I know, it's been a while...

I feel bad about not blogging regularly and depriving everyone of the girls' photos. They are getting so big! Natalie turned 3 in February and Emily is about to turn 6, on April 30th - in just a couple of days.

Natalie loves being a princess

Girls making muffins

TRIP TO THE ZOO

On Dmitri's birthday I 'ran away' from work to spend a day with the birthday boy, the girls and my mother-in-law. We went to the Cincinnati Zoo. It was a perfect day to go - it was Tuesday, so the place was practically empty. The weather was good too - not too hot or sunny, but pleasantly cool. The weather did turn bad the very next day, so we were especially thankful that it held off for a day. I'm not going to describe all that we saw - it was a zoo and the girls enjoyed seeing every animal and bird. Here are a few photos:

Yes, check out how Emily is 'hugging' her baby sister... Applying just enough pressure not to choke! :)

Ok, this guy looked interesting. All he needed was a hat or a plate in front of him to collect alms. Or, he was just bored and tired of being ogled by dumb humans.

A couple of birds...

Their Annual Flower Show was going on, and the whole zoo was covered with gorgeous blooms.

My favorite - lilac

Well, I need to stop for now - it's taking too long to fight with the blogspot formatting - does anyone else struggle with it? Whenever I put in new photos, it messes up everything I've already done. Time for bed!

Staying busy...

Well, it's been nearly 4 months since my last entry... We've been staying busy at home as well as traveling. After our trip to Somerset, we went to the Chicago area for Thanksgiving, to Charlotte, NC, in December, and currently making plans to visit friends in Florida in the next 2 months. I have lots of photos but don't have enough time to re-size them to fit the blog... I'll keep working on it and hopefully I'll have a few up in the next couple of weeks.

Sweet Sisters

Visiting my college friend Marina in Charlotte, NC

Natalie riding a horsie

Got milk? Good, clean KY fun (ok, even if it involves a cow pie!)

Last weekend I took mom and the girls down to Somerset, KY, to visit some old friends of ours. There were a couple of "firsts" during this trip. The first one was me playing the dulcimer after Nathan played several songs and Appalachian tunes.

The other first was milking a cow. First, my mom gave it a try. Then the girls got involved.

I held up a cup and Emily and Natalie milked right into it. Emily was a little grossed out and didn't want to drink from it. Natalie, on the other hand, downed the glass. What happened next surprised us all. She said, "I want more!" and turned toward the cow. Glass in one hand, she milked the cow right into it!
















Here she is, proud of her accomplishment.

And, by the way, Emily was ok with drinking milk from a jar at our friends' house (and asking for more), even though she knew exactly where it came from. I guess it was more palatable to her knowing that it didn't just come out of the cow!

Пейте, дети, молоко - будете здоровы! :)

Enjoying fall

Here are a few pictures of what we've done in October.

Going on a hay ride at Granny's Garden in Florence, KY

Painting gourd bird feeders

Emily found just the right pumpkin

Before going to Granny's Garden, our granny discovered that Emily transformed her sister into a kitty by drawing her a nose and whiskers with a blue pen. It did not come off easily in the tub that evening...

Girls taking a walk. Note that Natalie is using a fireman hat as a baby carrier.

Our ballerina

We are Back from Costa Rica!

On Wednesday, June 18th, the girls and I flew to San José, Costa Rica, to visit my friend Andrea and her family. I've known Andrea since college 9 years ago and had been wanting to visit her all these years. I could hardly believe that I was finally there when the plane landed.

As soon as we got to Andrea's, my girls hit it off well with Andrea's two kids, Kristel, who just turned 6, and Gabriel, who is about to turn 4. Natalie went a little nuts painting.

We visited a big mall where the kids wanted to ride on every little ride and on a carousel. I wonder if the girls felt like they were at the Florence Mall...

With the camera always handy, I couldn't help myself but take a picture of a kid's t-shirt hanging on a rack along with some other really nice and pricey shirts. Let me know if I'm the one who is missing something...

