The beautiful thing about May in Russia is that it's warm and sunny. And everything is green.
Josh lost his spur rowel, and so he took a Russian dollar coin and put it on his spur.
I thought it was a good idea.
Merritt has enjoyed his bike this spring. He likes to ride down and see how Josh is doing.
The boys have also enjoyed all the fencing that has needed done this spring, we load up and go help Dad for the afternoon or evening. This time of year the weather is perfect for being out with Dad.
Carter is always helping and ready to go.
This is how it's done boys.
Merritt strumming his windshield scraper guitar.
I love Carter's face in this photos!ha Such a big tough guy.
There are frogs everywhere this time of year. One evening we went out to check cows and there was a little pond with lots of frogs, pretty soon the boys were in the mud trying to get them. The only problem was that the cows had been there before us, so all around the pond was a mud trap. But that of course didn't slow down my boys. They're tough like that.
Some how they even talked Dad into helping them get their illusive frog.
Merritt and his frog catcher.
Sadly those pesky frogs were a little too quick that night and we didn't catch any, but we did get
eaten alive by the mosquitos.
I was hiding from the blood thirsty mosquitoes most of the time.
Another fence building/family outing
It's amazing how fast those boys find the dirt and get covered in it.
Josh has some cows get out get mixed in with a small dairy's cows. The dairy called and told us to come get them, which I thought was nice since they could have just eaten them!ha It's happened before. Anyway, the dairyman had a few guys working for him and they all used these whips to move the cows. They're just a long piece of rubber made from cut tires. These Russian dairy guys could use these whips like pros!! The whips are about 30 feet long, and those guys would pop the end out there and hit the back leg of the milk cow to get her moving. We practiced and practiced, Merritt got pretty good at it, we all whipped ourselves in the face at least once.
The Trubchevsk Park
The boys love to go to the park, and somehow we don't get into town to do much besides a quick grocery trip. But I knew we had to get in to the park while all the spring flowers were in bloom, it's just amazing. We did miss most of the tulips, which are my favorite, but there were still a lot of beautiful flowers in blossom. The mosquitos ate us alive so we didn't play too long, but the boys had fun and I got to take some pictures. So it was worth it.
The boys got a kick out of finding some dandelions to blow, and blow some more. It's the simple things in life.
In the park there are two old cathedrals, one I think is from around the 14th century and they have restored it since we've been here. These photos are of the second cathedral and they are just starting to renovate it. I love the look of the brick will all the worn plaster.
I thought these flowers on the tree were neat, I've never seen anything like them.
People throw money in the fountains here, in Russia just like back home, and I'm pretty sure every time we've come to the park, I've seen kids in the fountain digging out coins!ha
And of course no trip to the park would be complete without taking a minute to play on the toys!
That's a water spigot just in case you were wondering!
Josh had a slow leak in his tire, and our neighbor who is head of transportation saw the flat tire and came over, he was very concerned and wondered what we were going to do about this problem!ha Well Alexander this is what we did. It's old school I know, but it got the job done.
And every job needs a supervisor!
Good work boys!