Doors of Copenhagen

This is the same door as the one above but, I thought it looked so cool with the red door and the colors of the buildings and the bicycle.  

It's hard to see but above the doors, the windows are stained glass.

The light doesn't always cooperate and I know I will never be back here again so, I take what I can get.

I know these are not the next two are just the knobs but, that was really the coolest part of the door and if I had shown the entire door, you wouldn't be able to see the knobs.  These were taken inside the Rosenburg.

With people

Without people

This is technically a gate but, still in the door family.

Also in the door family.  See the number 3 above the door.  This is the house number.  

Doors of St. Petersburg

Super cool store/cafe

This is my all time favorite door picture so far.  It envelopes so much of Russia is.

Amazing.  You can tell how big these doors are by where the door knobs are located.  This is a church.

Just the middle part opened, the side wood panels did not.

Can you see me in the window?

Doors of Moscow

I'm not sure where my fascination with doors came from.  But, the truth is, they are amazing!  There are so very many different kinds of doors.  They almost have a personality of their own...  I can't explain it but, it is my new "thing".  I will continue to add to this as I come upon more doors.

Doors to a cathedral

So, I understand that this is a window but, it moved me like the doors do.  I didn't want to just have a random picture of a window and nowhere to post it.  So, it gets included with the doors.

This door looks small cause I am far away but, it is actually quite large.  I love that the gate and "bike" lock are in the picture too.

Monastery

Spring Break

This year the boys had Spring Break the week of April 14th.  We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday here in Moscow and then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we went to Copenhagen, Denmark.  I will post separately for Copenhagen.  To keep the boys from driving me crazy with their restlessness, I planned some activities for them to do while we waited for Thursday to get here.

Day 1
We had a movie/Lego day.  We spent the entire day watching movies and building with Legos.  I saw this really cool picture on Pinterest (Picture second picture down) and so of course, I could not compete with that and ended up disappointed with our Lego output.

Pinterest picture.  I wasn't thinking too big was I?

Day 2

We took the day off of life.

Day 3

We bought some naked matroshkas and eggs, some beads and jewels and made our own versions of them.

The egg is mine

Trying my hand at mosaics.  (Another Pinterest fail)

Ethan's

 

Dalton's

Seth's.  He has a policeman, a burglar, and a money bag.  

Pretty little Rebecca Belnap joined us (with her brother) to create our masterpieces.  

Cutie Nathan Belnap

Picnic in the forest

There is a forest across the street from us.  (See aforementioned Blessed Water post)  The other day the weather was such that we felt it was appropriate to go for a walk in the forest and have a picnic at one of the lakes there.  Also, it was our week to watch General Conference and so we had Sunday off of church.  

Ethan is riding a bike while Chris and Seth walk.  Dalton is keeping me company since I can't walk as fast as everyone else.

This guy wins Dad of the Year!  His son is holding a shield and the dad has a toy bow and arrow.  They are taking turns shooting and chasing each other.  I wanted to hug him and thank him for spending time with his kid.  Sorry about the branches in the picture but, I was hiding in a leafless bush so they wouldn't know I was taking a picture of them.    

These are mushrooms that grow on the sides of trees.
If you find one, don't eat it.

Look at the cute little critter!  Ate right out of our hands.  He took the nuts and ran away, buried it and came back for another one.  Also, crazy ears dude!  

Cleaning the church

As many of you know, in the LDS church, we, as members of the church, help with the upkeep of the buildings.  This is true here in Russia as well.  It was our Saturday to help clean the building.

Ethan took this our first Sunday at church.  Our church starts at 9 and this is how dark it was.

 This is the view of the building next to our church, the church is to the right. The building is abandoned.  Windows are broken out and there is trash EVERYWHERE.  I think it would be fun to explore in there but, I am afraid I will run into a drunk homeless person or two.  They might want to knife fight me or something.  

Ethan chose to sweep the chapel.  This is the broom they gave him.  Hahahaha.  I am still laughing at this!  I thought he would die.  You know that look on their faces that says, "You've got to be kidding me!"  Hahaha.

Finally some guy came in and gave him this vacuum.  That was a much better option.