Runq8 10k

This morning, a group of us participated in a 10k run, benefitting different non-profit organizations in Kuwait. Our family did the run last year, and we were glad to do it again this year with some friends. The weather was fabulous, there was even a little chill in the air. It was a great morning for a run!

 The runners at the starting line were anxious to begin the race. The announcer had to hold them back, this was about 10 minutes before the official start :).

Nathan's foot is still injured so he walked with the boys and I ran with a girlfriend. He and the boys walked part of the course, stopped at McDonalds for hash browns, then met us a few kilometers from the finish and ran in with us. The boys had a lot of fun watching all the runners, and they also got medals for crossing the finish line :).

 We did not win the race, but we couldn't resist pretending we did. Haha!

And we were extra proud of our friends' twins who finished not only their first 10k, but their first race ever!

We were glad for the fun run with friends and nice weather today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been a big holiday in my family. Growing up, it was a tradition for my dad to cook a big turkey, and we would have family and friends over. When I moved away for college, I came home almost every year. When I moved to Virginia, my parents and brother started coming up most of the time, and a couple of times we went to Florida.  Now we live overseas, and this is our second Thanksgiving away from home. Today is just another day for most people here, but we do feel thankful that we got to celebrate with other Americans today. The list of things I am thankful for is endless, but most importantly is for our loving God, my husband, boys, family, and friends. Thankfulness is a part of my everyday life, especially being at a place far away from home, where life is very different. Today, I was glad for how we spent this Thanksgiving day.

Our day started with parent-teacher conferences at the boys' preschool (more on that later this week). It was good to talk to their teachers and hear about their progress. Afterwards, we participated in a Turkey Trot 5k at the Embassy with some friends. We even convinced Tes to run and she had a blast. Caleb ran about half of the race too, and he won a race car afterwards. We enjoyed some home baked goods and fruit with everyone then headed home. It was a fun way to start the morning.

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our home. We had our American friends, and also shared the day with friends from the Philippines, Mauritus, Canada, and Lebanon, some of who never had a traditional American Thanksgiving meal. Another friend cooked the turkey, stuffing, and some delicious apple crisp and jello desserts, and I cooked the pork roast, salad, some sides, and pumpkin cheesecake bars. My entire menu was thanks to Pinterest - for which I was very thankful this year ;). Everyone was guinea pigs for my first time recipes, and I think they all turned out really good. This is a chicken, walnut, pomegranate salad that tasted great and looked so festive.

 Garlic and onion roasted brussel sprouts.

 Butternut squash with cranberries and feta cheese.

 Honey and brown sugar glazed baby carrots.

Pumpkin cheesecake bars with whipped cream

 The spread!

While the adults enjoyed lots of food, good laughs, and sharing Thanksgiving traditions, the kiddos watched Stuart Little and ate their meal.

The plasma cars from Grandpa Mark and Grandma Betty were a hug hit today. At some points we would see 3 kids piled onto a car!

 Caleb loves our friends twins, he followed them around everywhere!

 And we caught them cuddling with their little sister too :).

 Showing their tough guy and gal faces.

It was a fun day with our family and good friends, and for that I am always thankful. Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends around the world. We love you a lot and are thankful for you every day!

Ben the builder, songs, and snowmen

Benjamin loves to build. He'll use blocks, boxes, sponges, just about anything.  At any time you can catch Benjamin sitting by himself stacking away. Here's one of his sponge tower creations.

The boys like to sing their ABC's together on the way to preschool in the morning. Tonight I finally caught it on video :).

Once a week, one of our neighbors comes over to craft with Tes, the boys, and a few other neighbors. She runs a craft class at the Embassy, and she likes to use the group to test the craft, which we love. This week they made adorable snowmen out of socks, rice, pipe cleaners, and decorations for the face and clothes. In the background you can see the thanksgiving hats they made last week. 

Loving the holiday season! Happy Tuesday :).

New Places

I recently returned home from a trip to a neighboring country. It was an interesting place to visit, though life there is quite different. I enjoyed the opportunities to see the city and explore a couple of markets. One  market we visited was the Princess souq, and is known for the royal princesses donating their gowns. I didn't get pictures of the gowns, but they were quite exquisite.

Here are a few pictures around where I was staying. The were a lot of open spaces for kids to run around. And a lot of kids out and about.

There was a nice 10 mile long trail that another lady and I enjoyed long runs on the weekends. There were nice views of the city and some valleys from the trail.

We stopped at a couple of trail-side parks along the way.

Another weekend we visited an famous square, where public executions are still held. It was interesting to hear one of the shop keepers perspective on how the laws are implemented in this country. It is very different from my beliefs, but quite fascinating to learn more about the culture.

The square was connected to the city's main souq, which was fun to experience. In this country, it is required that women wear an abaya, the traditional women's dress.

Heading out of town to the airport.

It was an interesting experience that I was thankful for, and very thankful for the freedoms I have. And the best part was coming home to my hubby and boys!

Feeling Thankful

I've been away for the last couple of weeks for work, and was so glad to get home to Nathan and the boys last night! When the boys saw me pull up in the taxi, they hopped right in, gave me huge hugs and kisses, and it felt so good. Daddy daycare was a lot of fun from what I hear. They took lots of walks, went to many parks, and ventured to the aquarium this weekend. No pictures, but great memories and fun. 

