Raineys in Turkey

Val, Greg, Bella, and Sophia ventured half way around the world to visit us. We have loved having them here. The girls have been having so much fun hanging out with their cousins. We have gone to Cappadocia, Castles, Mosques, Turkish Nights, and many other sites. Greg was chosen to dance with the belly dancer and he made his own Turkish pottery. Bella is speaking a little Turkish that she picked up from Addie. :) She calls her binki--meh-may and tells everyone to dikkat (be careful. Greg found a turtle up in the hills of Cappadocia. Everyone ran to see it. Kaely picked it up easily, Londyn wasn't so sure. lol
Here are some random pictures of our different encounters.

Londyn's Stitches

Well, we have been fairly lucky so far. We have had the kids in the hospital for different reasons, but never for stitches. Londyn and Makenzie were doing flips on their bunk bed. Londyn was laying and watching Kenzie "perform." Makenzie's foot caught one of the wooden guards on the top bunk and it came crashing down on Londyn's forehead. We are lucky it didn't hit her eye. She got a pretty bad puncture wound.

We ran her over to Dr. Mike, who she insisted on seeing. Thank goodness they were still here and hadn't left us for England yet. :) He looked at it and then we all went to the hospital.

Londyn was an amazing patient. She never cried at the hospital and was extremely brave. Dr. Mike did a great job and really took his time. He loves Londyn too. Here are the pictures.

Thanks goodness Val and Greg were here. They took care of the girls, while we were at the hospital.

Turkish Hamam

Okay- I finally did it. I went to a Turkish Hamam. Sarah and I almost went to a similar place in Korea, but backed out. :) Turkey is known for its "Turkish Baths." It is a huge cultural thing. I've always hesitated, because you usually go in the buff. :) So, needless to say, it wasn't on the top of my list. But Linda, my best buddy, and I decided we'd take on the experience together. It took us until the last week of being in Turkey together to decide to actually do it. -- It was interesting to say the least. Some unexpected occurrences happened in the beginning, but there was no turning back! It will always be edged in my memory. I am so glad that Linda, Julianna and I experienced it together. I couldn't have done it with anyone else.
-- Oh, we did all wear bikini's. :)I only have before pictures, for obvious reasons. We even rode an doolmosh to and fro. It was a true, completely non-tourist, Turkish experience.

Family Photos- All in White

Okay- It has been years, really years, since we have had a professional family photo. So, we all dressed in white shirts and jeans and had an awesome guy from Germany take our pictures at the Turkish BX. He comes once a year and takes family shots. Anyway, he had Addie just cracking up. He would juggle with one hand, let one beanbag land on his head, and snap the picture with his other hand. Pretty cool-We will see what the pictures look like in a couple of weeks.

Here are some shots we took ourselves after the professional one. All the girls are in matching shirts, except for Addie. We then went out to eat afterwords. Here is our completed, yes completed, family of 6. :) I know there are doubles of some of the pictures. At first I thought they didn't work, so I uploaded them again, and then suddenly I had doubles. I can't for the life of me figure out how to delete the extra ones. Does anyone know?

Easter 2009

We spent Easter as a family. The girls were thrilled to go outside and find a zillion eggs hid all over the yard. Addie was so fun to watch. She would get so excited and want to show everyone the egg she found. The girls all received darling shirts from Grandma Deb and Grandpa Bruce for Easter. They wore them that Sunday. Here are a few shots.

Cappadocia for Spring Break

It is no secret, I love Cappadoccia. There is something magical about this place. The scenery is simply amazing and the fact that the various civilizations actually lived in these caves, fairy chimneys, etc... is hard to conceive. This is the area where there are hundreds of underground cities. Early civilizations lived and the first Christians hid out and lived for years while they were being persecuted. The whole area is simply captivating. Each time we come we actually sleep in a cave and the girls love it. We also let the girls make pottery and inevitably end up buying a Turkish rug at one of the many carpet shops. This Spring Break we ventured out with our friends, the Hansons. We had fun visiting the sites together and seeing their first impressions of Cappadocia. Here is a short video of the kids in a carpet shop. The owner bought us all lunch and brought the kids baklava and Turkish tea. Also here is a short clip of Addie and Kaely hiding behind carpets. Addie thought she was so funny!

Sanliurfa and Harran

We just got home from some amazing sites! We ventured out to Sanliurfa and Harran. These are cities which use to part of Mesopotamia. We crossed over the Euprhates River on the way. Quick history lesson: Sanluirfa is the home to the Prophet Abraham and Job. We were able to go and see the cave that Abraham was born in and hid out in for 7 years. We also went to a different site to see Job's cave. According to the Muslim religion, when Abraham was being burned by the King Nimrod, due to trying to stop people from worshipping wooden Gods, he was thrown into a pit of fire. Abraham prayed and God turned the fire to water and coals into fish. Therefore, surrounding the cave is a pond of fish. The Muslims believe it you kill one of these fish, you will go blind. Also, if you are able to find a white one, you will be saved. Kenzie claimed she found a white fish. Needless to say, these are some spoiled chunky fish. :)

We also ventured into Harran, references to Harran are in Genesis. It is the oldest living city on the Earth. Many of the homes have mud roofs and it is famous for the "beehive homes." These homes existed 2,000 years ago. We toured inside and dressed in traditional clothing, just for fun.

We also went to a place that is currently being excavated. It is the oldest known religious structure in the world. It is said to be over 12,000 years old!!! That is truly mind boggling. Expect to see this place as one of the 7 wonders of the world in the future. It has levels, layers, carvings, etc... This is before the time of pottery, metal, etc... This is prior the stone ages. Crazy!!!

We saw amazing castles and fortress in this Mesopotamia area. We saw beautiful mosques. Everything was still Turkish, but with more of an Middle Eastern flavour. We were literally 10 minutes from Syria. We drove to one of the borders and took pictures! Yes- maybe we are crazy.

We had a wonderful time with our good friends the Carpenters. All the kids had friends and Michael knows more about history than anyone. :) Oh- Linda and I had to cover our head to enter the mosques and avoid some of the stares. Thus, all the pictures with scarves. Turkey is an amazing country. No where in the world will you see sites so authentic and old!