Papaw and Anne

We had the best time the past 2 weeks with Ryan's parents in town. We showed them all around the city, they met our friends and we even took a 2 day road trip. They left a couple of days ago and we miss them already. Thanks for coming to see us! We love you!

As soon as Anne and Papaw got here we got down to business by making a Toy Story Birthday Cake and finishing celebrating Owen's birthday. I'm so glad Vallie and Tara were here to help me pull off the cake. It took team work but I think it turned out pretty cute and Owen LOVED it.
Instead of wrapping presents we did a treasure hunt by hiding all of his gifts and giving him clues to find them.
Where does Aunt Ta sleep?
Papaw hooked him up with a very authentic cowboy outfit.
Here he is wearing his outfit a few days later.
Where does Owen sit to put on his shoes?
Where does Owen sit to eat?
Uncle B and Aunt Sassy skyped in for the party.
Where do Mommy and Daddy sleep?
Where does Anne sit to drink her coffee in the morning?
Once we got the birthday celebrated and done, we took time to see the city.
Here we are standing outside of Dolmabahce Palace. Owen try his hardest to get the soldier to move with no success.
Inside the palace walls
After the palace, we had a picnic at the water in front of Rumeli Castle. After lunch we climbed the castle walls.
We took a road trip to Assos for a few days. On the way, we stopped in the ancient city of Troy (think Homer's Iliad) and the Gallipoli World War I battle grounds. On the way home, we drove to the Western Most Tip of Asia (aka the end of the earth).

The view on the way- endless fields of sunflowers

Woody got to see all of the sights as well.
There wasn't much to see at the tip of Asia besides this sign and a little castle. But Ryan did find this knife maker that a friend told him about. This guy and his family have been making handmade knifes for hundreds of years, so that was pretty cool. Hopefully in September, Ryan will be getting his own handmade knife in the mail.
We got to spend a full afternoon and morning at the beach in Assos. Gorgeous doesn't quite describe the setting.
It was a great trip and Owen did an amazing job considering the number of hours we spent in the car. He may have felt like this about getting in the car again...
But he didn't complain and really enjoyed the vacation.
Another day we went to the new Aquarium in town. It's part of this new mega mall and shopping area, so we had a good time exploring the aquarium and shops.
Hanging out around the house
We visited the Grand Bazaar one day and visited our carpet salesmen friends there. Owen loved making snow angels on the silk carpet.
We also ventured over to the Tuesday Neighborhood Bazaar for some bargain shopping. I think Tara bought an entire new wardrobe during her 2 months here. It's hard to pass up a $3 dress.
We spent our last night at one of our favorite old restaurants, Biber. We loved having our family here to visit.

Happy Birthday Owen #3

Owen turned 3 today. Since Anne and Papaw are coming next week, we decided to save the birthday cake and party until they get here. So we just did a bunch of other really fun things today.

We started with a trip to Krispy Kreme. Owen chose a soccer ball in honor of the World Cup.
Our Krispy Kreme has a great kids play area which we just newly discovered since it's hidden upstairs in the back. And of course we were the only ones there at 9am because Turks couldn't fathom eating something so sweet for breakfast. It's totally a dessert food here.
After breakfast we headed to Goztepe Park to play in the giant sandbox.
When we got home he got to open presents from Grandma and Grandpa and one from Mommy and Daddy.
This is a bug sucking vacuum gun...every little boys dream!
He requested Green Monster Macaroni for lunch (remember we can't get mac and cheese here, so it's a special treat).
For Owen's 3rd birthday we took him to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. This was Owen's first time to go to a movie theater and we had been talking about it for weeks, so to say he was excited is an understatement.
They usually dub kids movies into the local language, so we had a search around to find a theater showing it in English. But we found one at a theater on the other side of the water, so we loaded into the car around 4 to catch the 6pm showing.
We wanted to get our tickets early to make sure we got them. After purchasing our tickets we ate dinner at Num Nums and waited for the movie. Aunt Ta gave Owen some dinosaur plastic bracelets during dinner (apparently they are all the rave in the states).
Owen got a free ice cream sundae and they put on Happy Birthday music as they brought out the dessert with candles.
After buying the promised popcorn, we headed into the theater to watch the movie.
Owen sat through the entire movie, eating popcorn, laughing at the appropriate places and having the time of his life. It was the perfect movie for this 3 year old and this Toy Story loving family! I even cried (If you're a mom and have seen the movie, you'll understand why).Happy 3rd Birthday sweet boy! We love you very much!