A Big Vacation

Grandma and Grandpa Flammer came for a visit.  We spent 10 days here in Erzurum mostly at our place.  James had classes to teach so we pretty much stuck with day trips around Eastern Turkey.  The girls (and us) were thrilled with their visit.  Let me tell you - they are pretty good sports.  Here are just a few of the hundreds of photos taken:

Our cozy car with 4 or 5 of us in the back seat most of the time.  Car seats aren't required here.  We bought them and usually make the kids use them, but there just wasn't room with 7 of us in 1 car.  Did i mention, they were good sports?

We visited Paisinler Castle.  Here's our first time using the ergo baby on the back.

We took a 2 day trip to Trabzon, a city on the Black Sea.  i wish we had a better zoom on the camera. I love how excited the girls were to hold hands/walk with/be attached to Grandma and Grandpa.  

Me and TJ with the Black Sea  in the background.

Our 1st family pic without using the timer on our camera (in a long time).

They sure liked their Grandma and Grandpa.

TJ with Hagai Sophia in the background.

Our 1st palm tree in Turkey.  I find it ironic we had to drive 4 hours north to find one.  We really are meant for a warmer climate.

I love this one of the girls talking/playing with each other.

We visited Sumela Monastery.  After a rough time finding it......it was worth the experience.  It was built on the side of a mountain (a very steep mountain). This is the front porch of the monastery.  Pretty good view, I'd say.

After you walk through the gates you see the little 'city' they had build inside the cave.

This is a picture of the Monastery from afar.  It's that yellow spec.

We also visited the ancient city, Ani.  Another family photo.

While we were there we got caught in a pretty good rainstorm.  Here's a selfie of me and the girls trying to wait it out under cover.

After a while, we decided it was only going to get worse.  So, we headed for the car.  here are the girl sharing our very broken umbrella.

James had his bday while his parents were here.  We had planned to bake a cake, but his mom brought the ingredients (brown sugar, normal oats, and chocolate chips) to make her famous chocolate chip cookies.  So, we decided to have that for his bday.

We went to Tortum waterfall.  This time around there was a tad more water in it.

I truly do get a kick out of Sofia's style.  Her headband makes me think of a headlamp, but she refuses to wear it any other way.

A nice backdrop!

James has been making a conscious effort to get me in photos.  I know it's a good thing, but I obviously didn't want to be in this one.

Grandma does yearly Valentine's and Easter parties.  Since we missed them, she brought them to us.  There were bags with Valentines candy and an Easter egg hunt.  I think the girls enjoyed it.  We've still got plenty of candy to tide us over for a while.

James had done most of his prep work at school, so the only time he had to spend on campus was while he was teaching.  it was fun to spend more time with him and grandparents.  I think Grandma and Grandpa wore us out, but it was fun.