family history lesson

my dad's half-brother, walter, immigrated to germany from russia about ten years ago. it was around the same time that, much to our surprise, we first learned my dad had a half-brother.
i met walter and his wife, valentina, the first time i was in germany nine years ago. at that time, they could only speak russian. seeing as my russian consists of the phrase "i don't understand russian" and a four line russian-german poem about butter churns that my opa taught me, communication was a bit of a problem. but nine years on, we now have one language in common.
mom and i had sunday lunch with the fam and learned a little more about the lives of these relatives who, in all honesty, are more like strangers. having this little branch of the family tree half way around the world is kind of strange considering the rest of my dad's enormous family all live within five minutes of my parent's house (this is no small feat considering the family is so extended that we rent out community halls for family gatherings. seriously, it's ridiculous). being slightly obsessed with history and determined to learn more about my family history, i loved getting to know walter and his family and hearing a bit of their story. here are some pics of our little history lesson.

opa walter and daniel put names to the faces

valentina and julia

adorable daniel

mama julia and violetta

father and son
er, yeah, i have no idea how to spell dad's very russian sounding name...