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.

 

Quarantine Life

Quarantine was not bad at all! The first few days of quarantine we stayed indoors, got unpacked, and the kids watched a lot more TV than we would have liked. We thought we had to stay inside for 2 weeks, and then 4 days into quarantine, we learned we could walk around the neighborhood, which was a game changer. Our neighborhood is huge has a lot of green space, 3 playgrounds (which we cannot use while in quarantine), and lots of walking paths.

I packed a suitcase of 'fun' items with a few small games and card games, video games, Alexa, some toys and books, and we used almost all of it. Eliza is doing some handstand training as the boys played rush hour. Our sponsors were great and stocked our fridge well, since we could not go to the store during the two weeks. I figured out grocery delivery and food delivery after a couple days. Everything is in Turkish here, there is almost no English, so I have had a ton of language learning just trying to do simple things like order groceries, use the washer/dryer, etc.

The second week of quarantine the boys started online school. It was supposed to be for 3 weeks, so I was planning to post more pictures when they start in person, but found out that only preschool - 1st grade will be going back to school on the 21st and everyone else has at least 3 more weeks past that date of online school. So, sometime mid-October, I really hope they start in-person. We have been really impressed with the school and the boys are doing a great job! Caleb is in 3rd grade and his teacher is Ms. Page and Benjamin is in 2nd grade and his teacher is Ms. Wakefield.  Caleb has 14 kids in his class and Benjamin 18, we love that they are smaller classes. The school has had great communication and we have been happy with the distance learning format. It's a lot more work compared to their school in Jordan (for both them and me), but I love that the boys work almost exclusively from text books, use paper and pencil, and only take photos of assignments to turn in. It's very traditional! The boys have been so flexible with all the change, and we are excited for them to be able to start in person hopefully soon and meet their classmates and teachers. 

This girl loves babies. At any time of the day she is carrying several around, feeding them, giving them milk, singing to them, or reading to them. It's pretty cute!

Yay for walking around outside! Nathan took the boys on daily walks and they found a patch of grass to play boche ball and goof around.

This is a hill near our house. At the bottom are a bunch of trees and a little path. The kids think it's fun to run or roll up and down and run around the path loop. They even take Eliza exploring in their secret hide outs.

For being in quarantine, this was not bad at all. We are excited to finally be here, and to start exploring before too soon.