WOW ITS SNOW 

mountains close to the Turkish boarder. 

Who says averything big is just in Tx? This is the biggest grass hopper I have ever seen. Worthy of a pic. 

We were way up on a mountain and came down into this valley. There are several villages out there close to the mountains. It was overwhelming to take this drive to see the #'s of villages and people that He wants to touch. 

This is a famous bridge in a city close to Turkey call Zakho. Supposedly they killed someone and burried him in the bridge as they were building it or something. Personally I think its a spin off of Jimmy Haffa. 

We could see snow on the mountains in a distance. We went through this valley and started to ascend the mountain and Megan saw the snow and started whinning like a little puppy. We stopped and played in the snow and took a few pics. 

I took this picture of "Wal-Mart" on wheels as it was going down the road. Notice the head and the hand of the guy on the back of the truck. 

The guys went on the roof to hand out in the sun and have our Kurdish traditional after lunch tea. It was warmer outisde in the sunshine than inside the house. 

Women and kids in the living room after lunch. They are all warming their feet and hands b/c the concrete sucks the heat out of everything. 

Here is the crew we had for Thanksgiving lunch. The girl at the head of the table is our cook. One guy is in the other room answering a phone call. (I told him he was crazy for answering his phone on thanksgiving.) We ate and ate and ate. WE had all the traditional stuff. Our cook took a piece of pumpkin pie home b/c they have nothing like that here. She took it home b/c no one believed her that you can make a pie out o pumpkin. 

Brianna was so excited about cutting the heads off the turkeys and watching them flop around and flap their wings without a head. She is a great hunting buddy. 

Megan took some of the turkey feathers and made her a craft. She took a feather for the tail feathers and then cut the ends off feathers and made the legs. She also colored some leaves b/c most dont change colors here in the city. 

Thanksgiving dinner still walking around in the back of the truck. I had to explain to people that our holiday was not about turkeys it was called Thanksgiving, eating turkey is a tradition, but the holiday is about remembering the great things God has done for our country. 

finally home

The kids were all tired when we finally got home. 

Friends

The girl with Brianna is Hayleen. Her and Brianna are good friends. 

Great man

This is great guy and a wonderful brother. He is one of my heros. I am very priviledged to be here and be around him. He loves to talk about the light. 

New Teeth

Brianna is loosing teeth left and right. She is cute with them gone. She is a real mountain climber. 

Mountain climb

WE took this family to the top of the mountain behind the house. We all had a great time. this is about from a 1/4 of the way up. It was a good place to take a picture. 

goofy girl

 

Pretty as a picture

 

The Girls

This is another, 'no we are not back home' picture. This is a good picture of the girls in the fall. The lighting is perfect, and Erika did a good job on the picture. 

Needle in a hay stack

No explanation needed.

The early Beverly Hill Billies

This is a neat setting for the Beverly, or K-stan hillbillies. This is a little valley area with a river down there by the tree line. I had to remind myself that this is not the Ark mountains b/c it was so beautiful, and people do go to family reunions to find a wife. 

Tough Feet

Notice this girl's feet. It is about 40 degrees this morning and the ladies in the village wore no socks. Before we went to bed that night, we made a final trip to the outhouse. I commented to them that they weren't wearing socks and just sandals. They said that even when the snow came, they still didn't wear socks. Just for the record, I wore two pair of socks. 

Mountains on Trip East

This was a wonderful picturesque spot on our trip to our friend's village last week. The snow-capped mountains were beautiful. On this little mountain-side we found pieces of natural marble, and all sorts of interesting rocks.