Easter

We had a wonderful Easter in Driggs with Grams and Nana.

Lander counts his Easter eggs

 Jake finds eggs on the mantle

The boys enjoying their contraban Kinder Surprise Eggs, egg shaped chocolates that have little toys hidden inside. We had to smuggle them in to the US from the Netherlands. Customs will confiscate them if they find them. Wouldn't want kids to choke, right? ;)

8 in 8 (an update)

This was originally posted February 19, 2009:

Jake lost his 8th tooth last night.

I started thinking about how he has lost his teeth. It has been an adventure with each one!

He had the I'm too afraid to pull it out, until it got so loose that it fell into the toilet by accident tooth. Then, of course, he had the "Let me feel how loose your tooth is," before dad quickly pulled it out tooth. He had the "Hey, look what's in my apple!" tooth. Then he had the tooth that was so loose he couldn't eat breakfast because he wanted it to fall out at schooltooth, but then he lost it later that day at his friends house, only to find it weeks later. And last night he ran into my room with the it's midnight and I decided to wiggle my tooth until it fell out surprise tooth.

The nice part about it all is that the Tooth Fairy has been very understanding. She has flown from Fiji each time he lost a tooth to leave him a gold dollar. She even accepted a few notes in lieu of the tooth when the tooth couldn't be found.

Thank you Tooth Fairy!

Now let's fast track to March 17, 2013. Not only did we have a fabulous day celebrating St. Patrick's Day  which basically means that we spent the day wearing green so that we didn't get pinched to death and also ate a very Irish meal of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, soda bread and potato candy, but we also had the pleasure of seeing this when Jake sat down after passing the sacrament in church:

And (of course) we couldn't resist taking a picture during church, because heaven forbid we miss out on a photo op.

Apparently, Jake was flipping his tooth with his tongue while he oh-so-respectfully passed the sacrament when the tooth just fell out. He didn't know quite what to do, so he hid it in his mouth for a while, until that started to get too gross, and the quickly put the tooth in his pocket.

a lesson on convection

We have the best home teachers. After each lesson, they bring a science experiment. This week, we learned about convection.

Con-vec-tion: the transfer of heat by the circulation

 or movement of the heated parts of a liquid or gas

Step 1: empty a tea bag, cut off the ends and make a cylinder. Place (preferably) on a non-flammable surface

Lander, Jake and Jeff Catanzaro

 Step 2: light the top of the tea bag

 Step 3: watch as the tea bag dissolves into a fiery mass and begins to float

Thank you Mr. Convection!

Step 4: cheer the cinders on as they float towards the ceiling

 Step 4: Catch the ashes

Nathan Routson and Lander

3.141592653.....

Jake's been learning about Pi at school and since it was March 14th (Get it? 3-14...), we decided that we should "celebrate" by going out for pie and watching silly youtube videos quoting pi out to a hundred places. Well that, and the Pepsi Max prank on youtube. (Couldn't stop laughing at that one!) If you haven't seen it, it's a must! This was our attempt at getting a nice picture of the boys.

They take after their father.

lessons from FHE

Josh taught FHE tonight and started with a little object lesson. But first, he needed two volunteers and two plastic cups of water.

Lander was first up. 

His job, to lower the water to the ground by himself. 

Without taking his arms off the wall.

Lander is growing concerned. He doesn't want to spill the water.

It's harder than it looks. 

Jake steps in and helps. 

It's really easy to do with some help.

Lander feels relieved.

And now it's Jake's turn.

He enjoyed the experiment a bit more than Lander, and had to try a couple of times.

The lesson? Josh taught us about the atonement and how sometimes we try to take care of things on our own, without asking for the Savior's help. 

It's a really hard, if not impossible, task for us to do.

He reminded the boys that the atonement is there to help us. We just need to ask. When we do, the Savior can help us solve difficult problems or carry the burden of a difficult task. We just have to ask for His help, trust him, and do what He asks of us. 

wonderful, glorious day!

This was the view that greeted us as we drove into Teton Valley today. 

 It felt like a GIFT

even if the sun was so bright that it made picture taking really hard

especially with three very silly boys!

Keaton L, Lander and Jake

taekwando

It's felt like years in the making, but we finally found a "match" as in that sport that catches the boys' attention. We've tried so many different things, baseball, soccer, wrestling, tennis, and we are all wondering why we didn't try this sooner. The boys love it. Their parents love the discipline, respect, and physical coordination that they are developing. We all highly recommend it!

 Jake and Lander practice moves on each other with their instructor watching

Cats

Poem by Lander

4th grade

Cats

Cats

Cats

Fluffy Cats

Small Cats

Tiny, furry, soft cats

Many, cute tuff cats

Those are just a few.

Cuddly cats

Skinny cats

Nice, little, brown cats

White, black, gray cats

Orange cats too.

Sick cats

Healthy cats

Don't forget Fat Cats

Best of all I like my cats.

Lander loves, and I mean LOVES little animals, especially cats, so it was no surprise when he brought this poem home from school. We love it! We thought it was clever, especially the creative use of "Fat Cats". Fat Cats is the name of the movie theater in town. Good job buddy!

Istanbul

Josh just asked, "If you could change anything about the trip, what would it be?" 

I honestly can't think of anything that I would have changed.

Not one thing.

Well, maybe skipping the Anne Frank House, but I will deny it if you ever tell anyone, and besides, one cannot go to Amsterdam without seeing it, or so I am told. One thing that we are both extremely glad that we did was take our little weekend trip to Istanbul with Lamar and Melanie.

View of Istanbul from Topkapi palace

It started out at this little gem. Josh and Lamar standing in front of the Sapphire Hotel (Hotel Safir) and our little $80 per night room. Thanks Lamar and Melanie for slumming it with the common folk!

