We had a rare, quiet afternoon here. I called my mom and said “everyone is occupied!” That’s not common around here. Well, occupied peacefully, without anyone yelling at anyone else for more than 5 minutes. Reed’s birthday is on Tuesday, so Aaron took him on a special birthday outing to a science museum today. Gus was napping. Lena has strep, so she was hanging out on the couch with the remote and Big L spent her afternoon skyping with her cousin and then joining Lena on the couch.

My mom wanted to make an e-card for Reed and I said “make a video one where you put his face in!” We quickly found jibjab and realized how fun it was to make cute videos with everyone’s faces in them. While we chatted on the phone, I made one to “Happy” with all of the kids” and she made one with the Can-Can for Lena and one with Gangam Style for Big L. I hung up with her and asked the girls if I could show them something, and I played the Happy video.

They could not stop laughing.

We Facetimed by mom for her two videos and the girls just kept on laughing. It was a great time. I even made a few more and we played them all for Aaron, Reed and Gus later.

Yes, that’s right– two blog posts in one day! I’ve been meaning to blog about our adventures from last weekend, but now I’m getting my first chance. I’m still going to try to post my 365 photo tonight as well.

Last week, we went to Maxwell Wildlife Refuge. You might remember that we took our hosting chaperone there last year, but we arrived later in the day. This time, we signed up for a tour and came in the morning.

A tour involves going out into a little tram with a tour guide who tells you about the bison, elk and Maxwell Wildlife Refuge in general.

A friend said “how much of that is zoom and how much of that is being REALLY close to them?”

For photographer friends, this was shot at 200mm, and cropped just slightly.

So, we’re pretty close.  They have a feed truck that they drive up and around the tram during the tour, so all of the animals come running to get their food. Bison are apparently quite dangerous, so you are not allowed to touch them or get down with them. However, they told us that if they had been able to separate the bison from the elk better that day, we would have been able to get out and walk among the elk.

Another photo for perspective.

A mom and her baby.

And, the elk. They were more shy, because the bison were scaring them off.

What is a moose in America is an elk in Europe. Did you know that? Moose = Eurasian Elk. We don’t have moose here on the Great Plains, just what we call elk.

The only child who wanted to cooperate for this next picture is the little girl hugging the elk. The boys were cold and whiny and the big girl was giving me that “I’m too old for cheesey family pictures” look. No, kid, you’re not.

We grabbed lunch and over lunch, Aaron and I discussed what we’d do with our afternoon. Go see an atomic cannon or go to a WPA-built castle? Both, Aaron said.

Castle first. This was my third time here.

I wish we lived closer. It’s such a fun place for children to explore. Imagination can’t help but run wild here.

There are gorgeous views from the top.

But, I really love the lighting inside. The way the light streams in from the small windows is incredible.

We hadn’t planned on coming here, so I hadn’t really dressed my kids for photos in a castle. (Is there a proper attire for that? Of course there is.) And, no one really wanted to model for me.

Gus was having a moment and decided that he wanted to hide between this table and bench. All I could think was dirt/bugs/who knows what! But, he’d yell at anyone who tried to remove him.

Example:

Some little “brothers” were feeling a bit more loving.

I cannot wait to come back here again, a bit more prepared for photos.

Aaron and the older kids finished off the day with a geocache, while I took Grumpypants Gus back to the car for some music and rest time.

If you think he’s holding a snake, look at his right hand. It was a geocache, taped to a fake snake.

We never did make it to the atomic cannon. I can’t say that I was too disappointed.

We’re getting a bit of snow tonight. Not a whole lot, but since we’ve only had one other little snow so far this year, it’s exciting. It’s also the first snow since Big L has been here.

Both Big L and Gus currently call snow/snowing “snowman”. “Mama, is it snowman outside?” It’s pretty cute and I love that they both do it.

We have a streetlight right in front of our house, and the snow looks so beautiful coming down in front of it.

I asked Big L if she wanted to come out with me, because 1. she likes snow and 2. I’ve barely taken any photos of her this time.

I used a flash, which is why the sudden drop-off from her black clothing into the darkness behind her. The flash reflects off of the snow, which I kind of love.

Big L can’t just be out in the snow or anywhere without writing me a sweet note.

She is such a sweet kid. Also, notice that she’s wearing Aaron’s shoes. 🙂

I think I just wrapped my brain around it being 2014, and now it’s almost 2015. This is the third year that I’ve picked a photo for each month, one that is a favorite of mine or represents the month well or tells a story of something that happened that month.

