Garnet Hunting

We are in Idaho now, visiting Chance's family. Cathy has planned a zillion things for the short amount of time we are here. Today we went Garnet hunting. It was a long drive, but everyone had a blast. Most the garnets found were small, but Kenzie found one that weighed 5 ounces. Everyone was shocked. The rangers even took a picture of it. Other people were coming and asking to look at it. I guess it is the 2nd biggest anyone has found this year. Londyn found one that weighed 2 ounces. Kaely found the most little ones. Everyone had fun and now we have all these rocks we need to get back to Turkey.

Summer 2009-Back in the States!

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.