Moscow

(I am posting what I wrote in my journal, sorry if it is a bit 'travel-log-y')

August 15th, 2009

We are on the plane. To RUSSIA!! I honestly can say that I didn't think this trip would happen, but here we are! I find myself totally excited, tired, saying many silent prayers for my little ones, and relishing in the fact that I have 10 days with my husband with out children. I don't know what to do with myself.

Damon is quite in his element. The flight is almost full and there are Russians everywhere and its like watching a little boy in a candy shop, speaking Russian every chance he gets. In fact, he totally ignored me the first 45 minutes of the plane trip talking to the absolutely gorgeous Russian woman sitting next to him. I pretended I wasn't bugged. It didn't work.

I have never been on a plane this big. I think we have 10 hours left. We met Mom and Dad in Atlanta, and now they are right across from us. Dad and I laughed out loud at the safety video Delta shows. The woman has had EVERYTHING worked on and way too much collagen in the lips. However, the best part is the chubby, middle-aged, balding guy who shows you how to inflate the life vest, complete with the orbit *ding* and a smile. We laughed out loud. We are so the obnoxious Americans.

I miss my babies a lot.

August 16th, 2009-Somewhere over Scandinavia

I really don't like long plane trips. We will land in Moscow in about two hours. I will have slept a total of 5 hours in 18, and it will be 11 AM in Moscow when we land. I think we will have to go almost 28 hours before we can sleep. I really don't like long plane trips.

Damon looks really cute when he sleeps.

August 16th, 2 pm?

We made it to Moscow, almost died 9 times in the taxi on the way to Kent's home. I am cleaned, scrubbed, brushed teeth, and fresh make-up. Ahhh, so much better. We are meeting Damon's friend Andre in Kent's private car with a driver in an hour. Yes. That's right. We have a driver. Hooray for Chevron Execs!!

Before we go I had to write about

RUSSIAN YOGURT(silly giggle)

Ya know that baby yogurt that is made with whole milk? Take that, multiply that by a thousand, and add some heavy whipping cream, and then you have a glimpse into the delicious world of Russian Yogurt. They even have chocolate varieties. It is unbelievably amazingly, ridiculously good. We are going to have to buy more to replace Kent's supply.

We went to Ismailovski Park. It is an outdoor market where the best souvenirs are sold. Everything from hand painted pottery, lacquer boxes, matroshka dolls, antiques, and food. Namely Plov. Delish. Its this beef fried rice thing with veggies, and even my Dad liked it. I am craving it again. I did buy a beautiful 14 piece blue and white matroshka doll. The smallest doll is about the size of a grain of rice. Pavel, our driver took us and Andre helped us haggle/laugh/have a great time. He is head of public affairs for the Church in Russia. Pretty cool. I took some photos and Mom and Dad left empty handed?

There were probably 100 booths just like this one.

The sign above says "History of Vodka Museum, open 11-7" Awesome.

Plov

After the market, we went to Christ our Savior church. It is a colossal white marble church with gold minarets. It was built in 2000, so it is really new and really breathtaking. You could see the Kremlin from the bridge leading to it.

I am so tired. I love Zoey and Liam and miss them more than I can say.

Christ our Savior Church

D on the bridge. Doesn't he look great.

View from the bridge. That whole thing is the Kremlin.

August 17th, 2009

Today I am celebrating my 26th Birthday. In Moscow. Boo-ya.

I have to say that this trip has been a huge series of blessings. We are able to afford it, for one. My parents are here. I get to spend a lot of time with my Dad and he CAN'T go in to work. Annie and Ashley were able to watch the kids, who are doing great. Kent has a US phone line, so we are able to call the kids anytime, with no cost. We have a driver, which we didn't expect. We have been so blessed, and we get to see Max in 3 days.

Today we are going to Red square, the Tsaritsyno, Moscow University, and Arbat Street. We are meeting Kent at a Gorgian Restaurant to celebrate my Birthday.

August 17th, 2009. 11 PM

I. AM. EXHAUSTED.

We started at the Tsaritsyno. There are no words. I mean, really. Whoever coined the phrase "Everything is bigger in Texas" CLEARLY has never been to Russia. IT IS HUGE. This is the main house, but there were 8 other separate buildings to go along with this modest summer palace. We took a stroll through "The Royal Woods". I could have stayed there all day.