On Thursday morning, we took Kristel to her school. I thought it would be a great chance for Emily to stay and see what a Costa Rican school is like. Natalie started crying and saying that she wanted to stay too.

All the kids swarmed around Emily and talked to her all at once in Spanish. She got overwhelmed and started crying, Natalie too. So, Andrea's husband went and picked them up before school was over.

On Friday Andrea drove us to the beach, about 45 minutes away from a city called Jacó. This was my first time on the Pacific coast. It would've taken a much longer drive in the States to get to the Pacific! Kids enjoyed getting covered with sand (I'm still cleaning out Emily's ears, a week later!), and fearless Natalie kept plunging face first into waves. She would just laugh as I would fish her from under the water. Crazy kid. Andrea asked a guy nearby to take us out on a boat. He took us around the harbor and showed us several ships, one of which had a helicopter on top of it. At first Emily was very nervous as the boat went up and down, but then she started to enjoy it. Natalie just wanted to jump out.

We had lunch right in front of the ocean. On the photo below, Natalie had her first taste of Ceviche, that's raw fish cured in lemon juice. She liked it. So did I. Emily didn't want to be anywhere near it and preferred to nibble on a cheese stick.

Speaking of food, it was great. On the picture below, are a few things that I ate at one restaurant. On the big plate is a meat-filled pancake, called 'popusa', served with a coleslaw mix, except it's with lemon juice and not the creamy dressing like here. Above is a plate with an empanada, a deep-fried or baked corn tortilla filled with potatoes and meat, served with pico de gallo, or as they call it in Costa Rica, chimichurri. The yellow drink in the cup is called 'crema', and it's like a runny custard, topped with cinnamon, yum! Oh, that's Natalie's hot dog on the bottom of my plate.

More commonly, people eat a lot of rice and beans in different combinations, and at different mealtimes - or for breakfast, lunch AND dinner. My favorite is 'gallo pinto' - pinto beans and rice with cilantro and special sauce (I brought back 2 bottles!), and a fried eggs. By the way, eggs there are never refrigerated - at the store or at home, and they taste perfectly fine. So, either we are too obssessed with refrigerating things here, or their hens are just different and lay unperishable eggs.

On Saturday, June 21st, was the long-awaited Birthday party for Kristel and Gabriel. It was held at chicken restaurant (kind of like KFC, except they also have KFCs there!), and it was all organized by an employee, along with the games and the food. Emily reluctantly participated, maybe because she wasn't sure about all the instructions she was hearing in Spanish. Natalie had no clue what the games were about and just ran around with everyone.

After the party, everyone took the pictures of the family. Gabriel is holding the carboard front from a piñata. All kids took turns hitting it, including Emily, who just sort of twirled it with the stick, and Natalie made everyone laugh as she would go back for more and whack it with all her might.

When we got home, there were two huge garbage bags full of presents that had to be opened. Emily was just as excited about playing with all the new toys.

On Sunday morning we went to Andrea's church. Unlike most of the Costa Rican population, she is not Catholic. Her church belongs to the Assembly of God denomination. The service was a huge blessing to me, the songs were beautiful and the pastor preached a wonderful sermon, I understood all of it. :) I snapped a quick photo of him. No, he doesn't look like this because he is mad about me taking the picture, he was just speaking about something very serious.

The girls went to the same Sunday School class, where they were for 2 hours! This time, despite the fact that it was all in Spanish, they had a great time. The teacher spoke a little English, so that probably made them feel better.

After church we drove to the airport to pick up Dmitri. Girls were thrilled to have their daddy with them. I was happy he could join us too!

Now that he was in Costa Rica, it was time to start exploring. On Monday we went to one of Costa Rica's active volcanoes, this one called Poás. The view was breathtaking. We walked on the trails for a long time and went by the old crater, now containing a small lake filled with rain water.

We were amazed at this country's beauty every day. On a picture below, we enjoyed looking at some hummingbirds.

I also took loads of pictures of plants and flowers. I especially loved the serene view of a place not too far from the volcano, where Dmitri and I went on a 'canopy tour.' Now, do you know what a canopy tour is?

