A Ton Of Pictures

Today we sadly said goodbyes to my parents at the airport. It was a wonderful three weeks! Here are some more snippets of our time together.



Anneka has enjoyed time outside with any and all of us. She cries when we come inside and says "walk, walk!"



We had to take a picture of the sweet smiling baby.




And here's the picture we took!



My dad hung out with a lot of our drunk neighbors, talking with them (and sketching this guy). They liked Dad even though he didn't give them any money nor did he drink with them. As we were leaving for the airport this morning, one of my Dad's friends came over to shake hands and say goodbye.



Anneka's grampa taught her all sorts of bad habits.



This monument stands at our bus stop, near our apartment building.



This is the nice lady (Galina) at the market who gave Anneka her spring hat. I saw her today and she told me I must go home immediately because Anneka wasn't wearing long underwear. She was serious, too! So Anneka and I snuck around the market so she couldn't see us. Anneka's fine, I assure you. It's been warm (yesterday was 75 degrees!) Galina was happy to meet my mom.


Dad gave Heidi an art lesson one day. She's very talented!



This is a little fort at the playground in our yard.



This is from one of the days that we walked around downtown. There's a walking street called "Arbat" here that I really like (named after the one in Moscow).




One day we went to the ethnographic museum. This was outside the old believers' complex.



Riding on the bus. Anneka likes to hold onto the pole.



A zoo with animals that live in this area. The bears were really big! People feed them food all of the time (ice cream cones, candy, etc.)




A guy at Lake Baikal who was getting water for his dacha (summer cabin/garden plot). My Dad had Leif ask him some questions. It turns out he lives in Ulan Ude.




Playing at Lake Baikal


Anneka stayed the night in my parents' room one night at Baikal. She woke up early in the morning, so they moved her into their bed and she fell back asleep.
My mom will probably be embarrassed that I'm posting this picture, but I think it's SO sweet!!




Out for a walk near our apartment.




A local artist that Dad met and visited his studio. Dad bought this print from him.

Thanks for making the trek, Mom and Dad! We had a wonderful time and love you very much!!!

A Sunny Day and Siberia Impressions

Today was SUCH a nice day- sunny, warm, and totally spring! This picture is right in front of our apartment building.



Leif and Dad played basketball with some of our neighbors and friends.


Anneka wanted to play, too, but she didn't always get to.



I'm SO happy that winter is OVER!!!



Leif talking with a friend he met through the sports court.




Anneka loves other little kids. She's very social. When she saw two Buryat girls in the playground, she squealed and ran over to them. They kind of liked having a baby around.



It's been so great to have my parents here!! It's so sad that they leave in just over a day. I asked them to give some of their impressions of their time here, and this is what they said....

Mom: I have cherished this time with our 1 1/2 year old granddaughter!! Leif and Jami are such wonderful parents and it's fun to see them interact as a family. I was here 8 months ago, and at that time, I dealt with culture shock and was grieving the fact that Leif, Jami, and Anneka lived across the world. This time was so much better, as I had time to process through a lot of that. Each day has been so full of activity! Culture, spending time with friends, reading books to Anneka, and seeing their daily life has been a big part of this trip. I know that this is where God wants Leif, Jami, and Anneka and where they are supposed to be.

Dad: This has been a wonderful trip! The highlight, of course, has been spending time with Anneka and Leif and Jami. Before I came, I knew that Buryats lived here, but I have really been impressed by how distinctive this area is culturally and historically. I expected to see many more white faces, but there are really more asian faces than white. Also, there are no fat kids. I also have been impressed by the public transportation system! It's so easy to get around. It's great. I had the opportunity to visit a local artist in his studio and to sketch two of Leif and Jami's beautiful friends. I love the food and the markets. I could spend every day in the markets. It's not hard to make friends here. Even though I don't speak Russian, I feel like people are friendly and easy to talk with. There are a hundred things that have impressed me that I could talk about. I've thoroughly enjoyed these weeks!

Easter Egg Hunt

Anneka knew immediately what to do for the egg hunt like an old pro! We were all amazed. We hid chocolate eggs as well as "resurrection eggs" that we opened after the hunt and reflected on Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Don't look too closely at the windowsill dirt. I spent two hours JUST cleaning windows before my parents came (several buckets of dirty black water) but it's impossible to clean them completely. Our theory is that it's really dusty here because there are no lawns. And speaking of grass, now is the season for burning any and every piece of grass/field/bushes. The air has been thick with smoke and it's black everywhere where the fields have all burned. I'd forgotten this about April. It'll be nice when the burning is done!




Anneka loves wearing all different types and sizes of clothing. Here she is in Leif's shirt.


And here she is in my mom's pants. I'm not exactly sure of the story but I found this picture on her camera. I wonder what else goes on when Leif and I aren't looking!





And this is my new favorite dog in our neighborhood (sorry, Muffy!). It's a mangy poodle that runs around all of the time. Anneka likes her, too.

