Camping at Timothy Lake

The boys are off on a journey to explore Timothy lake. These are three fossil hunters on the search for deep sea, high mountain lake, ancient sea monster fossil ekletons (skeletons in Luka language). You will not believe how much evidence of their existence in this lake there is on the shore. Did you know that there were THOUSANDS of million year old rocks to look at?

Niki is a little skeptical of the million year old rocks. He prefers sitting in my lap to going out on the expedition. Maybe he is the CEO direction all operations from shore.

Here is the stash of the million year old rocks with evidence of ancient life. Every one was carefully chosen and 'scienced out' as Alyosha puts it. Only 3 made it home, much to the fossil hunter's chagrin.

Here they are. Always looking forward to their next expedition.

Possum Kingdom State Park

This is the train that we took out to Possum Kingdom Lake for our 4 days of camping out in Texas in June just before the official start of summer. It was hot and we sweated our way through the day and listened to the crickets chirp us to sleep at night.
It actually wasn't too bad. When you keep in mind that this area has been inhabited by people for the past 10,000 years, you know that the luxury we had of modern tents to keep out the flying and annoying bugs and the soft air mattress to get us up off the hard ground--it makes it easy to enjoy roughing it. We even had air conditioner to give us some reprieve from the hottest part of the day. The lake was cool and felt wonderful. I actually enjoyed sleeping outside under the blanket of stars and the quiet night. It is funny that it still feels quiet even though there are a million crickets chirping in unison.
Patricia and Jeremy joined us for the first two days. They are babysitting Harley while Stacy is off exploring the Greek Isles. They supplied us with plenty of beer and bratwurst, two necessities when you are camping out! The boys loved that Aunt Trish came to swim with them.
Niki had his first experience with the red waters of the Brazos.
Granny came and camped out with us too. Harley kept her company in her camper during the night. Luka was pretty wary of the boat at first and he stayed put right next to Granny so he wouldn't fall off of the boat.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was just riding on the boat in the lake. It seems so peaceful and the air is so fresh.

Trisha and Alyosha on the tube behind the boat. Luka didn't like it too much, but I think Aleks will be the first on the water every time. I am sure Luka will join him when he is just a couple years older.

Niki had his own life-jacket and stayed in my lap while we were speeding on the boat. He was happy most of the time even though he was in his cocoon of water protection.



It seems like Niki has found his tongue and likes to show the tip of it to anyone who is interested in watching him.
Grandpa let Alyosha drive his first boat. He did a great job and didn't run over any fish or run into any docks.

Even Roma, the man from the cold North, enjoyed the heat. It may not be something he wants to experience every day of his life, but for these 4 days, it was actually a nice change of environment--it is 50 in Portland! I will take a nice crisp 95 and a cool dip in the water anytime over that!


Luka is now king of the world by the end of the boat trip.
Possum Kingdom at sunset is probably one of the most beautiful sights in the world!

Fun time with Friends

We had a get together with some of my former high school classmates and all of our kids. I think that the kids had a blast together playing in the water and hitting the pinata. The adults all chatted together about the past 10 years and where our lives have taken us thus far. Life's paths are so varied-it is amazing that even though we start out from the same spot, basically, we end up traveling in so many different directions and ultimately we end up all back together again. I don't think I have been very good at it, but it has always been important for me to keep up with any friends I have made at different points of my life. I think it is important to have good people around you and to be a good person yourself-the only way to keep good people around you is to keep the good friends you have made along the way. Anyway, it was a fun evening!

Roma dressed up as the "Hula-Monster" to get the kids while they were searching for the pinata. Luka was really afraid and didn't join in the search-although he realized it was papa dressed up he wasn't sure about the game.

The kids made their own ice cream in ziploc bags. It was a great success! It just takes one cup of cream with 2 table spoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. Put all the ingredients in a small bag and put that in a large bag with ice and salt and viola- after 5-10 minutes of shaking you have ice cream! Add in M&M's and you have happy children!

Our table of food--we had almost 40 hot dogs and about 20 sausages along with cabbage salad and grape salad, watermelon and cantaloupe...EVERYTHING was devoured!

Jacob, Justin's son, helped cook the 'dogs. He did a wonderful job.

The swimming pool turned into a swamp after the kids jumped in and out a million times. But they enjoyed it and it survived.

Slip N' Slide fun again.

Boys and their beer!

Slip N' Slide

We are having a beautiful time in Texas, even though the heat index is 110 degrees. Yes, you read right-with the humidity and storms and heat-- 110, 43 celsius!! BUT, we are having a nice time. Tomorrow, Sunday, we are packing up to go camping for the week at Possum Kingdom State Park-so no pictures or updates for the week. Today we had a wonderful party with many friends, check back for the pictures. For now, enjoy Roma and the kids and their Slip N' Slide adventure.

A day at the Lake!

Oh my! I haven't been to the water in Texas since the summer of 2003 and I have been dreaming about it for years! AND the water is just as good as I remember it! The water is warm and nice and we all just jumped right in. Well, Niki only stuck his toes in but he liked it too. Next week after Roma arrives we are camping on the lake for 4 days-right beside a nice little beach and hiking trails.

The boys are building a sand castle with the most important feature, a moat. We just happened to run into Sara McCall and her boys just as we pulled up to Sandy Beach.

Mama and Luka taking a swim. He is a little hesitant but if you take it nice and slow he likes it.

Auntie Trish is looking on while Luka fills my hair with sand--this is also a warning of the week to come. I just have to get used to being like a piece of sandpaper while we are camping.

That is our boat behind Luka--Joe Hall was great to let us just use it as much as we want while we are visiting. We will use it a lot!!! Niki rides well on it--he doesn't like his life jacket too much, but the motor of the boat puts him to sleep so he forgets about the thing around his body and head. (sorry no pictures, but it is kinda cute--next time maybe). The best thing about this boat is that next week when we have me and the 3 boys and Grandma and Grandpa and Trish like we had today, we will also be adding Jeremy, Roma Granny and maybe even Jeb and we will all fit comfortably!
Niki dipping his toes in to the lake

Literally

Literally two minutes after arriving to Grandma and Grandpa's house the clothes just fell off the two boys and they jumped in the water. That is how we are going to spend the next 4 weeks, mostly naked and wet! With this knowledge, Roma bought his tickets today and he will join us next Wednesday!! Yeah!!!

Nikolai Talking to Granny

What a great week

We have had an exciting and busy week..After the great snow weekend, we had a house guest. Cheryl was able to stop by Portland on her whirlwind travels around the States before she goes back to Vladivostok to save the Tigers and leopards. Alyosha had many emotions while we had a house guest--from forgetting "that girl's" name to wanting to marry her--he finally settled with helping her find a quick fix to save those endangered big cats so she can just stay here in Portland with him. His idea for wild animal protection...build a big, tall, huge wall around the entire habitat and keep the dirty, polluting people out. Maybe Cheryl will make that her own
project and name the wall "Stena Alyosha Kultajev" We are really glad you came, Cheryl, and hope that we can visit you on some wild Zapovednik in Russia someday.

click on picture to enlarge

We surprised Cheryl with a Welcome to Portland Russian Christmas party. Our table isn't quite big enough for everyone, but at a Russian Party, you somehow end up in a circle around vodka and sala...

Cheryl and Alyosha carefully put a pizza together

Alyosha finally got his Spiderman gum...from Grandma in the mail. Oh, the excitement!

Friday night swim night at the SW Community center...Yes, Alyosha was there too, but he was moving too fast to catch on still photography. He went down the slide HIMSELF!! Video to come maybe..