Day 1 - Kochkor

I can hardly even begin to describe our week out of Bishkek...staying with traditional Kyrgyz people, seeing the natural beauty of this country, hearing and practicing speaking in the national tongue of Kyrgyzstan.... I will share more in the coming days about miracles we saw, deliverance that was at hand, and lessons that were learned; but, for tonight, I wanted to leave you with a few pictures from our first day.

We departed Bishkek in the late morning last Sunday with another family that is also studying and learning the Kyrgyz language. We drove the 3 hours east to Kochkor, where we were staying with one of the families that works in the Altyn Kol Shyrdak Cooperative. Two of the sons are in the guiding and hunting industry here in Kyrgyzstan and would be our guides over the coming week's language and culture immersion. They were incredible and we are so very thankful for this blossoming relationship.

You may get tired of these amazing "nature" shots, because I took quite a few this week, but I hope you can see how very lovely and blessed Kyrgyzstan is in it's God given beauty!

This is the field across the street from the guest house we were staying at in Kochkor.

After 3 hours in the car, we took a nice walk and were able to check out the surrounding area before settling in for dinner and bed on Sunday night.

Meeting one of the local donkeys.

Sissi, picking flowers in the field.

Finding tadpoles in the creek.

Sissi, with our friends, searching for tadpoles.

A large flock of birds flying across the mountain range.

The mountains through the trees.

I am just in love with this area, it is so very picturesque!

My Gwangi, happily running around and playing in the fields.

Sissi and her friend, picking flowers in Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan.

Biography of Julius Caesar by Krypto

So, you might have read Gwangi's historical fiction piece that we posted earlier, now, it's Krypto's turn to have his writing up on the blog. His assignment was to pick a Roman figure and write a 5 page biography of them. He picked Julius Caesar. He got extra books from the library, used his own History reading assignments, and looked a bit online for this paper's background and research. Several weeks of reading and note taking then turned into his paper.

Again, I haven't spent as much time this year with editing and reworking the boys' papers as I just haven't had the time, but all in all, I'm pretty proud of their independent work!

So, enjoy, Krypto's biography of Julius Caesar, from a bird's eye point of view -

Chapter 1: Nestling, childhood, and early years

Julius Caesar was born into a large and influential, though not exactly rich, family. His father, Gaius Caesar was a senator, and his aunt was one of the influential, highly respected, and very powerful religious, vestal virgins.

His family even managed to claim that they were the true descendants of Venus, the goddess of love, charisma, and beauty.  

Very little is known about Julius Caesar’s childhood, only that he had an average Roman education, in which he showed great talent. His childhood was probably like every other Roman child’s which is why we have so little information on it, nobody cared to write it down because of its normalness, which would have bored anyone who had read about it.

Even by an early age, Caesar had great power. His father died when he was 16, leaving him, by the Roman law, in charge of his huge family. He did a good job, giving a sense of what was to come with his great talent of leadership already coming into play.

By his late twenties, he had married. His wife’s name was Cornelia and it was a diplomatic marriage to stop the hostility between Caesar’s family and the family of Cornelia. During a bloody civil war they were on opposite sides. But even their marriage was not enough to keep the peace. When Sulla, Caesar’s enemy, won the civil war, Caesar had to flee from Rome, but could return when his aunt, the vestal virgin, intervened on his behalf.

He soon returned and got a job in politics, which he was very good at.

About this time two events happened which caused much chaos and allowed Caesar to go through the ranks from military tribune to Praetor rather quickly. This move allowed him to get elected into the senate and hold his position there.

The two events that caused such chaos were first a massive slave revolt, where thousands of slaves, led by a gladiator named Spartacus rampaged thru Rome. They then made a camp on a nearby mountaintop, where it took the Romans 6 months and 3 assaults to destroy them. The second was when an evil senator by the name of Catiline formed a conspiracy to take over the government, but it was discovered and stopped.

Chapter 2: Hawk, Early career

His early career was a busy one. Soon after being made military tribune both his wife and his aunt Julia (the vestal virgin) died within the same year. He was very sad and spent some time in mourning.

His first step up on the governmental career ladder was to Pontifus Maximus, the supreme high priest. He ran against Catiline (before the conspiracy was revealed) and won. He was in this role for a few years, but then climbed up again to be the Praetor of Spain, where he was governor and leader of all the local, loyal armies.

