Some Family Pics

Day at the Zoo

On Saturday the rest of the family went hiking so Gavin and I went to the zoo. We had a great time! I realized though that when you are blonde and you take a blonde child to the zoo the line between being a tourist and being one of the many attractions can become a bit blurred. It began as soon as I bought the ticket...I turned around and there were five mothers ready to take pictures of their daughters standing next to him. Changing his diaper and feeding him a snack also drew quite a crowd but it did give me a chance to practice my language! I'm now pretty good at the phrases "He's my husband's sister's son" and "He's ten months old." I'm going to miss this little boy when he leaves on Friday.

~A

On the Train

This week we went to another city by train so that L's family could see some of the sights there. It was their first time to ride on an overnight train and everyone seemed to have a good time. Now they just wish that the plane ride home would have such comfortable beds and a nice dining car (the first picture is of us hanging out in the dining car)!

~A

Seeing the Sights

Eating Out

Let the Games Begin

For L's family's first meal we went to my teacher's house. The hospitality was almost overwhelming because by the end of the meal there were at least 17 dishes! Dad said it was a fat man's dream come true. Mom said that the thing that impressed her the most was that when we cook, we make a large quantity of a few dishes but when they cook, they prepare small quantities of many dishes. It was a culinary adventure!

~A

We Love Our Nephew

L's family arrived on Thursday! We are so excited to finally get to hug on our nephew!

~A

On the Mountain

At My Favorite Sandwich Shop

Being Tourists

Hanging Out Around the House

My New Tailor Made Shirt

Wednesday Night

This is a picture of us eating dinner at our teacher's house. My teacher gave Joanna her first language lesson and then her mother-in-law and L's teacher cooked us a huge meal...I think there ended up being 11 dishes in all!

~A

My Sister's Here!

My sister arrived at 12:30 last night after over 30 hours of traveling including sitting for four hours on the tarmac (she was able to plan out a whole year of lesson plans...). We're so happy to have her here! And as an added bonus our nephew got his passport yesterday!

~A

Buy Shoes Save Lives

Frustrated about the situation in Iraq and don't have any idea how you can help? Buy a pair of shoes! These quality, hand-made shoes made in northern Iraq are enough reason to spend the dough as it is; but couple that with a chance to give a child life-saving heart surgery and you can more than justify adding a pair to your wardrobe. Not only that, but the heart surgeries will be preformed on Iraqi muslim children by Israeli doctors through a program designed to bring racial reconciliation to these two long-standing enemy groups. It is like killing four birds with one stone...uh...more like loving four birds with one seed.

Not that you need another reason, but the creative guys starting this business are also friends of ours. Seriously, overlooking the terrible marketing attempt above, please check out www.buyshoessavelives.com and see if you and a hundred of your closest friends couldn't use a pair.

My New Haircut

What started out as a trim turned into the worst haircut I've ever had. So...I had to go to a different place to get everything even again and it turned out a lot shorter than its been in a long time!

~A

4th of July

We are finding that celebrating American holidays such as the 4th of July is fairly anticlimatic when living abroad. Today we both have to work and we also have language lessons. But just so we have a little taste of the holiday let us know how you are celebrating...

~A