Summer Happenings (at least the ones I can remember and they are in no particular order) :)

 I have been putting more pictures on facebook so I haven't done as much blogging. Not  sure if I will continue this much longer,   

 Kara's last show at her school.  She did really well and she hopes to be on the improv team her senior year. 

Lunch with my boss, who also happens to be my brothers for being the best worker for the day. 

Kara has several banquets towards the end of her junior year.  Above is just one of them. 

 All of Kara's awards she received in the dram department at their banquet.  She is also going to be one of the Student Body Officers as her school her senior year.

 Kara performed in the play called, Into the Woods.  She did a fantastic job and it was fun to see.

 As soon as Kara's play was over she started working at this Shaved Ice place.  It has been a fun place to work and she gets great tips.  

 We went to the rodeo over the 4th of July weekend with Kara and her friend Grayson.  It was a first for us. 

 Birthday dinner with the family at Olive Garden

 Opening presents and random shot.

 Birthday cake

 We went boating on my birthday.  Matt took the day off and we had loads of fun!

A hike that we went on that had a beautiful fall. 

My desk when I returned back to work. 

 We took Kara to a spontaneous trip to Vernal to see two of the dinosaur museums

Spencer got his endowments out earlier this month. It was a beautiful day.  Matt and I had to go back to work so we didn't have the opportunity to take pictures.

 Kara and I using my new camera on my phone.  I still can't locate all of my other pictures.  Also, Kara passed on all of her A.P. tests with flying colors. 

Also, Spencer got a promotion at work and Colton got a brand new job. After over two years at Chick Fil A  he finally got a job working at Crest Financial in the Customer Service department working full time.   We are very excited for him and he is doing very well there. 

Last full day in Turkey---Sunday!

 Our last day in Turkey was a Sunday!    Kara sang a solo and did a beautiful job.  Kara, Coby and I spoke in church too.  Our topic was families.   It was interesting to speak with someone interpreting everything I said. I struggled with knowing when to pause.   They had three sets of young missionaries that served in their branch and then they had two older couples who also served there. 

   I took pictures of the missionary couples and the missionaries.   I had fun talking to all of them as Coby was serving as the Missionary leader and knew them all pretty well.   After the three hour block was over they had a cookie day where everyone stayed and visited.  It was soooooo fun.  It was a pay day being a mom.  So many people were bragging about my son and saying how great he was an how much he had helped the branch members.  It was so rewarding. 

 After church was over we changed our clothes as we were going to walk around. We walked around all over that area and finally we settled on a place to eat dinner. 

 We went to this yummy Italian restaurant that was authentic  Italian food. We loved it.  We found out this restaurant is located throughout the world, but not close to where we lived. 

 

Then we walked home and took all the fun ways home for our transportation.   (Honestly, I just don't remember the way we went home).  We went back to his apartment and started packing and getting sad about leaving to go home.  We needed to leave to go home at around 4 am.  The flight to Istanbul and back was very nice.  We stopped in Paris both ways.  We kind of put our feet on the ground when we went from the airport to the subway, but that was about all we saw of Paris.  When we were landing and leaving we did get to see some of the sites in Paris. It just made us want to come back to Paris!    

Coby's 26th Birthday!

 For Coby's birthday we woke up early and then walked to a breakfast buffet. The breakfast consists of tons of different olives,  many different cheeses and then amazing sauces to put on breads.  The bread there is very different then what I am typically use to. Anyways we had a very delicious breakfast and then we traveled to meet up with Coby's roommate, Cafer. It was raining most of the day and was overcast, but it was a beautiful day. Anyways, Cafer took us to visit this beautiful area.  He took a couple pictures of us together to be kind.   It turned out we both had the same phone so we could use it easily. 

 Above is a picture of Coby with Cafer.  He is such a cool kind man.  He works as an accountant and he works 70+ hours a week.   After we looked around he took us to where Coby use to live and then  he took us to a very fancy park.  We walked all around it and enjoyed the breeze.

 While at the park Coby got a  call from the missionaries. They called us all the time.   After that we walked around the city and went out for lunch at one of the adorable quaint restaurants.   We did a little shopping and bought Coby some clothes and Kara went shopping too.  The clothes are just so cheap; it is amazing.   Then we got dinner and started to look for a place that made birthday cakes.   We found this delicious one.  After finding it we did a little grocery shopping and we also had dinner at one of the restaurants across the street from Coby's apartment.  Such yummy food!   Kara and I were buying small items to take home to our family and Kara's friends. 

 Then we came home and celebrated Coby's birthday.  After celebrating we all worked on our talks for church the next day.  We were all speaking in sacrament meeting and Kara was singing a solo. 

More of Turkey

 Day 5 or 6 we decided to take a boat ride of the Golden Horn tour.  The Golden Horn is a major inlet of the Bosphorus  Sea and it is shaped like a a horn. It separates historic centers in Istanbul.  The boat ride to the area we were going to was around an hour and a half.  When we started it was fairly warm, but as we kept going it became increasingly colder.  I was freezing by the time we arrived.  After we were off the boat I immediately bought another sweat shirt and gloves.  I am sure the local shops appreciated that it was a cold day as many were buying items for cold weather.   We immediately started hiking/walking to the top of the area (it was very steep).  It was raining the whole way up and extremely cloudy as you will see by the pictures.

 It was disappointing it was so cloudy as we were up high where we could have seen the Black Sea and enjoyed the awesome view from the tower. 

 Once we got to the top of the castle we could see that most of the places we wanted to visit were closed off for excavating. We were sad, but one of the guards took pity on us and allowed us to go to the area they were excavating in.  I was quite surprised and a little leary that he was letting us in an excavating site.

 It was once a beautiful structure and the remnants of it still are today.  
After quite down the hill I needed to use the restroom.  I had to pay to use this beautiful bathroom.  A little girl around 6 helped me to the facility and then since I made a face of disgust when I saw the restroom she showed me how to use it as she didn't think I understood. I understood all too well.  

After quite down the hill I needed to use the restroom.  I had to pay to use this beautiful bathroom.  A little girl around 6 helped me to the facility and then since I made a face of disgust when I saw the restroom she showed me how to use it as she didn't think I understood. I understood all too well.  

 The above picture is a delicious bread they serve at practically all of the restaurants. 

 This is a bean soup that they serve at most of the restaurants.  I really grew to love it.  It is so yummy!

 People watching on the boat is incredibly entertaining in Turkey mainly because the body language and the manner people take care of their children is so different than what we are accustomed to. It is amazing to see the differences we all share in certain cultures. 

Once we arrived back into the heart of Istanbul we walked around a lot in the happening area for most young adults.  They have gorgeous shops and the nightlife there is amazing.

 Kara and Coby goofing off!

 Many different sites to look on during our boat ride home. 

A small glimpse of one of the beautiful bridges that takes people from the European side of the city to the Asian side.   Once we were in Istanbul we walked around.  After we had eaten dinner we went up to the Galata Tower.  It was incredible to walk up and to take the stairs. It was a gorgeous view of the whole city, but it was still a cloudy day so some of the pictures look very blurry mainly because it was. 

 They light up the bridges so people can see them from afar. 

 One of the lovely mosques from up high.  They certainly light up the city.

 After being on the tower watch we decided to take the stairs down.  We were practically the only crazy people that would attempt this so we took plenty of time to take pictures on our way down.

 After the bridge we took a few pictures and then we went home after a fun filled cold day exploring.  Coby is an excellent tour guide so he made the day very fun!