Another day closer... :-)

Well, as of today, we have less than a week before we will be heading for home.  Whoo-hoo!!  Now that we have Alex, it makes us a bit home sick, and we long to be back home!!  We are excited to be getting closer and closer!

Today's adventure was going for lunch and groceries... we decided that we would grab some lunch at a local restaurant, then go grocery shopping.  (The restaurant is located right next to the OkeN supermarket).  So, we took the subway, went to the shopping complex, and then realized the restaurant hadn't actually opened yet.  !!!DOH!!!  So, we decided that we would just get some groceries and go back to the hotel to eat.  And here's what we learned about our _oh, so simple_ plan... looking for groceries when your command of the foreign language is limited and the pictures don't always seem to help, can be quite challenging.  For example, we thought we would get some cans of soup to cook in our suite... simple enough... well, apparently they don't make canned soup here.  After some searching (and I mean aisle-by-aisle searching), we did find some dry soup packets.  Another example, spaghetti sauce and some ketchups come in jars... and they look very, very similar.  Problem: a meal of spaghetti and ketchup is pretty different than spaghetti with meat sauce.  Thank God that we found a "kit" that had some spaghetti noodles attached to a jar of sauce!  :-)  Anyhow, long-story-short, what was going to be a quick trip turned in to a 2-hr excursion.  On the way back, we grabbed a foot long... well, 15-cm long :-) ... at the local SubWay... they were so helpful and patient and nice with 2-travel weiry Americans and their newly added child, it was almost enough to bring tears to our eyes after the difficulty we had experienced at the supermarket!  :-) 

On top of all that, it started snowing during our to/from trips... have I mentioned that is has snowed every . day . since . we . arrived?!  I'm not sure where Leslie is on this one, but I know that I have seen enough snow to last me this season (maybe more).  I'm fine if IL has a relatively mild winter again!  Sorry all you wintery, snow-lovers... if you want snow, get a Passport and a Visa, and I'll tell you right where to go!  :-)

Alex is in bed now ... but not asleep.  The adventure this afternoon threw his schedule for a bit of loop because of a later than normal nap time.  I'm in the kitchen area now and he is with Leslie in the bedroom "singing" and chatting away.  Oh well, he's happy nonetheless!  :-)

We also heard from our Russian coordinator today that we will go at some point Monday (prob morning) to pick-up Alex's Passport.  It will be ready tomorrow, but they are expecting lots of people, so apparently advised that Monday would be better and that it would be available at any point during the day.  Getting closer.......  :-)

Here are a few pics from the day...

Taken earlier this morning (from one of the sitting areas in an  upper floor in our hotel) ... the Moskovsky Triumphal Gate . Notice all the traffic coming _in to_ town (headlights)... lots of traffic jams here!

When we got back to our room after a walk around the hotel, the cleaning ladies had tucked Meesh-kaw (bear) in for a nap!  They are really great here!  Very sweet!

Near the end of our adventure to the OkeN... it was a Christmas backdrop, and this was as good as we could do at the moment.  Alex was ready to get outta there (and so were we)!

The view from our room ... that is St. Isaac's Cathedral in the center far, far background

Making dinner... some type of chicken stock, noodle/vegetable soup.  It was pretty good... everybody enjoyed it.  Of course, after the adventure to get it, no one was willing to complain!! :-)

Alex learned to sign "more" this evening at dinner time.  He was so excited to ask for "more"!  He would giggle and laugh everytime!!!

Once again, all cleaned up and ready for bed!  Good night all!!