Happy 40th birthday Nathan!

Last weekend we celebrated Nathan’s 40th birthday. Nathan is such a special man to us. He is a devoted and loving husband, father, and leader of our family. Nathan is a humble man who cares for and is always helping others, and we are so thankful to call him ours. We went out of town the weekend before his birthday. On his actual birthday, he took the day off and went for a long run, helped with school, and we went to dinner as a family, had cake, and opened gifts. Nathan does not care for big celebrations, but this is a milestone birthday and we had a low-key celebration as a family, just how he likes it. 

We took a mid-day school lunch break and went to a pizza place for lunch with the boys.

That evening, we all went out for dinner at another restaurant near our house that serves different kinds of dishes. We ordered a big spread of various Turkish and other dishes.

We all had lemon with mint too.

Nathan is an amazing father to our 3 kids. They love their daddy very much and were excited to celebrate his special day.

The kids gave Nathan an Ottoman Turkish sword with the Turkish flag symbol on one side and his birth date engraved in Turkish on the other side. It was a lot bigger than we thought it would be! He received a watch and a few other nice gifts from family too.

We all wrote things we love about Nathan and gave him our top 40 list.

Cake time!

The firework candle did not disappoint! We opened the windows to make sure the smoke detector did not go off. We would not have had happy neighbors if we had to evacuate a 30 story building for a fire alarm.

Happy 40th birthday Nathan. We are so thankful to call you husband and daddy, and we hope your day is as special as you are to us and everyone who knows you :).

Antalya Getaway

Last week we went away for a long weekend as an early celebration for Nathan’s 40th birthday. We rented a car and drove about 7 hours south to the Mediterranean coast, and stayed in a town called Serik, that is about 30 miles east of Antalya. The scenery along the way was beautiful, we had no idea it was such a pretty country! The roads in Turkey are wide and smooth, everything was very clean and there were plenty of places to stop along the way. Ankara is very hilly, but within a couple of hours we were driving through forests and big mountains.

As we drove out of the mountains, we approached what is called the Lake District. The lakes were breathtaking, with clear water, and the air was crisp.

We made it to Serik by mid-afternoon (after I accidentally navigated us into Antalya), but at least we got to see what the city was like, and was happy we drove through and did not stay there. The villa we rented had a private pool, and the community also had two pools, so there was no shortage of swimming.

The next day, we ventured to Kadriye Beach, about a 10 minute drive from where we were staying. The beach was well set-up for families. It had lounge chairs with umbrellas, a restaurant, bathrooms, and showers. There was also a walking path and a playground for the kids to play.

It was a good place for napping too!

The boys loved playing in the ocean and jumping in the waves.  Eliza was not a fan of the ocean for some reason on this trip, and she just wanted to play in the sand or shower.

Caleb escaped from the sand burial.

After swimming all day at the beach, we would swim in the neighborhood pools and ride the water slides.

The sky was especially beautiful during sunset.

Benjamin enjoyed night swimming each night.

The second day we drove to another beach about 20 minutes away, but it was not very nice, so we drove back to the same beach as the first day. The kids had fun burying each other in the sand, swimming in the ocean, and Benjamin worked hard with Nathan to build this sand castle.

Where is Benjamin?

Sweet girl :)

The last evening we ordered food and ate at the playground in our neighborhood...until the chemical blower man made his rounds. Each evening around 6:30pm, a man with what looked like a leaf-blower would walk around the neighborhood and spray chemicals to keep the bugs away. The sound and sight of the blower petrified Eliza and she would run to the house as soon as she heard it start up, which was only about 2 minutes until it made it’s way to our area. It would fill the entire area with smoke for about 10 minutes, then we would go back out to play.

We left early the next morning to head back to Ankara. We took a different way home and drove through more beautiful scenery to include two National Parks. 

We stopped in a town about half-way to Ankara, called Konya, to eat lunch. Konya is a well-known city that has been inhabited since the 3rd century BC, and has been ruled by many different groups. Konya is a pilgrimage destination for Sufi Muslims, and is the founding place of a sect of Sufism called the Mevlana order. We will need to come back here to explore some day, but for that day we enjoyed a delicious traditional Turkish breakfast.

It was a treat to get away for the long weekend. We loved driving around the country and are looking forward to more exploring in the years to come!

Our days

After getting out of quarantine, we are figuring out what our new normal looks like, along with the rest of the world. During the week, Nathan goes to work and I do school with the kids. This past week we decided to take school outside some of the afternoons and it is a nice change of scenery for everyone. The boys are doing well with online school. They were supposed to go back September 28th half-time, but the government announced that is not possible yet, so we will continue with remote school for the time being. We are looking forward to when they get the opportunity to start in person, no matter how long it is, to meet their teachers, and make some new friends. 

Nathan has found his happy place in the trails in the forest across the street from our house. On the weekends, he goes on long runs and enjoys the nature and exploring the trails.

View of our neighborhood from the trails.

View of the lake from the trails. We want to go explore there soon too.

Last weekend while running, a large dust storm headed to town. Nathan said within about 5 minutes, it reached him. It wasn't huge compared to what we have experienced in Jordan and Kuwait, but it was a legit dust storm and  fortunately it passed quickly enough for us to play in the evening.

Looking out the window waiting for daddy to come home.

We are still waiting for our stuff, but there are plenty of toy stores around here to buy little things to let the kids play with.  Benjamin made a dinosaur out of play doh one day and Eliza likes making worms.

Another day we ventured out a local ice cream shop. They have 54 flavors and the boys said they want to try each one. The mint was pretty good, so we'll see if that happens.

This girl loves ice cream.

Another day after school, I introduced the boys to Cold Stone...yes we have one here and it was yummy ice cream!

We got a couple of kites and some days after school they like to fly them around the neighborhood One day Benjamin got this kite so high, it got stuck in a tree about 10 floors up and it was a goner, so we will need to get another one soon.

If you don't see Eliza with baby dolls, she has her new kittens in her hands. They are always full with some sort of doll or stuffed animal.

Nathan took the boys for haircuts one day at a barber near the house.

In the midst of the transition, Tes decided she wanted to go back to the Philippines to be with her family. She was originally supposed to go there directly from Jordan, but COVID in the Philippines concerned her so she decided she wanted to come with us to Turkey. Within a few weeks, she decided she wanted to go home, so last week we said goodbye to Tes. Tes has been with our family for 7 years. When she started working with us in Kuwait, Benjamin was 8 months old, and Caleb just turned 2, and she has been with Eliza since she was 7 weeks old. Tes has been a huge blessing to our family these past 7 years, and has loved and cared for our kids like they were her own. She has a loving husband of 22 years and 5 kids at home, so we are glad she is finally able to be with them. We will miss Tes very much, and hope she can transition easy and enjoy being back with her family.

While we have all had lots of transition, new routines to adapt to, and unexpected events, I know that God is good and faithful, and will lead us through these times. We are all adapting and being challenged in new ways, and I know we will come out of this stronger than we were before. Here's to lots of new things ahead.