Presents arrived today from Grandma and Grandpa Bogott. The kids are excited and in the evening we opened them. A huge thanks to my old boss Steve for letting us stay at his place over the holidays. Our old apartment was unbearable with the mold.

Before

After

Abby opening her present.

Ramona’s birthday caught us a little off guard this year, with all our international travel and then returning to a flooded apartment. It’s been a bit crazy. The kids baked Ramona some cookies and I was able to take her out for a dinner at a local Greek restaurant.

Kids with cookies for their mom.

Ramona at the Greek restaurant.

This trip back home we had the wonderful opportunity to visit my Grandpa who is over 90. He is still sharp as a tack and he loves to play cards. We only had time to visit for a few days, but it was a fun filled couple of days. I think we might have broken a few rules of the assisted living home and probably disturbed a few of its residents, but they were gracious and let us enjoy our grandpa.

Grandpa in a heated game of cards. Notice the poker face (even though we only play 500)

Grandpa and the girls.

Grandpa and all the boys.

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to the train museum in St. Paul, MN. They had lots of interesting carriages, engines, and we even got to ride on a real train. The kids had a blast and of course there were Thomas the train sets there and so much of the time Timothy was at the table playing with a model train set. The whole family enjoyed our trip.

Ramona and Abby on an old engine.

Timothy testing the seating of a passenger car.

Mural inside the train museum.

Today we held a memorial service for Ramona’s sister Becky who passed away after a three year battle with cancer. While it is hard to let her go, we know she is in a much better place and we celebrated that this day with music, testimonies and the love shared between friends and family. Becky will remain close to our hearts as we remember the passion with which she loved her Lord and lived out her life for Him. We miss you Becky!!

The Rand family singing a song together.

Becky’s nephew reading Scripture at the service.

Ramona singing a song she wrote for her sister.


This is not a great recording, but here is a part of the song.

Our friends came over this evening and we celebrated their daughter’s (Dana’s) birthday. Timothy also got a chance to play his first game of Twister. He definitely got himself twisted. I fixed pizza for all and of course we all over ate. Back on the diet tomorrow.

Timothy playing twister.

Kids waiting to eat cake.

Today our church celebrated their 15th birthday. It was a wonderful celebration, especially since I was working on 1.5 hours sleep. I helped produced the videos from old pictures and video clips for the day’s event. I had five of them to make.

The day went well and it was a great chance to witness and hear about some of the history and hadn’t known before. The original pastor of the church came and shared with the congregation. It was an amazing time of fellowship, but also a long day. Ramona led worship. Our home group performed a song in sign language and our worship team performed one of the worship songs in various genres. It was quite funny and we really got the congregation participating when at the end we did the song in reggae style.

Ramona leading worship.

The first pastor sharing a word of encouragement.

A rock band consisting of church members played a few of their songs.

This Sunday Ramona participating in a 10K run. It was a special run put on by the city to encourage women to be healthy. It was an all women’s run. There were literally thousands of women in Palace Square to run in this race. My lovely did an amazing job and finished the race in 56 minutes. I am so proud of her. She even helped a friend from church get into shape in order to run the race and through this friend heard about the race in the first place. She very much enjoyed the experience.

Can you pick Ramona out of the crowd?

Ramona making her final burst towards the finish line.

Stretching with our friend Masha after the race.

The St. Petersburg Governor leads off a 10K fun run for women in which Ramona participated. Ramona ran the 10K in 56 minutes. What a speedster!

A few pictures of our home group practicing sign language to a song that will be performed at the church’s fifteen year anniversary celebration. The girls are having tons of fun, laughing and trying to learn all the movements.

A Jewish dance in the middle of the song.

Making faces for the camera.

Trying to figure out the moves.

A lovely day outside our balcony with large clouds looming in the background. A great day to take a panorama photo of the Fontanka River. Click on the image to see in a larger format.

