Home Alone

Well, it is Aleks and Jen--together--alone.

I have a very sad story about a little boy who misses his Papa. Romka has been gone for about 9 days now. Aleks asks every day where Papa is, then answers the question himself "chatka." Tonight, while we were going to sleep, he said "Aloysha sad". I asked him why, and he said "Papa hachu" (I want Papa). I told him that Papa will be back in only 4 more days, but for now I would get him a picture of Papa to sleep with. He agreed and I brought him a picture that we looked at with a flashlight, then I said it was sleepy time. In the dark, he took the picture and played with it and talked to it for about 15 minutes. Finally he put Meowka, the cat in his entourage of animals that he sleeps with, to hold and look at the picture all night while he finally rolled over and fell asleep.

Good news, Romka called and all is good on the Kol River in Kamchatka. There are lots of salmon and lots of bears and a lot of work. He should be back right on time on Saturday evening.

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I have a few random pictures to share, but not too many since nothing cool happens without Roma around!

Fly fishing on the Clackamas

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We have a few, well really many, things to get caught up on that we have done in the past week! But time is flying so we will start with the exciting events of this morning. Trish and Romka had their first lesson and introduction into the exciting world of fly fishing. They had an exclusive, along with Dave Colbeck, crash course on the Clackamas River with the best fishing guide in the North West, Rob Russell. Fly fishing is fishing like hunting--there is no room for a can of beer and a folding chair. (although I, Jen, saw the fishermen leave with 2 six-packs and come back with 2 beers. I guess they pour the beer into the river hoping that drunk fish are easier to catch.) It requires much attention to technique and commitment, skills, physical effort and lots of patience.

They really enjoyed their time--and it is easy to see why people get addicted to this sport when they step into it.

Romka leaves for Kamchatka tomorrow for 2 weeks. He is going to have an amazing trip, flying in helicopters to places that very few people in the world have the privilege to see. Hopefully he will be able to update us on his journey. In the meantime, Aloysha and I are going to enjoy Portland and the upcoming concerts!

Concert at the Wallace Park

А вчера вечером в парке проходил замечательный концерт, где собралось множество народу из местного района с детьми, пледами и закусоном.
Мы встретили там своих друзей, разложились на травке под дубом и лениво наблюдали под звуких струнных инструментов, как отплясывают наши дети.


Вот небольшое видео (4 мин.)

Sun and Snow

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Trisha is visiting Portland again and we are sure having fun! Strolling around Portland, trips to the mountian--summer is wonderful here.

We spent Sunday at Trillium Lake, about an hour southeast of Portland. It is a small mountian lake, peaceful yet entertaining. We grilled sausages and hamburgers, then spent the rest of the time floating in the surprizingly warm waters of the Mt. Hood summer snow-melt. Afterwards we trecked up to the top of the Mountian (by car) to play in the snow that will soon enough melt to fill this and many other lakes around Mt. Hood. Actually, you can only drive up to about 6000 feet...there is another 6000 feet of mountain beyond that, but we did make it all the way to play with snow in July.

Fourth of July

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The kids are anticipating the next explosioin....Well, really the next sparkler. But this is the first Fourth of July that they can actually participate in and they were very excited!

Also, the Fourth is my Grandma's Birthday!

Happy 81st Birthday Grandma!!!

We love you!

Here is Imagene ( Aleksei's Great-Grandma), James Bristow (Great-Grandpa), and little Great-Uncle Bob. circa 1950

(Grandma is about Jen's age in this picture, I think)

Cherry Picking at Hood River

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A day in the Life

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Well, a couple of weeks have gone by, but the summer is a very busy time. And when it is not busy, it is a very lazy time. This is the dilemma that the blog is faced with.

About the past: The Tibetan Festival was very interesting, the food was great--but the problem was that it was right next to the Oaks Park Amusement Park grounds...where there are plenty of carnival rides and kids carrying around popcorn and cotton candy--it was difficult for Alyosha to pay attention to the Madal, Tabla and Shehnai (a few Tibetan musical instrumets the kids were playing on stage.)

Last weekend we made a trip to the hospital for a hurt arm. Alyosha is in the stage where he disagrees with things we think he needs to do, like put on clothes before going outside, so when we take his hand he jerks his arm away. This gives him Nurse Maids Elbow (twice last weekend!) The first time we made him sleep it out, then when it was still very painful the next morning we took him in to have it looked at--I will save you $100 bucks and a trip to the emergency room....you just have to straighten it out and bend it all the way tot he sholder. "All Better" as Alyosha's book Sally the Pig says. The second time he did this, which was the next day, we avoided the ER.

Shakespeare in the Park is a nice idea. Free entertainment, under the cool breeze of early summer, pickincking int he grass while trying to remember the symbolism you learned in school while reading Macbeth...Until the 2 year olds decide that the gathering and great weather is for soccer playing instead of watching a 400 year old tragedy. They are probably right anyway.

Now we are off to Pick Cherries at Hood River!