Check Out Where I Shop...

So, as you can probably guess we don't have a Saks Fifth Avenue, but I did take home my purchase from the Bazar in this bag! I think the picture below explains why a little shop in the Van Bazar has these bags... I'm sure they couldn't be used at the REAL store!

Lynn's Pick

Before we moved my best friend Kate wanted to get me a present that I would use all the time. And she did a great job! She got me this bag that roles up into my purse (as shown on the bottom right corner) and then when I go shopping I can pull it out to use it! That way I don't have to collect as many plastic bags. I also prefer carrying items on my shoulder with this bag verses carrying them with my hands. I walk a lot here & have been doing a lot of shopping so this has come in handy many times!

Happy 3rd Anniversary!

Today is our 3rd Anniversary! Thanks to so many of you that were there to celebrate our wedding & have continued to support us during the past 3 years! Here's some memories from our past anniversaries...

Our Wedding Day
1st Anniversary (to see more pictures of the Camel Races we went to click here)
2nd Anniversary
3rd Anniversary: This morning we had Cowboy Coffee Cake (one of Dan's favorites & are planning to go out for dinner tonight as well as watch our wedding movie!)

A Visitor & An Island

A few weeks ago we had a good friend stop through on his way back the the States. He surprised his mom so I couldn't post the pictures until he got back. We had a great time visiting Akdamar Island...

First you have to take a boat ride to the IslandYou can see the church in the distance. There used to be an entire monastery on this island, but all that is left now is the church. The beauty of Lake Van...
Dan & Eric had some bread & watermelon with some local guys...
The church has some amazing reliefs on the outside & painting on the inside. Click here for more pictures if you missed them in April!
Dan & Eric holding Klaire & Ava... there was a big hill we had to climb up!
Chilling on the way home...
The simple pleasures of living near a beautiful lake in the summer time!

Lynn's Pick

Do you ever feel like your plastic bags are getting out of control? Even when you try to use cloth when you go to the grocery store & Target, somehow you still have an overwhelming amount of plastic bags that seem to consume far too much space!

Since living here one of my friends showed me how she stores her bags & it’s too good not to share!

Remember in 4th or 5th grade how the boys (and sometime the girls) would play paper football? Well, that’s all you do – make your plastic bags into plastic bag footballs!

1. Flatten out your plastic bag
2. Fold in half & then in half again
3. Then start folding it up in a triangle shape
4. At the end, tuck the handles into the folds.
5. Now your plastic bags are a lot more compact!

Carnival Rides

As many of you know I (Lynn) worked at Gee Willie Entertainment (an inflatables games company – www.geewillie.com) after I graduated & before we moved. So obviously I have a bit of an interest/bias in carnival type rides/games. Here’s a few pics of the ones we’ve seen since being here!

We saw this one when we were in Antalya…
At the spring festival that we went to at the local university we saw, and some of our friends rode!, this ride.
In the bottom floor of some of the malls here they have kid play areas with inflatables, probably especially popular in the winter when it gets really cold here.
Because in the summer they have “Zip-Zips”, which are a bunch of small individual trampolines put together as a large kids play area. Looks like great fun!

Can you guess what these are?

If you guessed little baby chicks - you're right! We saw a boy selling these the other day on the street (and fairly successfully I must say - he was surrounded by buyers!). I guess the key to good sales is neon colored chicks!

Turk-lish

English is an international language & so a lot of the products that we purchase here have some amount of English in them – either in the directions or as part of the name. I’m sure over time we’ll have many more fun stories to share with you but here are couple for now.

We have this great built in grill on our balcony that Dan had to buy a grill for.
Below is what they suggested that you could cook on it.
We don’t have any American Stores – although we do have some knock offs…
The funny thing is that most people don’t even know English, so this would make no sense to them anyway!

Lynn's Pick

Another great house keeping tip I’ve received since living here has to do with zip-lock bags. Since we don’t have the access to great zip-lock bags, using them multiple times is key! (Although I already did this in the States).

The hardest part of washing & reusing zip-lock bags is drying them! One of my American friends here gave me the tip of sticking them to your tile backsplash after washing. They naturally stick there when wet & dry within 24-48 hours.

The best part – they don’t take up any space, really what else are you using that tile backsplash for?

Skype

If you haven't heard of Skype yet, you're missing out! It would be a lot hard for us & our families if we didn't have the chance to Skype with them fairly often! On Father's Day we got to Skype with all of Dan's family - his parents, both his brothers & their wives, and one set of their grandparents! It was a lot of fun to feel like we were part of the celebration!

Here's a picture of the brothers trying to play a song together - all the way across the world!

Going to the Lake...

In Minnesota at least, most 4th of July celebrations aren't complete without a lake! Thankfully this year was no different! Only our lake was much bigger & surrounded by mountains! We had a great 4th of July celebration with some of our American friends who also live in Van! Here's the view of our lake as we drove to our picnic spot on the shore below....
I'll bet not many of your had a flock of sheep hinder you getting to your 4th of July celebrations! These sheep were amazing. As we drove behind them briefly, we saw each different colored set of sheep peel off into their (we're assuming) respective owners yards. Klaire & I dressed for the holiday!
Sitting on the beach with the babies - the baby I'm holding is not mine, but I still love her!
The view from where we're sitting - you can't see if but there is still snow on that mountain!

Playing on the beach - it's a little rocky but there's enough sand for it to still be fun!Our picnic spread - complete with burgers, cupcakes, Pringles (we can get them here!), and of course, apple pie (thanks to Sheryl!) The girls were ready to dig in!
Another view of the lake...

The only downside to the day is that I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs, and since I was wearing capris, I burned my ankles pretty badly, but hopefully soon they'll heal up - and I've learned my sunscreen lesson!

Happy 4th of July!

Here's just a few things we'll miss this 4th of July, as well as our friends & family! Happy 4th!

Birthday Party!

We had a lot of fun at our friend's little girls birthday party last week. She turned 3 years old! We had a lot of fun at her party! Dan is such a great guy with kids - he's quite good at getting them all hyper (cake might help!), which they obviously think is great! Below is a great movie of the "One-Sided Balloon War".



Some other cute picture are of Dan & Ava (the birthday girls little sister).
We got Klaire some "legos" (not actually Lego brand) and she & her sister loved them! They started playing with them right away!