Then and Now

Over Christmas break we went and visited our friends from the housing compound we lived in when we first arrived in Moscow. It was so great and they had a fun sledding hill - too fast for our kids, but fun! Of course Levin and I forgot our camera in the house so we had no pictures of the sledding. Last night they brought us the sledding pictures and also these pictures from last summer. It made me miss living out there so much and especially their family. I of course miss summer so much too! I titled this post Then and Now, but I guess it will just be "Then" and I'll post Now in a few minutes.

Oliver at their house. He loves their toys.
Leah at the playground. She always loved the "blue house."
Oliver at the beach. Somehow this got out of order.
Oliver on the playground. It was nice because there was grass. When we moved to the embassy it has mulch on the ground and I had to put poor Oliver in pants so he could crawl around the playground.
At the beach there. They have this lovely part of the lake fenced in so kids can't go too deep. It was wonderful.
Leah and her good friend James. He is almost exactly 2 years older, but they are still good friends. He came over just last night and we babysat while they celebrated their anniversary and Leah was beyond excited when the doorbell finally rang and James came.
Oliver is not so sure what he thinks of the beach? Whose ugly white legs are those in the background?? Yikes. That lady needs some tan in a bottle.
Leah with her floaty and life jacket. She has been known to run around the neighborhood wearing her life jacket even when we were no where near the lake.

At a 4th of July BBQ. It was hot, is mostly what I remember. Our friends are contractors and some of their contractor friends were hosting it and invited us to come too. It was mostly older (60-ish) age people and so when we first arrived with our kids there was not a single thing to drink (not even water) that didn't have alcohol. I had to go home and get Leah a sippy cup of water because she kept pointing at the beer and asking for some juice.