Day 4

Today has been wonderful. We were able to sleep in a little, talk a lot on skype to family and friends (which is the only way we make it here), then we headed out for a walk. It is cold but again not miserable. It is in the 20's right now. The only thing that gets cold is my face. We headed out just to walk around and we came upon a clock tower that was our guide to the hotel that we stayed at last time. We figured from there we could find our way to the hotel where we heard there is a giant Christmas tree and several ice sculptures. What we found was nothing shy of amazing. At the hotel there was an ice sculpture playground. It was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. Everything was made out of ice. There were several slides for children...all made out of ice. We just found a bench, sat and watched in awe. I think I could have sat there all day. Here are a few pics, however, the pics just do not do it justice:

An ice gazebo

They had fresh flowers frozen in some of the sculptures

Some of the sculptures were colored. They were much taller than they look here.

A piece of one sculpture that had Russian rubles frozen in it.

This is one of the many slides. We are hopefully that the weather stays this good and when we get the boys we can take them there.

Another ice slide

A large ice statue

The giant tree...this thing was massive. I'd love to see it at night.

Another ice slide

This is blocks of ice all along the sidewalks. We thought it was large rocks at first then we realized it was where they scraped the sidewalks.

This ice sculpture is not far from the apartment. It is Santa on a rocket leaving 2010 and headed to 2011
A close up of Santa
Today's groceries: Coke, apple juice, orange juice, rice, water, cinnamon, soy sauce (we hope), chicken (I know it looks dark but it isn't, it is just the picture) and in the white bag, we are praying is sugar. And daddy: no the cinnamon is NOT for the chicken...it is for toast!!! HA
We also went to Cinnabon which is very close to the apartment.

Benji is a happy man!

That has been our day. I am off to make us some chicken and rice for dinner. We get to see the boys tomorrow. We cannot wait to see them again. Unfortunately we will not be able to post pictures of them until after court and our 10 day waiting period is up.