Love Valley

Kyle and the girls overlooking love valley.

So it's called "Love Valley"....

El Nazar Church

Inside El Nazar Church in Goreme.

The care taker for this church was very fun.  He was nice enough to take pictures of all of us together.

Alina at one of the tourist shops.  They try really hard to get you to buy things.

Third Breakfast

I guess when you get up at 4:30am you need to eat breakfast three times.

After the Ride

 

After the balloon ride they served champagne, juice and cake.

The girls were very happy to have another breakfast.

They gave out certificates after the ride as well.

This picture makes me laugh, but Kyle is not very happy that I posted it.

After the ride with our pilot Mustafa.

The Landing

The balloon truck following us so we could land right on it.

A team of guys met us at the landing site and helped guide the balloon onto the truck.

The girls were really tired.

Pulling down the balloon so it can deflate.

We did not notice this sign until we were getting ready to get out of the basket.  It says Passengers will please refrain from screaming.  We are not sure if this sign was serious or not.

Kids get special treatment.

The Ride

We took off just as the sun was starting to rise.

There are a lot of pictures on this post, but I took 260, so it was hard to pick my favorites.

This is by far the most amazing thing we have done while living in Turkey.

McKayla waving to people on another balloon.

Our pilot was Mustafa and he was amazing.  He "kissed" the balloon you see in the back.  McKayla was a little nervous.

You can see the top of the two balloons touching.

The girls with our pilot Mustafa.

We went up 3000 feet.

I honestly thought I would be sitting on the floor of the balloon the whole time, but I wasn't scared at all.

The girls loved every minute of the ride.

Happy Birthday to Kyle.  Glad he had a birthday so we could do this.

Inside the Balloon

Yet another perk to being a kid in Turkey.  No one else got to do this.

The girls were picked up and carried into the balloon while it was being filled

I love McKayla's hair.

Only in Turkey could I be okay with strange men picking up my children without my consent.

Hot Air Balloon Ride

I don't think I have ever seen my girls so happy to be up at 4:30am.

We were picked up at our hotel, fed breakfast and taken out to the launch site.

It was a little cool so they gave the girls blankets, no one else got a blanket, but the girls were warm.  It definitely pays to be a kid in Turkey.

You can see other balloons getting ready to take off.  There were close to 100 balloons flying that morning.

Zelve

We visited Zelve Open Air Museum.

There are three valleys full of cave houses and churches.  Here Mckayla is going into one of the cave churches.

Most of the Frescos were destroyed, but you can still see parts in places.

Alina inside another cave church.