Fun With Parents

It was so fun to hand around with my parents this whole time! They are so funny!
Here is what my Dad made out of crackers :)

They are so cute together. They tease each other, they try to pick their battles. Everything I learned about love and family, I learned from them.

My Dad and I had fun going to get a few gifts - candies and vodka. When I asked about this particular one, he said: "For sure, they won't be poisoned!" :)

We walked and talked, looking at stuff and just laughing. We went to the post office and sent 10 postcards to every friend of mine and the kids.

My Mom cracked me up when she got upset with me that I wanted to snack on some stuff like crackers. She said I needed something substantial and then asked if I would like some ice cream. LOL.

Another time Dad and I were talking about programs because he reinstalled Windows for me, so we talked about them: "I have this program and I have this one" My Mom: "And I have a hot dog, would you like to eat?" Cracked me up!!!!

My Mom and I made a butterfly out of plastic bottle. She told me how to do it and I did all the design. Bonding time :)

I looked through all the albums they have and it also, brought a lot of memories. I love it here!

I taught them how kids and I entertain on the car rides - we look at 3 letters of car plates and think of a word for each letter, the more ridiculous the better. I did not expect my parents get so creative with all the choices :)
NNN - Нюша наверно нудит
We laughed at:
Однажды, обходя окрестности Онежского озера, отец Онуфрий обнаружил обнаженную Ольгу. Обомлел отшельник, оторопел.
- Ольга, отдайся - озолочу!
Ответствовала Ольга:
- Окстись, отче, отойди! Обидишь - отомщу! Отбиваться ослабну - откушу окоянный отросток!

Четверг Четвёртого Числа,
Четыре Четверти Часа,
Четыре Чёрненьких Чумазеньких Чертёнка,
Чертили Чёрными Чернилами Чертёж.

I definitely will miss them so bad when I leave. They are so fun to be around. How I wish I lived closer!!

Town Fun

View from my Grandma's balcony. She fed us yummy pea soup and coffee :)

 I sneaked out on them :)

At the place where there used to be Stalin monument. 

 What a beautiful tree!

Queit dam.

Water was so warm. I wanted to get it.

We sat here for a while, having snack. It was so peaceful. Weather was perfect. 

 How little I am :)

 Love this view.

 What a fun bike ride. May be 15 km total? Loved it!

Moscow Again VDNH

Of course, on the way we had to stop at our river spot. I love this picture with my Mom. It is definitely a framer. 

It was fun here. When my Dad took a picture, we did not realize how much water went away before the wave would hit my shoes. I screamed when it happened. :)

Here we had fun - we decided on the snack before we took off. So, while we were standing there, my Dad looked and asked why I was so blue. I looked at him and asked the same about him. (he was all in blue as well). He is funny!

Then my Mom fooled him asking if he put on his shirt front to back. He took it off, changed and then realized she was pulling his leg and laughing. :) Love them!

I love going there with my parents. It is like OUR spot. My Dad and I were wearing roller blades and my Mom was on the bike. It was helpful because when the road went down, we could hold on to her. We NEEDED it badly in some places :) I fell almost right away when I was trying to go around the well lid. It happened so fast that I could not even understand how I ended up on my rare end :)

 

Made up Buran, spaceship that flew in 1988 as unmanned flight. 

Yip, house upside down.

 I can clearly see the pig running :)

 Just a very pretty view. :)

 Love how the building refelcts on the water.

 Central Pavilion.

Famous sculputre.
Wikipedia info:
Rabochiy i Kolkhoznitsa (Worker and Kolkhoz Woman) (Russian: Рабо́чий и колхо́зница Rabochiy i Kolkhoznitsa) is a famous landmark of monumental art, "the ideal and symbol of the Soviet epoch", that represents a dynamic sculpture group of two figures with a sickle and a hammer raised over their heads. It is 24.5 meters (78 feet) high, made from stainless steel by Vera Mukhina for the 1937 World's Fair in Paris,^[1] and subsequently moved to Moscow. The sculpture is an example of the socialist realistic style, as well as Art Deco style. The worker holds aloft a hammer and the kolkhoz woman a sickle to form the hammer and sickle symbol.^[1]

The park was getting ready for Day of the city this weekend so it was not crowded and landscapers were working on all those flowers. So pretty!

Moscow - 2 Kolomenskoe

We took the subway away and headed to Kolomenskoe. Here is the information from Wikipedia. 

Kolomenskoye (Russian: Коло́менское) is a former royal estate situated several kilometers to the southeast of the city center of Moscow, Russia, on the ancient road leading to the town of Kolomna (hence the name). The 390 hectare scenic area overlooks the steep banks of the Moskva River. It became a part of Moscow in the 1960s.

