Archive for the “Personal” Category

When I met Dasha she was 1.5 months old and I left on her 2 months anniversary. My mom had been dutifully sending me lots of Dasha’s pictures since her birth, and I was pretty sure that I knew how she looked from almost every possible angle.

I was so wrong! When I first saw her sleeping in the crib she was soo tiny, so much smaller that I could’ve ever imagined her to be! I was seriously afraid to hold her the first couple of days, but when my fear disappeared I just couldn�t let her go. Dasha looks so much like my sister when she was a baby that I was constantly referring to her by my sister’s name �Ira�.
It�s really interesting how this new addition to the family, this tiny human changes everything in the life of a family. It�s still weird to me that my still-very-young parents are suddenly called �grandparents� and my little sister, who still sleeps with stuffed toys of her, has now become a mother.

I could really notice the baby’s growth during my time in Russia: she gained weight, started to smile and also to �talk� much more. In fact, I already see a much more grown up baby in the most recent photos my mom sent to me since I came back. The changes at that age are happening so incredibly quick! Although parents usually want their small babies to grow up fast, it�s impossible to turn back the time later on and at some point they are probably going to regret that they tried to rush the time.

So here are some of my favorites I took of Dasha:

My sister & her baby:

It was so incredibly hard to select just a few pictures from hundreds I was taking of Dasha! If you’d like to see more, check out the whole slideshow!

Auntie Natasha

As many of you probably already know I left Mike alone in the beginning of October to go visit my family back in Russia. The main reason for this trip was that I was just dying to see my baby niece.

Having lived in St. Petersburg for most of my life, I knew perfectly well that the weather is going to be nasty in October. Living in sunny California now I forgot what that nasty and cold really means. It was freezing! My warmest coat wasn’t even close to being enough and I ended up wearing a few sweaters, one on top of another. I didn’t care any more about being the least bit fashionable, I just cared for my warmth :)

My family and I would spent long hours every day walking with the stroller in the nearby parks. This time I didn’t desire to go sight seeing to downtown or to go out, I was just truly enjoying every minute spent with my family. The rain was drizzling often, but nevertheless the fall colors of the trees were just amazing! I loved the already forgotten scents of autumn – the fallen leaves on the damp ground, mushrooms, berries and wilted flowers. It also felt a bit surreal to be walking with Dasha’s stroller at the same park where 20 years ago we were walking with my sister’s stroller. It seems that it was just yesterday! Time flies so incredibly quickly…

I feel that during this trip I really didn’t stop taking photos for a second and the camera was always right next to me. During the long walks I would crawl on the ground trying to capture everything I saw around me, the trees and fallen leafs. When we would come home after the walk my attention would shift to baby Dasha. I fell in love with her from first sight and in these two weeks she probably became the most photographed two months old baby ever! I’ll write more about Dasha in my next blog post when her pictures are going to be ready.

My sis:

… and mom having fun in the park:

The whole family on a walk:

My niece Dasha & I:

Stay tuned for more photos!
Natasha

In mid-august we decided to take a few days off for some much needed R&R. Our destination of choice was the absolutely beautiful Yosemite park and the nearby Mono Lake.

Being the photo-lovers that we are, it was only natural we were drawn to the strange mineral formations that can be found at Mono Lake. They say winter time changes this place into a more surreal spectacle, but we found plenty to see and enjoy during our time here.

In the nearby vicinity we were also able to see Bodie State Historic park. This is known to be one of the best preserved gold-mining ghost towns in the US. Residents have moved out over 50 years ago, yet the place looks almost the way did it back then.

It was interesting to check out how people lived seemingly not that long ago, yet it feels like a world apart.

One of the highlights for us on this trip was taking a spontaneous stop on a mountain overpass and witnessing one of the most amazing sunsets we’ve ever seen. It seemed to last and last, with colors changing over and over again throughout the entire sky. It was a humbling moment just to be standing in this sea of red and orange colors wherever we looked.

On the drive back we had one more night which we decided to spend in Yosemite’s Tuolumne Meadows. Boy were we glad we stopped by here! This is the one of the largest campsites in the park and it’s located on the east side, close to Mono Lake. It was so peaceful, warm, inviting and beautiful :)

Bears are regular visitors to the campsites in Yosemite and for this reason they have special bear-proof food lockers at each campsite. Food is not to be kept in cars or anywhere but in these containers. Apparently, it’s a common site to see these big creatures having their way with car doors and windows just to get to the good stuff.

We had so much fun during our small trip out to nature! It’s truly a pleasure to get away from our technology-driven worlds once in a while.

Mike and Natasha