Colley /Sellers Wedding

Tonight we attended the wedding of Lindsay Colley and Kyle Sellers. Lindsay is the daughter of our good friends Dennis and Lainie Colley. We had a great time. There was good food and lots of fun dancing. Brad Colley designed the layout and decor for the wedding and reception. It was gorgeous! We wish the newlyweds a long and happy life together.


Kay and I had a good time on the dance floor. Fred even danced with me too.


The flower girls were the hit of the dance floor.

Lindsay and Boppa ( her grandfather) had a special dance.

Michael, Sharaze and Autumn

The entrance to the reception hall.

The reception hall. Brad did a good job.

Lainie and Lauren

The beautiful bride!

Dennis and Alex Sanders having their dance.

Gorgeous Sharaze and precious Autumn.

Mightymite Triathlon

Yesterday Fred IV and Lee participated in a triathlon in Forest City, AR. They had a 500 m swim, a 15 mile bike ride, and a 5K run. They both did great. It was a good time of bonding as well for Fred and Lee. After the race the whole family went to Grandma Beulah's where she fixed a good lunch of fried chicken, fresh vegetables and blackberry cobbler.

Incredible Pizza

Last night was the last night that we are going to have the boys all to ourselves. Fred and Jennifer are coming today and spend the night with us tonight. We wanted to do something special. We had never been to Incredible Pizza, but had heard good things about it. We knew that the boys loved Chuck E. Cheese so we gave Clayton the choice of which one to go to. He chose Incredible Pizza. I think it was the go - carts and the bowling that won him over. We had a great time. It was a lot like Chuck E. Cheese in that there were about a million kids there, but it was bigger and had lots more stuff to do. When we got back in the car, Jack said in his sweet baby voice ( with no prompting) , " Thank you Pawpaw". It was precious! Clayton said that they call it Incredible Pizza because it is incredible. I know that Pawpaw and I were incredibly tired. It was a fun ending to a fun week.

Fun with the Boys

I have some very special company this week. We are keeping Clayton and Jack until Saturday when their daddy ( Fred IV) and Lee do a triathelon in Forest City. We have been having a lot of fun. There has been swimming, photo shoots ( Liz took their pictures last night at Howard McVay Park), and of course lots of Wii. I really think that Pawpaw MIGHT be able to beat Clayton once before the week is out. Or at least that is his goal. He really wants to beat the 4 year old. I think it is a matter of pride. But Clayton told Fred, " I'm pretty good ,Pawpaw. " And he is. We went to Target yesterday and I found some really cute rain boots on sale . As you can see, Jack really likes his.

SNAC

Last night we had SNAC ( Sunday Night After Church) at our house. Fred grilled burgers; we had " Shackelford dip" ( cream cheese and rotel), brownies, and Turkish Delight ( I have lots left if anyone is interested). It was a lot of fun. However, nobody swam. Not even a toe got wet. I don't know if it was too cold ( I think not), or if swimming has lost its lure since we are in the middle of July. But we did have a lot of fun playing with the Wii. Tori and Lee brought Jack and Clayton home from Paris with them to spend a week with us. Clayton came right in and told everyone that he had brought Mario Cart. They hooked it up and he challenged several guys in the game. Quite a few got beat by the 4 year old.

Grandma' Beulah's Birthday

Happy Birthday Grandma Beulah! Today is Beulah's ( Fred's mother) 76th birthday.Beu;ah is one of those people that I look at and think, " I hope I can be like that when I am her age." She is loving, kind, has a positive attitude and lots of energy. What am I saying - I want to be like her NOW. She is the best mother-in-law and I try to pattern my inlawing after her. We had dinner for her here tonight. Fred did most of the cooking since I was out of town until last night and spent the day getting the house in order.We had shrimp pasta and chocolate cheesecake. Both were very yummy. I brought Beulah a Turkish teapot and teaset from Istanbul. She seemed to really like it. When we were shopping for it Dan, Tami and I agreed that it looked like something that she would like but not something she needed. If you have ever been to her house you will probably agree. :-)

Happy 4th of July!!

Even though I am not in my country today, I still celebrated Independence Day. Some Americans who live in this part of the world got together today at a park/resort area about one hour outside of Istanbul. We left the apartment at 7:20 this morning; took the tram, then the boat to Asia, then an hour bus ride to the resort. There was lots of swimming, hamburgers ( with BACON), visiting and playing. We had a good time.

Parent's Night Out

Today I went with Tami and Dan to a furniture/housewares store called IKEA. It was a very nice place with a restaurant and play area for kids. Tonight Tami and Dan went out on a date while I stayed with the kids. I hope they had a good time, because I sure did. Zeke wasn't too crazy about the idea as you can see in the picture taken right before his mama and daddy left. But it didn't take long for him to start having a good time. We played with bubbles and he got to see his cousin Jack on the computer and those things always make him happy. Kaiyah didn't seem to care.

Doctor Visits

Today Kaiyah and Zeke both had doctor visits scheduled so Tami and I took a taxi to the doctor's office this morning while Dan was at his language tutor's. While waiting for Kaiyah to complete her hearing test ( which she passed by the way - we were glad because she failed it last week) Zeke once again made friends with the people in the waiting room. Especially the person who had pretzels in her purse. We then took both of the kids to the pediatrician's office for checkups and immunizations. Neither of them seemed to think it was a fun experience. Zeke screamed from the time he was put on the examining table until after the shot was over : reminds me of me. When the doctor was about to give Kaiyah her shot he said that I could hold her while he gave it. He said that it would hurt. I did what any good grandmother would do. I gave her to her mom - I didn't want her mad at me.

After the doctor ordeal we went to the mall and got ice cream, rode rides ( Zeke did) and looked around the toy store. OK so I bought him a toy fish - he did have to get a shot today.Then it was a taxi ride home.

I took off on the tram this afternoon ( by myself I might add - I was very proud). I met Dan at the area where the Blue Mosque, etc is and we were going to go to the Sultan's palace. We got sandwiches at a stand and ate in the park. After making the trek to the Sultan's palace, we found out that it was closed on Tues. But we had a nice time anyway. I think that I have gotten the hang of the tram. The only problem is that if I get 20 feet away from the tram I am lost. But I could find my way back home as long as I can find the tram. Here are some pictures of the doctor's visit, the place we would have gone into if only there weren't 2 guards with automatic rifles at the entrance, and Zeke being silly tonight.