Hooray for Visitors!

A mere 2+ months in, Nana and Gramps braved our wet-behind-the-ears 'knowledge' and came for a visit!  So thanks to them, now all the rest of you can come visit and benefit from our new found expertise as tour guides....


Some things we learned from the visit.....


Not just tainted by distance: Living so far from home, I always kind of wonder if the things we find 'crazy delicious' are merely mediocre treats clouded by distance from things we are used to.....but our more objective visitors reaffirmed the delight in some.....


'Peripechkas' - aka hotdog donuts.  Nana liked them so much we went twice in 6 days!  They really are oddly fabulous..

Foi gras in this part of the world is fantastic.  Holy crazy good!

The drinking chocolate made all of us smile!  (Too bad Logan was in Moscow and missed it - but gives us another excuse to go again!)

Amazing Circus Value: If you can ignore a bit of animal-unpleasantness (not quite cruelty - but definitely not US-standards of love & affection), this circus was pretty amazing.....


.......front row seats for ~$10!  Lots of lions and tigers

a huge range of animals - monkeys, dogs, llamas, a brown bear, even a bunch of porcupines!

acrobats, tightrope walker, tons of dancers, clowns.....

...and even near X-rated jugglers - Nothing like a thong unitard for a family show!  Luckily the kids are young enough to focus more on the juggling than the outfits!  (Gave me a fit of giggles tho)

Sights Schmights: With the kids on a vacation week from school, we had to plan our days with the group in mind.  As such, we limited traditional sight seeing to a few hours in a van one day to show Nana and Gramps some highlights....


St. Sophias - our tour guide filled us in on the history and the kids chased each other...

St. Michael's - the tour guide took Nana & Gramps into the cathedral while the kids played at the park...

We all enjoyed a ride on the 105 year old fenicular..

Secret Entrances change everything: We live close to a big Botanical Garden - really a large forest-y kind of park.  The kids had NO interest in going until we mentioned there was a secret entrance....

Going in through the gate decreases the walk from ~20 minutes to ~5, and eliminates the needs to buy entrance tickets - but the bigger appeal is the 'secrecy'!  (note the well worn foot path)

The kids enjoy being kings of the mountain...

...and running through the trees...

The real joy is the company: The best part about the visit was undoubtedly the hanging out...


making cookies with walnuts from the trees in our yard (damn, they are hard to get out of the shells.....now we know why full walnut halves cost so much more than pieces!)

playing games - Trouble, Blockus (thanks Carol & John for the intro!) & Farkle...

helping us identify winning European wines...

...and chillin with the many iPads we've all come to love. 

I honestly had NO IDEA why we needed one (we already had phones and laptops) till we got one - and now truly have no idea how we lived without them.  Info, emails, games, books AND electronic kid calmer - everyone needs one!




Thanks to Nana & Gramps for lots of fun, coming all this way, braving the rookie tour guide, and pretending you were calm while I attempted driving amidst crazy Kiev drivers (imagine every car piloted by people who act like angry & aggressive taxi drivers who only sometimes obey road rules).


So now we are officially ready & open for visitors!  Come see us :)