Mother's Day 2008

Feeding the birds and making new friends;-)
Katie Aunna pets a pigeon!!!
Pigeon flying off of my arm...remember Home Alone...Lost in New York??? This is "Gone From Home and Lost in Russia"....ha ha!!!
Katie Aunna feeding the "seagulls"!!!
Hey Shane...wouldn't RM, Inc be jealous of this unit?!?!!!

Katie Aunna on what we called "The Young Man of the Sea"?!?!

Factory Smoke Stacks and factory windows.
Run out of gas???? Call your local army truck;-).
Russian version of Allsup's 7-11 Store!!!!

Today is bitter sweet for us. We are so happy to have our little Katie Aunna and we realize how much she needs and loves us. All she talks about is coming home to America. She loves to look at the Kodak photo album of everyone!!! She still insists on calling Casey Sasha...so expect that Casey;-). Any way I hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day today, Kisty, as you are the mom for all the kids this year!!! We wish with all our hearts that we could be there right now and united as a family. However, since that is impossible, we will have one heck of a celebration party when we get home next weekend.

Today we went out and walked in a completely different direction. I thought maybe we could get a closer picture of the big factory stacks that blow smoke night and day...seven days per week. I have noticed a slow down of the smoke stacks this weekend. However, they NEVER stop working. It is a factory and I will ask some questions to see what type of factory it is. I am posting the pictures we took. There were ARMED guards at gates and so we could not get any closer than the fence across the street. We were concerned that our camera might get confiscated if they saw us taking pictures and we would certainly not want to break any possible laws.

As we strolled along we passed a statue and our little ham had to jump upon him for a picture. The statue has an anchor on each side of it and he is facing towards the sea. It leads me to think he may be the sailor or explorer after which Murmansk was named or he may be a memorial or tribute to sailors. Sorry, but, can't read any Russian....ha ha!!!!

Next, we had crumbled up some old bread we dried out for the millions of pigeons here in Murmansk. We went to a nearby park where two little girls were also feeding the pigeons. Just for laughs....Katie Aunna has learned the word for seagull and EVERY bird is a seagull. She kept telling these little girls "seagull" and they thought she was out of her mind. First, she was saying a word which made no sense to them. Secondly, when I pointed to a seagull overhead and said the word "seagull" they cracked up laughing at Katie Aunna.

Anyway....we continued to attempt communicating and one of the little girls knew a few words of English. It was pretty cool!!! Katie Aunna enjoyed visiting with them very much and had a blast with the "seagulls". Hope you enjoy the pictures!!! Love you kids tons!!!!