Scenes from our life

It is very easy to take life and all the sights and sounds around you for granted. We've lived here just over 2 years now, and things feel so normal that we don't always stop to take in what we're seeing. I was looking through some of Dan's photography and thought I would post a few pictures of the things we see on a regular basis.This is the view from our balcony. Dan took this picture a few mornings ago. It is pretty crazy how many people and homes this picture represents.

This guy is roasting and selling chestnuts. This is VERY common this time of year. Dan and I personally think there is a reason the song only talks about roasting chestnuts and not eating them, but some family members have tried them during their visits and said they liked them.

We cross this bridge many times a week, and it is almost always filled with men fishing for sardines.

Anyways, these are just a few sights we experience on a regular basis. Maybe I'll try to post stuff like this more regularly.

White Christmas Eve Eve Eve...

No, it's not snowing here, but Tuesday we drove up to the top of a mountain about 2 1/2 hours away from us to play in the snow. The snow came the day before we got there and it was starting to melt the day we were leaving. (We stayed one night.) We had a lot of fun. The hotel we stayed in had a swimming pool, too, so the kids got to swim some and really had a lot of fun. Here are a few of pictures. You can see the rest here.

The kids liked being pulled on the sled we borrowed the second day there.Tami and I had more fun riding it. The kids liked that, too.Zeke managed to swim the whole length of the pool by himself. Such a big boy!Tami doesn't care for the swim cap pics (the caps were required), but I wanted to show off Kaiyah's new trick she learned and loved.Here's Tami minus the swim cap. She's so pretty!Here's the second day snowman, all finished.
The first day, it was really cold and the snow was really powdery, but the second day was a little warmer and the snow a little wetter, and the snow stuck together a lot better. You can tell by our snowmen.
This is the view from our hotel window at sunset. It was a beautiful place.

Thanks for looking. Don't forget to look at the rest of the pictures.

Photography website

Dan's new photography website is now up and running. Check it out at: www.danleycphotography.com

What we've been up to . . .

It has been awhile since we've posted on this blog, so we thought we would just put up a few pictures to let you see some of the things that we have been up to lately. Most recently, Tami's brother and his family came through for a little vacation. We didn't get a lot of time with them, but really enjoyed the time we did have together. Becky's parents came as well, and it was great to see them once again after about 12 years.
Kaiyah is into EVERYTHING. Everything includes the kitchen drawers, book shelves, pans of oil sitting on the stove (thankfully it was cold). . . Currently she has hidden her one and only sippy cup, which is the one and only sippy cup because she has also lost the previous however many we've bought her. We have calculated that we could have bought a fine set of China for the amount of money we've spent on drink devices for this child. Sippy cups cost around $10 here. The one that is lost we had to pay $15 for because we happen to be in a ritzy area on town.

Zeke loves to do "school." School includes tracing, cutting, coloring, drawing . . . he loves it all, although he thinks it's far better if mom is sitting there doing it as well. Zeke seems to be understanding more and more of the language here, although he isn't willing to admit it. Recently we ran in our local bakery to buy some water. The man asked Tami if she wanted 2 loaves of bread (our normal purchase). Tami said no, she just wanted the bottle of water. The man said "That is 50 cents." Zeke said, "What did that man say?" Tami said "He said it is 50 cents." Zeke said, "That man said we want bread!" Another day we ran out and Tami realized she's left her wallet inside. When we came back in, the man who guards our building asked Zeke, "What happened?" Zeke responded in English, "Mommy left her wallet."
Tami has been busy with all things a mom stays busy with. Language learning has been slow lately, but hopefully that will start back after our little vacation (4 days away!).

Dan has been busy building his photography portfolio, producing amazing picture such as this:

and this . . .
as well as continuing hard with language and the rest of life.

We are so excited to get to see many of you in a few short days!!!!

Final Sweet Potato Update

So, the sweet potato plant kept producing yellow leaves, and we had read that when the leaves started turning yellow you should dig the plant up. However, it had only been about 3 1/2 months, and we had also read that they need a 4-5 month growing season. But, tired of the extra bugs that seem to have invaded our house, we dug up the plants yesterday. Our upstairs neighbors hung out their window, asking what we were doing, wondering why we were destroying a beautiful plant! Ha. Well unfortunately, the produce wasn't much to brag to them about. Hee hee. Yes, this was the ENTIRE crop!!!! We're not thinking another month or two would have done much to help our sweet potato cause! But, as any good sweet potato grower would do, we took what we had and made some delicious sweet potato chips!

Sorry friends that live around here. I don't think we'll be signing up to bring the Thanksgiving sweet potato pie this year :)

Fun with Fred...

My brother, Fred, came to visit last week and we had lots of fun. He came with two friends of his, and we went to Cappadocia for 5 days or so. Sadly, after the trip, I realized that of 1000 pictures or so, I only had a couple with Fred. I had a bunch of just Fred, though, so maybe that'll make up for it. We'll have to take lots when we're there in November. Anyway, Fred, I had lots of fun. I love you very much and miss you already. Below are a couple of pictures. If you want to see a lot more, click here.

Dolphin Show and Water Park!!!

We got the opportunity to go to a water park yesterday that had a dolphin/sea lion show at it. The kids loved the park and Zeke liked the dolphin. He didn't care for the sea lion, though. Kaiyah didn't care for either of them. Here are a few pictures. If you want to see the rest of the Dolphin Show pictures, click here.

Watching the show.

Kaiyah wasn't a fan.

Zeke watches curiously.

The sea lion was quite big.

The dolphin did cool tricks. For more of his tricks, click here.

Evening Fun...

This past week a friend told us about a sand beach about a 15 or 20 minute drive from our house that we had never heard of. Last night we decided to take a little drive and see if we could find it. It may become one of our favorite evening activities.The sand itself was full of little shells, so maybe not the best for building sand castles. But it sure was fun to walk around, play on the play ground, climb on the rocks and enjoy the beautiful sunset!

(This may be the first picture we have of Zeke and Kaiyah where they are both smiling at the same time!)

Oh, and did we mention the up-close-and-personal view we had of airplanes landing!

A Weekend Away...

We had the chance to get away for a couple of days over the weekend to a small beach town on the edge of our city. Here are a couple of pictures. Click here to see them all.

Business Proposition...

Since coming here we've been intrigued by a certain common business practice, often performed by children, but as you can see, not necessarily. People sit on the sides of the streets with a set of bathroom scales. Their customers will then give them money in order to weigh themselves. We have yet to see the number on the scale being kept a private affair. Typically everyone gathers around to see how much the person weighs!

We would be curious for someone to try this in the States and let us know how it goes!

4th of July Fun!

Yesterday we went with some friends just outside of town to enjoy an afternoon of swimming, running, eating, visiting . . . all the fun stuff you are supposed to do to celebrate the 4th of July! We had a great time.

Dan participated in a two mile run.

Zeke LOVED getting to swim. We were afraid he wouldn't this year since it has been awhile since we've gone. But, after he had been in a few minutes, he quickly warmed up to it. He shivered most of the day, and we kept asking him if he wanted to get out to warm up. He always replied, "I'm not cold! I want to keep swimming!"

Kaiyah, on the other hand, was not a fan of the experience. Both times we took her in, she dealt with her dislike by curling up to mommy and going to sleep!

Sun bathing by the side of the pool, however, was right up her alley!

Yummy oreos brought over from the States.

And last, but not least, what is a 4th of July celebration without a slice of watermelon?!