The VP Visits Istanbul

Our Family with Vice President Joe Biden

Right smack in the middle of the holiday season, you know right in between Thanksgiving and Christmas; the Vice President of the United States came for a visit!! Even though it was a really busy time (added on to the holiday stresses), everyone worked incredibly hard and made his visit a huge success! Way to go Consulate Istanbul! I decided to just do this post after I had finished with the holiday fun to make it seem less random. So here are some fun pics of the event. Enjoy!

This is definitely not a chance that comes around every day-to meet the Vice President!! Or ever for most people. So, no matter your views on politics, we wanted to make sure we took full advantage.They had a meet and greet where we got to take the family! We enjoyed being able to teach the boys more about our fabulous US of A, and the offices of President and Vice President. Hopefully we were able to help Porter see how lucky we are to be Americans, and the great respect that we have for all of the Founding Fathers. (This worked well in conjunction with our then upcoming trip to Philadelphia)

Anyway, as the time for action actually came-we opted to leave Ronan home. For several reasons (not the least of which was that he woke up at 4:00am that day and was in a pretty grumpy mood) we decided that it would be better for all involved to let him stay home with a babysitter. I felt awful leaving him, but really- it was better this way. Trust me. I'm hoping that this isn't his only chance.

As you could imagine, there was lots of security, hence lots of the "hurry up and wait" game. This is the boys and I in stage 1. We waited here for about 30 minutes before we moved to the next room to wait some more! I was on my own for most of the morning since Daddy was off doing something important with logistics, or motorcade, or something…

(one of the other reasons we left Ronan home, corralling all the boys without help and making them be on their best behavior was going to be a challenge to say the least)

My camera setting was on black and white unfortunately.

This couch was a beautiful purple and brown! I loved it!

Once we jumped through all the hoops we ended up here to wait for another while. It was a good time to snap some pictures.

Porter, in true Foreign Service fashion…

waiting patiently for some fancy event that he doesn't understand, but making the best of it!

as long as he has his Nintendo I guess-

Overall, we were very impressed. Joe Biden was fantastic with the kids. He invited them all to come up on the stage and sit while he spoke for a little while. In his remarks he was thoughtful and gracious, and made an effort to thank all the FSO's for their hard work.

He even gave Miles a special shout-out! At one point Miles started to fuss a little, and the VP stopped what he was saying, turned to look at little Miles and said "I know, if I was your age and had to wear a tie I'd be crying too!" Everyone laughed, it was really cute.

This was before Miles got too fussy and the CLO took him to the side-and before Porter started looking bored...

Enter the "ok, now I'm bored" look!

Then he came and sat in the front with the kids for pictures. Unfortunately, this was the best one I got with both Miles and Porter in it. The little girl in the front fell down and the VP reached to help her up. So the better one of Porter and Miles, the VP is bent over and you can't see him. Oh well, we'll take what we can get.

After he sat with the kids, he then invited everyone to come and shake his hand individually and get photos! We've heard that he doesn't always have time to do this individual time, so we felt very lucky! Like I said, overall we had a very nice time and thought he was very gracious and great with the families. Next time we'll bring Ronan too. I promise!

Last, but not least is one of my favorite shots of Noah with Air Force 2! He was involved in tons of logistics for the whole affair and by all accounts did a great job! Way to go Babe!