Snow!

 It's been snowing for two days straight now! They are big, fat flakes and it piled up fast! Sadie was overjoyed. She is usually content to stay inside, but she couldn't get her snow gear on fast enough and once she was outside she kept squealing with joy and throwing herself into the snow. She also ate a lot of it so it was hard to get a shot of her without her hand in front of her face. This is just the first couple of hours of snow. There is much much more now! More pictures later.

This is my favorite eating method, just bringing the swing right to her mouth!

Kazakh Art Museam

 I took the AP art students to the oldest museum in Kazakhstan. These first pictures are wool rugs that are traditionally used to line the floors and walls of yurts.

 I really loved this artist. It's hard to see here, but the pictures are painted with thousands of tiny dots.

 These are more modern wool designs. I love how the edges are left ragged.

We got a cat!!

 We decided on our fall break that if we found the right cat, or the right cat found us, we would go ahead and adopt it. I didn't want to go out and just buy a cat, but wait for the "universe" to send us one. Our practical neighbor says sarcastically "the universe. really. just go across the street, there's stray cats all over the place." We didn't do that but I did ask Dasha, Sadie's babysitter, if she knew of any cats that needed a home. Our communication is a little iffy sometimes because we don't speak each others language. I told her "we don't want to just buy a cat, we want to help a cat." So the next time I saw her she says "I found you a cat that needs help! It has conjunctivitis and needs a home" What could I do!? So we have a gooey eyed little kitten now that needs eye drops. She is so precious though! So sweet and snuggly. It's so fun to have a little kitty ripping around the house. Sadie cried herself to sleep because the cat wouldn't stay on her bed while she fell asleep! But they had some good snuggle time on the couch.

 I told Sadie that before she was born, we didn't know if we would name her Sadie or Lillianna. She was shocked that we would pick Sadie and not Lillianna and says she's going to change her name when she grows up. So in the meantime, she's lending her name to the cat. Kitty Lillianna.

 Sadie is so good with her, so gentle. She's learning all about the quirks of cats, of which there are many.
Don't pet them backwards.
They stay up at night.
They don't have mealtimes, just eat when they are hungry.
They sometimes bite or scratch if you pet them in the wrong spot. So where is the wrong spot? We don't know, we have to wait until she scratches us.
We'll figure it out.

Sadie wrote her name all by herself for the first time!

miscellaneous pictures from Almaty

This is Sadie's little buddy Lina. She lives next door. She is a very outgoing, social girl. Her and Sadie treat each other more like sisters than friends, they are not always nice to each other, but love each other so much. Sadie asks about Lina all day long! Lina just left to Thailand with her mom Reada to have the new baby. They'll be gone for 2 months. It's been so amazing to have friends here for Sadie.

This was our first outing in Almaty. We drove out of town for a couple of hours and up into the hills. It's always a good idea to go with another car, because if you get stuck, you're miles from anywhere.

We parked at this lake. On the other side of the lake was a yurt and a herd of horses.

We hiked away from the lake, up a small hill and then down into the river valley.

At the bottom of the valley we could see a yurt far away in the distance. It is the tiny white speck you see if you look closely.
We were told that if we hiked to it, we would be offered tea. We'll save that adventure for another time.

Sadie fell asleep just in time to be carried back out of the valley. When we returned to the lake there was a Kazakh family there with a picnic spread. They invited us to join them! They gave us shashlik and candy and shots of vodka. I took the keys and John had 4 shots. It was one of those moments when I cursed myself for not putting more effort into learning Russian. It turned out to be a birthday party. They were all giving toasts and asked us to give one as well. Our hiking buddies had not joined the party so we had to pull away so we could get back before dark. They gave us their card and stood by the car until we drove away.

Fall colors in Zhaily

A view of our house from the park.

More fall colors

We carved our pumpkins too early and they were rotten by Halloween.

My little butterfly ballerina.

So cute I want to bite her!

The booty