A Trip Up North

A couple weeks ago we headed north to Dogubayazit with some friends. Dogubayazit is at the base of Mount Ararat, one of the mountains Noah & the ark probably landed on. We left around 9am & first stopped at a famous waterfall. Not quite as amazing as Niagara Falls but beautiful non the less. We had breakfast here – a picnic on the ground – people here love picnics!
Next we visited the tomb of a famous religious guy from the area. Sorry no pictures from there.

Then we went to a local castle. We had visited there two years ago when we came, but it was fun to go back with some friends. People here love to take pictures of themselves individually – kinda like on-site Glamour Shots. We won’t show you all of those, but they are fun! Here’s some of the group shots.









After the visit to the Palace we headed to the Pazar to do a little shopping & got sandwiches for the ride home. All in all it was a great first touristy trip with local friends!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you're finally out of your Turkey comma! I think we are! We had a great Thanksgiving here with our friends. Obviously we missed our families & wished we could be celebrating with them, but we had a lot to be thankful for here!

We did find a Turkey - after much searching & asking by Dan to some of his ag contacts, one of our friends found some Turkey's in one of the smaller local grocery store. When I went to confirm it's turkey-ness I think the meat counter guys thought it was weird I was so excited to finally find a Turkey!

Our friend Rachael did the Turkey & it turned out BEAUTIFUL & YUMMY! We all pitched in to make the fixin's - I made the mashed potatoes & gravy, 2 apple pies, green bean casserole, apple cider, and a party mix. We also had corn casserole, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, stuffing, cookie dough truffles, cookies, & rolls. It was all quite good!

We had Thanksgiving at our friend's Jackson & Sheryl's house, and she did a great job at decorating for Thanksgiving, as you can see below!
After stuffing ourselves full, we got to watch the Macy's parade through a live streaming webcam (no commentary unfortunately), watched a little bit of Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, and watched the Packers-Lions game while playing games! It was a lot of fun!

We are so blessed by so many family & friends - thank you for all of your prayers & support through this past year. We look forward to many adventures to come this year. Now on to trying to decorate & get ready for Christmas!

Our First Snow & Yummy Almond Biscotti

Last night as we were walking home from our weekly American Football watching, it had begun to snow & was slightly covering vehicles. We didn't know if it would accumulate or not, but here's what we saw from our bedroom window when we woke up this morning!

What a beautiful winter wonderland! Snow makes everything look so pure & peaceful! We're so glad we live in a place that has four seasons! And if you can see it in the one picture, that guy is shoveling off his roof. We're assuming so it doesn't accumulate & make his roof collapse. That was at 6:30am this morning - hard working guy!

Yesterday we also had the pleasure of enjoying Lynn's Uncle Roger & Aunt Kim's Almond Biscotti recipe from a cookbook Lynn made in 6th grade. They were delicious & really pretty easy! Thanks for the recipe Uncle Roger & Aunt Kim.

American Football

Here in Turkey, futbal is popular but not as we know it… soccer is popular here! But we & our friends love American football! We are blessed that our friends bought the NFL package for the season. Our friend Reed is a Vikings fan & they have been fun to watch this year! (And if Lynn had to pick she would be a Vikings fan too!) So every Sunday we get together to have dinner & watch a 12pm game (the Vikings if possible).

Publish Post

Earlier on this fall, while the Twins were making a run for the playoff we watched both the Vikings & Twins at the same time while playing Settlers! What a blast! Here’s a couple party pictures!

Kids...

No, No, we don't have kids yet & aren't making any big announcements, but we do have some very special kids in our lives. Obviously we miss so many people back home, but at times we especially miss our nephew, Noah. Thankfully he still remembers us & loves to Skype with us. One thing that helps our homesickness is the kids here that we get to be "Uncle" and "Aunt".

Klaire, Ava, Lorelai, & Asher refer (or will refer once they talk) to us as "Uncle Dan" and "Aunt Lynn". We're the "fun" ones as we do all sorts of fun things when we babysit them or are just visiting. Dan's the best at getting everyone hyped up (especially just before bed... what Uncle doesn't do that!). At times it seems that his mere presence gets the kids hyped up!

A couple weeks ago, we headed over to use the Landham's computer (our's was on the fritz but is better now!). This particular night the girls got to stay up later than normal waiting for their dad to get home. We skyped with Dan's parents... which was fun to everyone (Klaire was sick so she doesn't look like she's having fun)... here's some pics.
Dan's also learning a little bit about babies from Lorelai... here's a classic picture of Dan feeding here.
While Uncle Dan is getting everyone hyped up, Lynn is often helping with things like feeding, diapers, reading stories, etc. Here's a classic bedtime story picture.
Dan's also started to give music lessons. Asher's still got a ways to go, but it's a good start!