Did I tell you or did I tell you. This is a little distorted, I had to merge two frames together. My 17mm Wide Angle lens still needed 2 full frames to capture the enormity of this place.

The bridge to the palace.

The Royal Woods.

From there we went to Moscow University (apologies, I am not posting those photos) From there we went to this lookout where we could see 6 of the 7 sisters (buildings Stalin built to show off communist macho-ism) They were easy to spot. Dad and I were in need of a pop. We walked to the kiosks and bought "coke light" in pretend size bottles. I think Russians would be disgusted at the size of our sodas over here.

Moscow is a massive city. 15 million people. Just had to record that.

We went to the first McDonald's in Russia. I never eat there but we did in Russia. Mom got busted for videoing the inside. We laughed. Because we don't have these at home? I kept the place mat. I think it is so cool to see things that are so ordinary but so different. AND they're LARGE drinks here are the same size as the kids size in the US.

I love that it is something ordinary made so different.

It tasted the same. Except we had to pay for ketchup.

RED SQUARE

Probably the most tourist-y spot in Russia.

St. Basil's. So beautifully unique. In fact, Ivan the Terrible had the architects eyes gouged out so that he could never build another one. We went inside and Mom and I got a little claustrophobic. Apparently Russian Orthodox think Christ was incredibly skinny, all the depictions of him had his ribs showing. The entire inside is painted with frescos or murals. Damon and I came into a crowded room where a choir was singing, and this babushka started yelling at Damon to take the backpack off, over and over in rapid succession, and then Damon yelled in Russian, "I Heard!" It probably would have gone un-noticed but it happened right as the choir finished a song. Heads turned. Damon carried the backpack the rest of the time.

RED SQUARE. Kremlin is to your left. Saint Basil's is behind you.

The group.

SO. Anyways. Lenin's Tomb was closed. Apparently he is getting harder and harder to preserve. They have to rub stuff directly on his skin now. Really relieved I didn't have to see that.

Russian women are so skinny. They were parading around the square in their skin tight skinny jeans and sky high stilettos. I felt like I needed to either change my outfit or starve myself for the rest of the trip.

Mom and I taking a breather after deciding we didn't have enough time to see inside the Kremlin.

Arbat street is really cool. I guess its kinda like the 9th street mall in Denver, but cooler. For my birthday we had a street painter paint a our favorite photo of the kids. It turned out amazing. Damon begged and begged to have my portrait done, so I caved. It actually turned out really nice. Me on my 26th Birthday.

Kent met us at the restaurant. Everything was delish and covered in fresh dill. This cream of mushroom soup was divine. Probably because it was made with real cream...

I feel asleep in the car on the way home.

'A' is for Apple

Before the chaos of traveling hit, Zoey hit a very big milestone. Her first day of School. It was a very exciting and bittersweet day for all of us.

Try and be cuter than this. Go ahead. I dare ya.

We arrived at Mrs. Wright's kinder class and she read "The Kissing Hand" to the kids. At the end, she gave the kids a heart sticker to put in the palm of their Mom's hand, kiss it, and say goodbye. I only cried a tear or two in the classroom, but totally lost it when I got to the Jeep.

She is doing wonderfully.

PRIVET

I am blogging in Old Town Riga, Latvia. This trip has been so amazing and eye opening. I can not wait to blog my journal with photos. ( I have taken to this point about 600 frames.) Max is awesome, and is greatly loved here by the people he has served. His stories are so wonderful. I have also never laughed so hard.

I thought this was awesome. The last two days were in Estonia. The Estonian word for store is Pood. Pood. Our favorite store sign was Paidipood. I don't know why I find that so amusing.

Zoey's Triumph

SHE IS ON THE GROWTH CHARTS!! Yes my friends, after a 2 year absence, she is on the charts again. Ranking in at the 6 percentile for height (37 inches), and 1st percentile for weight (30.4 lbs, with clothes on). You go little girl. She would like to thank her Aunt Davina, for coming up with a totally awesome diet for her, and her mom, for making her all the lovely calorie heavy food. As her Mom, I am so relieved/happy/so glad they didn't ask me if she was eating.