Well, here we are, getting ready to go. I was pretty nervous as we were strapped with all the equipment, having a hard time fathoming that I would actually get to fly through the jungle holding on to a rope.

Well, as soon as I was pushed off the platform with a 'bye-bye,' all my fears disappeared and were replaced with pure exhilaration.

Dmitri made everyone laugh as he zipped through the trees with a Tarzan scream.

It took us about 2 hours to go on 17 ropes. Since it was raining, the ropes were slick which increased the speed with which we flew between the trees. The last rope was like the grand finale - it was very long and we flew at about 50 mph. I wanted to do that one again and again.

On Wednesday, it was Dmitri's turn to visit the Pacific coast for the first time in his life. We took a bus to a city called Puntarenas, and played in bath-temperature water. Yes, the girls got a mud wrap again, and I joined them this time.

After playing on the beach, we walked over to a cafe across the street where we took a shower. Most cafes along the ocean have showers and even though they don't have hot water, it's not freezing. Here are the girls after getting cleaned up.

While I was still in the shower, Dmitri ordered us a snack. He ordered some french fries and then a dish called 'carnepapas', and was surprised when I asked him why he had ordered two platters of french fries (one of them topped with barbecued meat). He had hoped that one of the dishes would have his favorite fried plantains. When I asked the server if they had that, he said no. So, we ate what was brought to us and we didn't want to see french fries for a long time after that. Oh, Dmitri also ordered a fruit salad, and over there it's definitely an art form. They spoon some shaved ice into the bottom of the dish, followed by pieces of watermelon, papaya, strawberries and pineapple, then some strawberry jello, custard syrup and top it with a scoop of ice cream and a pirouline cookie. Wow... now that's a fruit salad!

Time went by way too fast. We could hardly believe that we were already gone for a week. On Thursday morning we said 'hasta luego' to Andrea's home and headed for the airport.

I especially loved the view from her front door. One can see mountains from just about any place in Costa Rica.

We got to the airport and that's where the fun began.

We fly stand-by, so it should've not been a surprise to us when we were not able to get out. Well, Dmitri did get a seat and had to run off, leaving Emily sobbing and me somewhat catatonic, unsure of what to do next. I called Andrea and asked her if we could have breakfast with her. She was happy to come back and pick us up. While we were waiting for her, Emily said, "It's a good thing we didn't leave. It's beautiful here." After breakfast, Andrea took us back to the airport for another try. I was reluctant to even go back, knowing that most likely we wouldn't leave, or, worse, fly out and get stuck in Altanta. Well, that's exactly what happened. We were unable to get seats on the 11pm flight, and Dmitri reserved us a hotel room using our rewards points. We got there a little past midnight and had some popcorn and water. The girls were enjoying our little adventure. We went to bed after 1am and after a restless night I got up at 5:30. After breakfast we headed back to the airport.

Even though initially I was told that there were enough empty seats, I was disappointed to find out that there were 2 seats left and there were still 3 people ahead of us on the stand-by list. But, at the last moment, by God's grace, we got seats! This is what the girls looked like when we finally sat down:

We flew to Cincinnati, picked up my suitcase that had arrived the night before, and my friend Yulia drove us home. The girls were excited to see the neighbor boy and ran to him telling him that we just came from far away. The neighbor gave me the big stack of mail that she was picking up daily. I immediately wished that I could live in Costa Rica. Why? Because there are no street names. There are no house numbers. And there are no mailboxes. So, I would NOT get piles of credit card offers that we can't catch up shredding. Oh, and if you wonder how people communicate - well, pretty much everyone has email! A few people have PO Boxes, but they are not cheap. So, most people never get mail. Sounds like a dream to me as I am looking at the 'to be shredded' bucket filled to the brim.

After mac & cheese for lunch, we all took a very long nap. Now, the day after, we are adjusting to our normal life, but deeply miss the friends and the places in Costa Rica. We hope to return there again soon.

Well, I'm signing off now - I've got lots to do after being gone for a week. Thank you for reading our story!