Never Ending Days

Literally, the days almost never end. At 4:30 a.m. the sky turns light, and by 10:00 p.m. it's still light out. So it's been a true challenge to have the kids sleeping by 9 p.m., especially because there no are curtains to shield the sun and brightness away from the room. By 3 p.m. Alex and Dominique are usually a bit fatigued, but soon catch a second wind. A nice lunch helps!

Check out the breakfast we have every morning: eggs with some type of a ham, thin crepes with butter, yogurt, fresh bread and fresh butter, tea, juice, and coffee for Mike. The servers in the hotel cafe are very sweet, and their schedules are grueling. This is one of our waitresses. They work from 8 am through midnight for 2 days in a row (sometimes 3 days), and then return after 2 days to start again. And they wear really high heels. We don't know how they survive so many hours on those things!! Women and men dress up nicely, by the way. We don't see sneakers, or casual shoes or casual clothing very often. They may not have much money, but they save up to buy nice items of clothing, and a nice winter coat with matching hats which probably last them a long time. Kazakhs take a lot of pride in what they wear and how they look -- women always wear a bit of makeup, and their hair is always nicely styled. If someone is wearing tennis shoes it could be a child in some type of hockey or soccer team (they are BIG soccer fans!), or most likely Americans. It never fails.

Our visit to the Baby House today was great!! And here is Alex to fill you in . . . .

HI EVERYONE, I LOVE KAZAKHSTAN!! Our Baby Saule (soon to become Sofia) is a great baby and here is why: she is cute, sweet, cuddly, playful, sometimes crabby, silly and strong!! I LOOOOVE her and can't wait for her to come home so I can play with her every day forever!! In this photo she is inspecting my mouth, and we were having so much fun doing this.

She is PERFECT!! Hugs and kisses to you and Baby Saule for now. I'll talk to you later! Alex