america!

we had a WONDERFUL time being home in the states.  emre loved spending time with his lansford family, meeting our friends and getting to know his other other home country.  i took a vacation from everything (including the blog, and taking pictures, so these are mostly from my dad's camera) and just relaxed & had fun (and, shopped).  it was just what we needed - if only just a tad too short, but it has been nice being home & sleeping in our own bed this week. 

at the airport, ready for his first intercontinental flight!

we spent the first two nights in jersey city, where sarah & jeff live.

breakfast at the brownstone diner in jersey city with grammy

meeting auntie verna

loving all the attention at aunt sarah & uncle jeff's house

so glad we brought the jolly jumper

emre loved spending time with his grandpa

and absolutely LOVED grandpa's beard

little man was pretty cranky the first day but was too busy having fun to deal with jet-lag after that

uncle jeff grilled us up some burgers and dogs on our first day - and yes, emre loved the mustache man

playing with aunt sarah

we took him for his first professional haircut at mom's hair dresser

aunt sarah took some great shots!

loving the attention

funny face

this kid is not camera shy

waking up with aunt sarah

ready for his first swim!

emre loved being in the pool - he was utterly awe-struck the entire time.  he silently floated around (grandma bought him the best float) and kicked his feet.  he's a water baby for sure!

meanwhile, this...

...and this.

grandma was just a touch excited to have emre for 3 weeks.  just a touch.

we took a little family vacation to saratoga springs & boston, which we enjoyed immensely. 

ready for a road trip!

emre enjoyed sitting in the beautiful garden behind the adelphi hotel in saratoga while mommy & daddy sipped cocktails. 

we ate our faces off on this trip.  this was the amazing fried chicken we had (five bites of - before emre demanded our attention) at hattie's in saratoga.  YUM.

we got to meet up with emre's gosende grands in saratoga where we enjoyed a lovely day of lunching and walking around congress park with them.

having a chat with grandma gosende

gosende grands!

emre's seven month shot - lame, i know!  i will take a better one.

after saratoga we headed to boston where we stayed for two nights.  it was wonderful just strolling the city (and eating lobster rolls). 

make way for ducklings!

emre & the ducklings shot, for aunt sarah

emre loooves to people watch

while in boston we got to meet up with uncle fazil can, who is studying at northeastern.  we also met up with ben's folks, who were visting fazil can, who treated us to a seafood feast at legal seafood.

chillin' with uncle fc

after boston we headed to andes, ny where we visited with jan & ritchie - friends from my days at delhi.  it was fun to be back in the catskills region and reminisce about the 3 years when i lived there.  i didn't like it at the time, but i'd live there in a heartbeat now!  funny how things change from being single in your early 20s to having a family in your early 30s.  we had a nice visit with jan & ritchie at their farm before heading over the mountains to downsville, where we met up with sarah & jeff.  they had rented a cabin there for the weekend & invited us to spend the night with them.  we had a great time (ben's highlight for the whole trip, he says) visiting around the bonfire & making s'mores.  i didn't get any pictures of these visits, sadly, but ben did take a picture of the ginormous burgers he & jeff ate at the schoolhouse restaurant (the beef was from their own longhorn cattle) where we had dinner.

longhorn burgers - not sure if my finger is pointing at the burger or reaching to steal the pickle?

the schoolhouse was filled with stuffed animals - like this bear.  funny story: when i lived in delhi there was a taxidermy studio ('rob's') at the end of my road that i used as a landmark when giving directions to my apartment. which was located on a mountain, on a dirt road, above a garage.  my neighbor was a pygmy goat named j-bazz.  enough said.

we headed back to auburn from downsville for one more week with mom & dad.  it was sooo nice having time to relax and just hang out with the fam.

emre took lots of naps...

...and played with grandma & grandpa lots

grandma introduced him to the endless fun of ice cubes - a neat little trick we are now using at dinnertime in turkey.  thanks, grandma!

grandpa took emre for lots of strolls in the back yard - he loved to look at all of the flowers - and even more, to stare at the magical blue water in the pool.

aunt aydan sent ben a little gift to enjoy in the back yard - dr. jurd's jungle juice - from australia.  ben & dad also enjoyed a few cigars.

we had a few visits with friends - carrie keating, maria & joe, johanna, joe and his girlfriend kate, cousins fred & nancy (no pictures!) and holly and laura came to meet emre.  he loved them all, of course!

with aunt laura

napping on aunt hb

we were so sad to see our trip come to an end.  luckily, the flight back wasn't too bad since it was a nighttime flight (with only a 2 hour delay - and i am serious when i say only, since we departed from jfk), so emre slept for a good portion of it.  he's since recovered from jet-lag (as of yesterday) and now has two visible bottom teeth.  pictures to follow if we can ever get him to sit still long enough!

sleepy little bear in his bassinet on the plane