Summer Trip to Russia 2018 - a week in Krasnoyarsk

Spencer left for Astana on Sunday, June 17th but the kids and I stayed in Krasnoyarsk for another week. Most of the week was busy with doing some remodeling in my mom's apartment (she needed our help to change wallpaper in the hallway), and the kids all took turns helping with the project (because of the limited space we couldn't put them to work at the same time).  But I also made sure we got out every day  and had some fun. Here are some of the things we did.

We went on walks along the river.

We went to visit my old school and we ate ice cream almost every day!

Here are the girls helping to scrape the old wall paper down.

This is how the hallway looked after we were almost done wallpapering it.

We went to the river to wade and skip rocks... because you could never do enough rock skipping!

The girls climbed trees.

Try to find Lina up in that tree. A hint: she scared me because of how high she got up there.

More tree climbers.

We did our everyday things like shopping in the extreme conditions! Extreme because of all that cottonwood tree fluff  that was flying around like huge snowflakes and making everyone sneeze.

The sun went down really late in Krasnoyarsk. This picture is taken almost at midnight.

We walked to the other bank of the river so we could get to the island to do some biking.

While passing some bank on our walk, the bank reps gave us the balloons!

And finally biking on the island which is almost as big as Payson, UT

The ground squirrels on the island were very friendly and were in abundance! Probably because everyone thought they were so cute and were feeding them. 

We had some lunch at Big Yorker which is kind of like a Russian Burger King.

We went to the local zoo but I for some reason do not have pictures of the animals.

I did have a picture of this cute goat in the little petting zoo. 

At the zoo we met my old friend, Ivan. 

Here is all of the fluff from the cottonwood trees. 

More tree climbing

 On Saturday, June 24th which was our last full day in Krasnoyarsk we decided to hike up to the National Park "Stolbi". We do this every time we come to Krasnoyarsk, and we love it even though it takes a long time to hike to the "fun part". This time Spencer missed it.

Taking an Eco trail during one part of the hiking.

Chipmunks here were just as friendly as the ground squirrels at the island.

Here is one coming to Lexa.

We finally got to the first rock "Slonik" (means "baby elephant"), and the kids did more ... climbing!

Here we got on the rock that is called "Grandma"

This one is called "Grandfather", the views from it once you get up there are amazing!

Here we are on "Grandpa" rock.

And here is the view of the taiga and the city in the far distance.

 

Sophie

On top of another rock called "Lion's Gate"

And the view from there.

Lina

This is my favorite rock of all called "Feathers".

Sunday evening we went to the train station (and we took my mom with us who is going to dog sit for us in Astana when we go to America in a couple of days), boarded an overnight train to Novosibirsk where we spent a few hours. Then we flew to Astana from there.

Taking a bus to the train station. It was +30C outside and the bus had a heater on ... thus the facial expressions on our kids!

This was the best open car train that we have taken. It was almost brand new and very comfortable!

We found some mall in Novosibirsk, and the kids went for McDonalds.

The three amigos walking the streets of Novosibirsk. 

We got home to Astana and were very happy to be reunited with Spencer again who apparently missed us also. We've been here for almost two weeks and in a couple of days are flying out to America to see our family there. Summer is crazy!

Utah Trip Christmas 2017 - Part 1

Since we moved to Kazakhstan we spent every Christmas and New Year here but this year we decided to visit our family in Utah during the holidays. It was going to work just fine because we planned to spend Christmas with them and be back to Kazakhstan by December 31, so we could celebrate the New Years with my mom who was going to watch our dog Yuki in our absence. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the tickets for all 6 of us for the price we wanted returning before the 31^st and we were not willing to overpay $2000/ticket to get our wish. The only flights that were available to us started on the morning of the 31^st and put us in Astana on the evening of the 1^st of January. Celebrating the New Years somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, who wouldn’t want that!?! It turned out to be an adventure of its own but more about it later.

We fly through Germany and as always, our flights to Germany from Astana make us wake up at an unreasonable hour in my opinion (that is around 2 to 2:30 am). What does it mean for a family with 4 children, you might ask? It means that the children lose their minds somewhere in the taxi before we even make it to the airport, and the parents aren’t too far behind either! By the time we get through passport control and customs, we are all very well on our way to insanity. Oh well, 27 more hours to go (it’s a good thing our Utah family loves us, or at least we hope so! 😊)

Here is Lexa pretending to be a mushroom at the Astana Airport.

 We started an new family tradition during our trips home: every time we go through Germany (given that we have enough time between the flights), we get famous German soft pretzels. They are delicious! Here are the girls with their mouthfuls of the German goodness!

It took us 4 days to get over our jet lag, and during those 4 days we took the girls to get some vaccinations, visited Springfield Art Museum and a National Geographic Photography Exhibit at the Provo City Library, and went to the new Star Wars movie (which was pretty good, I have to admit).

On December 19^th our oldest niece Aubree’ came home from her mission to Lima, Peru, so we went to see her to the Salt Lake City airport with her family, Oma, and Suzette. We had to wait for a long time after the plane landed for her group of missionaries to appear. A lot of missionaries were coming home that day, so the luggage hall was filled with their anxious families. Once we saw Aubree', the reunion was sweet!

Waiting for Aubree'.

Instead of my niece, we saw Santa Claus!

He stopped and briefly talked with our kids which was exciting!

And here she is!

Tears of joy!

I love this look of admiration on Lina's face!

Aubree' with her little cousins that are not so little anymore!

This is just a random picture of Lina and me. One day we ended up with a similar attire and I assure you, we were not in cahoots! Hmm, we do look alike a lot!

Oma asked the girls to come to the elementary school where she used to teach and perform a few pieces for the 4^th graders. The girls were pretty nervous about it but nonetheless agreed. They spent a few days practicing their flutes and guitars. The twins performed the flute duo of a Kazakh song, then Nika and the twins played “Yesterday” by Beatles (the twins played their flutes and Nika accompanied on her guitar), Lina played “Alleluia” on her guitar, and then they all sang a Russian New Years song with Nika and Lina playing the guitars. It was a lot of fun to see them share their talents. I think the 4^th graders liked it too. 

Practicing at Oma's home before the show.

The big day!

To be continued...