Fun in Utah

We got a blow up pool.  Oliver is not a huge fan of it because the water is cold.

 Here is Oliver with his sun hat.  He can get away with murder when he wears it because I think he's so cute.   He mostly only likes it when someone else is wearing a hat and has been known to run around crying begging Leah to put on her hat.

 He calls this laundry basket his tent and loves to put it on his head and run around.  He can't always get it off so sometimes it gets a little annoying for me, but I'm glad he likes it.

 Here is Leah playing Rapunzel with her blanket.

 We met Uncle Randy's family at This Is The Place Park in Salt Lake.  Somehow I didn't get any pictures of their family, but they were there.  Here is Leah riding a pony.  I was impressed at how brave she was.

 Uncle Oliver and his 3 oldest boys were visiting grandpa's house at this time so we took Joel with us.  He volunteered for a shave at the Barber's Shop.

 The kids loved the Native American dancers.  Oliver was staring so intently, but right as I went to take a picture someone moved in the way.

 They said if anyone wanted to go up and get their picture taken with them they could.  Leah ran up on stage - the first one!

 Leah and Joel panning for gold.

 Leah and I went with Grandpa, Uncle Oliver and Leah's Great Uncle Brian, to the Lehi Round Up Rodeo.  It was a lot of fun.

 Uncle Oliver left his horses here while he went on to California so today (4th of July) we went down to where they are staying and Grandpa gave the kids a ride.  Leah enjoyed it.

 This picture is so far away you can't tell, but Oliver did not enjoy it.  His shoe fell off and he cried the whole time.  But he's gotta buck up some day right?  So we made him ride for a few minutes.

 He preferred this dolphin swing over the horse although I could not convince him it was a dolphin, he kept calling it a duck.

 We also went to see some temples since both of the kids know the words to "I Love To See The Temple" I thought they ought to have at least seen one.  Since it was closed for the holiday we didn't get to get too close.

 The canyon we were going to have our picnic at was closed due to fires so we cut over to the Draper temple and went there too and then found a park nearby to eat our lunch.

 I know I have too many pictures of my kids like this, but I never get tired of seeing them cuddilng up watching TV together - this time on the iPad.  We have loved using grandma's Netflix account on our iPad.  It will be sad times when we go back to Russia and we no longer have access to Netflix.  If only they'd allow people out of the US to use it.

Oliver's 2nd Birthday

We left for America the day before Oliver's birthday so he got two parties.  One we had in Moscow with Aunt Stephanie and Daddy and then we had another one on his actual birthday in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa Flake.

 Here he is eyeing his presents - they seemed more interesting than his cupcake.  He got a Mickey Mouse Choo Choo, a Mickey Mouse Choo Choo book, some little cars including a Russian Lada, and maybe something else I'm forgetting now.  The book has been a huge hit, and the train was too, but it was bigger than I realized and it stayed in Russia.

 In Utah with Grandma.

 He got this Elmo shirt, and some small toys, and a new toothbrush.  Guess what he was the most excited for?!  The toothbrush!  Gotta love good dental hygiene.  Unfortunately, I think he mostly just sucks off the paste and I think only one side of his teeth get brushed, but we brush our teeth more than once or twice a day.  We switched to non-flouride toothpaste.

Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Aaron Visit Moscow

We were pretty lame and didn't take many pictures while Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Aaron were here, but here are a few.

Leah in Uncle Aaron's fur hat that Levin talked him into buying.

 Leah coming out of a church at NovoDevechy (I can't remember how to spell that and I'm not going to look it up).  Females have to cover their heads.

 On the way home we got a Crap Dog - aka Star Dog.  We ate at this little park.  This is before Aaron left to go use the squatter toilet and a nice guy came up and befriended Stephanie.  Luckily my Russian is so limited and my kids were getting carried away chasing the pigeons so I got to wander away leaving her with the crazy guy.  Except he wasn't crazy.

 The cosmonaut museum.  Am I the only one that just figured out that cosmonaut and astronaut are the exact same thing?  The Russians say cosmonaut, we say astronaut.

 At VDNK or something like that.  The whole day I didn't know how to say the name because although I know how to read the Russian letters I don't know how to say them. But basically it is from the Soviet days where each Soviet country had a place to present stuff - I am too tired, can't think of words.  Anyway, now there are other displays and stuff to see.

 On the train ride to the entrance.