View from our room

We toured the Blue Mosque

Josh standing in the courtyard at the Blue Mosque

and just a few more photos of the Blue Mosque that I couldn't leave out. Sure wish that I had the picture of both Melanie and Dixie in their headscarves.....moving on...Wow! Aren't  the arches and ceiling paints incredible!?!

We enjoyed touring the Dolmabahce Palace. It was built in the 19th century (1856) in an epic move to keep up with the European Joneses. Seriously. That's basically what our bus driver--I mean tour guide-- told us. Photos of the interior are "forbidden", but a little birdie was able to find a few to share.

Thanks, little birdie!

The second picture on the right shows the crystal bannisters on the staircase. The locals may be starving, but royalty has crystal stair bannisters. Sort of sounds like some of our royalty, whoops, I mean elected government leaders.

It was enormous, containing 285 rooms, 46 halls, 6 baths, and 68 toilets. Sure wish we could've got a few pictures of those. It also was covered with inlaid gold and carpeted with only the best in Turkish carpets, which are never called rugs.

Speaking of all things "forbidden", taking photos with the local cops was high on the "let's see if we can get away with it" list

But where were we? Oh yeah, the keeping up with the Joneses bit....

This was the original sultan's palace. It was designed to be less ostentatious as a way to show the sultan's piety. The Ottoman sultans lived here from 1465-1856. 

No, this isn't Disney Istanbul. It's Dixie standing in front of the main gate to Topkapi Palace.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that Sultan Mehmed II had this built? I think that Josh secretly idolizes the Sultan, also known as Mehmed the Conquerer. Mehmed was an interesting and brutal man. You can click here to read more about him.

more from Topkapi Palace. Definitely a humble, beautiful home.

We stayed in the old part of Istanbul that was once the Byzantine city of Constantinople. Constantinople's original walls were built in the 8th century BC in a set of interconnected walls separated by ditches and moats. You can see one of the inner walls next to the street we are standing on. We're not sure when this particular stretch of wall was built, but it's interesting to note that Constantinople's walls were only breached two times since they were built. 

We walked on this street several times. It was only a block or so from our hotel. 

The sites of Istanbul were amazing. We thought it couldn't get any better until we saw saw Harrison Ford touring the city.

Oh, wait. That's uncle Lamar.

My bad.

We loved looking at old buildings

and visiting Asia for the first time

Josh, Dixie, Lamar and Melanie overlooking the Bosphorous Strait from the Asian side of Istanbul

Dixie enjoyed shopping in the Grand Bazaar. Bet you didn't know that it's actually an Olympic sport. Just imagine a combination of combat shopping while performing algebraic equations and you will about have it. 

Wait? How many liras equals a dollar?

Advice from a World Travler aka Lamar:

"Josh, if you spend all of your time worrying about the cost of things, it will ruin the trip. 

Just RE-LAX."

Lamp shop in the Grand Bazaar

Turks are amazing sells people. This probably qualifies as the best quote from our Turkish shopping experience:

"You're gorgeous. Are you for real?" 

Okay, so maybe you had to be there, but it was hilarious. For some reason, the guys in the spice market thought that pick up phrases = sales. Sorry guys, hate to disappoint your sales figures, but they were good for a laugh! 

Dixie did buy pepper and chocolates at Hazer Baba's in the spice market. Can you see her in the crowd?  This collage also shows the entrance to the Grand Bazaar and the covered walkway between the stalls. It was hard not to get completely lost in the place!

and at the risk of beheading, we couldn't help but break out into a bit of silliness.  Of course, one would have to prove it first. I have to admit that it was with a sigh of relief that we landed back in the Netherlands with our heads still attached and no sign of Turkish prison in sight.

Istanbul's Hagia Sophia

Some of the sites in Istanbul are just too amazing to lump into a single post, and the Hagia Sophia (also known as the Ayasofya in Turkish) definitely was one of those. It literally took our breath away, but not at first. Sure the building from the outside was cool, and old, but the facade did not prepare us for what we would find inside. 

The Hagia Sophia was dedicated in 360 AD. The current structure was re-built in 532 and for 900 years served as the center for Orthodox Christianity until 1453 when the Ottomans took over the city and turned it into a mosque. Notice the minaret, the slender tower in the back. A muezzin, or Islamic religious leader, would call followers to prayer from that minaret.  The Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum in 1943.

 This originally had 12 sheep on it, representing the 12 apostles.

We walked into an enormous vestibule and were greeted by these doors. Notice how worn the marble foot plate is? We wondered how many thousands of people have walked across this threshold.

 Standing in front of the doorway. The room behind us is epic in size.

Main area. Byzantine Emperors were coronated in this very room.

view from the second floor

Christian mosaics plastered the walls and ceilings except where they had been literally covered over by a thick layer of plaster when the Islamic Ottomans took over the region. This is a sample of several of the mosaics that were created between the 10th and 12th centuries.

 Dixie standing near the mosaics on the second floor.

Melanie walking up the stair well's sloping floor to the second floor.

Josh found this little gem almost by accident. The rest of us had walked right by and out the doors  without noticing the art on the ceiling.

Istanbul's Basilica Cistern

We were in awe by the Basilica Cistern. It was built in 532 AD during the reign of Emperor Justinianus. 336 marble columns hold up the domed roof. The walls are made of a special brick and mortar mix that is waterproof.

If you look closely, you can see several large fish swimming in the water. I would guess that they were at least 20 plus inches long.

 Proof that we were indeed here and that we didn't just steal the images from the web
...or did we? 

 Medusa's upside down head on the bottom of one of the columns.