Here is a little example of her favorite breakfast. Oatmeal. Has to be coaches oats from Costco. To that add:

2-3 tsp of butter
2-3 TBS heavy whipping cream
honey to taste.

Eat with sprinkles and a pink spoon.

She usually eats two bowls.

Who wouldn't.

She also got a shot today. She was so brave. Liam cried harder than she did. He was so protective of her at the Doctor's it almost made me cry. Our little protector.

Aspen- take two

OK- so as you can tell, I am getting caught up for the summer.

Our beautiful niece Ashlee came for a whole week! It was awesome to have her here. When we picked her up from the airport we went and found her old house. That was fun, and took 2 hours. I am not so hot with directions.

After a few days kickin' it here, visiting Garden of the Gods, getting Chai's in Mantiou, and getting poured on so we couldn't shop, we went to Aspen.

It was awesome and really relaxing. We woke up when we wanted, ate when we wanted, shopped, talked, played at the park, and watched Coraline freaky and Pride and Prejudice. The first morning we were there I woke up early, put on my tennis shoes, walked outside the condo and hiked. For an hour or so. It was so beautiful. I brought my ipod and listened to classical piano. It made me really miss my brother. Max is a bit of a virtuoso at the piano. But the beauty of that mountain, with the trees, and meadows with beautiful wild flowers, it was so peaceful and serene. Inspiring. I hope to do our 2009 family portrait at one particular spot. I love being in the mountains.

The park.

There is this one wall in Aspen. On the side of a restaurant. All six times we have been to Aspen I think,"must take photos with the wall." With Ashlee here, I decided, "no time like the present!" Much to Ashlee's dismay. She hates getting photos done. Too bad she has an aunt like me...

Is that wall not the coolest thing you have ever seen?

She is a doll, isn't she.

In Colorado, we grow some seriously amazing peaches. We hit up the fruit stand in Aspen. When they heard I intended to make fresh peach cobbler for Damon and Ashlee as a final night treat, they gave us their over ripe peaches. For Free. Awesome. The cobbler was the best I have ever made. We also bought a lot of peaches as well. They are all gone now...

We stoped by Independence Pass on the way home. That road is DEATH. There are three times on that road that only one car can pass at a time. Coupled with blind corners, steep grades, and no guard rail on most parts, it is aptly named "THE ROAD OF DEATH". I drove it all by myself. I have never done that before. I put on a U2 cd, found my happy place, and kicked that road's skinny little touche.

After Aspen, Ashlee only had one more day with us. To my shocked dismay, I found out she had NEVER played 'Pass the Pigs." Ever. She had never heard of Battleship, Phase 10, or Banana Grams. I died a little inside. So. We went and scoured the Springs for Pass the Pigs. We found it. YIPEE!!!! We had a blast. Eating peach cobbler, watching "SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE...Dance...dance...dance", and hoping to roll a double leaning Jowler. We miss her a lot. The kiddos do too... I would steal her but I think her Mom would miss her too much. We are so glad she came.

BEAR LAKE

EDDINGTON FAMILY REUNION

I don't think its legal to have as much fun as we did. My Eddington Family is awesome.

It started with the Beach. Lots and lots of the beach. Sunning, playing woffel ball and frisbee. Joey build the coolest sand sculpture for Zoey. The kids love that lake, its really shallow for seriously about 15-20 yards, thus making is extremely kid friendly. Zoey collected shells, and Liam squealed if he got too much sand on his legs, and then demanded to be escorted to the water (3 feet away) to rinse off. The last day we were there he figured out he could do it himself.

Zoey and Grandma, eating Cheetos

Liam rinsing off

Cody and Breaelle taking Z & L out on the canoe
Cool Sand Sculpture by Joe

The Candy Launch. Use a regular water balloon launcher and substitute candy. Launch to an excited group of children with plastic bags to collect said candy. DO NOT USE LOLLIPOPS. trust me on that one, it ended badly...

The usual mischief happened. Staying up till 2 AM playing games (shout out to the 2 am club, of which I still am the beloved PREZ)

I think Cody took this with my camera.

