Back in the country

We made it safely to Moscow, with no problems! We are thankful to finally be here. For the most part, the children did very well on the 3 hour flight. They just served us sandwiches, so that made the eating part very easy! :) And, we remembered our passports this time as we left the plane!

Our poor little Nina gave us a scare though. As we arrived at the guest apartment where we are staying, our friend Julie came down with the elevator to greet us and help us with our luggage. As the elevator doors opened and Julie came out, I was busy greeting her that I didn't see Nina walk into the elevator! All of a sudden, Aria says, "mommy, Nina!" Here, Nina must have gotten into the elevator and pushed the #9 button, and then the doors closed behind her. Poor Nina was terrified and we could hear her screaming and screaming as she went up! David quickly dropped everything (our luggage went all over the steps), and jumped into the second, smaller elevator. When we saw that Nina's elevator had stopped on the 9th floor, David quickly rode the second elevator up and got her. Poor girl was terrified, but totally safe and unharmed. I learned my lesson, that I really need to watch the girls closely whenever we are beside an elevator, no matter what! And the girls learned NOT to just walk into an elevator unless mama or papa tell them too!

We all slept really well last night and felt rested up today. We have been spending time with our friend Julie and a family who are thinking about working in T-land too. I spent some time outside at the playground with the kids today, and it was really good practice for me to get back into speaking Russian with the other moms. Wow, I really have a LOT of brushing up to do!

After experiencing several cool and rainy weeks in Germany, we are enjoying the hot, summer weather of Moscow. It's really nice to get the summer clothes back out and put away the jackets!

What's next? Well, for a while now we've been contemplating how we will get back 'home'. We basically had two options.

1. Go by plane (about a 5 hour flight) to a nearby city in Siberia and then take a taxi the last 6 hours home or...
2. Go by train (about 75 hours) to a nearby city in Siberia and then take a taxi the last 6 hours home.

After looking at tickets today, we found that going by train would save us quite a bit of money. Yet, the thought of being 'stuck' inside a small coupe for 3 days and 4 nights with 3 little kids just doesn't thrill us too much. We thought about it for a while... should we try to save money, or try to save our sanity??? This time, we decided to try and save some money, so we got some tickets for the train! We are planning on leaving tomorrow evening (Friday) by train, and will be arriving in Siberia early Tuesday morning. After a 6 hour taxi ride, we hope to be home around noon on Tuesday.

We rode to Siberia by train the first time that we came to R-land, but Aria was just a baby then. It should prove to be interesting with 3 little ones. I personally am not that thrilled with the train bathrooms, and am presently trying to make up a shopping list. What food should we take on the train? I know that we will have hot water available (which is super nice), but no refrigeration, access to stove, etc. So, I'm trying to think of simple meals to make on the train. Instant oatmeal anyone?

I'll try to update again before we leave tomorrow. Yet, if I don't get to, we'd really appreciate your thoughts as we travel, especially for our kiddos. We sure hope that the 'chugging' of the train will put them to sleep instead of keeping them awake! :)