Messes

Lots of messes... :) Thankfully, none of those crayons made it on the wall or on the floor!

Doodooks!

We bought Henry and Wyatt Doodooks in Armenia - they are basically a flute (or flutophone for those of you who went to Blackhawk as an elementary student!). They love them! Henry is particularly impressed with himself... as you see in the video, he can play it and "dance with his feet" at the same time! Wyatt just likes to plain dance...

Our First Christmas...

Henry found this picture in a photo box the other day... not sure why, but I felt the need to post it. Since that was pre-digital for us, I had to take a picture of the picture... I think we timed this one on our own which is a personal hobby for us. Henry thought it was pretty funny.

Yerevan, Armenia

OK - so I've made a lot of posts below. This is just a quick snapshot of the week we spent in Armenia for David's (Jonathan's brother) and Sona's wedding. Sona's family was amazingly hospitable and were very delightful to be with. We had a wonderful week overall -- and I hope the pictures below capture a bit of the country. I love traveling internationally -- it's such a good reminder that God is working everywhere - and He is everywhere... that is so amazing! There is no culture that He does not have his Hand in--what a remarkable thing! Traveling always broadens the perspective and reminds us that there is much more to this world than our own little bubble. I am grateful for all of the missionaries who go beyond thier comfort zone to spread God's Word globally.
The two middle pictures are views from our apartment. The last picture is looking up at our apartment. If you look real hard, you can see in the top windows and I think Josh or David is waving...

Wedding at Noravank

The ceremony of the wedding was held at a church up in the mountains. It's was a monastery build in the 13th century. It was absolutely beautiful as were the bride and groom! After the ceremony, there was a lovely reception back in the city where we ate, drank, and danced... and then ate, drank, and danced some more!!! It was very fun and an excellent taste of the culture.

random

We went to the Ararat cognac factory -- we got a tour of how they make the cognac. And there was a hefty taste-testing session at the end... it was a lot of fun and we learned all about cognac. Very interesting. We also learned a new game called Nardi (sp?) - which I think is similar to backgammon.

Night photos

I had to post these for Jonathan's sake... he is very proud of these :) They actually do capture the beauty of the main square that we stayed near. The last picture is of a church that we went to visit in the city. Very pretty.

Cascade Complex

One early morning (actually, midnight in Ohio!), Jonathan, Josh, and I all decided to find the Cascade Complex where there are steps leading to the top of a complex - from the top, you get an awesome view of Yerevan. It was incredible. You could see Mt. Ararat in the background. It's enormous. It doesn't even look real - it seems so close, but so far away. We had a lot of fun - we climbed to the top without stopping... the guys counted steps. 730 - to get all the way to the monument at the top -- so almost 1500 round trip. :)

Geghard Monastery

Toward the end of the week, we took a drive into the mountains and visited two old places -- this was Geghard. It was a monastery founded in the 4th century. We also visited a pagan temple - Garni. It was built in the first century. You'll see that in the next post. The settings were amazing. I love standing there and trying to imagine what it was like when these were first built... so incredible that they could build these and etch such beautiful art w/out all of the modern tools we have today.

Pagan temple

This was the pagan temple we visited. It was out in the mountains - and despite the reason it was originally used, it was beautiful -- and the setting was beautiful.

the last night...

Dinner our last night. I think we were all weary of eating by then! :) The musicians in the background were pretty typical of most nights -- there was always good music and good scenery...
We found a Starbucks in the Vienna airport... We were very, very tired and probably spent more time on their comfy chairs then they would have liked. Oh well - we spent about $25 just getting 2 muffins and 2 coffees - we figured we earned our seats for at least a few hours!

Arrival from Armenia!

We finally arrived back home from Yerevan, Armenia. We had an amazing time at the wedding, but we were so excited to return to the boys. I thought I'd post some quick pictures of our homecoming so I had them to save. We got home late Friday night, so we didn't see the boys until Sat morning. When they first saw us, I'm fairly sure Henry was in shock. He just stared at us... then he ran to us and squeezed for a very long time. It was precious. I wonder if he thought we might not come back. Wyatt wasn't sure what to think! :) I'm sure we'll post some pics of our trip too... but we have much catching up to do -- so this is all for now!