Saturday & Sunday in Russia

Back to pictures from our trip...

On Sunday morning, Alexander picked us up and drove us to the International Branch (English speaking) for church. He purposely drove us past Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral so we could get a close look.

It was so fun to be at church with my parents and meet a few more of their missionaries and those they serve with. They are all so great! It was the children's sacrament meeting presentation, so it was a great week to be there.

We came home and had a great Sunday afternoon - doing the things we love...

Lindsey frosting cookies

Hannah watching movies


and Kate coloring while I took a nap on the couch!

On Monday, my mom, Jon, Emily, Kate, Hailey & I went to The Metro. The Metro is their version of Costco. My brave mother drove us there herself!! The traffic and drivers in Moscow are insane and they just make up their own rules (like creating 2 extra lanes of traffic or parking on the sidewalks). Some of the other mission wives would never drive anywhere without the driver, but not my mother! She's too independent for that and if she needs to go somewhere, she gets in the van and takes herself there.

Anyway, we wanted to see what it was like, so we left all the other kids with my dad and went. We got there in about 20 minutes (which my mom said is so unusual, because it usually takes an hour). We started to walk into the store, but they stopped us and wouldn't let Kate go in. "No one under 10 allowed." So, Jon sat out with Kate & Hailey and my mom, Emily & I walked around and shopped. Then, I switched with Jon so he could walk through the store. They had a lot of American brands, but with a Russian twist...for example....

Caviar-flavored Lay's potato chips

Crab-flavored Lay's potato chips


Anyway, it was a great experience, fun to stop with my mom and makes me so very grateful that if I need something at the store, I can run get it and be home in 15 minutes instead of 3 or 4 hours!!

Fields of Medicine

I got an e-mail from a mother at the school, who is helping with "Power Hour." (Power Hour is a reading-focused hour that happens at the school for K-5th graders every day).

She said that she has Kate in one of her Power Hour rotations and she asked Kate what her dad did for his job. Kate told her that he was a doctor. When she asked what kind of doctor, she paused for several seconds, was obviously thinking, and responded "a PTA doctor."

Hmmm, sounds like a combo of her mom and dad!

The Jewels in my Crown

Every time I look at these pictures, I am reminded of how truly blessed I am to be a mother! I love these children of mine (and their dad!!) with my whole soul!

Emily - age 12

Lindsey - age 10

Jack - age 8

Kate - age 5 1/2

Hannah - age 3

Hailey - age 6 months

Jack's Baptism

One of the highlights of our trip, was being able to have Jack baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!! He turned 8 and chose to be baptized and it was so fun that we were able to have it done in Russia.

A huge thank-you to my parents who made it all happen! They had some wonderful people help with set-up, cookies, etc. and it was a wonderful day. Alexander (their driver) pick us up and drove us to the church (which looks like a normal building, but the inside works as their meetinghouse).

My parents had told their missionaries that they were welcome to come to the baptism as long as they had a non-member with them. They also had arranged for a set of sister missionaries to sing and their AP's came as well. It's a huge sacrifice for any of them (and it takes hours for them to travel there), so we were so touched by all those who came.

My parents had also invited President Yakov Boiko (pronounced "Boy-ka" and Yakov is Russian for Jacob), who is the first (and currently the only) Stake President in all of Russia. He's a 32 year old, wonderful man and I know he's worked very closely with my dad to learn all about being in charge of a Stake. He traveled for over an hour to come and it was our honor to have him there.

The service was wonderful!! My dad conducted, Kate gave a talk on baptism and our kids all sang "I Know that my Savior Loves Me." My mom gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and the sister missionaries sang as well. Jon baptized Jack, as well as confirmed him a member. We invited all the missionaries there to be in the confirmation circle and it was touching to see the strength surrounding Jack. What a great blessing!

It was a day to never forget!

Jack

Jack with Alexander (the mission driver). He's wearing a pin he earned in a war - he was a fighter pilot.

Jack with the missionaries. The one to Jack's left is Elder Breedlove and one of my parents AP's. My mom has always thought that he looks like Jack!!

More missionaries, my parents & Jack

Jack & Kate

Jon & Jack

Jack with his grandparents, President & Sister Sorenson

Our family

The Bowen family, President & Sister Sorenson and President Boiko

October 21st - My Birthday

I had a great birthday - in Russia, with Jon, the kids & my parents. We got up, drove to the first Metro stop and rode the Metro down to the Kremlin/Red Square area. It was drizzily and a little cold, but not too bad.



We wanted to go inside the Kremlin to see The Armory, which is where a lot of old antiques are from Russian history. We first waited in the wrong line, but eventually found our way there. There were a ton of old weapons, china, gowns & huge carriages that important people would ride in.

We also saw "Alexander's Garden" which is on the outside of the Kremlin wall. This is the place where my great, great grandfather, Francis Lyman (a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles), came and dedicated the land of Russia for the preaching of the gospel. (This was 3 days after doing it in St. Petersburg).

