We greeted Sharon and Milton with BBQ sandwiches for lunch, and cake for dessert.
Boy were they surprised! I made a cake for them to announce the pregnancy, and we made cards and had them mailed to the rest of our family members that arrived right around the same time as Shannon's parents got here.
Anyhow, we "did" Istanbul first, taking them to see the main sites here after they had recovered from jet lag. We didn't really get many photos here, since we'd already been to the Hagia Sophia and the Basilica Cisterns and didn't want to pay to enter again. The only new site for us was the Blue Mosque, and I'll give it its own post soon.
Me and Sharon (and Lane) in front of the tulips near the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.
We spent a few days just hanging out at home, going out to eat Turkish food, playing with Lane, and just enjoying each other's company.
Mimi reading Lane's new Easter book to her.
Papa and Lane, just chillin'. Gotta love Milton's jet-lagged bed head!
Lane in one of her new dresses and daddy, playing hide and seek behind the curtains.
Then we flew to Cappadocia, Turkey, where we spent three days and two nights.
One of the rooms in Derinkuyu, an underground city.
At the Göreme Open Air Museum.
Even Lane had fun!
Cappadocia is full of views like this.
Shannon hiked to the top of a...rock formation?...and got this shot.
People used to live in there. So strange!
Awesomely weird, huh?
Next we flew to Izmir, Turkey, where we spent two days and two nights. Our main reason for going to Izmir was so that we could go to Ephesus, which is about an hour away, but not convenient for flying into. We actually know people who live in Izmir, so we got a bit of help from the airport, finding the buses to Ephesus, and so on. Here are just a few photos of Ephesus. I could easily go into photo overload here but I'll just give you the highlights...
From Selçuk (the nearest city), it's a couple miles to Ephesus proper. So we took a horse-drawn carriage, which was quite fun, and was my and Lane's first time in a horse-drawn carriage (to the best of my recollection).
The Theatre Gymnasium.
A bit further down (to the right) you'll find:
Shannon, Lane, and myself standing at the Celsus Library and looking out into the auditorium with Curetes Street to the back right.
Curetes Street: one of the main streets in Ephesus.
The view from up Curetes Street, looking down toward the library.
Lane did a lot of playing with rocks in Ephesus.
And then it was back to Istanbul for a few more days before they had to leave. We had a lot of fun with them, and of course they loved getting to actually play with Lane (since she was only five months old the last time they had seen her, she wasn't really into playing yet). All in all, it was a great vacation. The time went so quickly...it's always sad when vacation is over, especially when it's with family you don't get to see very often!
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