The Newest Member of our Family...

...is a piano! About a month ago we bought a piano online & some folks from the States brought it over for us. We found some savings that we hadn't been saving for anything in particular & knew that a piano for Dan (although Lynn will enjoy it as well) was the perfect thing.

We got an electric piano that has all the features & sounds of a grand piano, which is perfect for Dan. Dan has probably played it everyday since it's come. Here's a sampling...

Fall Colors & My Friends' House

I head to my friend Pinar's house almost everyday to practice & learn more Turkish. We live close to the center of town in an apartment which for us right now is perfect. But I love going to her house, because she lives closer to the lake in a neighborhood that mostly has houses & green space (lots of gardens & roaming chickens!).

The other day while she was walking me to the minibus to ride back home I was telling her how much I loved her house & the area around it. She said she should take a picture of me with her lane & house of course I agreed!
Isn't it beautiful. She & her family live on the top floor & own the house & they rent the bottom part out to another family. It's a beautiful home & I love getting the chance to go there everyday.

Happy Halloween!

We don't celebrate Halloween here in Turkey, but we couldn't resist celebrating a little. One of Dan's favorite things about Halloween growing up was going to his grandma's house for popcorn balls. We called her for her recipe, but it unfortunately used some items that weren't readily available here. So I searched the internet & found a "Old Fashion" Popcorn Ball recipe, the way people made them before marshmallows.

So off I went, making popcorn balls! (Can you tell I spend a bit of time in the kitchen everyday?) First I popped A LOT of popcorn (it ended up being way too much). Then I mixed sugar, grape molasses, and a little butter to the "hard candy" stage (without a candy thermometer... I mean they didn't have those either in the "Olden Days" right?). We poured it over the popcorn, smashed them together & we had our slightly fruity flavored popcorn balls.
Well, a couple days later on Halloween we had our only trick-or-treaters, two adorable kitty cats. I'm not sure what they thought of their popcorn balls, but it was their only option, as our house was the only house they went to.
Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

The Great Pumpkin

As fall approached, we were awaiting the arrival of pumpkins. We were told that usually pumpkins are more green in color than orange & aren't always very big. So one day while I was out shopping (as I usually am... although I don't necessarily buy a lot), I saw the perfect pumpkin & bought it on the spot. Never mind that it was 25 lbs & I was going to have to carry it home!

Side Note: The nice men at the grocery store offered to carry the pumpkin out to my car, but I had to inform them that no I didn't have a car I'd be walking. Then they offered to carry it to my house (which if your grocery store is close they'll often do), but I unfortunately again had to inform them that my huse was not close & I would be walking. They were a little shocked but I suppose they figured... what can we do. So off I went...

I only got it to my friend Rachael's house before leaving it there for Dan to come get later. My arms ached for days! But as you'll see from the following pictures, it was WELL worth it! What did we do with this pumpkin you ask? Well, lets see... what didn't we do might be a better question!

First up was a fall photo shoot with our friends' kids. It was a blast & the photos turned out great!



Next up was carving the Great Pumpkin. We sent our friends Jackson & Sheryl off to play tennis & we helped Klaire & Ava carve Mr. Pumpkin. They had a great time, as did we! Fall is such a great time of year & this helps curbed some of the homesickness.

Klaire & Ava picked out the design for the face & "Uncle Dan" carved it for them!Even though they didn't get to carve the pumpkin, they did get to color their very own pumpkin pictures.Lorelai was there too, although she didn't help a whole lot. Here's the finished product. It was easier to not carve all the way through the pumpkin, since we weren't planning to put a candle inside. We had other plans for this Great Pumpkin...

Now in the States when I wanted to make something out of pumpkin, I would put pumpkin on my shopping list, buy it at the store, open the can, and dump it in my recipe. Unfortunately, canned pumpkin doesn't exist here... so we were on to our next adventure!

The first step to making your pumpkin is to cook it...
Next comes the grossest part - scraping out the insides!
Next puree the pumpkin with just a little water...
And put into plastic bags to freeze for later use.
How much pumpkin is that you're wondering... well it's approximately 26 cups of pumpkin. Considering my pumpkin was 25 lbs & cost less than $25, I feel like I did pretty well. My non scientific research on-line shows that I would've saved money making my own pumpkins in the states (because pumpkins are cheaper there!)

So far I've made pumpkin bread & pumpkin muffins... up next is my Aunt Rosemary's pumpkin log! I've heard it's REALLY good!