Anastasia

A couple of days ago I went for a walk with my friend Anastasia and took some photos of her along the way. She is absolutely beautiful with her blue eyes and her super sweet smile!

And then she grew up...

Last time I was actually present at her Birthday Party she was turning 12... And just like that almost 5 years have gone by and my little sister was graduating High School this last Saturday, June 20, 2009. I can't believe how fast she grew up and how she turned from my little sister into this really beautiful young lady. Almost like in a fairy tale....

My little princess :)

Alina and her boyfriend Sergey - so happy together :)

And of course her best friend - beautiful Angelica!

My sister with our grandparents on dad's side

As the grads were waiting by the school I took a few shots of young and happy faces in the crowd

Caught them! Not like they were hiding though... :)

It is a tradition for graduates of most schools in our city to have an official walk somewhere not far from school with a small orchestra leading the way. It's a lot of fun and makes the kids feel special, since sometimes they even close the streets for such event, depending on how big the graduating class is, which theirs wasn't, only 51 students, so they could walk along the road on a walkway rather than on the road. But cars were still slowing down and looking and honking and yelling "Congratulations!" out of their windows.

It was a very bright and colorful "parade"!

All the students, teachers and guests walked to the Memorial Park with this "eternal fire" which was built in memory of those who fought in World War II. Everyone honored the heroes with a minute of silence and students also brought flowers to put by the fire. In the end everybody let their balloons up in the air to show their gratitude for the bright future that they have thanks to those who fought and lost their lives for them many years ago...

These two just could not keep their eyes off of each other...

Beautiful ladies - graduates of 2009!

This is the stack of diplomas the students were given during the official part of the ceremony back at school

And of course some fun shots at the end of the ceremony!

Sisters and best friends... forever... :)

A Walk After the Rain...

It was a beautiful Friday evening, and the rain drizzled a little bit earlier in the afternoon. Everybody left home and I was all by myself, so instead of staying in I thought nothing would be more fun than to go for a walk and take some pictures! As I was leaving my sister showed up and wanted to joined me. I was happy to have wonderful company and a great model for some of my shots!

The stick was trying to cross the street :)

This is the monument of the great Russian writer Gogol which is located on the street that is named after him.

The source of my worst allergies... poplar's down. It flies in the air like dust and gets in everybody's eyes, nose, mouth... everywhere! It is quite annoying and makes a lot of people sneeze... The positive thing is that it is quite pretty - looks kind of like snow in summer :)

These two were fighting for quite some time! Must have been something important...

As I was looking at these clouds I realized that some of the most beautiful clouds I have ever seen I have seen here in Karaganda. I thought these were truly something...

Abay Ibrahim Qunanbayuli, who lived from August 10, 1845 till July 5, 1904 , was a Kazakh poet, composer and philosopher. He was also a cultural reformer toward European and Russian cultures on the basis of enlightened liberal Islam. This monument was just put up in Karaganda in the fall of 2008 and now the city officials are thinking of renaming the street that this monument is on from "Lenin St" to "Abay St", it hasn't happened yet though...

As I turned away from the monument I saw these clouds...

The slide back to my childhood... :)