VISITORS!!

Two weeks ago my parents came to visit. It was a highly anticipated trip on our end, ha ha and I got out my list of things to do and places to eat in Zaporizhzhia! They were supposed to fly directly to Zap but that flight got cancelled but they were able to fly to Dnipro instead so we went there to pick them up. It's a nice drive to see the countryside and "experience" the roads although that highway isn't too bad at all. 

The first day they were here we went to the biggest market in the city and to Oak Grove Park where there are lots of rides. 

 The men weren't brave? crazy? enough to go on the Ferris Wheel so Grandma, the boys and I did.

The men did the bumper cars with the boys instead:

This is at the top of Boulevard Shevchenka which is near our home and ends at the Mayor's office. Buh Shuh, as it's called by the locals has fountains, a clock, lots of restaurants and shops and for a year or so has had this: 

When in Zap, if the weather is nice, you must do shashlik on Khortitza Island. These stairs lead down to the beach and there is a beautiful view:

Another awesome adventure is a boat cruise past Khortitza island and through the dam so we did that one evening.

We had truly incredible weather - usually this time of year is +35 Celsius and too hot to breathe but it was always mid-twenties, breezy with lots of aun and cloud.

We took an afternoon to visit Garry in Nicolaipolia (Teresa is currently at home in Canada for a couple of weeks) and we got to see an assisted calf birth.

Village life here is totally different than city life and it's always great to see the new projects Garry has going on - we see him once a week and there are always new things going on!

At the Dnieper river beach in the city:

The boys LOVE playing arcade games and winning tickets at Igro Boom - we generally only go at their birthdays and whenever we have visitors so they were thrilled.

Steve and I left the boys with Jessica and took the overnight train back to Kyiv with my parents. We rented an apartment in the city center and spent a day touring. I've only recently realized that Kyiv is a very beautiful city and is also very old - 1535 years old to be exact - so there are some crazy old buildings and a lot of history to be explored there!

We hit the highlights and the next day we sent my parents off on the bus to the airport to head home again. 

I always feel very nervous when people come and visit because things are so very different here. I always feel like I have to find this balance between showing how strange and difficult it can be to live here but yet showing how great it is and hoping that people love it here by the time they leave!  In the end it's always a relief when people come and see how we live - we can tell stories about everything but until you experience it for yourself you never fully grasp how it is, and it's really special to actually show how we live and the things we do, instead of just telling stories about it. It's like we're understood on a deeper level and that in itself is really encouraging to us. So thank you Dad and Mom for coming to visit us! Our time went way too fast and we all miss you already!