The Rest of our Russia Trip.

The night we got home from Kazan, my Mom made the yummiest pesto pasta! I have made it three times since we have been home! She makes it a lot for the missionaries and I can see why! Jorgen gobbled it up as did the rest of us!

Jorgen enjoyed a movie with Dadu after dinner.

The next morning the kids and Justin and I took a walk to the Volga and had so much fun!
They are just so cute!

Some cute family pictures!

Fountains are always a hit!

The park by the river.

This swing was fun for Jorgen but dangerous for Shelley, she tried to hop out mid swing :).

I have not seen one of these in so many years! How fun!

We then went with my dad to a new branch house that is being built. It was neat to see and hear about how it all came to pass.Our little Sister Shelley.

The following day we went to Stalin's Bunker!
This member in the picture with Jorgen is a veteran and arranged for us to go on the tour of Stalin's Bunker. Usually you can only go through it with a big tour group so we were so grateful to have the opportunity. It was so neat!

This map shows how deep into the ground the bunker goes. I forgot how many stories deep it is but it was DEEP! Something like ten stories deep. The Soviets built the whole thing without anyone even knowing and it is built right next to apartment buildings and a busy road. Pretty amazing.

This is Stalin's secretary desk deep in the bunker. In this room are four doors and Stalin also had a number of look-a-likes so if someone was trying to get Stalin each of the look-a-likes and Stalin could escape through a different door. He never had to use the bunker but it was there just in case.

Here we are at the desk making funny faces.

My dad, his assistants, and the member (forgot his name).

This is Stalin's meeting room! We got special permission to go sit in his chair.

The stairwell as we were leaving the depths of the bunker.

Funny boy!

This is the rocket in Samara! Samara used to be a space program city that was closed to the public (Mom, sorry, I'm slaughtering the description...I cannot remember all of the details).

My Dad stopped by every sportmaster store we saw to buy these cool balls for his grandsons and also the office couples grandsons. It was quite funny how many balls he ended up buying!

We then headed to a helicopter landing that is now a gorgeous lookout onto the Volga.
One of my favorites!!
This gal loves her Tutu!!!!!!

Our growing family!

Another favorite!

Me and my Man!

Smoochy smoochy!

And some serious smoochy!

Our two darlings!

This is one of my favorite of these two, I love how they are looking at the flower and being so sweet together.

Whatever! :)

Awwwwww!
(And my Mom and I did NOT plan our outfits!)

Gorgeous!

A big fat bumblebee!

My girl and I!

After we got back from a busy day out, we went to the beach and let the kids play.
They loved it!

My Pops! So handsome!

I love this picture! She is so cute!

The three of us, loving black and white.

My Dad has this thing with buying sports balls and my Mom has a thing for these funky cute bracelets :). The kids loved playing with them.

Jorgen being attacked by the bracelets.

Shell loving being all dolled up.

As we were getting ready to start packing up, the kids had some very fun times with their Tutu and Dadu.
Does it get any cuter?
The two Shells.

Admiring her Dadu.

Jorgen had so much fun playing on the treadmill while Dadu would move it. I wish I could have recorded the giggles.

But I am glad I captured the smiles!

These two are so cute together! Two peas in a pod, who occasionally fight over the same trains:).

We then started packing up and Shelley was such a good helper!!

I walked into the room to see what the boys were up to and found this.
Love it!
We then headed to the airport the next morning and said our good-byes. Surprisingly, no one cried. I think we were all too rushed to get on the plane and worried about overweight bags and such. Plus, my Dad kept reminding me that they will be home in no time (which is wonderfully true). We miss them so much and feel blessed to have had the opportunity to spend time with them and see their mission!

The flights went well and we were blessed to get each of our over weights bags (each 10 kilos over!) all the way home without being charged. So many nice people out there! A blessing for sure!

We also had the opportunity to fly from Moscow to Chicago with some good Stanford friends of ours, the Cuffs, who were flying from Moscow to Chicago as well. It was so much fun talking to them and catching up.

We made it home safe and sound...pictures of us experiencing jet lag to follow.