One Week down!

My how time flies. One week ago we arrived at the Almaty airport although much later in the evening. Only two more to go.
We had Valentines' Day Dinner with two of the couples here adopting with WPA. The McCalls are from Florida and the Connollys are from Maryland. We ended up eating dinner at the hotel which isn't the greatest food and service is very slow, for us anyway. The dining room was doing a holiday show that included live band and yes, a strip show. Why the strip show - we don't know. Robert did ask if we had to strip as well, luckily the answer was no. There were 8 other tables in the place and it seemed everyone got their food before us. The company was great so that's what counted. We left before the real entertainment began but was serenaded by a Russian singer.
Ryan was giggles and smiles again today. He had a milestone moment of starting on "real food" today. Previously he was eating cream of wheat, formula and curd and pulverized apples. YUM!
Today he started the poridge of ground beef and potatoes. That should make a real Irishman out of him. He crawled a little bit more today so soon he'll be off like a rocket. Robert rocked him to sleep and the sight of them together just melted my heart. It was a good day.
David, the beer is still flowing but we sure could use a Smithwicks about now. We'd love to be sitting at the Black Bear Inn enjoying one along with a big pizza with extra pepperoni and cheese. Real cheese that melts. The cheese here doesn't melt well, or maybe it's just mayo, hard to tell sometimes. We did have a great lunch at the Kazakhstan Cafe after our visit. We tried lamb steak and lamb ribs. The lamb ribs are little chops wrapped in pastry with a burgandy/mushroom sauce. The lamb steak is like short ribs, lots of fat but the meat is delicious. We will make our way back there again. The company was the best part. Our original driver, Sergei was back for the day. Come to find out he is the equivalent of a crop duster pilot here and his wife is a cook. Nursultan, the Stannards driver and our Interpretor, Sveta also joined us and we talked of music, hunting large boors, and New York City (where everyone wants to go). Fun was had by all.
Enjoy todays photos,
Paka, Paka.