We Heart Visitors

Shortly before we left for the States, we were THRILLED to have some of our very favorite folks come to visit! With all the prep and leaving, yes...I am a bit behind in posting about it. Better late than never though!

Our friends Ryan, Kesli and Ryli came to visit and we had a ball! We have sure missed these guys!! We were so sad when they had to leave. Luckily they are closer than most, so we will hopefully see them again very soon!

I also realized one new thing I need to work on as well...when we have visitors, I apparently am terrible about taking any pictures! Some other terrific friends came to visit us in October as well, and I got nothing! So, to give credit where credit is due, I stole all of these shots from Kes. (Well, stole is not exactly the word-she did give me permission)

Thanks so much again for the great documentation!

Here we are in the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

We love these guys so much. Noah counts his friends carefully, and luckily he has found a great one in Ryan! I just love these daddies. They were so great to get down and play with the kids.

Then we have these guys...Best Buddies! We think it is so great that they get to travel the world together. I think it will make a world of difference to have other friends who will have also grown up with the same types of international experiences.

Perusing the picture menu to decide on lunch...

There is so much to do in Istanbul, that of course we could only scratch the surface. We did, however, make sure to make a stop at the Koc Museum. (It is one of our favorite things in the city). It is a fantastic transportation museum, and a heaven for little boys! We have been before as well, and I decided that I still need to do another post in the future just for this with all the fun pics, so stay tuned. We'll let this tide you over for now though-

This is a giant bubble wand. One word. Awesome.

No visit would be complete without a stroll along the Bosphorus! It was kind of crummy weather when they came unfortunately, but the rain did let up long enough for a good walk.

Strolling, watching the ships. Good friends, Good Times.

Now, Kesli is always great at getting some great shots that I just wanted to put on here as well because they captured Istanbul so well.

This is the kind of stuff I need to do better at...

I love that she got some of these shop windows!

Now, I know you are all thinking that the bright purple salad is probably my favorite new dish huh? ya, not so much...although, it IS beautiful!

Thanks so much again for the great visit guys! We can't wait to see you again. Also, again to any potential visitors...I promise to take more pictures when you come and our doors are always open!

Convo with Porter

I'd thought I'd share the conversation I just had with Porter.

P: "Mommy, is it hard for you to get to the bathroom on your own?"

Me: "huh? what do you mean? like right now?"

P: " I mean, like, is it HARD for you to get to the bathroom on your own?"

Me: "I still don't understand what you are asking, will I need help when the baby comes you mean?"

P: "no, I just mean sometimes is it hard for you? do you need help getting to the bathroom?"

Me: "do YOU need help getting to the bathroom right now? "

P: "no, I can do it, I was just curious about you."

Me: "well, OK, thank you...but no, I think I am good. I am pretty good at getting there by myself right now."

P: "ok, well they just said that if you have problems getting to the bathroom on your own you should order a powerchair! Ok, mom? If you do have problems I think we should order a powerchair ok?"

Me: (laughing) "Ok, got it! Now I see, yes if we ever really need one I promise we'll get one ok? Thanks for thinking of me I guess:)"

Oh, how I've missed all the nice commercials and info-mercials of America! My little consumer has anyway!

p.s. this also comes on the heels of a darling little girl who is close to his age at church where we've been going since being home. She has one, and she is such a cutie. She can sure zoom around fast though, and he brings it up almost every Sunday. He thinks it is SO cool....I keep telling him that it is just as cool to not have one too. Everyone in life gets different things, and maybe having a powerchair is just not for him! Love that kid though. He is so sweet, and I'm at least happy to know that his first real extended experience with someone who is handicapped has been one of thinking she is the bees knees. What a sweetheart.

Can you say Egg Salad Sandwich?

We made it to "the States" just in time for actual Easter weekend. We were thrilled to dye eggs with the cousins! I personally love the tradition of dying eggs. It is great fun, creative, you are helping the easter bunny (by leaving him extra eggs to hide) AND you get to eat yummy deviled eggs and egg salad sandwiches for a week! I love egg salad...yummm!

Now, this is just to document that Ronan was actually at the table and involved even if it was for a very short time. He was initially excited, but by the time I got the camera out this was all I could catch on the camera for evidence! He was turning around to go explore all of the other toys that were new and apparently more exciting than the eggs!

These two were "experts" at dying eggs

L.O.V.E him

Successful egg dying-three happy kiddos!

