Boys Will Be Boys....

This happened one evening when Joe and I were in our bedroom talking after Joe had a long day at work. We were enjoying the peace and quiet the kids were giving us...well, that is until Lauren ran upstairs all out of breath saying, "The boys are in the kitchen and they made a HUGE MESS!!!!" When she says this I know she is not exaggerating so we both went down quickly. Before we got to the end of the stairs we could see this disaster in our kitchen...we just watched for a few seconds before letting them know we were there. They were having so much fun as can be seen in the photos below. I can only imagine how much worse it could have gotten if Lauren had not let us know when she did! You can't really see in the photos, but there are 2 more packages of flour and a bag of sugar on the counter where they got the initial bag...that would have been WAAAAY worse! Before we let the boys know we were watching them I whispered to Joe to run and get the camera. With situations like this you just have to laugh. Getting mad will accomplish nothing. Although I do get tired of the tedious mess cleaning, I know it will all be over before I know it and I will miss them being so young. I love these little guys so much!

 

Ut oh...we got caught!

As always..."Owen did it!"

Look Mom...flour donuts!

Tada!

Mom's Visit

Last April/May my mom was able to visit. We filled each of our 17 days with her! The first day we went to a place called Kizkalesi. I wrote about this place in my Castles in Turkey post awhile back. This beach is where Joe took me for my birthday when we first got here. I remember it feeling so cool to be able to say that I visited the Mediterranean for my birthday! A couple days after my mom got here we went to a place called Cappadocia for a couple days. As the pictures will show we were able to ride in a hot air balloon. It was quite a thrill especially when you throw two active little boys in there with you. Let's just say mommy was not able to fully enjoy the ride since she spent the entire time holding on to each boy for dear life! (Literally...dear life!) Our hotel gave us a really neat experience. Im glad we chose to stay in one of the cave hotels verses a regular hotel. The following week we went on our 7 Churches trip. We flew to Izmir (in western Turkey) and began our tour there. That was the one tour we really wanted to experience while we were over here in Turkey. It was so awesome to visit such amazing places from the scriptures that such a small percentage of Christians ever get to visit. I feel very blessed and privileged to have had that experience.

Cappadocia (Kapadokya)

Our Cave Hotel

This is the cave hotel we stayed in. The rooms were dark and cold like a cave. We enjoyed our stay here.

Our 7 Churches Tour

 Smyrna

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." -Revelation 2:11

Pergamum

"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." -Revelation 2:17

Thyatira

"And he that overcometh, and keepth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations." 

-Revelation 2: 26

Sardis


" He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." -Revelation 3:5

This is the old gymnasium. It had an Olympic sized pool in it

Joe sitting in the priest's chair in the ancient synagogue 

Philadelphia

"Him who overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name." -Revelation 3:12




Loadicea

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." -Revelation 3:21

Ephesus

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches: To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." -Revelation 2:7

Summer in a Nutshell

June

We were able to visit Antioch (Antakya) with our branch. We visited an archaeological museum full of ancient Roman mosaics and artifacts. It is amazing how preserved some of these are.

A well preserved sarcophagus 

This is one of the mosaics at the museum. There were hundreds of preserved mosaics at this museum 

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/antioch-archaeological-museum

Joe and I found some old friends!

                         

Lauren in Nolan in a sarcophagus at the Antakya (Antioch) Archaeological Museum

St Peter's Church in Antakya (Antioch)
This church is thought to be the church that St. Peter dug himself to attract early followers of Jesus to worship in. Antioch is where followers of Jesus were first called "Christians." Acts 11:26 

Miss Lauren graduated from Kindergarten! Good Job Lauren!!

July

Independence Day 2011

Lauren got this cool paint on her face for the 4th of July

Sesame Street came live to Incirlik. This is Mr. Owen shaking Abby's hand 

August

Fatih and Sabihat, our kids' adopted grandparents here in Turkey

At Fatih's beach house in Mersin. 

Turkish food is so amazing! I am going to miss it so much!

At Ebru's (our nanny) for an authentic Turkish spread

One last visit to Yumertalik Beach

Lauren's 6th Birthday

Mom went the easy route this year with her cake! But, she loved it!

These were Lauren's birthday balloons that flew away minutes after we brought them. She was in tears, but I promised her she would laugh about it later! She seemed disgusted with the thought!

She's just too beautiful! Lauren please don't grow up anymore!

Germany

Paris

We took an unexpected trip to Paris over the summer. We were just driving in the general direction and just decided to keep driving once we got to France. Because of this we were only able to take pictures of these places. We didn't even go inside the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. It was definitely a quick trip, but it was soooo worth it! We are so excited to go back!

Notre Dame Cathedral

Arc de Triomphe

The infamous Eiffel Tower

September

A group of friends got together for a mystery dinner.

The theme was "Murder on the Mound"

  Happy 2nd Birthday Owie

I spent all day on this cake...can you tell! Good thing he loved it anyways!

These are all my old co-workers. This was taken on my last day of work. I really did enjoy working, but am so happy to be back home with my kiddos.

Joe had a pretty bad injury at work. This picture doesn't show it very well, but there are about 35 stitches on his forehead. He is very lucky the piece of glass did not hit his eye. Everything is healing nicely, but there is definitely a huge battle scar there now! We're just happy he is okay.

Joe and I made Manti, one of my favorite Turkish meals. This is one meal I am so glad I learned how to make because it is so wonderful! We (Joe and I...not the kids!) are going to miss Turkish food so much.