Russian Museum

These are some of the paintings/sculptures that we liked at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Showing Christ, as if preaching the Gospel in Russia.
[Ryan really liked this one when he saw it while serving his mission.
I thought it was a cool depiction due to my belief in the Book of Mormon.]

This is a very sinister-looking violinist. We took this photo for Sabrina's benefit.

Interesting abstract art.About an hour into the museum, Hyrum needed to nurse, so I went ahead of Ryan and found a gallery that had a bench in the middle and began feeding him (completely covered up with a nursing blanket). A docent came up to me and in Russian asked if I was feeding a baby and if I would follow her. She took me into this passageway, pulled the rope barricade away and set up a chair with me facing the wall. When Hyrum was almost done, Ryan caught up with us and took the picture (after asking if this is where I put myself). The sculpture in the foreground is named "Calamity."

Spring in St. Petersburg.

Going off to war. Notice the steam engine in the background. We took this for Roderic's benefit.

Fashion in Russia

Photos from 'Peterhof' - Peter the Great's Palace Estate near St. Petersburg.


See-through is the fashion for women.

Men in both Russia and the Netherlands wore cropped pants!

I was the only lady I saw wearing sneakers.

Others wore uncomfortable looking sandals - and we did a lot of walking!

Travel Log: Day 2

Lesson learned: When they say its a restaurant that serves American food, its an American chain restaurant.

One of the few people that Ryan was able to correspond with before our trip was Kirill Ananich. Kirill is from St. Petersburg and served a mission in Ukraine at the same time Ryan did, so they knew eachother. Now Kirill is the Branch President of the Central Branch in St. Petersburg. His wife and children are visiting family in Ukraine, so he had quite a bit of time to hang out with us. After seeing the cannon shoot off at Peter and Paul Fortress and walking through the Summer Gardens, he suggested that we go to lunch. He said a friend of his was telling him about a new restaurant that serves American food that is better than McDonald's. I was thinking that it was a Russian restaurant that served hamburgers and french fries, so I said sure, we could go. The building that the restaurant is in is being renovated, and was completely covered with scaffolding, so there was no sign. We went in and I saw a yellow star with a smile in it. Then the clerk popped up from behind the counter and said, "Добро Пожаловать в Карлс Джуниор!" (translation: "Welcome to Carl's Jr.!") Kirill's friend was right, Carl's Jr. is better than McDonald's.

Travel Log: Day 1

Lesson learned: Don't change planes in Moscow.

This trip was more affordable because we had enough SkyMiles in Ryan's account for one round-trip ticket. Travelling on a 'free' ticket is a challenge though because you have to be extremely flexible with flight choices and you have to book your flights 331 days in advance. We flew Delta from SLC to ATL to SVO and there we had to change to Aeroflot Russian Airlines to fly into St. Petersburg. Signage in airports is horrible, Sheremevo is no exception. When we got off the flight, a sign said that Aeroflot passengers with less than a 4 hour connection were to go to a different section of the airport for passport processing. When we got to that location, there was no one there, then a couple minutes later an airport employee came up and said we were in the wrong place. Since we came off the Delta flight, we had to go downstairs, claim all our baggage and go through customs. So we did that. Then as we're wondering what we need to claim on our customs form - that the sign says in Russian that we need to fill out 2 of (it doesn't say that in English), we spend another few minutes. As I'm a people watcher, I'm noticing that everyone who goes to the red line (stuff to claim for customs) is sent to the green line (nothing to claim), I tell this to Ryan but he wants to continue filling out the form - he's dealt with the Russian red tape before. Then as he's translating for a minister from a church in Texas who is trying to make a claim on a missing bag, the minister tells us that unless he has a lot of cash, he always goes through the green line. We go through the green line. Then we are met by a crush of taxi drivers. Long story short: we are convinced to pay a guy $45 for the drive to the other terminal where we are barely in time to make our flight. Once again I say, don't change planes in Moscow!

We're Back!

Our family together again after 13 days apart.

To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, Ryan and I planned a trip to Europe - St. Petersburg, Russia and Rotterdam, Netherlands. Sabrina and Roderic got to stay with both sets of Grandparents and Ryan's brother's family in Utah. We brought Hyrum along, because he's "attached" (read nursing). It was a wonderful vacation, and now we are glad to be back home. I'll be posting blurbs and a travel-log in the coming days about the travelling, people, food, etc., but right now, I've got loads of laundry to do...

Applause...

Hyrum is 8 months old today and he learned how to clap his hands! He is going to be a great show-off for the babushkas we will see on our trip.

Growing up!

Sabrina is wearing the dress I made for her while Ryan is wearing the gift
that Sabrina gave him for Father's Day.

Now that she is 8 she gets to go to Achievement Day activities at church, where she made the gift. She was instructed to get a 'cast-off' tie from Dad and bring it to the activity before Father's Day. I was given the scoop on what the girls were going to be doing with the ties -- adding whatever embellishment they wanted, pom-poms, lace, fringe, ribbon, etc. When she was leaving for the activity, I advised her that she should not hold back any of her creative juices; pick whatever she liked to put on the tie. Sabrina chose fringe. It is a one-of-a-kind tie for a great dad from a one-of-a-kind daughter. Ryan did what any loving dad would do and proudly wore it to church on Father's Day.

Sonia Vallejo practicing for school.

During the last 2 weeks of second grade, they study a unit called "Apple Valley" which is where they turn back time to 1857 and behave as though they are a part of a one room school. All of the students get new names and ages and are separated into families. Sabrina became "Sonia Vallejo, age 14, oldest daughter in the family who live on a ranch just outside of town." As Sonia, she wore pioneer clothes - the same dress every day. (Well, that is not exactly the case, I didn't have this dress made in time, so for the first 3 days she wore the dress shown in the picture with Ryan with an apron over it, and then when I got this one finished, she wore it for the rest of the school year.) They got to learn 1850s songs and as a "Challenge Task" she took her violin to school and played 'I've been workin' on the Railroad.' A couple days later she sang 'Shoo Fly' and when I went in to help with the celebration, Mrs. Baggerly, aka Miss Virginia Pritchett, said Sabrina was the first student of hers to ever sing a song for a "Challenge Task".

Ready for summer!

Sabrina decided that she needed her hair cut. She wanted "bangs and hair as short as her ears so she could look more childish". Our neighbor (and Sabrina's primary teacher) cut her hair and convinced her that it would look better as a bob about chin length. It is so cute! Although, I'm afraid she may become vain with all of her looking in the mirror that she's done in the last 45 minutes since her hair was cut. About 6 inches were cut off.