Saturday, October 22, 2011

21 Oct 2011

The last days of fall have arrived.  And we did enjoy them.  So many beautiful trees all around us. I do not know if we were just still in survival mode last fall or if the leaves were not as pretty.  But we do not remember the colors being so pretty last fall.
We all had flu shots again.  I am going to choose to not post any pictures this time. 
We have busy helping a new couple get settled.  They are a new CES couple (The Naegles) who will work in the CES office which is in the same hall as our office.  So the office elders found them an apt. about 20 steps away from ours.  It is in a building just across the corner from us.  So we have spent the week trying to show them around.  How to use ATM'S, how to grocery shop, get metro passes and bus passes and help try to find furnishing's for their apt.  But it was nice to get another couple and I am just gald it is not me.  Every time we bring in a new couple, I just go, thank you that is not me.  Those first few weeks are so hard and such a culture shock.
We enjoyed another visa trip to Riga Lativa and enjoyed the beautiful fall colors there.  We will take one more visa trip since our release date is 12 Feb.
The other event was watching General Conference a week later on a small t.v. in black and white with the missionaries and a few members who watched it in English.  Of course we can watch it on the internet in color.  But for the missionaries that is there only way to see conference.  so we enjoy it with them.
Another big event..Mitch shot an elk and was so happy.
Our Cody is doing great.  He will leave for the Washington D.C. mission Wed.  He is so excited to get on his way to his mission.
                                              Now a few pictures:

The next few pictures are of our visa trip to Riga.
We took a train to Segulda Park.

Try and read those signs and decide which
way you want to go????

Train we rode to Segulda Park


Pretty little church at the park

Maybe if we cannot read the signs we
can try reading the map.  No such luck!!

Walking into the park

Castle they are re-building

Leaving the park

I ran into this handsome man at the park.

Beautiful fall views from the hotel window

The colors were so pretty

Beautiful tree looking out our kitchen window.

More pretty trees looking out the kitchen window.

Pretty fall evenning down at the lake in our forest.

Fall was just so pretty this year.  All the trees around us were
beautiful colors.  This little lake is about a 15 min. walk
through the forest behind us.

Pretty berries with the pretty red and yellow leaves.

Elder Walker (works for the legal dept of the church) plays
the saw.  It is really pretty.

He played it for us at Senior Night,

We said good by to our dear friends the Patterson's.
They were a humanitarian couple.

A fun package from Michelle.  Love to get packages.

Look at all the fun stuff.  Michelle really knows how
to pack a box.  Not a corner  is left empty.  She takes
great advantage of the ships if it fits.

She puts cake mixes in zip locks so she can get
more in.  She flattens all the boxes and lays them
on the bottom.

None of these in Russia.

In between sessions at confernce.  We took some sandwhich
things and banana bread and shared with the missionaries.
We just had 1 hr. in-between the morning and afternoon session.

Few of the cute kids in the ward wandered up when
they heard we had food.  They are so cute.

West Office Elders.  We love them both.  Elder
Beck and Elder Kavas.

Thanks to Michelle for her orange frosting I made halloween
cookies for senior night.  Lots of work.  But they were so good.

Office elders, Elder Bruv and Elder Ablett with our new member
friend Yevgenny came over for dinner.

Two Mission Presidents.  Figuring out their i-phones.

O.K. Elder Gronning and Elder Ayers took on
Elder Palmer and Elder Elder Hayes.  They lost.
This was after English club.  They have a ping pong
table at the back of the chapel.

President and Sister Sorenson's daughter and her family
came to visit for a week.  Aren't they so cute.

I loved on the baby and it was just so good to hold a little baby.

Way to go Mitch.  Nice elk.  Karlee did not like it,
but Morgan did.

Look at WShellie's new pretty teeth.  No more braces.
And she got her first letter from her brother in the MTC.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Great pictures, yet again. So glad the package made it. The cookies look delicious. I'll look forward to you making me some in about 3 1/2 months. Woot Woot!!! Loved the pictures of the park. What a beautiful place. It makes me happy that you still think dad is handsome. How precious you are!
Thanks for the great posts and for keeping us up to date on life in Russia, the crazy place it is.
I, too, am SO glad you're not just leaving, but are on the downside. Get home soon.
Love you lots!