There and Back Again... tales from the road
We had some adventures going to and from our vacation house ... on the way there, we got flagged down and the policeman said the road was closed ahead (yes, a "major highway" that's just two lanes wide... one each way) for the next hour, hour and a half. So we turned around and backtracked 5 minutes to see the gorgeous lake we'd just passed.
The landscape was a bit, well, like what you might think of as the wild west... dusty, jagged rocks, spiders, short scruffy trees... but for some reason it never crossed our minds that in just a few minutes Ethan would come tearing up back towards the car screaming "snake! snake! THERE'S A BIG SNAKE DOWN THERE!!!" Sure enough, Doug went to have a look and a nice long snake was there... 3-4 feet long, but about as thick as his forearm.
We hastily returned to the van and snapped this nice picture. :)
The wildflowers reminded us of home... though they're different varieties than what we'd see in North Texas, the roadsides were covered in them and made for such a beautiful drive.
On the return trip, we passed through some of the mountains in western Turkey and enjoyed amazing views of canyons, bluffs, train trusses, quarries, lumber yards, mining sites, and more... all kind of out-of-the-ordinary experiences for our kids who are growing up in a concrete city.
And our gracious Father, Who delights in giving good gifts to His children, showered our kids with opportunities to interact with all kinds of interesting animals during this week's getaway... including the peacocks in the museum, the owl that flew into the side of the villa and hopped around on the patio while Ethan and Baxter looked on, the crab we caught and observed one whole day at the beach, dragonflies buzzing around the poolside... AND in addition to all the donkeys, cows, chickens, turkeys, and horses they saw on the farms in our driving, there was one more little gift God gave us...
Doug saw a turtle slowly plodding along in the middle of the two-lane highway when we were returning. After he carefully drove around it, we looked at each other and knew we had to go back and get that turtle out of the road. So we did, but not before Doug took the opportunity to show it off to all the kids.
Maranatha (as evidenced by her bedhead) even roused from her nap to have a gander. And "Mr. Turtle" popped his head and legs out several times during his short exhibition, to the great thrill of our kiddos.
And then we were on our way. We got home late last night and absolutely enjoyed our vacation-- even the all-day drives both ways. God provided us with so many interesting things to see and a few funny stories along the way. He is so good to us.
We hastily returned to the van and snapped this nice picture. :)
The wildflowers reminded us of home... though they're different varieties than what we'd see in North Texas, the roadsides were covered in them and made for such a beautiful drive.
On the return trip, we passed through some of the mountains in western Turkey and enjoyed amazing views of canyons, bluffs, train trusses, quarries, lumber yards, mining sites, and more... all kind of out-of-the-ordinary experiences for our kids who are growing up in a concrete city.
And our gracious Father, Who delights in giving good gifts to His children, showered our kids with opportunities to interact with all kinds of interesting animals during this week's getaway... including the peacocks in the museum, the owl that flew into the side of the villa and hopped around on the patio while Ethan and Baxter looked on, the crab we caught and observed one whole day at the beach, dragonflies buzzing around the poolside... AND in addition to all the donkeys, cows, chickens, turkeys, and horses they saw on the farms in our driving, there was one more little gift God gave us...Doug saw a turtle slowly plodding along in the middle of the two-lane highway when we were returning. After he carefully drove around it, we looked at each other and knew we had to go back and get that turtle out of the road. So we did, but not before Doug took the opportunity to show it off to all the kids.
Maranatha (as evidenced by her bedhead) even roused from her nap to have a gander. And "Mr. Turtle" popped his head and legs out several times during his short exhibition, to the great thrill of our kiddos.
And then we were on our way. We got home late last night and absolutely enjoyed our vacation-- even the all-day drives both ways. God provided us with so many interesting things to see and a few funny stories along the way. He is so good to us.
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