The boys had some fun at pre-school the last couple of weeks too. The week I left they both went to the zoo, and the following week they had an animal theme. Throughout the week they made masks for an animal parade on Thursday. Benjamin was a monkey and Caleb was a panda. Their pre-school does a nice job taking pictures and posting them online, so here are a few I found of the boys making their masks and at the parade.

 

 Once a week Tes takes the boys to our neighbor's house to do a craft. Last week they made a Thanksgiving tree, and it made me smile to come home to this! There is one very important leave I saw was missing….the daddy leave. We are all so thankful for him!

The boys fall crafts are decorating our walls :).

Today, I am thankful to be home with my 3 boys!

Turkey Vacation Part 2: Cappadoccia

Sorry it has taken me so long to get the second set of pictures up, it's been a busy week for us all! After leaving Istanbul, we flew to the Central Anatolia region of Cappadoccia, and visited the town of Goreme. 

Goreme was inhabited by many civilizations prior to the time of Christ. The area is best known for it's naturally formed fairy rock chimneys, that the early Christian settlers used for churches and homes that were carved straight into the rock. Our hotel was an old family cave home for 300 years, that was converted into a hotel about 5 years ago. It was a very unique place to stay, and the boys enjoyed living in a cave for a few days.

There was a rooftop terrace to eat breakfast, and the owners grew lots of peppers that the boys enjoyed helping water each day.

View of Goreme from the rooftop.

The hotel owner took our family on a tour of the area one day. He was born and raised in Goreme, and it was a very neat way to learn about the area and the history. Our first stop was an old fairy chimney church from the 9th century. The Christians took shelter in the valleys of Goreme because of Arab raids. The original name of the town, 'gor emi', meant 'you cannot see this place. There are about 400 rock churches in the area, which was a very important center of Christianity between the 6th and 9th centuries.

The church we visited was called Kadir Durmus Church. It it was fascinating to be in side a structure this old. Just thinking about what life may have been like for the people of these times amazes me.

The story behind how the rock formations were formed is, tousands of years ago when Erciyes was an active volcano, the lava from its eruption were shaped by wind and erosion for hundred of years. The softer rock eroded away over time, leaving the hard rock on top to form what they call fairy chimneys. 

Amazingly, people lived in these chimney homes up until the 1950's, when the Turkish government eventually made everyone move to a standard home for safety reasons.

We noticed that Benjamin was fascinated with picking up leaves, and realized that this is the first time he is seeing and comprehending a fall. He was born in the fall in VA, but last fall we were in Kuwait, and there without a doubt are no leaves that change color, fall, or are laying around to pick up!

We drove through several valleys throughout the day.  This was the Rose Valley, known for the rose-colored rock that appears to change color throughout the day. We got out and walked along the ridge and admired the beauty of this valley.

Next we drove through Love Valley, which gets its name from the interestingly shaped fairy rock chimneys in this valley. It is truly fascinating that these are natural rock formations!

Then we stopped in a town and ate a traditional turkish lunch, which consists of spiced meats cooked in a sealed clay pot with rice. The boys tried lots of new food on this trip, though we did also eat a lot of pizza and pita with hummus :).

The last stop of the day was at an underground city. There are over 100 underground cities in the region. They were originally inhabited by the Hittites, then later by early Christians as hiding places. It was tremendously impressive to see all the horizontal and vertical tunnels linking rooms that were used for living, cooking, wine storage, drainage, and most importantly during the times defense.

Throughout the caves were air chimneys that were needed for air circulation.

The boys had fun running through the tunnels, and they were just the right size for these passage ways! Caleb asked Ben, are you ready?

They were excited that they made it to the other side!

View of the lush farmland in the area.

Caleb enjoyed some front seat rides. No car seat rules in this country either...

Driving through a few more valleys on the way home.

A view of Goreme at night.

The next day we put the boys in the hiking backpacks and went out to explore. It was not as easy to hike in the area because everything was so spread out, but we were glad to get out for some short hikes and explore for the day.

We visited the Goreme Open Air Museum, which is is an area in the town that has many of the cave churches from as early as the 3rd Century. It was packed with visitors, so we didn't got inside many of the churches, but we had a nice time exploring a few and enjoying the beautiful weather.

The 'hike' from the museum back into town.

We stopped for lunch, that Caleb mostly slept through. Glad the backpacks are still comfortable for our little 25 lbers.

Close to our hotel was a playground that we went to each day. The boys enjoyed doing 'exercisors' on the outdoor exercise machines, swinging, and playing with other kids.

Caleb's super hero pose.

Nathan befriended some local kids, and they had a who can jump the furthest off of the swing contest. They kids didn't speak any english, but that's the nice thing about play, it's a universal language. Nathan and the boys caught some serious air!

They were pretty upset when we left for the evening for dinner.

Almost every morning before sunrise, hundreds of hot air balloons fly above the valleys in Cappadocia, to admire the rock formations and beautiful scenery. Since we were not able to take a balloon ride because the boys were too young, we wanted to set out one morning before sunrise to see the balloons in flight. Well, we went out on one of the 'almost' mornings. It was windy and overcast and no balloons were flying, but we still got beautiful views of the valley.

That afternoon, we headed back to Kuwait. The very gracious hotel owner, Hasan, drove us to the airport. He was a fantastic host and really took a liking to the boys during our stay. We had such a wonderful time in Turkey. It was a great place to explore for the week, and we are thankful for the opportunity to visit this amazing place.