My dad walking past 2 officers on horseback. The police either looked way to angry to ever help anyone or way to young to know how to help. Good thing we never needed them for anything!

Jack near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Alexander's Garden

(Notice Hannah asleep in the stroller - I don't think she even realized we visited the Kremlin).

The Bowen Family at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Hannah still asleep).

We then went to McDonald's to eat lunch. It was super crowded, but it tasted good! (I'll post pictures of that in another post).

That night, for my birthday, we went to the Rosinka Family Restaurant. This is in the community where my parents live. The food was okay, but the best part was the bowl of borscht that Jon ordered. He wanted to have something authentic to Russia and my parents told him this was a good, safe place to order a bowl. Now, I believe borscht is beet soup, so we were all a little hesitant. My brother-in-law John told the kids he would buy them Cold Stone icecream if they had 3 bites of something authentic. We all ended up trying it and it really wasn't too bad. In fact, Kate & Lindsey surprised us by fighting over the bowl of it. Who would have ever guessed??!!

Jon with the bowl of borscht telling Emily that it was pretty good.

I look retarded in this picture, but it's proof I had some.

Then we went back to the mission home and had Jell-O cake that my mom had made. Now normally, this wouldn't have been a big deal, but in Russia, you can't find cake mixes or Jell-O, so my mom had to pull some strings to get some. It was so yummy and I'll always remember the great birthday I had in Russia!!

(perhaps wishing that I wouldn't have to spend 2 hours awake with a child in the middle of the night :) ).

Jack's Birthday & my birthday present

Jack turned 8 on the day we arrived in Russia. A couple of days before we left, we gave him our gifts at home and he took treats (E.L. Fudge cookies) to school. We got a new watch, a wallet, and a bank. He is sure a fun guy and we love having him in our family.

He's still a little guy - 10th percentile for both height & weight, but he's full of personality and spunk. He still loves anything he does with his dad, loves all sports and is a great student at school.

When we arrived in Moscow, my mom made him a birthday dinner of cheeseburgers. Then, knowing that cookies were his favorite dessert, she made him some peanut butter cookies. He was in heaven!

My dad is opening a package of icecream. Icecream is really expensive there (we saw some quart sizes for $20). This is a log of chocolate icecream.

My parents gave him some rubbles to buy his Russian souveniors - he was so excited!

Then, the next day was my birthday (more on that on my next post).....my mom & dad gave me a really fun surprise gift! At first, it's a little creepy, but it's really, really cool!

That's me!!! On a Matruska doll! Wow!!

Then, you open it up and these are inside....

Emily

Lindsey

Jack

Kate

Hannah (a little too angelic for Hannah)

Hailey

(when the artist painted these, Hailey wasn't born yet, so she just did a generic baby girl).

It was my mom's idea and her artist friend was happy to give it a try! What a fun treat and such a treasure!

To Russia...and back again!

As many of you know, we had been saving for and planning a trip to Russia for a long time! My parents are serving a mission there and we took the opportunity to take our family there to visit. It took hours and hours to prepare for (each person needed a passport, visa and invitation into the country).

We hoped to choose a time when the kids wouldn't miss a ton of school and when Hailey would be old enough, but not too old to travel. We decided on October, during the kid's fall break from school, and when Hailey would be 6 months. It was perfect!! My sweet mom, prayed and prayed for months for good weather and good health, and those prayers were answered.

I'm going to break our trip down into several blog posts. We left early on Wednesday, October 19th. We flew to JFK (4 hours) and then from JFK to Moscow (10 hours). The kids were absolutely incredible on the flights - thanks to movies, game boys, nintendo ds's, an occasional nap and food. It was a bit of a smelly flight to Moscow (not to sound prejudice...but the Russians don't always wear deodarant), and Lindsey got airsick during our landing in NYC, but it went much smoother and quicker than we thought.

We arrived to blue skies (probably the last one for months & months) and to find my cute parents anxiously awaiting our arrival. It was 11:00 in the morning on October 20th that we arrived (but 1 a.m. the time we were used to).

We got all our luggage and piled into the mission van and their driver, Alexander, drove us to their mission office. We needed to make copies of all our documents, just in case we were ever questioned by the police. The traffic in Moscow (a city of 15 million), is downright, terrifying. They park on the sidewalks, create extra lanes, pull right in front of you and take every bit of space available. We were definitely watched over and protected and made it to the office and then to the mission home.

What a great blessing to see my parents and see their home, their lives, some of their missionaries, and the amazing work they are doing.

The ONLY complaint I had of the trip was - JET LAG!! Holy cow! Trying to get 8 people to adjust to a 10 hour time change was hard. We were so tired during times of the day and our kids would fall asleep all over the place. Just as we adjusted to the time change, we came home and had to adjust all over again. But, we did it and we are loving our fun memories of the trip!

Our family at the mission office - just after arriving in Moscow. I think we look pretty good for being up about 20 hours.

But then, these were the common scenes for several days...

Hannah

Hailey's favorite sleeping place - on my dad!