He did a remarkably good job. His first act was to start a war against the hundreds of bandit bands that lived in Spain, he carried the role well, and within 2 years Spain was bandit-free.

The people of Spain were very happy with his work, and even more so when he cancelled all their debts and then drastically changed the debting laws (which also helped him get out of his own personal debts) and when he left Spain he was incredibly popular.

He faced a challenge when he got back to Rome though. He wanted to run for consul, but he had received a triumph; a triumph was when a general did so well that he is lead thru the streets in a parade. The Senate had voted for Caesar to receive a triumph because of his victory while fighting the bandits. Unfortunately, there was only enough time to either run in the election or to have his triumph parade. He chose to run in the election.

The election was a brutal one, it was Caesar versus Cato the popular speaker and another two elder senators. Everyone but Caesar cheated during the election, with even the noble Cato bribing others to vote against Caesar. Caesar did win, but it was very close.

Caesar remarried, this time to a girl named Calipurnia, the daughter of a powerful senator. This was the first of many things he would do as consul to gain more power with the populous.

He also redistributed much of the government’s land to the poor, gave tons of food and wealth away, and built many public buildings. All of these popular actions gave him full public support. On the senatorial side, he made many alliances, the most powerful of which was when he, Pompey, and Crassius formed the first triumvirate.

The triumvirate was a team of three people who covered each other in areas where that person was weak. Together, they ruled all of Roman territory’s. Caesar came up with the idea in order to help himself get more power.

The members of the triumvirate were him, who had a large amount of the public support. A general named Pompey, who had the military’s support, and a senator by the name of Crassius. He had the wealth the others needed to fund the triumvirate.

The triumvirate was forged when Crassius and Pompey became friends, and then Pompey married Caesar’s daughter.

Caesar now had the power, and he was popular; it was time to make his move.

Chapter 3: Eagle, high career

Even though Caesar was very powerful, and very popular, he was still deeply in debt, and he saw the easiest way to get some money was to be governor of a rich, but not very stable province. He felt that if it was too stable, he wouldn’t gain any popularity by stabilizing it. He thought that Gaul was the best province at this time that fit his requirements. It was a wealthy area, a good trading point, and it was close to Rome, but it was also in a time of chaos. Horde after horde of Germanic tribes had swept through and destroyed everything, and those who survived took advantage of the chaos to revolt against Rome’s rule of law. Caesar, who was already popular in Rome, easily got himself elected as the governor of Gaul. He then sent his four available legions, plus two new ones he raised, to suppress the rebels. He even managed to defeat the northern Gaulish tribes, who had really never surrendered to Rome. He then led his troop to the nearby island of Britain and declared it a Roman province, much to the dismay of the inhabitants.

The put up a much better fight then the Gauls did, even Caesar had trouble with the local tribes, who were rebellious, good fighters, and many in number. In the end, Caesar had to be content with just the lower half of Britain, as he did not have the forces to fortify and maintain it all. 

Unfortunately, bad stuff was happening in Rome; the triumvirate was falling apart, mostly because Caesar’s daughter was dead, thus causing a rift between Caesar and Pompey. It didn’t help much that Caesar’s term of office as governor of Gaul was almost over.  He determined to rebuild his relationship with Pompey and managed to get himself elected for another 5 years; long enough to totally defeat the Gauls and Germanic tribes for a long time to come.

He even managed to write a seven volume-autobiography of his fighting in the Gallic Wars called, “The Gallic Wars.” While he may not off been very original in his is choice of title for his books, it was a very powerful work that interests readers even today. As long as you can read Latin, that is.

Meanwhile, back in Rome, Pompey was getting restless. He was afraid of Caesar now, afraid of how powerful and popular he was becoming. So afraid that he “jumped the gun”, took over Rome, declared himself a dictator, and exiled Caesar. Of course, Caesar did not like being exiled, he responded by taking his loyal men and marching them into Italy where one of the first Roman civil wars began.

In the manpower and equipment departments, the two sides were almost equal, with only a slight advantage to Pompey. What Pompey lacked was loyalty from his troops, youth, charisma, and a tactical brilliance.

