Seth is Four

Seth was four July 11th.  Like every mama says, he is growing up so fast.  He loves his books, dinosaurs, knights, and swords.  He is very inquisitive and is so curious about animals and what happened to the dinosaurs.
His birthday was planned very last minute.  Craig finished a 20+ page paper in time to spend the day as a family.  We went to Marchenwald, a German amusement park with a fairy tale theme.  It was so German and so much fun for little ones.  When we got home we last minute decorated a cake and had a few friends over.  It was a great 4th birthday for Seth.

Birthday melon for breakfast

A ride at Marchenwald

The interesting and fun thing about many of the rides was that there was no attendant.  With a button or a pull cord, you start them yourself.  American lawyers would have a hay day.  Most of the signs, like this one, said you must be four to ride alone.  That made it an extra special day to be four.  Here Seth is pulling the cord to start his wild boar.

Seth's shield cake

 

Seth's friends -- out of focus

The Gees -- Part 3

The Gees finished up their time here by visiting a few more little Bavarian cities nearby, having Seth an early 4th birthday party, and visiting the top of a mountain (the Wank) by cablecar. 

In Garmisch-Partenkirchen

The view of the sunset on the mountains from our balcony

Seth's early 4th birthday party

Garmisch from atop the Wank

On the Wank



My second grade teacher, Seth, and Mom



The Gees -- Part 2

We stayed near Pisa four nights so we could see a bit of Tuscany.  A day in Pisa, a day in Lucca, a day in Florence (the Gees went by train to Florence while the boys and I had a rest day), and a day in Cinque Terre.  Ahhh, gorgeous.  I think my favorite was Cinque Terre. 



The tower in Pisa -- it leans.



Enjoying gelato

Lucca

We found this fun restaurant in the middle of nowhere in our hunt for Tuscan pottery.

A view from our drive during the pottery hunt

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre

The Gees -- Part 1

A week after we arrived home from Tashkent, the movers came and disassembled the slight bit of normal we had here in Germany.  Then, two days after that Mom, two aunts, and two Elba friends came for a Bavaria and Tuscany vacation.  Here are some photos from the first part of their trip, in and around southern Germany.



In Grainau



A cute building in Oberammergau

In Oberammergau

Cathedral ceiling in Oberammergau

Oh, and the title is because Seth named the group the Gees.  But, he did say his favorite Gee was the one they called Janice.

Stroller Diving

My last Uzbekistan post and one of my two craziest moments...



The drainage ditch and the area between the drainage ditch and the sidewalk.  (It is very important when driving not to drive off the edge of the pavement.) 



This is the average water height in the drainage ditch.

So there we were.  The kids and I were on the way home from the grocery store, Vic strapped into the front seat of the stroller and all the groceries in the back seat.  I turned around briefly to encourage Seth to stop dawdling and pick up the pace.  I turned back around in shock to see the stroller careening off the sidewalk past the dirt and into the drainage ditch.  It was deep enough that particular day, fortunately a balmy 96 degrees, that Vic was underwater.  As any mom would do, I went into the ditch after him and picked up the front of the stroller.  Some nice but definitely startled Uzbek man helped me actually get the stroller out of the ditch and a screaming Vic out of the stroller.  The water, the extremely, extremely dirty water, was waist high on me.  Other than a bit scared and dirty, Vic was fine.  My next fear was my purse because it had all my i.d.'s in it.  It was soaking wet but still in the stroller.  A sippy cup and some groceries were missing, but that seemed pretty minor considering the event.  And, many of the groceries had to be tossed out because you just don't want to eat food that got wet in a drainage ditch in Uzbekistan.  The Uzbeks that we met on the four our so blocks left to our house looked at us with absolute confusion.  They so value cleanliness and Vic and I were wet and covered in various types of debris.  It all happened so fast that it wasn't really a nightmare experience, just a crazy one that I never want to repeat.  Vic did remember the episode, and the next time we walked that way he whimpered until we passed the spot.

A $40 Watermelon

I like to keep my blogs in chronological order, but I need to skip ahead to today and share an amazing/shocking bit.  We are traveling in Russia and are blown away at the cost of living. It is not comparable to anything we've ever encountered. I read online that the average loaf of bread of costs $7.50.  We usually buy groceries to avoid eating out with kids when traveling -- it is less expensive and less chaotic.   So we have been in grocery stores in St. Petersburg and again today in Moscow.  We picked up a small watermelon in the grocery store today (not a touristy place) and didn't pay much attention to the price because they are in season, and there was a fairly large display of them.  When we were checking out we saw the roubles on the cash register and we almost choked.  I did some rough rouble to dollar math and realized it was about $40.  Yikes.  We kindly asked the cashier to please put it back on the shelf for us.  As for things we did buy...
1 liter of milk: $2.40
6 eggs: $2
1 small box of muesli/granola/cereal something: $7 (the cheapest we could find)
A large bottle of drinking water: $2
So, for those of you in California and the northeast US, how do these prices compare?

The Neighbors

Most of the time when the boys and I went out, we went out on foot (and stroller).  Because we were out so much we got quite connected to the regulars on our street.  Andre lived two doors down with his grandmother.  He is 10 and has both cerebral palsy and a joyful smile.  After the freezing cold first month or so, we saw him almost daily sitting outside of his home.  We had limited conversation with his grandmother due to my elementary Russian, but he grinned as we all went over to greet him.  Craig usually stopped by after work, and Andre knew Craig's truck and would get excited when he drove by.  Seth picked out two of his toys to give Andre, and he went over the day before we left and delivered them. 

Two doors in the other direction was an official building that required guards.  The same policemen guarded it each time it was open.  The four men always spoke to me and the boys, and helped us whenever we needed anything. 

The Sunday before we flew we spent time saying these goodbyes and taking the policemen ice cream for the last time. 

Goodbyes

Goodbye is something we have had a bit too much of in the last couple of years.  Though we were only in Tashkent four months, we loved it, and terribly miss both people and places.  The boys and I moved back to Germany June 13th, and then Craig on June 17th.  These photos are from the farewell party we had a couple of days before we left. 

Saying goodbye to Miss Sofia



This is the guy taking the office permanently after Craig (and our good friend).  This is the third time they have handed off jobs in the Army -- pretty amazing -- and the fourth time they have had the same exact job.

Side note:  the gal to the left of Craig was a flight attendant on my flight with the boys.  She was so kind and so helpful to us.  Other than Vic using all the diapers I packed, it was fortunately an uneventful flight. 




As a going away present, the boys and I got traditional outfits from Miss Sofia.  Now we have the family set.  Snazzy! 



Samarkand -- Day Four

We were up early, long before the breakfast at a b&b (thank you, kiddos), so we walked to Amir Timur's mausoleum nearby, built in 1404.  It wasn't open yet, but for a small fee the guy working was more than happy to let us in.  After our yummy breakfast we went back out to see more of the dead at Shah-i-Zinda, a collection of religious buildings and mausoleums.  Our taxi driver, our new friend, offered to watch the boys while we explored.  Though a kind sentiment, we really need to know someone longer than 10 minutes before we leave the boys.  After enough monuments and killer heat, we gave up and went to our train.  I'll spare the details, but I'm certain it was one of the hottest, longest train rides possible!

Gur-e Amir

The entry way to our B&B in the middle of a typical neighborhood

Our taxi driver in his Lada

An entry way in Shah-i-Zinda



This will just have to do until McDonalds makes it to Uzbekistan.