Kar!

Kar is snow in Turkish. Snow is only three hours from us in the mountains. Last year we decided to take a trip to the snow. Mt. Erciyes. And this year we went too. We left on Saturday morning, spent the night Saturday and Sunday, and returned home on Monday morning. We were able to do some sledding on Saturday. On Sunday, the weather was pretty awful so we only got out to play for a few minutes. But it was still a fantastic time! We left early Monday morning and took quite a bit longer getting home due to the bad weather.

Here are some photos (and videos) from our adventures:

Man does it take a long time to get the boys in all this get up! Especially on day two when we did all this work for only a few minutes of playing in the snow before they were too cold. 

Daddy asked them to give each other a hug for the photo. Isaac body slammed Elijah. Elijah did not like that one little bit as you can probably tell from this picture.

Isaac taking a break from all the sledding to play with his toys in the hotel lobby. We were so blessed to borrow snow gear from a bunch of different, awesome friends. Just another reason I love this Base. People here just take care of each other and help each other out all the time.

We got to go with two other great families. Here are Tommy, Christina, Braden (big brother) and Grayson (three months old but nearly as big as Abigail!) They live right behind us here on Base.

And here are Micah, Sarah, and Scotty. I met Sarah A. before we even moved to Turkey -- online. They are headed to San Antonio in a few short months.

The snow was too loose to make a snowman, so we decided to use our snowman kit (which we've had since life in Minnesota) to come up with a Plan B. Day one we sledded. Day two we played outside, made this snowman, and then hurried inside to warm up.

Isaac LOVED the idea of snow. But he did not like the COLD of the snow.

Wonder where Abigail was? Well this is Turkey. There was always a fellow Turk hanging out in the restaurant or the lobby who wanted to hold a baby for a little bit. This may seem strange, but it is really a normal part of the culture here. So normal, I came to nearly expect it. I'd get her ready to go out, and someone would offer to hold her, and we'd take them up on it. In addition, Christina and I took turns watching the babies so that we could get some fun snow time in.

Here are some videos from our snow adventures:

• Discussing Sledding adventures
• Super fast (sledding in Turkey)
• Preparing for sledding fun
• Stuck in the snow