These traits showed themselves in Caesar abundantly, and with every battle he won, more of Pompey troops deserted him and joined with Caesar. Pompey was close to despair, so when a major battle, where Caesar was trapped in a fortification with no naval support, was won unexpectedly by Caesar, Pompey lost all hope, he abandoned his troops, and fled to Egypt. Caesar chased him, but got there in time to be presented with Pompey’s head, given to him by the traitorous king of Egypt, who was having a civil war of his own.

An unexpected side effect of Caesar’s arrival was the stabilization of Egypt. Caesar decided to help the king’s older sister, the leader of the rebels, her name was Cleopatra. Over time, Caesar developed a romance with Cleopatra, which produced a son. Caesar and Cleopatra never officially married under Roman law.

This caused some tangles back in Rome, due to the fact Caesar had already named an heir, his nephew Octavian. Cleopatra wanted Caesar to change his will so that Caesarion, their son, would be in charge and be his heir. Caesarion’s name meant little Caesar. The people of Rome wanted a Roman born citizen, not an overseas queen and her son.

Caesar returned to Rome and waited a whole year before summoning Cleopatra to join him. He decided that changing his will would have to wait, because he, the Dictator for life, was going to be crowned king! Little did Cleopatra or anyone else know that this would be the most critical point in his life.

Chapter 4: Vulture, Death and afterwards

The senate was afraid of Caesar, afraid of what he could do. So when they heard he wanted to be king, they panicked and decided to kill him. They tricked him into believing they were really going to crown him, but they were in reality going to stab him to death. He was so surprised at how many of his friends were involved that he didn’t even try to fight back.

When they public found out about the murder, they were furious. They respected Caesar and were horrified that someone, even a senator, would try to kill him.  The army and some of Caesar’s friends had half of the senators involved in the plot killed, but some of the conspirators got away to be hunted down by the remaining good senators.

Due to the fact that Caesar died before he could change his will his nephew, Octavian, got all the wealth and power. Cleopatra retreated to Egypt, pretending to mourn, but in reality preparing her armies and navies for a civil war against Octavian.

The war took place several years later, with Octavian and Rome on one side, and Cleopatra, Egypt, and Marc Antony (who was one of Caesar’s generals who after Caesar’s death fell in love with Cleopatra) on the other side. Octavian won the war.

He then changed his name to Augustus, meaning “powerful one,” and declared him-self the first Roman emperor.

Caesar was a great man, who did great things.  He helped forge one of the most powerful, most feared, and longest lasting empires in history of earth. He was smart, handsome, and cheerful; his people and his soldiers loved him. He brought about a dominating and enduring dynasty, and every emperor after him took “Caesar” as a surname.  Is it any wonder he is remembered as one of the greatest people of all time?

End of School - Historical Fiction

For the last 9 weeks of school we were studying Rome...it's rise and it's fall and everything in between. Each of the children had a writing assignment that spanned about 4 weeks or so of organizing, drafts, edits, and more drafts.

Now, I haven't felt like I've been as good as I should have been in editing and correcting their papers this year...they have had quite a bit of "freedom" this year in their writing as I've been putting in so many hours myself to language study. I'm pretty proud of my 4th grader and his work though.

This is Gwangi's historical fiction story about a Roman soldier he created that was in Julius Caesar's army. Enjoy!

The Battles of Rome

                                                      

Chapter I

The Joining

A long time ago, there was a young man in Rome. His name was Servius Quantius. One day he was walking down a street when he heard words that surprised him. 

“I will help Rome,” said Julius Caesar, “Rome will be more powerful under my rule, join my army and you will never forget the power of Caesar.” He seemed irresistible. Then he noticed something, his friends were there.

He walked up to his friend, Friendius Lossius and said, “What are you doing here.”

“What do you think? I’m joining Caesar’s army,” he said.

“You're crazy, just because a guy promises fame doesn’t mean that he means it,” said Servius.

 “I know, but it won’t hurt to try,” replied Friendius. “Say, why don’t you join. There is going to be enough glory for both of us.”

“Maybe,” said Servius, “but I don’t aim to get my head chopped off.”

“Me neither,” agreed Friendius.

So without further ado Servius and Friendius joined Caesar’s army.

“Name?” said the soldier in the booth.

“Servius Quantius, sir,” answered Servius.

“Friendius Lossius, sir,” answered Friendius.

“Place in society?” queried the soldier.

“Merchant, sir,” said Servius.

“Noble, sir,” replied Friendius.

