Cousin Camp 2014

Kuna, Idaho

Cousin Camp was held at Brad and Myrissa's house this year.

After 5 weeks of not seeing each other, we had a hard time going anywhere without the other.

Brad's cat had just had kittens.  They were the hit of the party.

Abbie on the farm!

Redneck slip and slide

FIY...  Brad is getting a thistle out of the lawn, not dog poop.

The kids are patiently waiting for the slip and slide.

Volleyball

Boise River
One of the favorite activities we did was float down the Boise River.  The bummer is, none of us brought our cameras...  But, it really was fun.

Boys being boys.

Exploring a cave
I did not go.  It was all a little too confining for me but, the boys said it was awesome.  After seeing these pictures, I made the right choice not to go.  I would have passed out while climbing down the ladder and barfed the whole way down.

This year, Cousin Camp was the year for traveling.  Jennifer and her family flew in from Okinawa, Japan, Our family came from Moscow, Neal's family came from Texas, and Holly's family came from Richfield.  So, The 6 hour drive for Brenda and Gary was the shortest distance traveled, all in the name of Cousin Camp!  It is good to reconnect and strengthen the bonds we already have.

The two days spent at Cousin Camp was the only two days that the boys and I got to spend with Chris.  It was bitter-sweet.  We had a long 3 more weeks apart.  We are all glad this is all behind us.

Red Square

We have all been to Red Square but never together as a family.  So, we journyed out as saw "Dead Lenin" and went inside St. Basil's Cathedral.

Lenin's tomb.  Lenin lies in a glass casket for all to see.  The room is painted black with a big red stripe that goes around the room.  The lights are dimmed and there are guards everywhere.  You are not allowed to talk, stop walking, or take pictures.  The top of this building is used to seat dignitaries when there are performances on Red Square.  

This statue commemorates Prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzman Mini.  These men gathered an all Russian volunteer army and expelled the forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Moscow, putting an end to the Time of Troubles in 1612.

The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, commonly known as St. Basil's Cathedral but, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intersession of the Most Holy Theotokos of the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral.  It was built in 1555-61 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and  commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan.  The building is made to look like the flames of a bonfire, reaching towards the sky.  There is no symbolism in this.  The name of the architect is unknown but it is the legend that after it was finished, Ivan the Terrible had the architect's eyes gouged out so that nothing more beautiful could ever be built.  
(Info from Wikipedia)   I think that is a lot of names for one little church.  It is currently a museum and has not been a working church since communism.  It is a federally owned building.

I love how this picture shows the vibrant colors.  Behind those windows are the original walls.  The picture below was taken standing by those windows.  

 

This is the view from inside St. Basil's

These pictures show how the thick the walls had to be to hold up the weight of the rest of the cathedral.

This is Saint George, for all of our Southern Utah friends.  The legend says that a dragon or crocodile makes it's nest at the entrance to the water for a city.  St. George happens upon the city and fights the dragon to save the princess and the water supply.  He then converts the city to Christianity...  That's the jist of what I just read on Wiki.  Honestly I lost interest so, if you want more details, look it up.  

This is the famous clock tower.  On the back side of the red wall is the Kremlin.  This is where the Russian president works (but he does not live there).

 

This is the beheading place or Lobnoye Mesta.  It means 'forehead place".  It is said that this is where beheadings would take place.  Even when we were there, people were telling us about it but, Wiki says that that is untrue.  It was usually used for the leaders to make announcements from.  We have seen pictures depicting the beheadings that supposedly took place here.  

 

I don't really know what the name of this building is.  I could look it up but, I am out of motivation for that.  Sorry.  It is on the opposite end of Red Square from St. Basil's.  It is really cool looking and the detail is amazing.

We are waiting in line to see Dead Lenin.

 GUM (pronounced Goom) is a huge mall.  It is super fancy and all the stores are uber expensive.  The GUM is on Red Square and so, we walked through it to find some ice cream and they were having an antique car show!  So cool to see all the old Russian cars.