Hoppy Easter

The Easter Bunny came a little bit early to our house in Istanbul! He wanted to make sure that Daddy didn't miss out on all of the fun, so he brought just one basket of some yummy treats! Easter goodies were in short supply in Turkey, luckily the bunny was able to find some chocolate bunnies and eggs at the American store! Phew.

Then after treats the boys got all dressed up for Church in their coordinating ties (it is hard to see, but Noah does have a nice stripe of lavender in his). I love my handsome boys! Even though this wasn't quite Easter Sunday, we enjoyed pretending it was! Sorry, no pics of preggy me though...just use your imagination! I didn't have a maternity outfit that coordinated. Next year!

When actual Easter morning rolled around two very happy boys awoke to these fun baskets!

The Bunny seems to know my boys very well...

AND, a certain superstore had some great baskets for 2 bucks! I was thrilled with that, since traveling with Easter baskets was not on the top of our priority list.

Checking out the goods, Ronan went straight for the airplane! He was going crazy for me to get it out of the package!

Porter was equally as excited with his treats

The egg hunt was a fantastic hit as well. Now, unfortunately I don't have many great pictures of it. Turns out as these kids get older it was a mad dash! I did get more, but hardly any of them turned out, they were all blurry. Running children will do that though I guess.

Post egg-hunt survey of the candy...

Now as much as we love all of the other fun things about Easter, we also enjoyed a wonderful time at Church where we got to enjoy pondering the true meaning of Easter. I think the boys even learned something! It was a terrific day, and finished off perfectly with a delicious Easter dinner. Can I tell you how much I've missed having ham at my finger tips? yummmmm...

Easter is and always will be one of my favorites for many reasons. Can't wait until next year when we will all be back together as a family to celebrate it together! We missed you Daddy!

Inter-Consulate Soccer Finals and Family Day

team USA by our "booth"

After we left on Medevac the Consulate soccer team played in the 3rd Place match vs. France! I was so bummed that this was the game we missed, but such is life I guess!

Turns out.....WE WON!!!!

It wasn't looking good during the first half I'm told, but then we rallied (started off by a goal made by Noah:), and ended up winning in penalty kicks!

Great job guys! Luckily some other sweet friends of ours offered to take some pics for us.

It was the final day and the Turkish Football Federation made it a nice family day. They had kebaps of course, which I'm sure were tasty and our American booth had some classics like candybars and Doritos!

That was an impressive kick huh? Way to go Noah!

Because of the weekend it fell on, multiple members of the regular team were out of town or unable to make it. So the team shot below were who was there that day! Luckily we had enough to play, and apparently even playing the whole game didn't hurt us! Way to go guys, I'm sure they were pooped!

The guys and the winnings

They were presented with a beautiful framed tile as well as their medals and trophy. Framed tiles are a very Turkish thing, and so beautiful.

I think this is after Noah scored?!!

Way to go team USA! Great job guys, and we're looking forward to next year!

Istanbul Tulip Festival 2011

Have I mentioned that I L.O.V.E. spring?

Have I mentioned that Istanbul is actually pretty famous for it's tulips?

Have I mentioned that the city plants 3 MILLION bulbs every year?

Well, if I haven't then let it be said!

If you know me well, then you know that Tulips are my all time favorite flower. How perfect then to be posted to Istanbul! Now we just have to squeeze in Holland sometime... (as in the Netherlands, not Holland, MI. Though we have already done the tulip festival there as well)

It was a pretty rainy and cold April compared to past years we are told, so before we left for Medevac they were only about 90% up. I was so happy to see what we could, and then after we left Noah caught some pics of everything we missed! The following photos are a mix of both pre and post Medevac.

ENJOY!!

This is on the side of a major road on the European side. Obviously my photos are great, since we were moving and all, but still fantastic!

Another view...it's the Turkish flag (just incase you weren't sure)

Another version of the Turkish flag, this one on the Asian side. I also believe it is supposed to spell out Turkey underneath in white tulips, they just haven't quite filled in yet.

There were seriously tulips everywhere! The whole city was decked out! This is just cruising around somewhere, I think they planted every patch of ground they could find!

Now the rest of these are from Emirgan Park. It, along with the tulips at Topkapi Palace are THE places to really view the tulips. Emirgan Park is one of our favorites, and it was stunning. We made several trips, and saw the different stages of the flowers all filling in.

They love to "design" with the tulips it seems. This is a field of red, with the crest of the flag in the shape of the country of Turkey! Pretty cool, we thought!

Notice the hidden tulips in the fence? These will be part of a future post I'm compiling...I'm getting a collection of all the hidden tulips in the city!

