Greetings From Istanbul!

Merhaba! Well, this is our first vacation where we have the opportunity to update the blogosphere in semi-realtime...so here we go!

We arrived in Istanbul yesterday after a grueling trip to get here, and learned a few important things about traveling abroad with a toddler:
1] Never ever leave your stroller behind, even if you know it will be useless where you're going. It turns out airports are big, and kids are heavy.
2] KLM has in flight Baby Einstein videos. Nuf said.
3] If you have multi flights, like for example Amsterdam and then Istanbul, it might just be worth overnighting at the first stop.

All in all, our journey went really well, and Riley held up like a true champ. He is definitely a veteran traveler! He thought it was all just a big game.

So we are in our second hotel room now. There was a slight difficulty with our first, but nothing that couldn't be easily resolved. Let's say there is a happy-to-please hospitality industry here in Istanbul! We had a marvelous dinner last night here, with my student Erin along. The adults tried all kinds of wonderful foods, but Riley was just too tired to put up with anything novel. He fell asleep in record time last night. In fact, we all went to bed around 9pm, which was a good thing, because Riley decided 2:30 was the perfect time to get up for the day. It was a long wait until the restaurant opened for breakfast!

We're hanging out now in our new hotel room while the little guy has a nap, and then maybe we'll go see the Hagia Sofia or something this afternoon.

The Hagia Sofia at dawn this morning, right after the call for morning prayer. Totally breathtaking and like nothing we've ever laid eyes on!

Here we are all bushy-tailed and not so bright-eyed in front of the Blue Mosque, and Hagia Sofia [which is to the left of the picture], up on the rooftop restaurant of our hotel from last night.

Here is the Blue Mosque from the roof top restaurant at our new hotel today. Impressive!

And here is the lovely indoor atrium garden at our new hotel [the Hotel Nena]. Boy would I love to have one of these in my house!

Riley's First Camping Trip!

As the title implies, we went camping yesterday! This was Riley's first time in a tent [outside of me, that is]. It was a raging success. We went to White Pines State Park here in IL, and just stayed one night but met several of Riley's friends [and their assorted parents] there. Yesterday, we went on a short hike with the kids, which involved fording several small streams. The kiddos loved that part! Riley slept like a champ too. Too bad Mom and Dad were kept up late by the morons blasting the Blackhawks game all over the campground.

Ok, so this one's not from camping- it's at the Arboretum tadpole pond. I just love the disgruntled look on his face.

Camping! Best part: there was a doggie at our campsite.

Braving the rapids. Riley thought this was fantastic.

By this time, we were all quite wet. It was a hot day at least. Not long after this, Riley turned and said "up?". Of course.

Yay tents!

We must've worn him out. He fell asleep on our hike this morning. This is the new backpack that we intend to tote him around Istanbul in...

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Moms and GrandMoms!
A few pix from this morning below, and more in the picture folder at the right of the page....

We're all good here. We're finally done with the semester [well almost, I have to grade 6 term papers still], and gearing up for a very busy summer. We are going to my sister Cailin's college graduation this week, and will get to see Uncle Dane for the first time in a long time! Our next big trip will be Riley's first overseas trip. Originally, we had thought we would make that seminal trip easy on ourselves by going somewhere like England, or maybe Italy. Well, we're going to Turkey. We're already packing a bit, just to try and wrap our minds around the challenge. Any suggestions for good travel [small, lightweight, challenging enough to not get boring fast] activities, toys, or puzzles that can keep a little dude occupied for a while are welcome. We will have very limited space in the car we're renting that must hold 5 butts and science gear.

Still waiting for warm weather here to stay for a while. This Thurs, the high was about 45F. Yesterday was cold and rainy. Today is better, with at least some nice sunshine. I have some great little veggies started, that are beggin to go into the ground, but there was even a frost advisory last night! Sheeesh. We're enjoying our yard and garden anyway, and all of the things we planted last fall made it through the winter!

Ok, enough jibberjabber. Here are those pix [don't forget to check those at right too...].


Floppy hat we bought yesterday at Old Navy for the Turkey trip. Something to cover the back of his little neck in the sun.

Easter

...and some other spring fun. Just a few pix for now.

Screamin our way out of St. Paddy's Day....

Well, as poor Andrew is attempting to get a furious Riley back to sleep, I'll try to update our blog. Lots has happened in the last couple of months! We've done a lot of traveling; twice to Arizona and once to Houston for LPSC. Riley has now taken 10 round trip flights! He's passed his 17 month birthday, and is making good use of his new walking skills. We've had our first swim class [going pretty well], and spring is sortof here. Although, it's supposed to snow this weekend. We've had several days of 60+ weather, and we've been loving it! We've spent a LOT of time outside this week. Andrew has even been able to go running a couple of times. We're winding down in the semester now, and spring break is next week! Yay, we can....work more. We are planning on a little quick getaway to the Dells to have some fun at a water park for the weekend though.
Happy Wearing Green Day! Here's a few pictures of our recent adventures:

I just thought this one was cute.

This one too.

Popping bubbles on the lawn in Houston.

Helping Daddy put together the train table he got from Gramps for Christmas [yes, we're that far behind].

Riley's had a recent interest in trains, and finally figured out how to keep them on the tracks so we decided it was time to set up his table. He seems to enjoy it, but sometimes gets a little frustrated with it.

Videos

No, I don't know why the videos keep getting messed up. I just fixed the one of him walking last night, and it's already broken again. Grrr.

Gifts from China

Riley got a fabulous box-o-gifts from his Uncle Dane and Stacey [living in Taipei] today. Upon opening we found a great hat [see below] and a funny squid puppet! Riley was equally interested in the photos they sent with the gifts, and spent a good 10min pointing out Uncle Dane and Stacey in them. I took a little video of this [see below]; You can just catch his interpretation of "Uncle Dane", which manifests itself as "Un-Duh". His version of "Stacey" is much more clear. I thought it was pretty cute.


We had a bit of a hat event! He's wearing my winter hat underneath this fancy straw hat that came in the box. He's also clutching the photos here...

We got outside today to play in the new snow. Grandpa [Meyer] brought Riley's sled up from St. Louis this past weekend, but there was no snow to play in. Now, Gramps [Dombard] is visiting, and can be seen here pulling Riley around the yard in it.