Mesa, AZ

Anna and I arrived in Arizona late Saturday night. We've been having a really nice time with my mom who is thrilled to have us here. We've been swimming in her heated pool every day! We LOVE the warmth and sunshine!!
Last night we went with my brother and his family to the Phoenix Zoo to see the ZooLights. It was really quite impressive.
Anna and Jake spent much of the night together walking hand-in-hand around the zoo. At one point Anna said something like, "It's like we're married." (She's been watching too many princess movies lately.) Jake's response was, "Don't say that ever again."
Anna had a great time hanging out with her cousins.
Erik and Jake were excited to see the stingrays before we left the zoo. They swim very close to the sides and the boys were able to touch them.
Anna was a little afraid and was more than happy to have Aunt Karen hold her well away from the stingrays. She was pretty exhausted by the end of the night and fell asleep before we were out of the zoo parking lot!

Day 1 in Turkey (of really doing things)

I've been trying to upload photos this evening, and I finally got two to load. Maybe it is the connection here in Pamukkale, Turkey. I'm here on a study tour for my seminary January term. Today we visited the ruins of the temple to Artemis in Sardis (that's where we are in the photo) as well as the other cool ruins there. I'm in the photo with my friends Juli, Adam, and Nate. The largest synagogue of the day was also there, and we heard a lecture on the Revelation message to the church in Sardis there.
We also visited Philadelphia and the recent excavations in Laodicea. The photo above is a brief lecture by Prof Weima at the theater in Laodicea. I hope to get more photos uploaded when the connection is a bit better. Tonight we also took some time to relax in the mineral hot springs at our hotel. Learning theology can be pretty tough, but if it makes me a better pastor, so be it!

This is Matt, and we finally made it to Turkey! We missed a flight yesterday morning in Frankfort, but after some time we managed to get an evening flight out. We arrived in Izmir and got to the hotel around midnight. I'll try to post some photos when I'm not dog tired after two solid days of travel!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I thought I'd better do a little catching up today. We haven't actually been doing much because we've been taking turns being sick. (We're currently praying Matt doesn't get the stomach bug Anna and I have had this week.) We did get a chance to get over to my sister's house on New Year's day.
One of the highlights of the day was making our own homemade pizzas for supper. Matt and Abbey made the dough, then we all got to make our own pizza to eat. Yum!

While Sue and I were busying making birthday and thank-you cards, the kids and guys played. Anna was excited about playing with her cousins' new nerf guns. She was a pretty good shot, too. Here's a picture of her with the Nerf protective eyewear! Yikes!
Matt and Dave did a little canoeing on Wii Resort. What a blast!
Now, aside from getting over our illnesses (Matt is recovering from pneumonia), we're all packing for our trips. Matt leaves tomorrow for Turkey and Greece. He's going with his Greek prof and several other students. They'll be gone for 2 weeks. Hopefully, he'll be able to blog a few times while he's traveling. Anna and I are going to sunny Arizona to visit my mom while Matt's gone. We'll take a side trip to freezing Nebraska for my brother's wedding; then head back to Arizona before coming home. It'll be hard to be apart for that long, but we're all looking forward to our adventures!