Turkey!!

We had the privilege of spending 2 weeks in Turkey over Christmas!! It was absolutely amazing!!!! Not only the country itself but the fantastic surprise that my sweet husband arranged for me - Logan (my baby brother) came to join us for the entire 2 weeks!!! It chokes me up even now to think about!! Words cannot describe how dear it was to see him and to share 2 weeks together!!! It was so cute to watch Sterling's reaction to him! In the very first moments there seemed to be but barely the glimmer of recognition. But then it all came back to him within minutes and from that point on Logan could not be out of sight with out Sterling asking, "Where uncle Yogan (his way of pronouncing Logan : ) go?" It was a precious time of reconnecting!!

We spent 3 nights in Istanbul - what a beautiful city!!! And so full of ancient history - Tim was in heaven!!!
We arrived to our hostel the first night quite late - well, late for the boys that is, around 9:30 pm! They did so well considering!!! Sterling fell asleep in the carrier as we were walking around in the dark looking for our place(thank God for the Ergo!!!)! Thorin, on the other hand, was wide awake and taking it all in!
The next morning we had a nice breakfast on the terrace of the hostel with a fantastic view of the Bosphorus!!!
Then the rest of the morning was full of business and trying to get our barrings - which seems to be a much bigger task when you have little ones!! All I could think of was where the next meal for the boys was going to come from! I stayed with the boys in the hostel while Tim went to iron out the details of our domestic travel (we had rented a villa 5 hours to the south and weren't settled on how to get there yet). It was from this outing that he came back with Logan...
I opened the door thinking it was Tim. I looked right at Logan then down at Sterling as I told him to, "Move out of the way so that your dad can come in." Then it sunk in...that wasn't Tim!!!! I looked back up and was shocked to see my brother standing there!!! I LOVE surprises!!!!

This is the fountain in the courtyard between the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque because foreigners can't pronounce its given name) and Ayasofya (which means 'Holy Wisdome'). It was one of Sterling's favorite spots!!!

Sterling, Tim, and Logan with Sultan Ahmed Mosque in the background!

This was the street our hostel was on.

This quaint street was just around the corner from where we stayed, and the one we took every time we went out. The Four Seasons Hotel is on the right - check out this website (http://www.fourseasons.com/istanbul/photos_and_videos/#image-istanbul-hotel-IST_022)

for some gorgeous photos!!!

More to come later...my dear husband is finally home (at ten after 8 PM) and I must spend some time with him!!!