First it was mentioned in 1339. Crazy, huh? We started where my Dad's finger is at Metro Kolomenskoe and we ended up at Kashirskaya.

I really do.

 Savior (Back) gates. 1673

You walk on Linden Valley that was created in 1825.
I do not remember the name of this church though.

 Front Gates. 1672

 1532. Church of Ascension.In 1994 church was included in UNESCO heritage list.

We walked down to the Moscow river embarkement. SOOOO pretty especially with this cathedral far away among regular appartment buildings.

 Hi there! :)

I liked the view. When you go along the river, you can see families with kids, people on bikes, friends sitting and chatting. So relaxing.

 When we walked to this building we were not sure what it was. Restaurant? Then I read about it on the post. Amazing!

This is the original site of the wooden place of the tsar Alexey Mikhailovich built in 1667-1672. The original palace was dismanted as the time worn it in 1767 at the order of the empress Catherine II. By the present the palace has been reconstructed with the original drawings.

This was the original structure and they built the one on the top by blue prints. Wow!

Here is Google's image. So beautiful.

We were glad we picked a different way to get back to the subway. We walked along the park that had such weird art pieces that we were just shrugging our shoulders thinking we did not understand much but it was fun :)

Moscow - 1 Kremlin Armoury

We picked good weather for Moscow. We researched it the day before thinking about what we wanted to do. We thought of Tretyakovskky Gallery, Pushkin Museum of Art, Kolomenskoe, or the Armoury Chamber of The Moscow Kremlin. We ended up with the last two. 

Driving to the city was challenging. Did not take us that long, but at one spot there were 6 lanes that combined into two. It was crazy how creatively fast my Dad would merge into the one he needed to. 

We parked at Altufyevo, took subway to downtown. What I was most amazed with was that I remembered so much. Of course, there are many new stations but I was surprised how much I remembered about subway, which stations were where, where we could jump on another train. 

A lot of memories brought the smell of the subway. It is one of a kind, nothing else smells like subway. Since it was Sunday, there were no people on the train. Not like none, but so few that we all could take a sit on each train. I wish I knew there was wi fi everywhere in the subway. It would have been so neat to take a picture right there and send it "live". 

At one point we stopped and bought a few souvinirs. We got a bell for Jimmy's Mom and when my Mom was carrying it, my Dad compared her to a sheep and that with that bell we would never lose her :)

Here is where we stood to be checked at police station to make sure we did not have any guns, I guess. 

First we got to Red Square. For Day of the City (September 6 and 7th this year) they would have Military Music Festival Spasskaya Bashnya. We saw how many people from different countries would participate in it. Bad thing that Red Square was soooo full and had so much stuff on it that if I to come there for the first time, I would not have understood what the big deal about this Square is. Was not impressive at all. 

We walked past Eternal Flame of Soldiers which symbolizes soldiers who fell in WW. It is such a prestigious job, only officers from a special Kremlin regiment can do that.

My goodness, it took us a while to find the ticket booth and the entrance, we just kept going around trying to find it and then.. Here.. It is not very easy because territory is huge.

I have to say it was definitely worth going there. The only thing I was very upset about that no one could videotape or take any pictures. The exhibit booth had cameras above them so no one wanted to get in trouble. 

We got little portal devices that you can put to your ear, kind of like a phone and then listen to the narrator who was describing each exhibit. I wish we had time to walk through twice, there was so much information and I am sure I would have noticed something later that I did not notice before. 

It is one of the oldest museums of Moscow - was established in 1808. The Kremlin Armoury originated as the royal arsenal in 1508 and then it got to be in charge of producing, purchasing and storing weapons, jewelry and various articles of the tsars. There are 9 rooms that start with XII century items.

The Russian Imperial Regalia (Shapka Monomaha)

The Armoury has ten Faberge eggs, a collection equal to largest in the world. 

Throne, made 1740-1742. There there many of them. One, for Boris Godunov, I remember was made out of elephant bone. Seriously???

Crazy how many of those rifles were with DIAMONDS!

This is how exhibits looked like:

Our favorite rooms were the last two. One showed the clothes that tsars used to wear and the other their coaches/carriers. Hard to believe that those dresses were worn only once. They weighted about 30 kg. Imagine just wearing such heavy things and look at the waist! it is insane! 

As for men.. They seems to be sooo slim. Like what kind of men were they????

Carriages and coaches just blow your mind away. There was even one for tsar kids. Some of them are unbelievably creative.

This one was the most blowing away. It was given to Elizabeth Petrovna in 1754 by Count Razumovsky. It is hard to believe that many of them were wealthier than tsars themselves. 

I was blown away by the level of skills that those people had to create all those items sooooo many years ago. It was amazing!

We got out on the way to the subway and deciding on what to do in this huge city.