Nineteenth Post From Türkiye: Odds and Ends from this Winter

So I thought I would post a few of our pictures from our everyday/non-traveling lives.

Starting with way too many photos of the various views from our apartment,  taken at different times and weather conditions.

Exciting, no??

Foggy view of the grounds, other buildings & the mall.

Misty Valley

Snowy Valley & Road

Snowy Valley at Sunset and Sunrise.

Are you thrilled yet?

We had quite a fair amount of snow this winter. We took advantage of it with some sledding at the base.

Giant snowman at a tire shop.

Last time I will make a Valentine Craft for Truman's class. Sadly, middle schoolers don't make valentine mailboxes with the room parent.

So here is a little Hitchcockian scene for you. Throughout the winter giant flocks of birds would settle on the field and in the trees at the base. Freaky!

The Elementary school kids had a spring musical presentation and miracle of miracles, Jack and I remembered that it was happening and showed up (you would think with one kid we could remember when he has stuff happening at the school but you would be wrong.), Although it is always a joy to see our kid forced into any sort of public performance, it was a bit tortuous. I think most of the material and music were recycled from a 1980's DARE assembly. It reminded me of this SNL skit.

Oh-well as long as the kid knows we showed up, right?

I got 6 kids from my primary class all in one photo. Nice.

As Truman gets older he makes his own decisions and generally I don't check up on him. I mean how wrong can he go making his own lunch and picking out his clothes?

This clothing combo came to my attention after he came home from school having worn it all day.

Jack and I went out for dinner with our friends and since we didn't have a reservation we were relegated to a back corner at a not-in-service sushi bar. But they had fried ice-cream (by the way: sushi and fried ice-cream at a Chinese restaurant?) so what do we care?

Nevruz pageant with traditional dance 

and music from around Central Asia.

Afterward we noticed that there was a line and Jack made us get in it even though we didn't know what we were lining up for. He said that people from former Communist countries know that if you see a line you just get in it so you don't miss out on anything. I guess he was right because we got to some free Plov and Ayran. 

This is Jack debating on whether or not we will actually drink the Ayran (salty, cold yogurt drink).

We each had a small taste to see if we still don't like it. We don't.

The Atkins are serving as couple missionaries in our Branch and are from St. George, Utah. They came to town the day after we did. They are so great and we enjoy spending time with them. Weirdly I went to high school with there daughter-in-law. Anyway, Trum was telling them about how I need to make him some beef and just have it on hand for when he is hungry. Strangely, that is just not going on my to-do list. But they took pity on him and invited us over for a good ole western style Sunday dinner. Roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, rolls and a relish plate (among other delights). They even sent the leftovers home with him. He was in heaven!

Don't be too jealous of our fabulous lifestyle.