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Below are the kids with one of their good friends, the view from the back of our apartment, enjoying a break at a spa in the mountains, and going for a walk in the Vitosha national park above Sofia. Greg and Emi are also shown at a seminar organized by the Bahá’í Community to highlight the plight of Iranian Bahá’í students deprived of access to education.
In March, we celebrated Mina’s birthday, first in Sofia with her classmates and then in Blagoevgrad with family and friends.
In April we again enjoyed a trip to a nearby spa in the mountains. There was also a spectacular double rainbow viewed out the front of our apartment, and Joyce was showing off a colorful dress.
In May, we had a wonderful short visit to the Bahá’í World Center in Haifa, Israel. The weather was perfect.
Greg was invited to give a TEDx talk in Innsbruck, Austria, in June.
The first two pictures below are in our apartment in Sofia in June. We then travelled to California, stopping in Chicago on our way to leave Joyce at a summer intensive ballet program with Ballet Chicago. We were travelling with Gregory’s good friend Peppi from school and his mother Gergana. In Chicago we stayed with Greg’s son Ian and his family, and enjoyed baby Sam as well as his older brother Gabe. Visits to the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, just north of Chicago, where Greg’s brother Roger is the Archivist, as well as to the famous Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, were highlights of our visit.
In California in June and July, we were joined by our kids’ friend Pepi, who had recently recovered from cancer, and his mother. We enjoyed visits to Point Lobos State Reserve and the beach near our rented home in Pebble Beach, as well as to the Carmel Beach and its historic Mission from Spanish days, to a friend’s house in Big Sur, and to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. There were many Sea Lions in Moss Landing as we passed by.
Joyce then joined us after her summer dance program in Chicago, and Greg’s brother Arthur arrived from his home in Geneva. We all went up to the high country of Yosemite for our now-traditional visit to Tuolumne Meadows and May Lake.
After returning from Yosemite we had just a few more days in California, and said goodbye to Greg’s daughter Carrie and the kids’ tennis teacher and good family friend Wendy Grover. Befor leaving from San Francisco, Ian and his family joined us at Carrie’s house for a last goodbye.
Back in Bulgaria in August, we spent some days in the village with Baba and Diado, and then headed for the Black Sea coast with a school mate of our kids.
In September and back in Sofia, Gregory started in his new school (the prestigious American College of Sofia), Joyce did a short workshop in hip-hop, the girls had their first day of school, the family posed with some Bahá’í friends, and Joyce enjoyed a sick day in bed. The girls’ school put on a show in a park in downtown Sofia which included Mina reciting and Joyce dancing, and another one in October at the Russian Cultural Center.
On 31 October, Emi’s niece Dimana had her first baby, little Blagoi, and here are the happy mom and dad and grandparents. The twins invited their classmates and friends to a birthday party in a restaurant with dancing and loud music.
In December we had some cold weather in Sofia and nice views from our apartment. Both the kids and we parents enjoyed being with friends.
In early December, Greg received the sad news that his oldest brother Keith had passed away suddenly in American Samoa, where he had been living and serving the Bahá’í community for 37 years. Greg travelled on short notice around the globe to Pago Pago, where he was met by Arthur, who had to travel the other way around due to full holiday flights. Shown here are photos from the emotional funeral service, where testimonials about “Kifi’s” life were shared and many songs were sung. The lake next to the cemetary is actually a road filled by the usual tropical rains. The next photo is the view from Keith’s house, followed by Arthur speaking at a Bahá’í meeting. Then there are scenes around the island, including people enjoying the Christmas holiday spirit, some of the many churches, a traditional Samoan meeting place, and houses both plain and fancy with the tombs of ancestors in the front yard.
As the New Year approached, we again enjoyed walks around Krupnik with friends who were visiting.
