Down By The Sea

The time has come once again for daytrips to the sea.

Our friends from Moscow came and we wanted them to see the best part of Southern Russia.

We have been friends with Alex Motrenko since he was only 14. Now he has a wife, a daughter and a hankering to go cruising with Steve before he turns 30 this fall!


The kids love the beach, even when it is too cold to swim. Ruma, Alex's wife, is learning English and I, Russian, so we got to practice on each other.
Those listening may have been lost,
but we managed just fine.
Maddie found other things to do at the beach. She is really into drawing lately and she says Ruma is VERY talented!



Nelly is just adorable! The girls, especially Aubrie, carried her everywhere just like a baby doll.




Brookie made a new friend.





Unfortunately he had about 6 other friends and they sat around begging all day!

He's just so handsome!

You never know what you are going to find on a Russian beach.

An unbroken lightbulb was interesting, but the toilet seat was much more practical!

The fire for shashlik (Russian BBQ) had gone out before dark, so Steve built us another,
10 times bigger than the first...

Then he jumped over it.

Go figure...

Notice Cady praying in the background. The kids were thinking he could die - the dogs were just thinking,

"Mmmm, more shashlik!"

School Days

The other day as I was dropping the kids off at school (their school is the building in the background with a steeple), I saw something that you don't see every day back in America...

A Chicken Herder!



This is the sign for their school.





It says, "House of Prayer" It is a church/private school. The girls don't understand everything (no one there speaks English) but their constant exposure to Russian has really helped them along in their language aquisition.

This is my Russian class. One of my classmates is missing due to morning sickness. My teacher is in the center. The man beside me has lived in Russia longer than we have and, like us, just now decided to really learn the language. The lady in the red scarf is German and the lady beside her is actually a distant cousin of my husband!

Small world...