Fun Stuff!

We decided we needed to have some fun today. So we got a taxi and went to the Arliken with some other families here at the Markuel. It is an indoor amusement park/arcade type place near the Amethyst Hotel. We stayed at the Amethyst on our last trip to Khabarovsk. It was a really neat place and we all had a good time! All that driving the Mule around the ranch that Blaine does paid off on the bumper cars. He was an awesome driver and wasn't shy about plowing into everyone else!
He and a couple of his new friends rode this Jumping Star ride.
He looks at home on this horse, doesn't he? He shot lots of bottles off a shelf while he was riding.
All the kiddos and their daddies spent a good while at this game. We all got a big laugh out of the competitiveness, especially in the grown up children!
I just had to take a picture of this game! You kick the hiney on this woman, the harder you kick the higher up the lights go! No one played this one today. I don't think any of the men wanted to kick a girl!

I have some cute pictures of Valerie too, wish I could share them. Just like in America, these places are pretty expensive. We quickly realized that Valerie was just happy to sit on all the little rides. It didn't matter whether we put in a token or not! We ate lunch there then played a little longer. We kept her out way past her naptime and she was a little trooper. There is a whole outdoor part that we walked through today but didn't play anything. It was getting so hot and we needed to head back to the apartments. We may try to go back one day this week earlier in the morning and check out some of that stuff.

Tomorrow Todd and I will go to the Vital Statistics office and do some paperwork to get Valerie's birth certificate reissued listing us as her parents! We are so proud of this little girl and are getting to know each other a little better everyday. She is already doing a lot less rocking at night which to me is a great sign! She is also beginning to give me big hugs, whereas she used to just stand there stiffly when I hugged her. I wish I could get inside her little head and know what she's thinking. Is she missing the orphanage? I know she's enjoying us but that is the only home she's ever known. Does she have any idea that we are her forever family? Does she wonder why we talk so funny? One thing's for sure, in the last couple of weeks we have turned her little world upside down and I know it can't have been easy for her but she has seemed to adjust very well so far considering all the changes she's been through.

As we were getting ready to leave the other day, Blaine looked at Valerie and said, "Come on, ya little runt." I guess they're truly brother and sister now!

5 more days in Khab, 10 more days and we're home!