Sunday/Monday outings

Yesterday was another beautiful 60 degree day, so we decided to do a bit of walking around since we have no visits on Sunday. Here are some pictures of that outing:

Here's a view of the Kalmius River from the bridge about a half block from our hotel. There were lots of folks fishing up and down the coast, it was a very peaceful scene.





About 3 blocks from our hotel in the other direction is the McDonald's and rows and rows of shops like you see here, an outdoor market. We likened it to Diagon Alley on Harry Potter, there are so many odd things for sale, from produce to purses and just about anything else you can think of. We've made good use of the market and have purchased a powerstrip that won't explode, grapes and bananas, and DVD cartoons in Russian (somewhat bootlegged apparently).

Today we visited the kids for only an hour, because Sergey was a bit late picking us up...which turned out to be great because they didn't want us to play inside because of some construction going on. We were dismayed at this because we didn't pack any outdoor toys, but God provided with some other new toys laying around that our kids loved, especially the little pushcart you see here:

Alex Maksim pushing Talia Ira, before they hit the curb...






...aaaaand after! It was kindofa "launch the sibling" game. It was probably more fun when Papa pushed them because I didn't hit the curb, I went a LOT faster, and of course I made the requisite "Vrooom Vrooom, SCREEEEECH!" noises, which always brought squeals of delight from the rider.

Grapes were once again on the bribe menu today. It's a great way to teach them to say "please", which we have yet to get Vala to do, and the closest Talia Ira can come is "Pleeesh!" (it's really, yah, cute).





When the smaller kids Vala's age come out every day it looks like this, I call it "The March of the Halflings."