The wedding day for Max and Stacia has finally arrived. The day is a lovely one and ceremony and activities when off without a hitch, or at least almost. There was the minor problem of the unity candle not wanted to light, so somebody stuck a match in the top and they lit it instead. I had the privilege of sharing at the wedding. The message I shared was in Russian, so it was a bit of a challenge. A few friends in the audience said that they didn’t have anything major to tease me about in my speech, so I guess that means it went ok. The message wasn’t for my friends, but for the couple in any case.

The couple caught up together in the wedding veil.

The couple posing over a local canal for a picture.

My lovely bride and me on the wedding day. There was a dress code of pink for the wedding in case anybody is wondering about my bright pink tie?!

Stacia and Max are getting married tomorrow, so today is dress rehearsal. As we arrived to the church there was a flurry of activity as people were getting decorations set for tomorrow’s big day. This young couple is renting one of the local Lutheran churches for their church ceremony. It’s a very simple, but lovely chapel. I will be speaking at tomorrow’s wedding and great privilege for me.

Stacia and Max explainng how the service should go.

Aaron standing pretending to give his message.

The flower girl – not really, but ain’t she cute!!

We have recently started a home group at our apartment. It is a great blessing to study the Bible together the young people of our church. So many of them are eager to learned and soak up the Word of God. What a privilege it is to be on this journey together with them.

Ramona and one of the guys having tea before our lesson.

Sunset the night of our Bible study.

Tonight a good friend and former colleague from work invited Ramona and I out for her birthday. For the past two years our Russian friend has been living and working in Spain. We enjoyed celebrating this special day with her. We hope to visit her in Spain for Christmas or at least sometime when it is cold in St. Petersburg. We have an open invitation which has so far gone unused.

Birthday girl and her boyfriend.


Birthday girl and another former colleague.

Today we are heading out to Pushkin to visit some friends of ours. It is a lovely day as we spent it walking through the park and eating watermelon. The kids have a blast. They also really enjoyed the commuter train ride there and back.

Tim and Abby riding on the train.

All of us hanging out at the park.

Tonight is our scrimmage with the local team. They are a great bunch of guys and are giving us five outs to their three and not counting three strikes an out. Even with all the handicaps they have given us we are still beaten by them. We did not get shut out however and scored one run.

Pitching to the opposing team.

Ramona up to bat.

Faking a slide back to first base.

Two mornings in a row I have taken pictures of Timothy’s train tracks. He builds them himself and comes up with some terrific creations. I am always impressed with his imagination and designs. This is by far his favorite toy.

In preparation for an upcoming scrimmage with a local team, our church youth group is having a practice tonight. Some of the guys have never played before in their life. We are going over the basics of throwing, catching and hitting.

Today Ramona and I have a babysitter and we decided to go rollerblading. The best place to go rollerblading in the city is in Palace Square near the Hermitage. There is a large paved lot which no cars are allowed to drive on. To our surprise there was a large concert going on to celebrate some famous singer’s fiftieth birthday. Though a lot of our skating area was closed off we still went to the square and skated around to polkas/waltzes that were being played by army bands. Still it was a lovely evening.

Ramona in front of the Hermitage.

A shot of the flag on top of the Hermitage.

The Hermitage with Port-o-Potties lining the foreground.

Today we are heading to the water park to celebrate the birthday of our friend’s son. He turns five today and is a bit older than Timothy. Both of our kids are water bugs and are enjoying themselves immensely. Timothy is taking the green kiddy waterslide for the hundredth time, while Abby is content to play in the kiddy pool which also has small slides for the toddlers. Ramona and I both enjoyed a slide I call the toilet. A steep tunnel opens into a giant bowl which in the end dumps the rider into a pool below, hence the name, toilet bowl. The day was great, but by afternoon the water park filled with so many people it was hard to get on the rides.

Abby hanging out with daddy.

Timothy riding the green slide for the hundredth time.

Ramona playing in the pool with Abby.

A view from the second floor of the water park.