• 2012
• 2013

2014 was a busy year. Here are my photos that sum it up…

January: Reed’s birthday is in January, so I wanted to pick a photo from his birthday, but this is actually a favorite of mine. Reed really enjoyed sledding. He’s grown so much in the past year!

February: Gus’s 3rd birthday. Cars, trains and anything with wheels are still a favorite of his.

March: March was a big month of spending time with my extended family. First, we went to Pennsylvania over spring break, then my mom came here to visit us.

April: This is one of my favorite photos from April and the year as whole. It was a big seller from Moose Prints, which I also started in April.

May: Another nighttime photo, before definitely one of my favorite photos of the year. I love camping and being out with my camera under the stars. It is also representative of where I’d like to see my photography work go– clean, colorful and bright, even with the night sky as the main feature.

June: June was the month when we welcomed Big L here. It’s hard to believe it’s just been 6 months since we met her for the first time.

July: This is just one of my favorite photos from July because it shows our 4th of July fun and Big L wearing her “super loved” shirt. Truth.

August: August was when we said goodbye to Big L. Here she is, waiting to check in for her flight, my mom’s hand on her shoulder.

September: September was a rocky month. The other photo I considered showing was Gus starting his first day of school. But, i picked the sunflowers. We spent a lot of time outside in September and my photos reflect. I could spend forever out in sunflower fields.

October: Halloween with our friend Adrian. We had a ninja, Dorothy, Adrian was Buzz Lightyear and Gus was a lion.

November: I love that she reads now, and that she reads to him. I’m not sure this really sums up the mouth, but it’s definitely a bit happy moment for the year.

December: My little Anna. This was a part of her birthday gift and I love how these photos turned out.

What was the best part of 2014 for you?

So, let’s talk about re-hosting. In so many ways, it’s easier than hosting for the first time.

(wearing matching shirts that say me + family = awesome. yes, i did buy them the same shirt, but matching is all their thing.)

• She was totally comfortable with us again in a matter of hours, not days.
• She already knew our routine and house rules pretty well, so we’ve had virtually no conflicts.
• She already trusts us and respects us.
• She knows a fair bit of English and knows how to ask for translation help.

All in all, things are going pretty smoothly. We did have one major rule change from summer hosting, which is that I’m not allowing her time on (her own) social media. I’ve had mixed feelings about this, knowing what an addict to social media I am myself AND knowing how bored and lonely she must feel being in a country where she doesn’t have people who speak her language or many friends her own age. However, she’s taken it pretty well and I have a couple of ideas on how to keep her connected to kids her age who speak her language without giving her internet freedom.

One is that she has a cousin who was adopted to the US over the summer and the girls skyped today. I think we will have to do that again, as I think both of them enjoyed the chance to catch up. Big L loved telling me about what they talked about and I think it was good for her to see a child who was adopted and is thriving, especially one she knows so well.

We also skyped with a translator and language teacher today. She is from Big L’s country. I wanted her to just chat with Big L and sort of “check in” with her. I told the translator to just take her time and befriend Big L and when it was my turn to talk with her, I learned a bit about Big L that I didn’t already know and got some more details on her life. It was nice to hear these things pretty much straight from Big L, with our wonderful translator’s help. We are going to keep this up throughout her visit, doing some language learning and some chatting with the translator.

Once Big L was done and I was filled in on the details, the translator also taught me some of Big L’s preferred language. This is a different language than Russian, which is what we learned for our trips to Ukraine and Russia. It’s similar, but challenging in its own ways. I don’t expect to master it and I probably won’t ever become conversational, but for Big L, it’s a really solid way for her to see that I’m meeting her in the middle. The translator/teacher is also giving me “homework”, so Big L can help me practice. It gives her a chance to be my teacher.

After such a busy day, we had a really fun evening. Big L LOVES teaching us the many languages that she speaks. She constantly praises me as her excellent student and constantly picks on Aaron as her awful one. Poor guy. We love to tease him, but he certainly does try. We’re encouraging the kids to try some Russian phrases as well, at least please and thank you. It’s a lot of fun to do this as a family. Lots and lots of laughing together as we try to repeat the words of our teacher, Big L. For host parents, I think being willing to try your host child’s language and make mistakes doing it gives them a lot of inspiration to try some English.

All in all, things are great. She is helpful and kind and funny. An all around great kid. We love having her here.

(Teasing your hair is not a requirement of hosting.)