“Sign here please,” said the solider.

Chapter II

Marching to Gaul

The next week, Servius and his friend Friendius went with Caesar to Gaul. Servius agreed with Friendius that it was a little harder than they expected to live in the army. When Caesar and his army reached Gaul, trouble was brewing. An army of barbaric (or so Caesar thought) villagers were gathered in a half circle around the village.

“This seems harder than I imagined,” said Servius while looking at the Gaulish army.

“I agree,” said Friendius.

“FORM THE TURTLE!” ordered a soldier.

Immediately all the soldiers created a wall and roof of shields. They walked down the hill and started to move right at the Gauls. The Gauls began to throw spears and rocks at the Roman legion, but to no avail. The Romans moved closer, and closer, and closer and the Gauls hadn’t touched them. Then the Roman legion suddenly broke up and attacked the Gauls. The Gauls, having been so surprised, didn’t fight with their usual fierceness. It was a quick and easy victory for Caesar’s troops.

Chapter III

Britain is an Island

After the conquest of Gaul, Caesar wanted more land, so he decided to go to Britain. But Britain was an island, and everyone knew that Romans weren’t good sailors. But that didn’t stop Caesar. He went right on to Britain and didn’t care if he lost a few slaves. Friendius and Servius both got seasick.

“I don’t like this,” wheezed Friendius.

“Neither do I,” replied Servius.

“LOOK OUT, THERE IS A STORM COMING!” shouted a soldier.

“BRACE THE HATCHES!” ordered another soldier.

The storm was a sudden one. Lightning came from the sky, rain hit the deck, and waves struck the ship. Then Servius hit the side of the boat and he was unconscious. When he woke up he was on a beautiful beach, the sun seemed to sparkle like a gem. Then he noticed a hand, the hand of a Britannic barbarian.

Chapter IV

The Warlord of Britain

Before Servius could do anything he was hit on the head with a club. He awakened in a Britannic village. The chief was consulting with four other fierce warriors about the Roman.

“I think he will escape and tell the Romans about our hiding location,” said a warrior.

“If we are nice to him, he might tell us where his army and such are, maybe even teach us about their battle tactics,” argued another warrior.

“Quiet, the Warlord is coming,” ordered the chief.

Suddenly the door was thrown open and in stormed a man. He was huge, a giant one might say, and he carried two swords at his waist. His strength no one could imagine, but most importantly, he was the Warlord of Britain.

 “What do we have here?” questioned the Warlord.

“A Roman, sir,” reported the chief, “The only problem is we don’t know what to do with him.”

“Well, why don’t you make him a target?”

A target! Servius was scared; everyone knew that being proclaimed a target meant being shot at! Servius then noticed a weak spot in the knot they used to tie him up, it was a Celtic knot. Servius was taught how to untie a Celtic knot.  He went to work while the Britannic warriors continued their discussion about him. He was almost finished working his way to freedom when a warrior came in to the room.

 “Sir, there are Romans in the forest,” reported the warrior.

“Prepare for battle!” ordered the Warlord.

Chapter V

A Leader Vanquished

Servius worked like mad to untie the knot while the Britannic warriors got ready for the battle. Apparently the Britannic people didn’t want to lose this village. Then the knot fell apart! He was free! He was about to get up when he noticed a Celtic warrior. Servius realized that the Warlord had built unity throughout all of Britain, and that every kind of culture on the island was united under his rule. Servius noticed the importance of killing this man. He lunged at the Celtic warrior and then he ran! He was in the village street now and saw the Warlord with two men.

“Stop that man!” ordered the Warlord.

“Yes, my lord,” said one of the warriors.

Servius ran and ran while arrows flew by him. Then he ducked into the forest, he was just about to escape to the Roman camp when a hand covered his mouth! He kicked the man and was free. Then, he saw the Warlord! He was ready to fight the Warlord.

“I know how to fight,” said Servius.

“Oh, I know,” replied the Warlord.

Suddenly Servius jumped at the Warlord, he then grabbed a sword from the Warlord and struck him. The Warlord staggered back. Servius didn’t wait to see if the Warlord died, so he just ran.

Chapter VI

The Crossing

After the defeat of the Warlord, Servius, Friendius, and Caesar’s army went back to Rome. But when Caesar reached Italy, he faced a problem.

