Narva, Estonia

During the School’s Mini-Winter Break, the kid’s and I said good-bye to daddy, hopped on a bus, crossed the boarder and spent 5 days in Narva with Aunt Lesa and Aunt Kelsey!!!

We made totally yummy cut-out cookies, chocolate chip cookies, Rice Krispy treats…OK, they made cookies and I ate them…lots of them!!!  I had cookies for dessert, for breakfast, for snacks and the last cookie crumbs on the bus ride home!!!

Art projects, painting, purse making, coloring…

More cooking and lots and lots of eating!!!

Bowling…

Shopping and more eating!!!  We made 3 trips to McDonalds with our excuse being to collect all the Star Wars Happy Meal toys (Mission Accomplished!!!)  In Estonia, we could choose which toy we wanted…in Russia, we are just thankful to get a toy!!!

Emme wanted to contribute money for all the fun, so went fishing in the fountain.  Don’t worry all the money was retuned and lots of wishes were made!!!

On Saturday we went sledding on the Gulf…it was white as far as the eye could see, snowing, freezing and sooo much fun!!!

This is the darling Baptist Church on the Gulf of Finland in Joesuu-Narva.

On Sunday, we said good-bye and headed home.  When crossing the Estonian Russian boarder, the passport inspectors come aboard the bus…making stress-free.  However, minutes later, when you enter Russia, you are required to take all your possessions with you when you exit the bus, fill out a form in duplicates for each person and wait in line to have your luggage examined and passport stamped. I had to fill out six forms, get our huge suitcase and 3 carry-ons and 2 kids off a overcrowded bus.  This also included Sarah, Emme's furry husky. Usually, the luggage is scanned, but this time there was a police dog.  The police dog growled and lunged at Emme and Sarah!!! I am sooo thankful that the dog was on a leash and they did not attempt to operate on Sarah searching for forbidden things!!!  I let out a huge sigh of relief after our documents are stamped, luggage approved and we were give permission to return to the bus…only to discover the bus had left us!!!  Thankfully the police assured us the driver would return for us and a few minutes later we see our bus backing up. I chuckled when the Bus driver got yelled at!!! We squished back in our seats and I offered 500 Rubels ($15) to the first kid that feel sleep…Emme was asleep in minutes and I enjoyed a quiet ride back to St Pete.  We had a blast in Estonia!!!