Bolshoi Tour

The day after Christmas Levin and I had the opportunity to tour the Bolshoi Theater.  I didn't know this before we started preparing to move here, but Bolshoi means big.  So Bolshoi Theater, just means big theater.  Real creative huh?  Nearby is the Malenoi (I think) theater which is the small theater.  Also closeby is the youth theater.  The theater was closed for 6 years prior to us arriving so it was a big deal it opened up. It was closed for remodeling.  To see a ballet you have to buy your ticket the day they go on sale because within minutes they are sold out.  And they run for about $500 for a "cheap" ticket.  And opera is about $150.  So . . this may be our only chance to see the theater.

 This is an underground performance room.  It is only 6 meters from the Metro and you can't hear any of the noise from the trains.  That took a lot of work.  Thee floor rises and falls to accommodate the type of performance and how intimate it is.

 This is some hall . . yes, I have a bad memory.  It was really pretty though.

 This is an unflattering picture, but I want to explain about this room.  Although the Tsars lived in St. Petersburg they came to Moscow for the coronation so all the immediate parties afterwards were in Moscow.  This room above has such good acoustics the tsar could hear everything everybody said.  The tapestries on the wall all had the monogram of the new tsar.  Since Nicholas II was the last one the decor is for him.

 Another hall with the tapestries on the wall for Nicholas II.  Apparently the communists came in and took a knife and cut them all out.  So when they remodeled it (I don't know if it was this remodel or a previous one) they found a Russian loom (is that right?) from the same era to make the tapestries.

 These were some costumes found in the basement from an Italian show that came to the theater.

 Finally the main stage.  It is slightly inclined, but I'm not sure how well you could see if the room was filled with people.  There were workers preparing the stage for the Nutcracker production.

 These were our tour guides.  The man was the official tour guide, but refused to speak in English even though he can so the Embassy tour agency lady (just run by her and her husband) translated everything into English for us.  You can see behind them all the box seats.  It makes me think of Anna Karenina when I think of people renting out a box for the season.

Up from the balcony.  This was standing right next to the balcony.  If you sat in the back row of the balcony from where I was you could only see about 1/4th of the stage.  A few sections over you couldn't see a single piece of the stage if you were sitting there.  I'd be pretty mad if we paid a lot of money and then arrived and couldn't even see the stage!
The tour got a little long and I was super tired so I'm sure I missed important details, but that's the gyst of it. It was a fun experience.

Christmas

We aren't very good picture people.  And I finally figured out the other day no wonder our pictures haven't been turning out - the flash was turned off.  Nice.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from Christmas.

 Oliver got a tractor from Daddy and a Spiderman light up toy from Grandma.  He loves it.

 Daddy also got Leah a cotton candy machine.  The cotton candy it produces it pretty small, but we plan to use it with my new Family Home Evening chart that Levin gave me.  Now the kids will have a turn to pick treats so I think we'll use this.  Oliver also got a mini ice cream maker and Leah a little cupcake kit.

 Oliver on the trampoline Santa brought.  This is to burn off the calories from all the sugary treats.  I told Leah it was because he was tired of them jumping on all the furniture.

 Autumn got a little kitchen.  She may not be quite old enough to play with yet, but I'm sure she'll love it. :)  She also got clothes.  BORING!  But she is only 4 months old afterall.  Grandma came this week and brought her a fun Elmo doll so at least Grandma takes care of her fun.

 The kids with their Buzz Light Year guns that Santa brought.  Those got a little annoying after a while.  Mostly because Santa didn't realize the kids would just hold down the triggers.

Autumn's toy was a great success with the other kids too.  All three kids were cooking in the kitchen for a while.
I guess I didn't post a picture of it, but the two older kids also got a Wii game with the Nick Jr characters (Dora, Backyardigans, etc.) doing exercise games.  Leah has spent a lot of time doing it and has figured out if she jumps on our trampoline while she plays she can get a pretty good score without doing the actual movements you're supposed to do.

St. Michel

I hope you enjoy these pictures because our drive to Normandy, but not exactly "fun."  Both kids got carsick and it was messy to say the least.  But our hotel there - IBIS was one of the best kid-friendly hotel rooms I've ever seen - actually it was THE BEST.  We liked it so much after St. Michel we went back to the hotel and didn't even go to the American Cemetery we originally planned to go to.

This is St. Michel - a town and abbey built on a rock out in the ocean basically.

 We got more use out of our baby train stroller.

 Inside the town.  We just wanted breakfast because we hadn't had any at the hotel.  It was after 9 and all the restaurant doors were unlocked, but when I'd go in they'd say they were closed.  One guy finally said he was open, but when we went to order crepes he said, "oh, no pancakes."  This was after he served another woman who came in after us and basically ignored us.

 Leah and I went in the Abbey.  Unfortunately I couldn't understand to listen in on the tour guide who was doing it in Japanese.

 Here we are hanging out while I feed Autumn.  In just a few minutes there was a drastic change in our peaceful family time.

 All the Japanese tourists came out.  They surrounded me and the kids taking pictures.  Some were polite and asked if they could take a picture, others just started snapping.  At one point I couldn't even see the kids anymore.  The kids liked their celebrity status and Oliver started doing his monster scare for them.  Later in town we saw some again and one girl asked if she could hold Autumn.  Levin had to practically pry Autumn out of her hands about ten minutes later so we could go.

 We finally got our crepes.  My Nutella one was sooo good.  The kid's sugar ones . . so so.  Neither were better than anything you could get in Moscow.  Autumn served as our table.