Friday night was usually our 'un-birthday party', which is where we celebrate all the birthdays at once. This year, we decided to celebrate my grandma Lila's 80th birthday, surprise style. I got to plan it. It was a LUAU. I believe of all the activities, the interpretive hula dance contest was the crowning jewel. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long long long time. Probably since the last Eddington reunion. Seeing my uncle Dale up there and yell over the music "THE HANDS TELL THE STORY!! WATCH CLOSELY AND YOU MIGHT LEARN SOMETHING." It about made me pee my pants.

The Mark Eddington Family choreographed our hula to 'Wipe Out" and was a fusion of Samoan Slap Dance, patty cake, some sort of rowing war like thing, the worm, the moonwalk, and Damon's "dizzy dance".

Mark Eddington clan minus Max.

And no. There are no photographs. SO this one will have to do. After was dancing, and a late night run to LeBells for the amazing fresh raspberry shakes. I ate one every day I was there.

I wish it was longer than three days.

GOING PRIVATE

Due to an alarming post emailed to me by my protective Mom, I have decided to make 'The Pullman Family' private. Its a protective measure. Ill re-post the original because she has (surprise) already gone private.

Hey family and friends!! I am going private REALLY SOON. I never thought I would...but I just experienced a really big freak out.

just let a friend of mine know why I am in such a frenzy to set my blog private. She encouraged me to let you all know what happened so you too, can be educated about this new search engine recently launched by Microsoft. I'm going to be blunt and bold about this SERIOUS situation we are dealing with people...I have SITE METER attached to my blog spot but unfortunately I have been really bad about checking it for unusual visiting sites this past year. To be honest, I have always been very trusting and thought that I could never be the one whom wackos actually target and stalk so I rarely have made efforts to check. Tonight I chose to click into it and directly on the first page I noticed an unusual website that had viewed my blog. Curiously, I clicked onto it to see what it was. The site contained dozens and dozens of images. I began looking closer at them and come to find out there were some VERY inappropriate pictures. I clicked out of the site immediately and sat there talking to Brett about my concerns. We both became VERY worried. The more I sat there, THE MORE SICK TO MY STOMACH I WAS. IF THIS PAGE HAD DIRECT AFFILIATION TO MY BLOG, THEN THAT MEANS THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT THEY HAVE A PICTURE OF MY KIDS OR FAMILY ON THAT PAGE. With out hesitation, I went right back to that page. I was so scared of what I was going to find. There were hundreds of pictures on that page and I looked through each one very quickly but efficiently when all of a sudden I FOUND A PICTURE OF MY SWEET TAYLIN. Yes, a picture of my sweet Taylin on the same page as pornographic AND child perverted pictures. I then returned BACK to my site meter to look for other sites in direct affiliation with my blog. I found a different website that had come to my page 5 TIMES THAT INCLUDED A PICTURE OF RIDGE WITH HIS LITTLE BUNS SHOWING AS HE WAS SITTING ON THE TABLE DOING DISHES. I'm just sick right now. My sweet innocent children so exposed. I FEEL SO VIOLATED AND SCARED.I immediately googled the website BING to find out more about what it is. I then went to WWW.VOICEFORTHECHILDREN.BLOGSPOT.COM to see if I could find anything. Here is an explanation of what this website is. BING:The major problem with Bing is that it has brought pornography directly into your home or office. Porn is no longer a few clicks away.When you search on Bing, you no longer have to click to go to a different website to view porn. All you have to do is roll over the thumbnail image of the video on the video will begin to play snippets of the pornographic video.Imagine the harmful effects if a child is searching on Bing and merely rolls over the image and instantly the child is watching a porn video.This is completely unacceptable and irresponsible of Microsoft to launch a program such as this without a solution to block pornographic videos.DO NOT USE BING AND ESPECIALLY DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN SEARCH ON BING!!*Do yourselves a favor and add VOICEFORTHECHILDREN to your blog. My uncle, Jeremy Geigle, is President of Arizona Family Council and between him and a few other family members, they are SO diligent about keeping this blog up to date. They want nothing more than to educate all of us on how we can keep our families safe and protected from the pornographic world. As ruthless as it is, I hope I DID scare a lot of you. We stay so sheltered and ignorant thinking it will never happen to us...but let me tell you people, CHILD PORNOGRAPHY IS EVERYWHERE. Let me remind everyone too that Phoenix now is the #1 kidnapping capital in America. With out question, I'll be making my blog private VERY soon.


