Adventures with Bogdan

In the past week Bogdan and I have gone on two wonderful adventures together. The first was on Monday. Some friends of ours are buying a house in a village near us, and I wanted to see how far away it actually is. So, in the afternoon while everyone else was at art/music/theater/office, we set out to explore. It was such a beautiful spring day, and such an incredible place to wander in! Bogdan said that he felt like we went to... "what was that place where we stayed in a hotel and went on walks?" Askania Nova! We did find our friends' new house, but of course, all we could do was walk past it, since the old owners still live there. The main attraction was walking along the little river. We saw wild ducks, turtles, muskrats, frogs, and so many kinds of birds. The muskrats were my favourites. I saw one, but Bogdan didn't, so I suggested that we sit and wait for it to come out again. We waited very quietly on one of the little footbridges with our feet swinging over, and sure enough, the muskrat came out. It swam right toward us to get a better look, which kind of scared Bogdan.

We walked a whole lot, and we were pretty tired when we headed home. I realised that I had 20 griven in my pocket and suggested ice cream cones. Bogdan instantly announced that he wanted white ice cream with strawberry jam on top. I had to tell him no, because I only had 20 for the two ice creams, not enough for jam. And then we saw another grivnya lying on the ground! When we got to the ice cream stand we found out that, yes, jam costs one grivnya. Bogdan got exactly what he wanted. We decided that was a special treat straight from God to us.

The next adventure was yesterday. For our beloved Oksana's birthday, Alys organised a really special day. She initially invited Raia and Asya to come, but we were planning on being in a small car, and both girls were busy, so I suggested bringing Bogdan instead. First we went to Kakhovka to get Oksana, then on to Dnepryani for a visit with some of the boys she grew up with. When we said goodbye to the boys, we went on to a lovely place along the Dnepr River and had a picnic. I didn't get any photos there, but it really was wonderful. Bogdan absolutely loved running around, catching creatures along the edge of the river and observing all the wildlife. He was asleep within five minutes of when we drove away from there. He woke up when we got back to Kakhovka, though, and enjoyed riding around on Oksana's bicycle with her.

Right now we're getting ready to go show the rest of the family (minus Raia, who is at a conference) the little river near us.