We left super early the next morning back to the airport - this time with the kids on empty stomachs so it was a much smoother drive, but I was still navigating which is never a good thing and they didn't label the roads to the airport very well, but we got there!

Chartes

So we left Disneyland and went to Normandy.  We stopped by Chartes on our way out.  It is a cathedral and the blue in the stained glass is famous, I guess.  Chartes blue.  You ever heard of it?  I haven't.  But it was a nice place.  It had a lot of construction going on inside.  Gotta love France because seeing their churches is free - as opposed to the ones in England that charge an arm and a leg.

Disneyland Summation

We had such a spectacular time at Disneyland.  I could have stayed longer if it wasn't the weekend.  The lines were sooo short, especially compared with that Saturday.  Oliver was young enough we didn't have to pay for him.  The timing was perfect because Leah is in love with Minnie Mouse and Oliver although not at his peak, is in love with Mickey.
The service was good, the food not as good as we'd been told, but at least we didn't spend more money on food than was necessary.
The French were mostly friendly, spoke English, and we only had a few weird things like, oh the light show is starting late tonight, no biggie.
Leah overcame some serious fears.  She rode Peter Pan the first day with Levin.  We told her she had to go with me the next day and she freaked out.  That night in her sleep she started crying, I don't want to go on Peter Pan so we told her she didn't have to.  The last morning she was all set to go with me.  I was amazed!  She was so lucky though because it was one of the few weird moments we had where right when we went up to the ride it unexplainedly closed.  It was like 10 am, but suddenly closed.  She got over her fears of Buzz Lightyear ride.  AND most impressive, we did baby switch and she rode Big Thunder Mountain with Levin.  Then I needed her to ride with me since Oliver wasn't old enough.  She did it!  While we were riding it (it's a roller coaster) she said, I don't want to go down again!  Then put on a brave voice and said, but I know we have to.  Then she pulled her hat down over her eyes and down we went!  Levin got her a lollipop for her bravery.  She rode it again with us another day back to back just like that.  She has been much less scared at home since then too.  Right before we left she was at an all time scary high where a lot of times she wouldn't even go downstairs without me walking in front of her.  She hasn't had those fears since we got home.  She is still upstairs with me instead of watching Thomas with Oliver since for some reason Thomas scares her, but hey, it is a great improvement.  I'm so happy with the change!
Who knows if we'll ever go again, for sure we wont in the middle of summer, but it was a fun time and I'm pro Disney now!

Disneyland - The Rest of the Days

Because we stayed in a Disney hotel (Cheyenne with a nice cowboy theme) we were able to go to Magic Hours which is 8-10 before the park opens to everyone else.  It was a frosty morning, literally Dumbo had frost on his ears.  No pictures of Dumbo, but this Orbitron rocket ship had frost too.  Oliver is squeezed in there.  He was not happy.  Later we got the arrangement worked out better.

 Parachute Drop.  I was amazed neither kid was scared by this - Oliver is on the other side of Levin and LOVED it.

 Autumn and I waiting for the others to ride Slinky Dog.  I don't even know how many times we rode that back to back, but it was a lot.

 Meeting Pluto

 Leah in front of the Rapunzel thingy.  Other people were in the way so we couldn't get the whole thing where she stands inside, but that's okay.

 That is Small World there in the background.  Leah loved it.  The second day we were in Hollywood Studios so we didn't ride it and Leah asked all day, now can we ride Small World again.  It was the only ride Autumn could go on with us, so it was a nice ride.

 Oliver on Levin's head to watch the Christmas Convolcade or something like that - a short Christmas parade.  Note his Tigger gloves.  He loved them.  We had to buy those when we thought I'd lost his other ones.  Turns out they were in the back pack after all!  But these seemed to keep his hands warmer anyway.

 Autumn, mostly always patient, spent a lot of time snuggled in her car seat like this.

 The Christmas parade again.

 These next pictures are from the nightly parade.  We watched it twice.  The second night we followed it down towards the Castle for the light show and got to kind of watch the parade twice in one night.  It was actually really fun.  I liked it as much as Leah.  The song was kind of catchy and gave you that magic of Disney feel.

 Levi holding up both kids for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony.  Yes, his back hurt.  But what a good Dad he did it anyway.

 Then we went to the light show on the castle.  Since most of the time we were each holding up one of the kids we didn't really get a picture, but it probably wouldn't have turned out anyway.

 Once again on Orbitron - this time with Oliver in front.

 This was a fun ride - this is just the sign out front.  We did Baby Switch both times we rode it.  I had to yell at a British kid who ran into the back of me and Leah, but otherwise it was a fun ride!  Leah got to steer while I pressed the gas.  Let's just say she's going to need a lot of driving practice and good thing she has 12 years before she can get a license.

 Coming out of Playhouse Disney.  It rained a lot our last full day so we watched the Playhouse Disney show twice as well as the Lilo and Stitch show twice.

 The kids each got a souvenir, Oliver a Mickey Wild West t-shirt and Leah a Minnie Mouse nightgown.

 Our last morning, we just went to Magic Hours since it was Saturday and the crowds were pouring in.  Leah finally decided she wasn't too scared for the Buzz Lightyear ride and we rode it several times in a row. She even "shot the bad guys."  I think it helped that I had convinced her the bad guys were just cardboard and not real.  In the end I think it may have been both kids favorite ride.

 The Christmas tree.  I don't know how this got out of order.