turkey and a break from being mommy

I have had a great summer. One of the highlights was a trip I took with my mom. She treated me to 2 week trip to Turkey. (Just a mother/daughter trip … no kiddos) It was really wonderful to just be me without having the duties of being “mommy.” The night that we left was very difficult … I had to hold my tears back when I was saying goodbye to my kids. I wasn’t actually sure that I wanted to go … it sounded like such a long time away. I missed Craig and the kids, but I so appreciated the freedom in not taking care of my little ones. I feel like I was a little more adventurous and carefree than I am normally. By the end of the trip I was sad to be coming home … another week would have been nice.

And Turkey was such an incredible place … beautiful, exotic, interesting, … delicious food! … gorgeous, gracious people! … history, art, architecture that blows your mind (our country is such a baby in comparison). I want everyone I know to get a chance to visit this beautiful country. And I want to go back! We went on a “Rick Steves” tour. It was far better than I expected. We were with a great group of people, had an incredible tour guide, and saw some of the best of Turkey. We had so many unique, intimate experiences … lunch at a Turkish woman’s house, dancing at a small town wedding, a question & answer time with an Imam. In an evaluation that the tour company sent us they asked us to tell them about a “wow” moment from the trip. This was so hard to do because there were so many to choose from! There were definitely multiple “wow” moments every day.

I must add that Craig deserves the husband/father of the year award for freeing me up to go on this trip!!!!!!!! How many mothers of young children get to do this? And when I came home, Craig told me that my mom and I ought to take a trip like this every year. He is an incredible husband … for many reasons, this generosity to me being one!

If you have any interest in seeing photos from our trip, check out the slideshows that I made:
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=sabraws
(or just click on the link titled "My Videos on YouTube" on the sidebar)
And let me know what you think!

The photos below: My mom, Judy, in Ephesus with the Library of Celsus in the background. Me, wearing a scarf that some village children sold me and placed on my head.