The entry walk into the park-so beautiful!

Tulips make my heart happy!

Checking In...Finally!

Well, for those of you who are curious as to events of the last few weeks...

Yes, we did embark our Medevac adventure!

The littles and I said a very teary goodbye to Daddy almost two weeks ago. It was actually much, MUCH harder to say goodbye than I thought. (I should have known, don't ever give a pregnant lady a good reason to cry. It will only be 100 times worse!)

In any case, we made it through. 24 hours after starting our journey we arrived at our hotel safely in "The States" with only a few issues along the way. At our layover Ronan had had it (the 13 hours on the plane were about all he could take:). After some running through security, some rude TSA agents, and then one extremely friendly and happy Delta agent (thankfully) we finally made it to our next gate. Things were going well again for a few minutes until we had a "Wendy's freakout", culminating in a perfectly delicious and edible frosty dumped on purpose all over the airport carpet by Ronan. Awesome. Yet again, a double reason to cry. Not only is one very pregnant mommy exhausted and alone and trying to deal with her exhausted 3 year old, BUT...said 3 year old dumped one of the very food items said ex-pat pregnant mommy has been craving for months on the ground!! Not good folks, not good at all! So, after a small breakdown I felt much better and luckily multiple other sweet passengers came to my aid and offered their support, thoughtful words and assistance. In general, the issues we had (yes, mostly just at the airport layover) were the worst part. Considering the circumstances, we all did much better than I expected, AND we had terrific people sitting around us and really nice stewards/stewardesses on both flights. Probably some of the best we've ever had flying, so that really made it all bearable. I'm quite sure there were some serious prayers answered in that department. Even the cute gentleman in front of Ronan on the 13 hour one swore to us, as I apologized profusely throughout the flight , that he really could not feel Ronan kicking his seat! I'm sure that couldn't possibly be true, but he was just awesome about it! Despite my very best efforts, it was nearly impossible to keep Ronan from doing it at all. We got really lucky with that one!

Anyway, so then the boys zonked on takeoff for our next flight and slept the entire trip! We made our way slowly off the plane and were scooped up into trusted hugs and hands. Thanks again for picking us up guys! We have then spent the last couple of weeks getting settled into our new hotel/apartment, which we really love. Adding to that, we celebrated Easter (separate post to follow), and have spent a good portion of time in the doctor's office. I saw my OB, and am right on track and ready to finish up! Then we got to get new X-rays, and have done another two visits for Porter's arm. He finally got a short cast today, but still has a little while to go (another post as well). Add onto that tons of fun with the cousins and friends and siblings, going to the movies, a couple of trips to my favorite fabric store, some video chatting with Daddy, and of course spending some serious time watching the news this last weekend (a certain royal wedding and another big news story that will hopefully not cause too much turmoil for our diplomatic community).

Then last but not least has been the shopping and the food! Aside from hitting all of my favs and stuffing myself silly, I also went to the grocery store and stocked up on an embarrassing display of American treats and junkfood. You know, the kind of shopping trip where you feel you need to justify what you are buying to the cashier with a good excuse! I informed her we had been out of the country and were craving certain treats, they should last for a while though! (To be fair, I have only opened one package of cookies. The others should last the entire time we are here. What we don't finish, I will just ship back to Turkey:)

Included in that shopping trip was the thing I was perhaps most excited about! I had heard about this when it came out, and was dying to try it! I love salty/sweet combos and Jimmy Fallon. yumm!!

Then, on a fantastic trip to my favorite Target I also found this beauty- a PURPLE Brita pitcher! I am now spoiled by bottled water, and I could totally taste all the chemicals in the tap water here. Yes, at least it is totally safe to drink...but still not so tasty now that we are used to the other. I wasn't going to last without getting a Brita and was beyond thrilled with their new colors! Isn't she cute?!

Now to satisfy a little more of everyone's craving for pics of the boys, I'll throw in another major score. Let's just say, I heart the Disney store! These terrific jammies were on sale and we got a screaming deal on a lightup/talking/moving Buzz for Ronan too! We had been looking for one that wasn't 100 bucks for a long time. So excited! Now, even though Ronan's face doesn't show it, they both LOVE their new pjs! Yay Disney Store!

As I said earlier, there are numerous other things I need to catch up on blogging about, and I will very soon. I promise! Let this appease you all for now though. We made it, we are safe, we are happy, and we are SO EXCITED for Daddy to come join us and to meet this new little one!