Russia

Travels in a nutshell, I got to Russia - I figured that from the time I left home till being at the Savages, I traveled about - a long time. :)

outside my window

I arrived in Ufa, about 7:30pm local time (I think :) and arrived in Shamonona) later by 8:20. I'm in the cutest place ever!






Saturday was so much fun! They took me to Ufa and the famous "Salava Yulaev" - think of a Russian Robin Hood during Czarina Catherine the Great.

They took me to "Zvern" and had me have a delicious meal, similar to shishkabob, but Russian style. (Ben, Zvern is right across from the McDonalds you went to and about two doors down from where Jeremy teaches.)

Dinner was delicious!

 Three interesting facts:
1. Russia doesn't have daylight savings. They went on and haven't gone off. So, when you all have your daylight savings, I'll be 14hrs. ahead of you.
2. The sun doesn't set till after 8:30pm here.
3. It's tick season. They only come out for a couple weeks because soon it will be too cold for them. Oh, I hope it gets really cold really soon! :)

Well, I hope you have a fantastic day - I guess you all will go to bed before you have a fantastic day so... uhm...sleep tight? Don't let the tick bugs bite? :)

Take Off!

Hope you all have a fantastic day!

Sunriver, Oregon - that's the place we like to be!

How can you describe a place you have been going to all your life? Fun-filled-memories from forever ago. Dad has been going since 1982 and we've been going consistently as a family since 1994.

Zach and Mum missed the picture; Sarah and Ben joined us later that day.

Traditions? Yes! Doughnuts, bike rides around Sunriver, purchasing our new sweatshirt for the year at "Your Store", going to bed late and getting up early, games of Monopoly and spoons, and the list continues.

One of our biking traditions is going to Benham Falls. It was much easier this year as the majority of the road was paved. In years past, dad would put an age limit on it for how old you needed to be to go. It was so. much. fun. to all go as a family!

We went again this year to the High Desert Museum. 

On the last day, we went to the Lava Lands on bikes, of course. On the way there, I tried to go over a curb - not the smartest idea, I guess. My chain came off (easy fix) and I thought I heard air leaving my tire. We didn't worry about it and went to go walk around.

When we were ready to leave, we discovered that my tire had indeed been losing air and was now flat. Dad stayed and we all coasted (literally costed, the trip there was all up hill) home for mom to grab the van and go pick up dad and the bike. 

For the last part for our last whole day, we had some friends over, went to the SHARC, had pine cone wars, ate food, and played intense games of Monopoly. 

Great vacation. Great people to be around. Great time. Greatly blessed. 

Church Camp

Every Labor Day weekend our church family gets together to - well, spend time together. We have our traditions and the impromptu fun things that happen. This year was no different.

Sunday: (This was my favorite day!) Church, food, soccer!!, baptism, youth-making-pizza-night (and clean-up, of course!).  

3 people were baptized.

Kaytra, Madeline, myself

After the baptism, we all play in the water. Slippery rocks make for a great water slide and super fun memories.

The Toder

... fantastic people to name. :)

Way too many...

 The Youth Pizza Night
Camp Wa-Ri-Ki
2014

The Toder is working on a slideshow of Church Camp, so I will hopefully upload that when it is completed.

There is another post I want to do, but I don't have pictures for yet (it happened before Sunday). So, please forgive the out-of-ordered-ness of the next post. :)