Mountains and Food...Always Food :)

Blog About September 2021

Doug made a trip up north to the mountains to visit with the owner of a resort so he could help an NGO organize a retreat they wanted to have. Doug was with the resort manager and his assistants for most of the day. Doug said he had one cup of coffee, two glasses of tea and lots of conversation. They also told him they had recently built a zip line, and they wanted him to try it. The day was a success, and he was able to secure the resort at quite a discounted rate for the NGO and also get some business for his tourism company.

This is at the top of the zip line.

I guess he made it to the bottom because he came home later that night.

September 22, 2021

Besides Doug's tourism business (KeyTreks), Doug has another job. This last week, two of the men at work arranged a barbeque for all of the employees and their families. Caleb and I joined in, and we were glad we did. The food was amazing. Most of the teachers speak and teach a different language from the one I am learning, so I didn't do much communicating, but the ladies were sweet to make hand gestures and let me know what they were laughing about. 

September 27, 2021  

Doug made a couple of trips to the mountains this month to meet with friends. 

On the first trip, the men cooked fish up in the mountains and had a meal while they visited. You can see them sitting in a circle behind the smoke. On the second visit, they invited some new people and had tea over an open flame and their conversations were full. 

September 25, 2021

August Vacay

Blog Post About August 2021 

It's funny to think about August right now when it's so cold outside, but I remember the evenings being something everyone looked forward to because the brutal sun would set, and instead of 110 degrees, we could enjoy 85 degree evenings.

August 5, 2021

Kylie had a break from school and went to California to see a friend she met overseas. 

We also missed her 19th birthday. Happy belated, birthday, Kylie!

August 31, 2021

Doug had planned a getaway for us as well, especially since he and Caleb had stayed in country in the heat all summer while we took advantage of the air conditioning in America. However, 72 hours before our flight, the country we were going to banned travelers from the country we are living in. 

Doug had to go into the airlines office and see which country we could go to that was not blocking our country. The man recommended a part of Turkey that we had never seen before, and seeing that was one of our only options, Doug and I began hunting online for a house in that area we could rent.

This is the view from our rental where we were 48 hours later!

August 17, 2021

Doug had already investigated things to do in the first country we were going to, so now we were in a new situation, but with the help of our rental car and the internet, he got busy making new plans, and then we voted.

We went to the grocery store, but also decided we would eat out for one breakfast, one or two lunches, and maybe two or three dinners.

This is me trying to get a picture of the sunset while my children think they are SO funny!

One of our dinners we opted for a sunset cruise. 

The captain of the boat cooked a wonderful dinner for us on his grill while we hung out, swam, and enjoyed the evening.

After dinner, the captain turned lights on under his boat so we could take a night swim. You can see Keira in the picture below (along with another boat in the distance).

The next day, we took a boat ride to another part of the coast to eat at this "Resturan." When we hiked to the top of the hill, the man who lives there had cooked fish for four of us and chicken for Keira. A friend we had made in the town we were staying in had called him and told him to expect us.

After lunch, we swam around the bay before taking another boat back to our marina.

The next day, Doug, Caleb, and I went scuba diving. Doug and I are certified, but it has been awhile. It was fun to take a beginning dive with Caleb. He was a natural.

Doug also booked us a kayaking tour in a town an hour away, which took us directly over some ancient ruins of a sunken city, allowed us some more swim time, and took us to another part of the coast where we climbed over 200 steps to see an ancient castle from the 4th century. This castle can only be reached by water. There are no roads that lead to it. 

Here we are at the top, looking back. 

Since I had gotten sunscreen in my eyes and they hurt, I kept my eyes closed a lot. I find this picture funny because with my eyes closed I couldn't tell where Doug was taking the picture, so I'm looking in a completely different direction from everyone else. 

I opted to stay out of the pictures after that.

It was a short vacation, but we squeezed a lot in. It was nice to be somewhere cooler for a while and also be near water where we could jump in and cool off.

We missed Kylie, we played a LOT of Settlers of Catan, we read, and Caleb even had an online class for school, but we are looking forward to the day when we can get away again.

Discovering the Art of Fishing

Blog Post about Fall 2020

I think the only time Caleb has ever gone fishing was when he was in second grade and my dad took the grandchildren fishing.

Keira has never gone fishing.

One of Doug's first employers, Mr. Skaggs,  from 30 years ago asked if we'd like to come out where he was living and fish a few lakes on the property.

We said, "YES!"

September 18, 2020

It was all catch-and-release and SO MUCH FUN! 

It also doesn't hurt that Mr. Skaggs was a fishing instructor at Hardin Simmons University for a few years.

Did you know that was a thing?

He knows ALL the tricks.

Almost every time his line hit the water, he got a bite. It was crazy!

He even showed Keira how to hold her fish closer to the camera to make it look bigger.

And because every little kid likes to drive a golf cart, we checked that off the must-do list, too.

Caleb got really good at catching fish.

Doug got really good at taking the hooks out of their mouths.

And I, apparently, got really good at catching very large sticks!

We had so much fun, and no one wanted to quit, so we went back the next evening to do it all again!