Friday

It’s Friday the 16th today, and the halfway mark for our stay in Kazakhstan! Next Friday we’ll be headed back to Almaty, and then home the following Friday! We’ve really enjoyed our time here in Uralsk. Everyone, from the hotel staff to the drivers to the baby house staff, has been so great to us.

Today is Kazakhstan’s Independence Day, a national holiday celebrating Kaz’s separation from the Soviet Union and a day off of work for most. The city is decorated with colored flags and lights (the lights also double as holiday decorations) and there are many people out and about. I think there was a parade this morning, because we had to circumvent several road closures on the way to the baby house. We also saw several people who had decorated their cars with silk flowers, honking their horns in celebration. Even though it’s an official holiday, though, we were still able to visit Aidan at the baby house.

This morning we all were in the music room because the person with the key to the playroom was likely off for the holiday. That was fine because the music room has a little more space for us to spread out. Shaylen had a fever today though and her doctor said that she should have a day of rest without a visit, so the driver took Kris and Dan to do a little shopping. Aidan was hilarious today as we changed his clothes – he put his hands behind his head, content and relaxed. Luckily we caught that pose and have posted it. He’s always making us laugh. He’s fascinated now with the straps on our backpack, the straps on the roll up blanket we have, Scott’s zipper, etc. He wants to put everything in his mouth to explore it and when we say “no,” he looks at us with his big eyes and just grabs on tighter. He’s got a heck of a grip! We distract him with other toys and he’s ok with that, but he is very interested in all that fun stringy strappy stuff.

During our lunchtime break we went to the Atrium and had pizza at MacJohn’s. I actually tried a chicken burger and while it didn’t taste bad I stuck mostly with my Coke Light and fries because my stomach felt just a little funky. We walked around the shops and I bought a stacking toy/puzzle for Aidan that looks like Ernie from Sesame Street’s face. He likes to bang things and make noise and we figured he’d like to bang the pieces together and also learn how to put the pieces together to make his face.

We were back at the hotel long enough to post a few pictures from the morning’s visit and then we headed back to the baby house. Aidan was in a particularly good mood for the afternoon. Scott had him belly laughing several times; first he found a tickle spot on Aidan’s leg, and then Scott rubbed his nose on Aidan’s stomach and Aidan thought that was hysterical. He laughed and laughed. He was so much fun. When we brought him back to the caregiver, who is so so nice, he kept turning away from her and she took him and pretended to shake her fist at him and tease him. She is so sweet and so nice and we know that they love these babies very much and take very good care of them.

Because of all the pretty lights that have been hung around town, we and Ann and Kris and Dan decided to take a long walk this evening to take pictures. It wasn’t too cold, and we were able to get some good shots of the parks with lights, the lit up buildings and the streetscapes. At the main plaza, there was a guy dressed up sort of in a Santa suit and some cartoon like characters posing for pictures with families, which was fun to watch. There were a lot of people out, I’m sure because of the holiday and because it is Friday night. We also walked up to the new Russian Orthodox church, which is really beautiful with huge gold globed spires. The door was open, so we were able to go inside, and as luck would have it, they were having choir practice it seemed so we were able to listen to them sing for a few minutes. The singing was so beautiful and the acoustics in there just amplified it all. It was really cool. Then, we decided to walk a few more blocks to the Chagala, another hotel, because it has a cozy bar/restaurant and we had heard that they have good burgers. We all had a nice dinner, burgers and fries and soft drinks. We were the only people in there but it was warm and cozy. We decided to take taxis back to the hotel. It was a fun evening!

Tomorrow is Saturday and we are going to the Kazakhstan history museum after our morning visit!

Have a nice weekend! Until tomorrow!