Obviously, I haven't posted here for more than a month. The reason for it was that we were on vacation and I didn't feel like updating my blog then we came back and I was busy.
Anyway, I'm back and here is the update. First of all, I made it to the states. The officer at the border didn't even ask me about my last visit to the country, instead he talked about the weather in Moscow and Florida and then said the usual "Welcome back home!". That's when our vacation started.
We had a whole month off. We planned it so that all the visitors come in the first part of our trip then they all leave and we enjoy our freedom. It was great to see Brendan's grandparents, uncle and aunt. When everybody left we checked into a hotel on the beach, The Ritz!
Our room on the 11th floor had an amazing view over the Gulf. We stayed there for 3 days. We joked that we took a vacation from our vacation. We enjoyed the beach a lot! Brendan felt so comfortable as if he was born on the beach. He loved the water and was very happy and excited about his new water experience. Every night we had room service for dinner after we put Brendan to bed. It was a genius idea as we couldn't actually go out with him as his bed time was at 7 p.m.
The rest of the trip we spent hiking, going to the zoo, parks, Botanical garden and the beach. I also did some shopping and bought some cute outfits!
Now the Green Card update. I had an appointment for my fingerprints which was required to get a new green card. It turned out that I had very dry skin as it was quite a challenge to get my fingerprints approved by a computer program. After 30 minutes of torture they were able to take my fingerprints. Weeks later I got a letter saying that FBI wasn't able to read my fingerprints and I had to go for the second try. I did go again which was two days before going back home. At the beginning of June I received a letter saying that they couldn't read the second set of my fingerprints and now they need a police statement from all places where I resided to prove that I don't have any criminal records. I have filed a request for such a statement and it will be ready on August 1st. It's the first time when I got stuck in the immigration process. Oh well, I just hope everything will work out and I get my permanent green card some time this year.
Now about our traveling and life plans. Our next trip will be in August and we will go to NY to see the family. It's exciting as Brendan will meet his second cousins and it will be interesting to see him surrounded by numerous children. Then we want to go to Greece to our favorite Corfu place some time in September just for a week. It will be our 3rd time there as it's our favorite vacation spot. Our next trip will be in December and we'll go to Naples, FL, and take my family with us! They cannot wait. My parents, my brother and his girl-friend will go with us. I'm super excited to show them our condo and just take them to our favorite places in Naples. My parents are doctors and they work A LOT! They like nobody else I know deserve some good vacation and rest in a beautiful place. As far as life plans, we want to start trying for the second baby when Brendan is around 1 y.o. We'll see how that will work out.
Some more pictures:
