Picnic in Bulgarki

What a great day we had taking a picnic along the Ural River in a place called Bulgarki, which is about 45 minutes outside of town. The place is actually not that far, but the bus we went in had to spend half that time going off road. Off road was mainly dirt with lots of bumps and holes to avoid. Once we arrived, we noticed the several yurtas, picnic tables, umbrellas, volleyball net, and soccer goals. It was surprising shady because of the many trees. (Trees are hard to come by here with all the extreme temperatures and little rain fall.) All the kids loved to play in the yurtas and the boys thought it was their own private fort.It was a pot luck picnic with the main course being shashlik. It seems that everybody eats shashlik here and it was excellent. It would not be a meal here without someone doing a toast. And what else would you drink with a toast but Vodka. To top it all off we all found the desserts. Yummy!!! Can't wait for the next adventure.

Arcade

We arrived at the arcade only to find the electricity was off. This is not that uncommon here in the summer so we were not that surprised. Cameron was optimistic that the power would soon come back on, but it had already been out for over an hour. The arcade was on the 4th floor so we decided to walk up the escalators to see if our luck would change.
Once we reached the top we soon felt the heat and new the electricity was still not working. Still Cameron knew it would come back on soon and what do you know the electricity came back on. It took a few extra minutes for the games to warm up and for the employees to reappear, but we were soon having fun. Some of the games are for bigger kids, but the boys gave it their best shot.
Overall after ice cream and video games the boys were very happy and wanted to go back the next day and the next and the next.

Movie Time in KZ

I decided that since Ice Age 3 came out I should beat the heat and take the boys to the movies. I let them know that it would be in Russian and Cameron says, "That is okay I like the characters and I know a few words in Russian anyway." We went to the 15:30 movie (3:30 pm) and it cost me about $10 dollars for 2 kids and 1 adult.
We showed up about 10 minutes before the movie and it was pretty full already. The movie began and I just had to record a bit of it so view the video below.
The movie theater was small and there were no emergency exits. There was only one entrance and no door, just a heavy black curtain. It actually brought me back about 20 years except for the people that answer their cell phones during the movie and actually talk on it. All in all it was worth the experience and I will take the boys back for the next kid's movie. Ah the life in Atyrau, Kazakhstan.

Crocodile Slide

Every Friday all the children come over to join the fun of the Crocodile Slide. It is a 16 foot wide and 8 foot high dual slide and pool. All the kids enjoy climbing, sliding, swimming, splashing, and playing with water guns in it. I must thank Stacey for convincing us to buy it. Cameron and Mason sure do have fun.

Scooter Time

We thought it was about time to give the boys their scooters that we have had upstairs in the attic since March. We made the boys go outside with their helmets on for a surprise. They were excited and started riding immediately. Cameron is already trying to do jumps and tricks. No one has gotten hurt thus far and they enjoy taking scooter rides. Does anyone know if they make scooters for adults?