I don't think I need to say anything else. Pornography is a monster tearing at the already weakened moral society we live in. It is something I HATE. I HATE what it does to people, what it turns them into. I HATE how accessible it is. I HATE how accepted it is in our society. Its viewed as normal or even healthy. I HATE IT. IT IS WRONG. It is disgusting. It ruins marriages and destroys families. I can't even describe the feeling I get when I think of someone exploiting a child in any way, even if its taking a photo off a blog. My children especially. If you are one of those people and you are reading this, there is a special place in hell reserved for people like you. Get some help.

I will protect my children in any way, shape, or form I can find. And for this purpose, that means going private. I would urge all of you especially with beautiful young children to do the same.

Now that you all think I'm a little extreme, lets switch gears. I love keeping in touch with all my blogging friends, so please leave your e-mail or if you don't want to leave it for the world to see, you can e-mail me at a temporary email address. rachgoingprivate@yahoo.com

A whole lotta Nothin'

The day after the wedding, we went to Lake Havasu. For a whole week. It went somethin' like this.

Wake up late

eat

swim/go to lake

eat

nap

eat (at home or out)

swim

watch/ fall asleep to late night movie

sleep

Repeat 6 times.

By the time we left we felt recovered from the wedding.

Percy enjoyed his private Percy sized Pool.

The kids love it at G&G Pullmans. They are spoiled rotten, and Grammy makes the best grilled cheese.

We went shooting. D got to shoot his new/only weapon. I did too. I have never fired a gun before. It was thrilling. In fact, I totally drilled the target between the eyes on the first shoot. Enemies beware...

Zoey was quite the dare devil (again) always telling the Grandpa "FASTER!!"

Liam and my diet coke. He wouldn't let me have it back...

MOM AND LIAM ON THE TUBE!



Papa and Grammy Pullman, Toby the dog, Z, D, R, L.




After looking at this photo I though, "I'm so grateful D is a butt man..."

Yes. He is in a life jacket.

LOVE HIM!

Captain and First Mate.

What a great place to relax and unwind. Ahhh. Wish we were there right now...

Mr. and Mrs.

CHELSEY AND SETH ARE MARRIED!!! It was an incredible day. Too bad there are no photos... he he It was overcast and perfect light. Only 93 degrees. For Mesa, at the end of June, that is unheard of. Chelsey looked amazing. In the sealing room, she was so incredibly happy. There were no tears. Just giddy, school girl smiles the whole time. It made everyone in the room smile. Seth looked handsome, although I don't think he cared one bit about anything else but marrying Chels. We are so glad to have him in the family!



Don't they look blissfully happy?

Outside the Mesa, Arizona Temple

The photos at the temple were great, and I got to be a superhero. There was another bride that got married about an hour after Chels, and her photographer DID NOT SHOW. What the WHAT!? I came to the rescue. They turned out beautiful. If you want to see, click here. I was drenched in sweat by the time I wrapped things up at the temple. I felt so gross...

The Pullman Children

D, Chels, and Rylee

Keeping cool in a 20 pound satin dress

After a LONG shower I pampered myself and went to Blossom to get my hair 'did'. I love the way it looked, and it was really nice to have a legitimate reason to sit still for an hour. After that I rushed home, got the kids and hubby ready and headed to the Wright House Provencal for the reception and dancing.

At the reception we did (surprise) MORE BRIDAL PORTRAITS. Chels and Seth have more wedding photos than they will ever know what to do with. I am finally done, 5 week later... Then the rest of the line showed up and Damon helped me by pushing the shutter release after I framed the photo and then jumped in. After review of the photos I have decided that I should never go blond again.

They had a beautiful brides room

THE BRIDAL PARTAY

Striking, isn't it?

Lovely

can't you just tell he loves her!

D and I have a photo like this from our wedding, its one of my favorites

Beautiful Chels

Seth is quite the Ladies Man...

The food was great, the flowers were beautiful and sassy, the cake was gorgeous, the groomsmen were handsome, the bridesmaid's were incredibly hot ;), the flower girls were too adorable, the location was to die for, and the dancing was so much fun. One of the best weddings I have ever been to. Way to go Mom and Dad P! You bankrolled one heck of a party!


Dancin' fools

This is my favorite photo of the whole night

My chillins, practicing their ball room skills

Congrats you Two!!