First day of school in Turkey

The girls on their way to school.  They were both really excited, however Alina was really nervous.

We took the shuttle to the school because we still can't drive our car, starting tomorrow they will take the bus.

Alina's first days of school

First day of Kindergarten, Colorado Springs

First day of First Grade

First day of Second Grade

First day of Third Grade, Turkey

McKayla first day of school

First day of Kindergarten, Denver

First day of First Grade, Colorado Springs

First day of Second Grade, Colorado Springs

First day of Third Grade, Colorado Springs

First day of Fourth Grade, Turkey!!

Metro Mall

We went to the mall yesterday and had American fast food, the girls were so excited.

The girls chose to eat at McDonald's.

Ky and I decided upon Arby's, however they make their sandwiches a little different than we are used to.

We decided to top it all of with an ice cream cone, then we tasted them and thought better of it.  McKayla says she thinks it tasted like Mug wart.

We each had about one lick than were done, who knew you could mess up ice cream.

Mediterranean Sea

We finally made it to the Mediterranean Sea.

The water was really warm and the kids swam for hours.

Alina and her new friends made a sand mountain.

McKayla gave it two thumbs up.

I usually hate sand, but I discovered that it has a time and a place (the beach)

Carpet workshop

These women are making a carpet, it will take the two of them about six months to finish.

They showed us how the made their silk for the silk carpets (which are beautiful)

This was my anniversary present.  It is a dowry carpet.  It was made by a women years ago for her dowry and her children or grandchildren sold it.

Can you see the camel???

Monastery

An old monastery we got to visit.  Most of is had eroded away.  Again, it was used as a hide out for the early Christians.

This is taken in the chapel.

The whole chapel was covered in paintings.  A lot of it had been vandalized or eroded away.

Again, the girls got to climb to their hearts content.

Just amazing that people lived here.

Our Hotel

We stayed at this really neat old hotel, however the toilet/shower situation was a bit odd.  After I came out of our room I found that the other women we were on tour with took pictures of this as well.  Glad I wasn't the only one who thought this was odd.

Our hotel had a great view of the city.

Fairy Chimneys

These rock formations are called fairy chimneys.  Early Christians carved caves into them and lived there to protect themselves. 

It amazes me that they are not protected, we could climb through them as much as we wanted.  Erosion is a big problem so a lot of the rock is gone.

Onyx workshop

This man works at the onyx workshop and showed us the different steps in working with onyx.

He showed the kids how he makes onyx eggs and let them try.

We never did figure out what the newspaper hat had to do with it.