Day 28 (Sun March 6th) Dnepro - Church and a Park/Day 5

The girls and I headed off to church this morning. Masha made sure they knew how to tell the bus driver to stop and we were off.  I felt quite proud of myself that I went someplace without Masha.  Of course, she helped, but hey.  I was still proud of myself.  And no, I don't want to try and do this without her!  I'm going to have such a hard time leaving her.

We got to church fairly early and had a seat.  I found Sis. Nielsen and said hello.  She is so sweet.  I love her.  Yura came in with his son.  His son (can't remember his name!) sat with us and Yura sat behind.  No missionaries offered to interpret this week and I wasn't in the mood to ask.  Normally I would have, but I also love to just sit and listen to the language.  It's beautiful and fun to listen to.  I didn't get much out of the testimonies, but I did enjoy.

This is the entrance to the building where church is at.  It's on the 3rd floor and there is a dance studio on the 4th.

Once it was over we took the girls to primary.  I know they're YW age, but this worked out well.  Yura and his son left and said to call about 20 minutes out and they'd come pick us up.  We had fun in primary.  Some missionaries came in to interpret for Karissa, which was really nice.  We had a lesson and then they drew pictures.  One of them lives not too far from us (though not as close as the one we met two weeks ago) and goes home in two months.  The missionaries left to go to priesthood, but we played Do You Love Your Neighbor.  I love that game.  It was a bit harder when you don't understand the language, but we had fun anyway.  The cute primary pres helped out, even though she speaks only a little more English than I speak Russian.

Primary

As we were getting ready to go one of the sisters came up to me and tried talking to me.  I told her I didn't understand (I'm really good at that phrase) and she kept talking. LOL  She left and came back with the missionaries to interpret. :)  She said that she had seen us walking to church (or on the bus or something...I wasn't quite clear on that) and said she just knew we were members.  How sweet!  I'm really going to miss these people and wish I'd been able to go to church the other 2 weeks we've been here and missed.

In front of the church doors

We were a little late getting down to Yura with the people that came to talk to us after, but we made it.  We went to have Little One and I change our clothes and to pick up Masha and then headed off to a nearby park.  We had such a blast!  We had a very nice snowball fight and laughed and laughed.  Little One and Yura wanted to go swing but the other kids were ready to warm up.  We went over to the pizza place again (I know...not the best Sabbath activity) for some dinner.  We laughed and teased each other and had so much fun.

They were conspiring against the others

Note the snowballs behind the back

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-h4_VFIog0

Masha and the others went up to make their weapons

Playing

"He's dead, Jim."

But wait!

Off we go

Only one seems happy about the picture

A race up the stairs

Masha really liked these scluptures

We went home after that and Masha got ready to head off to a concert she bought tickets for awhile ago.  The nice thing is, our new apartment is right by the place she was going to!  The girls are all playing still and Little One is driving the other two crazy.  They are being very good about it, but she is wanting constant attention and if they aren't providing it she pouts, at best.  *sigh*

Another wonderful day. :)

Day 27 (Sat March 5) Dnepro - Pick Up Ira and Kristina/Day 4

We frequent the bus station so much I had to get a picture of it.

I slept in later than I wanted to yesterday.  I kept waiting for the sun to come in the windows and hadn't realized I face a different direction.  We got to the bus station to get the 11:20 bus and there were no tickets.  The next bus wasn't until 1:50.  We called Yura and luckily he was available.  We walked to the train station and he picked us up at the McDonald's by there when he finished what he was doing.

You know, at home, Mickey D's isn't my favorite.  Here, though... :)

We had a very nice trip out there.  Karissa slept the whole way since I'd given her some Benadryl.  She's got some other bites of some kind as well.  Masha and I actually have found some too so I wonder if we brought them with us to this apartment.  Lovely.  Anyway, I digress.

Yura spoke in English the entire trip even when he was talking to Masha.  That was so nice and so unlike anything anyone else has ever done.  I could also see out the windows so it was the first time I could enjoy in that way as well.  Very, very nice.  I really enjoyed the drive.

Downtown from across the river

The oldest train bridge (I think)

Pretty landscape

I'd love to see it during the growing season.  It reminds me of the mid-west.

More of the same.

We got there and Masha wrote a little thing saying I was responsible for the girls and their safety while we had them, then I signed it.  We all went to the bathroom and then we were off.

It was quite a nice trip on the way back as well.  We spoke in English most of the trip but there was enough Russian that the girls weren't left out either.

Ah.... :^)

Once we got to the apartment we dropped our stuff off and went across the street to the pizza place for dinner.  Very nice.  We went to get some water at the store and then came back to the apartment.

Yum!

The girls played and played.  They'd gotten balloons at dinner and were putting them under their shirts and running into each other.  They were tickling each other and who know what else.  We all showered and Skyped.  Husband made it home okay.