Возвращение!

Steven rummaging through the luggage

Yes, dear readers - we are back in Russia, we have resolved all internet-related difficulties, and are now prepared to post more of the information you all crave about our lives! Stop pretending you don't crave it. It's really nothing to be ashamed of. :)

Anyway, we are finally back in Moscow. While we had a great time in the US, it's good to get back home (and no, I don't want to reengage the semantic debate on the term "home" as it applies to The Wandering Family).

But lo, we have pictures of our last week in the US, and it appears that you will have to suffer through them before you will be privileged to enjoy any sights of Moscow with us. Well, that and the fact that we just unpacked our camera, and haven't had a chance to use it here yet, that is. Onward we rush, into the aforementioned pictures:


So, we wanted to make the most of our memory-making time, so we decided to take the kids to the beach with the whole family. We had to drag some of the entourage kicking and screaming, but after much gnashing of teeth, we arrived.

Of course, my mother being who she is, took 3 seconds after she realized that Steven might burn with so much time in the sun, she whipped up an improvised jacket by cutting some holes in a towel. He seemed to like it.

They even enjoyed building some sandcastles together!

The waves were, well, not exactly crushingly huge in the swell department. Here I demonstrate how to shred 18 inch waves for our Russian friends, who don't exactly have an illustrious history of surfing and maybe won't know any better.

We also managed to get Matthew dedicated our last Sunday, after which we got together with all our friends for a farewell dinner.

First, though, we had to at least try to get a decent picture of the boys. Not a bad try, I guess. We still have not managed to get a good family picture with all four of us, but this will have to do in the meantime.
Of course, any two of us - that's not a problem. It's just when you try to get both kids, B, and me all at the same time, well, not so good.

The farewell dinner, which mostly consisted of all our friends trying one last time to fatten us up, was by most accounts a success.

We also managed to get one last picture of Matthew and his cousin Natalie, born only one day after he was. It's mostly here for the "Aaaaaaawww" factor.

And that was about it. We'll have to fill you in more on our trip here later, but the short version is that we got here without any major problems. Actually, on our long flight across, we were soooo blessed to be on a half-full flight so we could lay the kids down and rest.

We're slowly adjusting to the time difference, wishing we could convince the kids to rest when the sun is still out, but overall we're doing well. Thanks for thinking of us, and we'll have more on the housing situation when we know a bit more.