Gramas Galore!

It is 8:19am on Sunday morning and our two sleeping beauties are ... still asleep. After leaving Ft. Lauderdale at noon on Friday, flying to JFK, then getting on a ten hour flight to Istanbul and another four hour flight to Adana, they were pumped with adrenaline but collapsed when the boys did around 8:30pm.

Thanks to a Base shuttle, we were able to all ride to the airport and pick them up. The airports are set up a bit different than in the U.S. You wait outside and after they get their luggage, they can come out and see you. We could see them through some glass doors, but that was all we could get until they emerged from retrieving bags from the slowest-luggage-carousal-in-the-world.

The boys were incredibly excited to see them and both seemed to instantly know who "Grama Di" and "Joni" were. They took turns letting the Gramas hold them and kiss them and didn't give it a second thought as to where their Daddy and Mommy were from that point out.

I had an interesting experience prior to the Gramas arriving. I had to go to the bathroom so badly that I opted to wait in line and go through security to use the toilet. Talk about being a little different from America. People were just throwing their stuff on the belt and running through. I tried to walk through slowly and was told I needed to do it faster. Still, I beeped repeatedly despite having NO metal on. A female security officer (thank goodness) than opted to just randomly pat me down as I stood in front of everyone. She was very nice, but it was quite harried and a bit intimidating. They spoke to me in Turkish, and I did my best to respond correctly. At least I remembered how to say I only speak a little bit of Turkish. They were also obsessed with whether I played basketball and where I played basketball.

Anyways, we then took the shuttle (close your eyes and hang on as you ride with a Turkish driver) back to Base where we settled in, opened enough gifts to equal Christmas, and then took them to dinner in the Alley so they could experience a little culture.

JB just asked me, "At which point should we check to see if they are still breathing?" Both Joni and my Mom are early risers so 8:30 is quite a sleep-in for them. We are just glad that they are getting some rest and will be well-rested for a lot of fun adventures.

I'll try to get them to do some posts too. We'll see if they can break away from the boys to share.