to the photos from that experience]

Portrait of Oscar Schindler

Portraits of people saved by Schindler, on both sides of the wall.

Equipment from Schindler's factory to make cookware.

Beginning of museum: pictures and video of Krakow in 1939.

Looking at slides from 1939

Stations where you could stamp documents

Apartment from the era.

Scenes taking place behind the window.

Polish Resistance

Nazi invasion and occupation.

Replica of Ghetto wall, which resembled tombstones, with actual accounts from Ghetto survivors on the wall.

Schindler's Office 

Big cube with cookware from the factory

The names of all the workers saved by Schindler

Exhibit about Aman Goth, camp director played by Ralph Feinnes in the film.

Closing the Ghetto and putting Jews into camps.

Working camp.

At the end of the tour.

Plaza of empty chairs in commemoration of the victims of the Ghetto

After everyone came home, we went out at about 5:00 p.m. and looked around the old part of the city.  Part of the day was buying Poland souvenirs.  The girls each got a wooden jewelry box, and Yulia got an Amber necklace to put in her own jewelry box at home.  After we were shopped out, I went and showed them Jagiellonian University, where I'd been to a conference two years ago.  After we saw the university, we went and found a Ukrainian restaurant that we had seen the first night when we got turned around.  We found the restaurant and had a nice meal - the portions were much smaller than the night before, but the food was delicious.  You can't go wrong with Eastern European cooking.

Stopping for pastries after the museum.

Part of original defenses of Krakow

Peacock sculpture in a random building.

Scenes from Old Krakow

On the square.

Central square

Souvenir shopping.

A flute-playing goat.  Our flute-playing girls.

University courtyard

University courtyard

                   

Looking down the well.

Part of the original walls.

Ukrainian food!

After we ate, we had room for ice cream, so we got some and sat outside and watched people for awhile while we finished our cones.  We walked home, calling it an evening.  Our time in Krakow had come to an end.  Yulia hadn't been to center Krakow before, and she fell in love.  Krakow is less touristy than Prague, and quite a bit cheaper.  We loved Prague, too, but in Krakow we felt very much at home as well.