He Is Risen Indeed!

Happy Easter! It was such a gift to have my parents here to celebrate Easter with us. In Russia, we celebrate on the orthodox calendar, which is a week later than in the States this year. Yesterday, Mom, Anneka and I dyed eggs together. It was a lot of fun. My mom made these matching aprons as a gift for Anneka on her 1/2 birthday. I love them!!






This year our little church joined with it's "mother" church (the one we sprouted from) for the morning service and then we joined up again at our little church for a potluck at three. The day was full of music, praise, and celebrating that Jesus is risen!



Anneka did SO well sitting through a long morning church service. She slept through most of the potluck in her stroller outside and when she awoke she was ready to eat lots of bologna. It's her favorite food recently.

Yesterday Leif and my dad visited a local artist and his studio. They really enjoyed the day. I don't have any of their pictures yet. Right now Leif is playing games with people from church. When he gets home we'll have an egg hunt for Anneka... and we'll hopefully have more pictures tomorrow!

The rest of us were at Baikal, too.

The microbus that was supposed to pick us up on the way home forgot us. But miraculously it came back, even after being on the road for 40 minutes! It was God's blessing! This picture was taken while waiting in the little guard stand to come home after a wonderful couple of days at Lake Baikal. Baba, Grampa, and Anneka traded hats.

This was before we went to the banya (sauna/pool house). Anneka was sporting her new swimming suit, but she slept the entire time we were at the banya on the covered porch.


We really like this tree. It's so interesting to see how wind and weather changes things.


There was a pool hall where we could play whenever we wanted. Everyone was good at it except for me!

We also played in the other type of "pool" at the banya. It was so refreshing to get super hot in the sauna and then jump in the cold water. But it definitely was cold!

Playing at Lake Baikal

So, I was originally getting online to blog about our family's time at Lake Baikal and then I realized that most of the good pictures are on the other cameras and I don't have those right now. So instead I'll do a blog about all of the fun ANNEKA had at Lake Baikal (although truly we all did):


There was a little playground at the place we stayed and Anneka was in heaven. This was at the top of the slide.


Over and over, she climbed up the slide and slid down- all by herself!




We stood nearby to make sure she didn't fall, but we didn't even need to assist her.


She loved the teeter totter, too. As you can see, the lake in the background is still frozen.


She liked it when Papa pushed her on the swing.


The last time Anneka sat on the beach, she ate the sand. This time she just played in it... making us all very happy.

Hanging Out

Anneka loves ice cream and especially when Grampa feeds it to her!


She also loves looking at book after book with her Baba.

Right now my parents are traveling around Ulan Ude all by themselves! They are adventurous and brave. Leif is sharing at church tomorrow, so he's been working on that. Anneka's been napping for almost four hours (all this excitement wears her out!). I've been catching up on laundry, team financial stuff, and making dinner for guests tonight. A low-key day.

Little Snapshots

The weather was so nice on Tuesday that we went on a picnic with Inka and Elisabeth. We roasted hotdogs and made s'mores and had a delightful time.



This morning my parents watched the kids during our team meeting here. It was so nice to have a quiet house without distractions!



This afternoon, mom and Leif went to the neighborhood kids club to speak English with the kids. Anneka and I went to visit them at the end.



Anneka loves walking up and down the stairs! (and everywhere)

Welcome, Baba and Grampa!

My parents arrived today for a visit!! It's so great to have them here and Anneka has taken to them right away. Right now, she's leading my dad all over the apartment, holding on to his pinkie. He said he'll have to start learning to do things with just one hand. Here are Leif and Anneka as we waited for them at the airport. Doesn't Leif look stellar in his cool Russian spring hat? Speaking of spring, it has arrived!! We TOTALLY missed the grossest, muddiest week of the year with the "big melt" while we were in Mongolia. There's still a little mud but nothing like the "big melt". Our apartment is hot (between 75 and 80 degrees) because the heat is still on. We have all of our windows open. I love it because Anneka can wear all of her spring/summer clothes. (when the heat turns off, we'll probably go back to layers for awhile).




A happy reunion!

The Last of the Mongolia Pictures

Here are some great pictures from Matthew's new camera the day of the photo scavenger hunt. I wanted ALL of us to get in the manhole, but nobody else agreed.


The restaurant workers stood at the door and laughed at us!


A big statue of Gengis Khan is behind us. We're all acting tough.


Doesn't Heidi's face amazingly resemble the picture?


The Beatles were really big in Ulaan Baatar. So funny.


Happpy!


The guys each got their picture taken like this at the Mongolian Grill Restaurant. It was all-you-can-eat and oh-so-yummy!


Riding the fence in front of the horse statue.


One of Matthew's requirements for the scavenger hunt was to get 17 books in different shots all throughout the day (with one of us in the picture, too).

Our squishy faces on the bus. Normally it's SUPER PACKED on the buses there.


Us girls.