Couldn't Ask For More: June 2009

I have never had an easy time picking one favorite of anything: food, color, music, friend, etc. I remember describing my difficulty picking favorites to a friend my freshman year of college. It went something like this: If I were to say that my favorite color were yellow, to me it means that I am saying I like hunter green, red, blue... less. If I say that Indian food is my favorite, then it must mean I am saying I like Mexican, Italian, Chinese, sushi… less. Part of my dilemma is that I don't really think I like the other options less (or at least, not all of them), and any preference is often due to external circumstances (who wants hot cocoa when it's 97 degrees?). The other part is that somewhere inside of me I am afraid of hurting the other colors', foods'… feelings. (I know... I know...)

With that said, I must include a very important "However,". You see, I do have one favorite. I recognized that I had this favorite pretty early on, and because of my long history of non-favorites, it was pretty significant.

Chris is my favorite. I've been telling him that for some time now. He's my favorite person, friend, boyfriend, fiancé, husband, baby-daddy… I think you get the picture.

Chris IS my favorite. And today is his birthday.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

We, Addie and I, love and adore you.

Have you ever heard of the color code for personalities? I became familiar with it my freshman year of college and some of the members of our branch have become familiar with it in the last year. Our friend Svyeta is mostly a yellow personality, which means she likes to have fun. We have taken to teasing Svyeta about her "yellow-ness" as she's always coming up with ideas of fun things to do. The day after Addie's birthday Svyeta took us to a falcon farm in the mountains for a "Birds of Prey" show (because it is cool and would be a lot of... fun).

When we got to the falcon farm we were surprised to see it rather empty. We talked to the owners and they decided they would still do the show even though the audience would be small (we got a private show!). Before the show started we took a walk around the farm and saw a few interesting things.

Here are two horses roaming the property, the falconers are definitely animal people, and they also have horse-riding sessions available:

These are Kazakh hounds. They are a breed that was almost lost, but people like the falconers have helped to rebuild the population:

This is a wolf:

This is a shepherding dog. His ears and tail are clipped because this sucker is the tough boy that fights wolves and those ears and tail just get in the way.

To prove how tough he is he took this stance (and I slowly walked away):

And a donkey:

Falcons and other birds of prey have to eat and they can't eat just anything. Their food has to be meaty and it has to be fresh.

That's why there's a barn full of these guys... (prepare to be grossed out)

Those are rats. There were lots of them. Climbing high up the chain link "walls," hanging out on rafters, and eating things you probably don't want to know about (like donkey heads).

After getting grossed out by the rats we went and checked out the birds of prey which are kept on display. Hehe. First up were these owls (later on you will see a video with the owl progeny of these birdies):

Some more birdies:

That is a little lamb and a baby deer. The deer was brought to the farm owners because they know animals. If you look close enough you can actually see it's little antler studs (is that what they're called??)

Check out these birds. It made my heart beat a teensy bit faster to walk on the path by these birds. They are chained to a rope and could easily fly rather close to us on the path if they wanted (luckily they didn't want to).

The vultures in the next two pictures make me think of the movie The Dark Crystal:

Next up--the SHOW!!

First we learned a little bit about owls. In order to see in the dark they have to have huge pupils, which means their eyes have to be so huge they aren't circular. Since their eyes aren't circular they don't give peripheral vision--so their head turns all the way around. With the owl perched on his arm, the trainer circled around with the owl's head turned away from us the entire time (the body of the owl was moving, but the head wasn't!).

When the owl did this, the trainer told him, "Hey, this isn't part of our agreement."

One of the first things the falconers teach the birds is to return to them:

Munching on it's reward.

I'm not sure why, but I think the little head covering's for the birds are cute.

We decided the guy in the background was dressed up in the Kazakh clothes because someone had to be...

We were shown how the falcon's hunt and how they eat while they are on a hunt (they eat small birds and insects while in flight).

Feeding the falcon:

With the hawk we were shown how it hops from treetop to treetop until the falconer gives the signal and then it goes after the prey. The hawk:

We were also shown how the eagle watches water and "hunts" for fish.

Galina, Svyeta's mom, stayed with Addie while we watched the show. We made sure to ask her to keep Addie close so the birds didn't mistake Addie for food. ;D

The falcon farm is host to a hotel and restaurant, and there are three yurts set up outside for use by the restaurant.

We decided to go in one of the yurts, dress up, and take some pictures. Some of these are doubles except for facial expressions. (Disclaimer: These poses were Svyeta's idea and are in no way representative of our relationship.)

The husband with a whip (normally used for horses) and cowering wife:

Addie was totally interested...

The subservient wife washes her husband's feet...

And his hands!

Here's a traditional Kazakh baby rocking cradle, complete with hole for "bathroom" drainage:

It caught Addie's eye...

And she thought it was pretty funny to lay in it too!

This is a close-up of the yurt "walls":

After visiting the falcon farm we headed up into a restaurant in the mountains. The restaurant is actually something of a compound, there are a number of smaller restaurants inside the "compound" catering to various food preferences (Russian, Kazakh, Georgian, etc.), and there is a little waterpark and zoo as well.

Svyeta with Addie

The day before her birthday Chris gave Addie an "early birthday present"... a Chupa chup lollipop. This trip was just two days after that so we thought we should get a picture with a gigantic version of that much loved lollipop.

In case you ever wanted proof that nature intended for the female to pick her mate--
Male:

Female:

This is a second male peacock in the area... he happened to be near the female and decided to show his beauty when he spotted her... Her reaction? She kept just walkin' (away, as a matter-of-fact).