A visit

My dad and my aunt were able to go and meet Mkrtich Asatryan in Los Angeles before he left for Armenia.  They had an amazing visit and were able to Skype with a sibling in Armenia.  The sibling in Armenia didn't speak any english so Mkrtich tried to translate but my dad said by the look and gestures of the brother he was very excited to see them.  The family in Armenia had been searching for 40 years for the family in America.  As a last resort Mkrtich got on Ancestry.com and searched for his grandfathers American name.  He got what I had on there of our family tree and took a chance and emailed me.  We also know that Mike (my dad's dad) took a couple of trips to Armenia in 60's.  The first trip he was escorted around by the KGB because Armenia was still under Russian control at that time.  They weren't allowed to speak freely and had to watch what they said and did.  Another trip he tried to take money in a money belt to his children and the KGB found it and kept it, but he did buy all of his sons new cars.  There are 5 half siblings still living and the oldest is 90.  We really want to get over to Armenia and meet them.  I worry that if we don't go, then the stories and history will be lost forever. 

Here is a recent picture of my dad and Bradley and Brayden (my sister's oldest).  My dad got asked to be the host at a St Baldwicks event in Bakersfield the morning of the event and surprised everyone when he said if he could get $150 in donations he would shave his head and his beard.  My mom sent out a couple texts and had the donations.  My dad hadn't shaved his beard in 33 years.  St Baldwicks is an organization that shaves heads as a fundraiser for pediatric cancer.  One of my dad's great friends from high school grandson has cancer.  http://www.stbaldricks.org/events/bakersfield Here is a link to the organization.

Bryan and I took the kids out to the Botanical Gardens to get some pictures of them in hopes to use for our Christmas cards.  I took about 80 shots and got some that might work.  Here are a few I think are cute.

This is my favorite, but Bradley has his eyes closed.

 They have these odd cement balls/shapes and Bradley was playing on them and Bryan decided he was going to jump over one.  I decided I needed to be ready to get a picture.  He made it!