“If I cross the river, the Senate has every right to kill me,” said Caesar to one of his generals, “On the other hand, if I don’t cross, Pompey will grow in power and soon nobody could stop him.”

“Sir, a message from one of our troops,” reported a messenger.

Caesar began to read.

“‘My general, why aren’t you moving, we have marched through Gaul and Britain yet you stop at a river. The troops want action, I want action. Please do something. You’re faithful soldier, Servius Quantius.’”

“Send this message to everyone in the camp, ‘I know that you demand action, and I am deciding what to do. Your general, Julius Caesar.’”

“Very good, sir,” said the messenger.

Suddenly a man came across the bridge and played his flute. It was a jolly tune and some soldiers started to dance to it. Then he grabbed the trumpet from a musician and played the battle cry while crossing the bridge again.

“This is what we’ve been waiting for!” said Caesar.

Chapter VII

Return to Rome

After that Caesar and his army went through Italy and continued to Rome. Caesar’s army conquered city after city until he got to a city called Thelonious. As they stopped to prepare the siege they noticed the army of Pompey.

“This might be tough,” said Servius as he watched the army of Pompey go into the city.

“LOOK OUT!” shouted a soldier

Servius and Friendius had just enough time to dodge a ballista’s boulder. Then arrows started flying everywhere. Caesar ordered them to return fire. The siege lasted for three months before Pompey retreated with his army. The people of Thelonious opened up their doors to Caesar and his army. The soldiers had a pleasant time eating and drinking the food of the city.

“Ah, this is the life,” said Servius.

“I could stay here for a long time,” agreed Friendius.

Then Caesar moved his army to Rome. He set up the army’s camp on a hill next to Rome. Skirmish after skirmish took place before Pompey finally moved onto a ship headed for Greece.

Chapter VIII

Greece, why Greece?

“Oh, why did he have to choose Greece?” said Caesar in his tent.

After fleeing Rome, Pompey decided to go to Greece. Meanwhile, Servius and Friendius were discussing something.

“Hmmm,” murmured Servius, “I wonder why Pompey went to Greece. There is nothing special there.”

“Maybe for the money?” suggested Friendius.

“You have a good point,” said Servius, “But that is not enough for Pompey, he wants…” Servius’s voice trailed off as he sat there pondering.

“A hiding place,” said Friendius

“THAT’S IT!” said Servius as he leaped up from his bunk.

The other soldiers groaned, for it was late. So Servius ran all the way to Julius Caesar’s tent and burst in.

“Sir, I have important news!” said Servius.

“Might I remind you to wait and ask my guard to come in,” groaned Caesar while turning in his bed.

“I know why Pompey went to Greece,” said Servius.

“WHAT!?” shouted Caesar.

“Yes sir, I think he went because of a hiding place. Everyone knows that Greece is full of scholarship, so a big battle would destroy some of it.”

“You are brilliant, uh…?”

“Servius Quantius, sir.”

“Yes, you are brilliant Servius Quantius. Now I know how to get him.”

Chapter IX

Egypt, Here I Come

After that Caesar had Servius promoted to optio and they marched to Greece to fight Pompey. After he got to Greece he sent Optio Servius Quantius and a group of soldiers to skirmish with a group of Pompey’s soldiers.

“What happened to you?” questioned Friendius.

“Julius Caesar promoted me to optio because of my help and loyal services to him,” replied Servius.

“Whoa, that must give you some pressure,” said Friendius.

“Not a lot, but you’re right, it does put some pressure on me,” said Servius, then he whirled around and ordered, “Be quiet.”

Soldiers were moving by. A quick victory was won. Soon afterwards Servius was given a lot of battle orders and was getting closer to becoming a centurion. Eventually a major battle happened and Pompey had to get on a boat and go to Egypt. Then Caesar followed him in his boat. When he got there he was given a very nice welcoming committee. Centurion Servius Quantius was at his side.

“I have come to get Pompey,” said Caesar.

“We do not have Pompey,” said Ptolemy.

“But we do have a gift,” said an adviser.

“What sort of gift?” said Servius suspiciously while putting a hand on his sword.

“Nothing that would hurt the glories Caesar,” said the adviser.

“Open it,” said Caesar.

Soldiers appeared carrying a basket. They opened it. And on the inside Pompey’s head sat soaked in salt.

