Jay's 69th Birthday and more

We went downtown to a French Restaurant for dinner with Karlene and Gary Dance and Mike and Ilene Hendrick for Jay's 69th Birthday, August 28, 2012.

Jay got a free dessert for his Birthday.  It was like a chocolate cupcake with hot fudge in the middle.

The waiters and waitresses sang "Happy Birthday" to Jay.

Before going to the restaurant we went to a huge "rynok" (market) and got Jay a North Face jacket.

"The Rynok"!  Inside these buildings are hundreds of individual vendors selling shoes, clothes, coats, purses etc.  This is where Jay got his North Face Jacket.

On August 29, 2012 we visited a flower exhibit in a park below the Motherland Statue.  Karlene and Marcia in front of the many painted eggs depicting the different regions of Ukraine.

It was a Saturday and so there were lots of people viewing the exhibit.

Marcia and Karlene in front of one of the exhibits.  The different exhibits depicted different Ukrainian folk tales.

Look at the detail of the Mother, all in flowers.

This peacock was one of our favorites!

We thought of the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" when we viewed this exhibit.

Another great one.  What beautiful detail they have done with plants and flowers.

Don't you love this gal?  Gypsy?

What talented mice!

A handsome Rooster of plants and flowers.

A group of Indians from Uruguay were the entertainment at the flower exhibit.

Karlene celebrating her Birthday on Sept. 4. 2012.  We spent the morning serving in the Temple and then had Karlene for a birthday lunch.

Jay and I were in charge of the Temple Missionary dinner on Sept. 10, 2012.  We served Chinese Sundaes.  We decorated with fans and flowers.

In Sept. there were also beautiful flower displays downtown.

We first saw this clock in the background when we watehed the video on lds.org of the Kyiv Temple Celebration.

The "Mirinsky" Palace in Kyiv.  We were hoping to take a tour, but as you can see it is all fenced off and under renovation.  It looked to us that it would be a long time before it was finished.

One of the fountains in the park around the Mirinsky Palace.

Jay in front of the "House of Chimeras".  Built by Horodetsky in 1901-1903.  Built of cement with cement animal and fish creatures.  It shows his imagination and also was to advertise cement which was new to building at that time.  The interior was also filled with different kind of creatures.  Very unusual and a highly visited site in Kyiv.

Notice the snake coming down the corner of the house.

    

We liked this Elephant-decorated passageway.

Another view of the House of Chimeras showing the Ukrainian flags.  The President of Ukraine's offices are the white building on the right.  The house is now owned by the government and is used for government affairs.