We spent the weekend at a cabin upstate.  Dan, Renee, Sam(Renee's boyfriend), Olia and I left for the cabin Fri. afternoon.  Joe and Kat met us there on Fri. evening.  Renee baked a cake for Joe because today is his birthday.  Dan went food shopping and brought enough food for an army for a month.  Olia sat in the back seat between Renee and Sam and tormented Renee most of the trip!  I had taken Olia to the doctor on Fri. morning and he said it was OK for her to go away.  He said he was fairly certain that she had a virus and it just had to run it's course.  He said that the virus was taking longer for her because she had never been exposed to these types of viruses before.  When we arrived at the road leading to the cabin, it was too icy for us to drive up.  So we had a walk several hundred feet with all of our things! Olia had gone out to the car without a coat and I never knew that.  I thought she had put her coat in the trunk for the car ride.  So I gave her my coat to wear because it was snowing and cold!  She loved the cabin which was really a small vacation home in the boondocks!  The cabin was heated by a wood burning stove so the place was freezing cold for a few hours!  Olia told me that it reminded her of the internat!  We all wore our clothes to bed and Olia wore extra socks!  The cabin heated up nicely after a few hours.  Sat. we spent most of the day playing games and reading. Olia learned to play Scrabble, and she is already a whiz at Yahtzee!  She won most of the Yahtzee games.  Sam and Dan and Joe had to keep getting water from the well to flush the toilets!  There was no running water inside.  Olia brought her Barbie dolls with her; she kept telling Joe and Sam not to look at her dolls when she was changing them.  And of course, they kept looking, just to bug her! 

      The cabin had two floors.  There was a very skinny spiral staircase leading to the second floor.  Olia told us that it reminded her of staircases in Ukraine.  Dan's friend Jim is a hunter so there were many stuffed and mounted animal trophies   on the wall.  Olia told me that they freaked her out!  There was a zebra with two front legs; at firstI thought it was ceramic, but it was stuffed by a taxidermist.

     Olia does not like any public displays of affection by couples.  I am not a fan of it either.  Whenever Sam put his arm around Renee, Olia kept yelling, "they are making me uncomfortable.!" Part of that comment is beause Olia LOVES to torment Renee. 

    Joe and Kat brought their dog Eddie and Olia had a great time playing with him. I had cooked dinner at home before we left so I just heated up the chicken on Sat. night and Dan also made hamburgers.  We had a really nice dinner, and then we celebrated Joe's birthday with a cake and presents.  After dinner, we just played board games and watched a few DVDs.  Olia had never seen the Little Mermaid in Ukraine so we watched that.  She giggled aloud at all the funny parts!  She kept telling me that she is glad that I am her mom and glad she came to America.  Last year this time we were planning our second trip to Ukraine and we didn't know Olia at all. That is so hard to imagine because she is just so much a part of our family. I sometimes really forget that we did not know her last year at this time.

      When we got home from the cabin, Sam's mother arrived to drive Renee and Sam back to college. Olia wanted to go to the Russian food market so Dan took her there.  They bought a lot of Russian vegetables soaked in brine in glass jars.  Olia loves sour tasting food.  They also bought pear juice which I have never been able to find in American supermarkets.  Olia bought Russian perogies, Russian chicken ravioli and Russian candy.   As soon as she came home from the supermarket, she wanted to go to the movies.  But I told her that was something we would do during the week because she has off all week for Spring Break.