At Baikal With Friends

     In July, we went to Lake Baikal with Renata, Ira and her son, Sasha, and the Thai guys.  It was a gift to get time with each of these people.  We were waiting for a new battery charger to come in the mail for our camera, so Renata took pictures and sent these to us.  Above, we ate some smoked omul (fish from Baikal).  It's funny because I didn't think I wanted any until I smelled it and tasted it, and then I think I ate more than Leif and Renata did!  It was super fresh and yummy.

     It's a good thing we went straight to the beach right after we arrived the first day!  After that afternoon, it was rainy and COLD!  Ira asked me why I didn't bring my snowsuit for Ike, and I thought she was kidding.  But she brought a snowsuit for Sasha, and after a day, I'd wished I HAD brought Ike's!

     Anneka wanted to ride in a paddle boat, and we thought it sounded fun, too.  It's so funny that the girls wore adult-sized life jackets!!

     With the super-padded girls on our laps, peddling was no small feat!

   
      We took turns and Leif took Sasha and Anneka out, too.  They loved it the most, I think. (See Ella watching them).

     Out at sea.

Anneka playing in the sand.

So fun to dig!!

   

     There's been so much rain this year, that everything is SO GREEN!  Ike loves to sleep in our arms. Looking at this picture, I feel like he's already 2 pounds larger!  We weighed him yesterday and he's basically double his birthweight... about 18.5 pounds.  He wants to do everything his sisters do and is very fast at crawling already.

     The place where we stayed had a nice little playground for the kids.  They also had a very clean, nice outhouse.  Anneka was very happy as she loves the kind of outhouse that is basically a hole in the floor.  She commented about how nice this one was, and wanted to go all by herself.  I wouldn't let her, as the whole is the width of her body.  Imagine if she fell through!

     We love this sweet little guy!

     We went for a walk in the rain on this day.  In a sad moment, the blanket on Ela's stroller blew off into the lake (when we were walking on a pier).  Anneka cried and cried, as Leif's grandmother made it for her when she was a baby.  We searched in the water, but it was so cold and windy and far from the shore.   We even went back a couple of times to see if it had washed up to shore.

     I think Ira thought our kids would surely get sick because they weren't dressed warm enough.  She called later in the week to ask if everyone was well and seemed surprised that we were.  I'm so thankful!

     We were all happy to get this special time with Renata and to know her better.  She stayed in our cabin with us.

     Picture taken by Anneka

All Smiles

 I think Leif was trying to get Anneka to go in deeper.  

Shivering after our swim

Anneka got brave with Renata