Pavlovsk Palace

We have ventured out to Puskin many times but have not made it out to the smaller Pavlovsk palace. So it seemed like a great opportunity to make the trip when my mom was visiting. You can read about the history of the palace here- It is always amazing to me that even a short distance outside of the city and the snow becomes so beautiful and white. We made the trip on an exceptional clear and sunny day and the gardens looked like a winter wonderland complete with a horse drawn sleigh.
We were not permitted to take pictures inside the place but I have to admit although it is a smaller and simpler palace it is my favorite. It was very quiet inside and beautifully restored. There was even a special display showing how rooms would have looked through the ages, very cool. I can’t wait to go back in the summer and explore the gardens.

As much fun as I thought a ride in the sleigh would be I just couldn’t bring myself to torture the animals and make they pull me around- I decided a picture would be much better.

My new favorite sport

Josh and I decided to take advantage of all the snow that we have here in Russia. We normally would grab our skis and take off to the mountains, but if you are a faithful blog reader you would have seen that most of the mountains around us are more of small hills and never prove to be very exciting. So yesterday Josh and I decided that we would try our hat at cross country skiing! So we went out and bought some equipment and scoped out some trails.
I could hardly contain my excitement waiting for the morning to come so we could try our new sport. Josh and I woke up at 3am ready to go, unfortunately we had to wait until 10am until it was light enough to go.

After our long wait the sun finally rose and we headed out! I quickly learned that cross country skiing is nothing like downhill skiing. Only having my toe attached to my ski was a bit weird at first but the best part about cross country skiing is even if you are terrible or a beginner it is still so much fun! Oh, and if I fall flat on my face it doesn’t hurt nearly as much! So I’m not saying the Olympic team will be knocking on my door tomorrow, but I can see us doing this for many years to come!

The next pictures are from the end of our adventure- Josh had been skiing many times before and wanted to show off so he decided to go off the trail into the deep snow. It was all fun and games in the beginning until he realized how deep the snow actually was- These pictures are Josh’s progression to the realization that he is stuck.

Then the conclusion that I knew was inevitable- the only crash of the day- (on a side note he was so stuck that he had to take his skis off to get out) Great ending to our first XC ski day.

Christmas Season

My mom braved the snow and cold this Christmas and made the long trip to Russia to see us. We started her visit with a trip to the Mariinsky theatre first to see the symphony and then on Christmas day we watched the traditional Nutcracker! Two wonderful performances to start our holiday.

We have tons of snow here blanketing the city in beautiful white and setting the background for some photo opts.

Winter

Winter is here and it is time for falling icicles and slippery streets. Here is a picture of a particularly large one outside of our window.
Our winter began with a trip to Moscow for Thanksgiving weekend-( it had not yet begun to snow in Moscow).

We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the sights but we happily returned home to our beautiful St Petersburg.

But not before we had our fill of Starbucks! Oh how I miss my delicious large, dark, coffee!

A good day

You know when a day starts with the double yoke lucky egg it will be a day to remember.

Lucky for us we had planned a great start to Nikki's week off from school with a trip to the Baltika Brewery. They only let us take pictures of the beer factory in a limited number of places, but rest assured Josh was thoroughly excited about the beer brewing process.

Nikki was thoroughly excited about the beer tasting process!
Now here is some happy tour participants.

For the ride home Nikki had always dreamed of driving through the city in a party bus, so the brewery seemed like a logical starting point for this party.

Cooper striking a pose on the party bus.

I think Nikki is a little excited about beer tasting in this photo.

Kyra and Nick look so deep in conversation in this photo, I wonder what they are talking about, It looks like Sue is wondering as well.

September

We apologize for the long absence- it seems that the month(s) are quickly sliding by. Josh and I are both back at school and back to the grind of everyday life here in St. Petersburg. September was a beautiful month here and Josh and I took the opportunity to go sightseeing and take part in some Russian sporting events! I started the month off by running in the annual women’s 10k race. It is a fun event that helps raise money for women’s health. We had a huge turnout for the race and an absolutely beautiful course to run. We began and ended in palace square and running around the major bridges of the city.

Josh had been to a few Zenit soccer games here, but this was my first one. It was an interesting experience, the fans were crazy (even with the no alcohol rule) the seats are terribly uncomfortable, and as with all soccer games it wasn’t terribly exciting. Here are a few photos of the crazy fans- they were setting off flares in the stands to celebrate, no one but the foreigners seemed concerned, even as the smoke from the flares became so thick we couldn’t even see the field. I was happy to make it out of the stadium..

On a much more fun note- we also attended a SKA hockey game! SKA was playing an exhibition game against an American NHL team and we were lucky enough to get tickets! In my opinion it was twice the fun of the soccer games- I definitely see more hockey games in my future! On a cool note, one of my student's dads is the goalie for SKA, here he is making a great save. On a funny note, they even had cheerleaders!