Chapter X

Egypt, a Beautiful Place

Caesar stood there surprised at what was in the basket.

“Do you like it?” asked the young Ptolemy.

Caesar said nothing.

“He would like to recuperate from the shock of it,” said Servius

“Very well, the Pharaoh Ptolemy will now have a rest,” said the adviser.

The adviser, the Pharaoh, and all the guards left them. Later that evening, Caesar was in his room when a person came in.

“I have a gift for Caesar,” he said.

“Caesar has had enough gifts for one day,” said Servius.

“It is a gift from my Queen, Cleopatra,” said the slave.

“Queen Cleopatra!” said Caesar.

“Yes, and she would like that you alone see this gift,” said the slave

“Very well,” said Caesar.

So Servius and all of Caesar’s generals left the room. The slave unrolled the carpet (which was the gift) and in the carpet was Queen Cleopatra! After that Caesar and Cleopatra spent a lot of time together. But then disaster struck. An army who hated Cleopatra was on the march to Alexandria! So Caesar got his army together and fortified the city and got Servius to lead a part of the army into battle, but while fighting, Friendius got wounded.

“You’re going to live,” assured Servius.

“I don’t know,” said Friendius.

“What do you mean, ‘You don’t know?’” asked Servius.

“The doctor says it is a shoulder wound,” said Friendius weakly.

“What is so bad about a simple shoulder wound?”

“The bad thing about a shoulder wound is my arm can’t move, I may die from blood loss.”

“Can’t the doctor do something, like put it in a sling.”

“It’s too bad off to tell, maybe in a few days…”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN A FEW DAYS!?” interrupted Servius.

“There is too much blood.”

After that Friendius lay back, when he died we may never know, for a few days later Friendius was taken to a boat and sailed to Greece where he was buried as a war hero.

Chapter XI

The Assassination

After a little while longer, Servius went back to Rome. He had a lot of money from his pay and plunder, so he was well established in the money department. He had everything he ever wanted, except his friend was now dead. A time passed while he was in Rome before Caesar came with what was left of his army (the people who didn’t leave to go back to Rome). A while later Caesar was given the offer of being king of every territory outside of Italy. He asked Servius to stand outside while he went in to become king.

“I have come to be your king,” said Caesar.

“King of the Underworld!” shouted a senator

A blood fest occurred while many senators attacked Caesar, stabbing him in vital spots. He had just enough time to say…

“Et tu, Brute?” Caesar gasped, while Brutus was raising his knife to stab him and kill him.  

***A sequel to “The Battles of Rome” will be published later in 2015. Stay tuned and contact your local publisher to hear the exciting conclusion to Servius Quantius’ adventures following the death of his beloved General, Caesar.***

Homemade Air Freshener

We all want our house to smell clean and fresh, right?

The weather has been nice, the kids have been playing outside much more often and when they come inside,...well, it's been smelling a bit "sweaty." So, I decided to try a new "recipe" and make some homemade air freshener. All you need are a few ingredients -

Baking soda

A container to put it in

Something to cover it with that you can poke holes in for the scent to work

Essential oil(s) of your choice

Here we are getting started with my baking soda, peppermint oil, lavender oil, and I am using an old Mom's Love Rub container that I washed out. If you don't know about Mom's Love Rub, you've got to check it out...we use it for everything. It's our carrier oil of choice, we put it on any "boo boo," burns, dry skin, etc. Here is the website, and I know the maker personally - Mom's Love Rub

I put the baking soda in the container, dropped about 10 drops each of the oils, and then cut a piece of plastic wrap to put on the top. I poked about 15 holes in the top and then tried a ribbon around it to keep it in place. About every couple of days I will give it a little shake and that will restart the scent. We have these all over the house and I would say about once a month you might need to add a few more drops of oil, but they do last, they do smell fantastic, and I highly recommend this easy project. Enjoy!

Gwangi is the Big One-Oh!

What is one of the coolest ways to celebrate your birthday? 

Live in a country that celebrates Victory in Europe Day with a pretty awesome parade...and be a boy that enjoys tanks and all things military! It's like having your birthday on Christmas each year.

The day was rather rainy and we were amazed at how many people still made it out for the parade and events. The streets, sidewalks, and all walkways were packed for blocks and blocks around the parade route.

It started with some WWII vintage vehicles. This is the T-34. It was a major Soviet tank, some say one of the best designs to come out of the war. There were many of them made.

