Calico Ghost Town

On Sunday morning, we loaded everyone into two vehicles and headed out to Calico Ghost Town. It's about an hour from here and we thought it would be a nice little road trip and get everyone out of the house. The goal was to get some "old-time" pictures done and then explore the town. It was New Year's weekend and they had some neat things on their schedule. Off to have some fun!

The picture session started out great and ended with all three babies switching into nuclear meltdown mode! Out of all the professional pictures we took, only two barely turned out. Our personal pictures tell a much better story! We had a great time getting all dressed up and hanging out together! Make sure you check out the slide show!The town was really neat, too. I would have hated to live in this area at that time. I think it's bad now...I can't imagine what they dealt with in the winter here 150 years ago!

After visiting the town, we loaded back up and headed to Peggy Sue's Diner. That was fun, too, but really, really loud. Once everyone ate themselves silly, we started back home. I'm glad everyone went to the potty before we left because the traffic jam we got stuck in was pretty incredible. We finally made it to our house and unloaded everyone and everything. We created some pretty cool family memories and got some neat pictures to prove it. Enjoy!

2010 Rose Bowl!

When I found out that Ohio State was going to be playing in the Rose Bowl this year, I was determined to get tickets. I figured it was our one chance to do something cool while we were stationed here. After a few phone calls, emails and crossing of the fingers, we got them and they were SOOOO worth the money!

Mykola and I had this big plan to avoid traffic. We'd drive down to Universal City, spend 45 minutes riding the metro to get close to the stadium and then walk the rest of the way. Well as we got closer, we noticed that there wasn't any traffic at all. So we changed our plan midstream...we'd drive to the closest metro we could (a few stops from the stadium) and save ourselves a ton of time and money getting there and coming back. (Side note...the metro would have cost us $1.50 each way and the parking was free. CHEAP!!)

WRONG! Somehow, we ended up exactly where we didn't want to be - in the line to park at the stadium. Couldn't turn around, couldn't put it in reverse. Just us and ten thousand of our closest friends all being corralled onto the local Pasadena golf course! And, get this, we had to pay $30 to park! Yikes! What was more horrific was the thought of getting out of there after the game. What should have been an easy escape via the metro, just turned into every road rager's fantasy! I kept reminding myself that nothing was going to spoil my festive mood and I forbade myself to think about it for another second.

All the confusion of getting there, followed by the stinging sensation in our wallet, was washed away when we got to the stadium. What a spectacular place! Best of all, we watched as our beloved Buckeyes beat the Oregon Ducks!! Between the game and the crowd and listening to the band, it was easily one of the best New Year Days we've ever had. The best part was, after all the pain in getting there, getting out was effortless! I only had to hit the brakes one time and that was because we'd come to a traffic light 2 miles from the stadium! Other than that, we were home in record time and finally got to see everyone. We even got to see the hole in Kolya's face where his front tooth used to be....Daniel-the-Bully was at it again and managed to rip it out of his mouth using a toy!!

GO BUCKS!!

Babas and Didos and Babies, oh my!

Last week, we were lucky enough to have a house full of family come and visit. My mom & Jack, Mykola's parents, and his baby sister, Lessya, all came to celebrate both Svyat Vechir and Mykola's promotion! We had a great time with them all! We took hundreds of pictures and a lot of videos - some of which I'll share in the next few posts. Here are a coupld of pictures and a video of Apam (Mykola's dad) having a bonding moment with Matvij. Too cute! Thanks to all of you for coming and sharing those special events with us!