Cool days, mountains, parks, and weddings

What a fun, full day we had today!


Lena and Dub, ready and waiting to head out to the mountains.

But first, have to relate the adventures of the previous night. Dub sat up singing to himself from 830 until 11, when he finally drifted off to sleep. Four different rocking sessions made no impact at all, but at least he went to bed willingly and without tears. Somewhere around 3AM, Lena fell out of bed. Kevin found her not beside the bed, but right in the middle of the floor. Guess she knows how to fall properly, and rolled to avoid solid impact. Right. Looks like we'll need to get some bed rails from Wal-Mart when we get home. Both Monkeys woke up at 6am, and hopped in bed with Mama and Papa. Although we didn't like being jolted awake at 6am, it is so encouraging to see these two gaining so much confidence in their place in our lives that they get up on their own, garshok, and then hop in bed with us.

Speaking of garshok, we had a breakthrough of sorts today. Dub, for the first time, decided he wanted to use the big potty. He's seen his sister do this since we busted them out of Umit. He was scared of sitting backwards on the potty for a while, but just today overcame that fear without warning. We like this development, although he looks very funny sitting backwards on the toilet with his little legs splayed all about, and it works.

So this morning, we went with the Morin family and Kate (local interpreter) up to the mountains. It's somewhat cool here anyway because of the recent rainstorms, but on the mountain top, it was probably no more than 60 degrees. Boy did that feel good. No weddings parties on the top of the mountain today. In fact, it was just about deserted. Kate explained that it was so because of the very rainy weather the past few days.


The view from the top of the avalanche dam, above the Olympic skating rink, below the ski resort, called Chimbulak.


This is the opposite side of the dam from the skating rink. In the summer, people go down and spell out their names and messages with rocks.

Then we went to the Ramstor mall, which is very much like any of our smaller U.S. shopping malls, except that it has a large grocery store inside. We looked for a khaki skirt for Lena (no luck), got some necessary groceries, and then ate at the sort of equivalent of KFC. Lena is the first child I've ever seen who wouldn't even look at chicken fingers, much less chow on them. So she went without lunch. Didn't want anything to eat at all. Dub made up for it, as usual. They played for a long time in the typical fast food kids playground (the same kind that require lots of Purel in the US), and then we headed home and tried for naptime. You'd have thought they'd have been exhausted, but Dub slept maybe 30 minutes, and Lena only an hour and a half or so.


Dub's first ride on a good ole mall amusement ride. This one being Mighty Mouse.


Lena's first ride on the same Mighty Mouse.

So, our goal for the afternoon was to get them some serious exercise. That took us back to the local park, Panfilov Park, which, by the way, is very beautiful, for the playground and to visit the Soviet Great Patriotic War (WWII) memorials and see all the local wedding parties there. Success! Although we still are not able to find a time at the playground when pre-teens are not pounding all over the contraption knocking down our (and others') toddlers. Kevin has to act as something of a body guard, lest the Monkeys end up under the sand with half a slide on their heads. We walked the entire park, got lots of pictures, chased pigeons, chased brides and grooms, and just made it home in time for dinner and bath time.

We've mentioned the Kazakh weddings, and we'd love to incorporate this tradition into Dub and Lena's weddings. In the Kazakh tradition the bride and groom get married (usually a civil ceremony unless they are very religious) then they and the ever-increasingly-intoxicated wedding party of family and friends visit 15 different locations around the city paying homage to their lost relatives and their country. One location is on top of the mountain, and the rest are scattered through the city. They leave a bouquet of flowers at each location. In the park, one of the 15 stops is a huge WWII memorial with the eternal flame for the Soviet soldiers who fought in the War. The memorial is simply stunning. The wedding parties decorate their cars with streamers and they drive around the city honking and everyone waves. Then, whoever is left standing (it's OK to drink in public here) finishes the evening with a typical reception.


Decorated wedding party car.


You can see how many brides have visited the eternal flame and left flowers just today!


Here is one wedding party after they paid their tribute at the eternal, flame.


Here is the main face of the Soviet Great Patriotic War (WWII) memorial. As with the millions of roses, a picture cannot do it justice. It's stunning. At the bottom, you can see a newlywed couple getting their picture taken here.

Below are three of the minor memorial statues, just as stunning, but not as big, as the main one.






Another view of the gorgeous Russian Orthodox Church at Panfilov Park, across the street from our apartment. Outside the church in an open courtyard there are battery operated Jeeps that kids ride on and have photos made, and the area attracts a lot of pigeons.




A very fun day was had by all. Each Monkey had one meltdown, but recovered quickly.

At most, one week till we're home. Thank you for your prayers and continued encouraging emails and blog comments.

Blessings,
KA+dl