A close up of the T-34.

The GAZ-AAA, based on a Ford Model A design, it is an original Soviet truck from the WWII era.

This is the GAZ-67B, without a hood. It was based on an American jeep design.

The boys aren't sure on this particular model. Any ideas from the peanut gallery?

There were also many other modern vehicles, some rocket launching vehicles, flyovers of helicopters, and planes today, but we couldn't get any pictures of the airplanes today....

But...the other day we did...we were out walking with our language helper, going to get another fairy tale book to use in our language lessons, and we saw several practice flyovers.

We also got to stop and see some of the dances that they were practicing.

One of the hundreds of signs hanging up around town. This was on the side of the book store we were visiting. Victory Day is a week long celebration here!

My three kiddos, so excited for Gwangi's birthday! He is now in the double digits!

Opening Sissi's gift to him, special cards and crafts galore.

She drew him a set of pictures.

Also, she crocheted for him a parachute for his Capt America doll that I made for him around New Years.

A special snowflake that she made for him.

Wahoo! A new Wii game, from the cousins.

Oh yeah, Indiana Jones!

The boys played this and said it was one of the best games ever. There is also a special bonus game on the disc, one of the original Indiana Jones games...circa '92...they said it was awesome!

We always give books...and lots of them! Several of these used to be Indy's!

And, with help from Grandma and Grandpa, we got the big Lego Super Secret Police Dropship! He was so excited!

Look at this face!

Gift from Daddy to his war game loving son, Gwangi...Custer's Final Campaign, a war game they can play together.

Both of the boys with their new birthday Wii games from their cousins...Tron and Indiana Jones. My boys and their favorite things!

We always let the kids pick their favorite meals for their birthdays. Gwangi picked French toast for breakfast, bacon cheeseburgers and fries for lunch, and deep dish pizza for dinner with a chocolate mousse cake for dessert.

And....for movie night....The Lego Movie!!! He is wearing his shirt and has his two Lego Movie Lego sets on the coffee table so he can "re-enact" his favorite scenes while watching. He has the Melting Chamber set from Christmas and the Super Secret Police Dropship from his birthday.

Dessert! he asked for a chocolate mousse cake! So, I took our favorite, local German chocolate cookies and put them in the food processor with some butter to make the crust. Then, I melted 3 chocolate bars, 2 chocolate and one chocolate with strawberry filling, added a bit of cream cheese that I had been holding on to (I bought it months ago at one of the special stores that carries "foreign foods") and some heavy cream. I poured that in the center and then put it in the freezer for 2 hours.

It was Ah-Mazing!

What a cool day with our big boy! He is growing up so quickly and becoming such an amazing helper and responsible guy. I cannot even explain how precious this boy's heart is!

First outing with the Trekking Union

The weather as we came into the middle of April was finally turning quite lovely and warm enough to think that Indy could take the boys on an outing with the Kyrgyzstan Trekking Union. The group hosts hikes, camping trips, and all kinds of other trips around the country. Most of the listings on their website say that you need special equipment or should be over the age of 12. We figured we could push things with Gwangi being close enough in age, but we decided not to push things with trying to take Sissi. Glad we went with that decision because as you look at these pictures, you'll realize that this "canyon hike" was not a walk in the park.

This was toward the beginning of the hike. The drive to this canyon was about 2 hours away from Bishkek.

At the beginning, warm and sunny.

Some pretty steep walls and a really neat view.

Our oldest guy, Krypto.

Some other people on the trip, heading up one of the canyon walls.

Gwangi, being a bit silly and telling everyone how tough he is. Indy said that our boys were the only ones on the trip and they held up very well on what turned into a 5+ hour hike up and down canyon walls.

The rocks in this area really remind me of some places we've hiked around Colorado.

Indy and Krypto.

Indy and Gwangi.

The boys, sitting on some of the rocks.

I think this is super great shot of Indy and Gwangi.

Getting toward the middle of the hike, it started to get a bit chilly as they got up higher in altitude and the jackets started to come on.

One of the higher cliffs they climbed up.

They thought this looked like a big dinosaur foot print on the ground.

Coming down one of the canyon walls.

Toward the end of the hike it got overcast and the boys got a bit cold, but they really enjoyed this hike and came home with all kinds of stories and memories!