We made it to Turkey and because of a terrorist attack that happened 7 weeks prior, there weren’t many tourists and that meant no long lines!

Making our way to Hagia Sophia

After hundreds of years of people walking on this step, it shows the wear.

Hagia Sophia was first a Christian cathedral. Then a Muslim mosque. And now it is a museum and under renovation.

We got to see Gli, the famous cat that stays at Hagia Sophia

The Blue Mosque

In order to enter The Blue Mosque, the girls had to cover their heads

Just outside The Blue Mosque is the Istanbul Hippodrome where the Obelisk of Theodosius is found.

We got to visit the Topkapi Palace

We ended our first day by visiting the Grand Bazaar where we bought some souvenirs

We took a day trip to the city of Ephesus, home of the biblical Ephesians

This is the library in the ancient city of Ephesus

We paid the extra fee to visit the “house on the slopes” where they are uncovering old homes. It also gave us some relief from the sun

We had a fantastic lunch at a home where the family makes traditional Turkish rugs and we got to see the whole process

All of the rugs here are made by hand and takes months to complete

We were able to experience the displaying of rugs and there were many beautiful rugs that we wanted to take home

We visited the house of the Virgin Mary where it is believed that she spent her final years

Our final tourist destination in Ephesus was to the temple of Artemis where not much is left

Our last day started by going up the Galata Tower to get a good view of the city and later we took a ferry boat ride to get a different experience to look at the city

Walking around the streets of Istanbul we felt safe and the people were very kind

We came upon this old trolley that still runs

We walked through a spice market and bought us some “Turkish Delights” from this shop owner who thought Kalani looked Turkish

We got to visit the largest cistern in Istanbul

Inside the cistern there are two “medusa head stones“

We stopped by a pottery shop and watched a master potter create a vase that he then turned into a water pitcher within minutes

Some of the pottery in the shop glows in the dark since they used some special crushed material in the clay

As we were walking back to the car we walked through a park and the kids had a great time playing and running around

Everyday we would visit the hammam in our hotel and fill up these sinks with warm water and throw bowls of water on each other or ourselves

We had a wonderful experience exploring Istanbul and our tour guide, Emine, was a big reason why we had such a great time.

With the weather being so lovely and no humidity I convinced my siblings and their kids to go for a walk a few hours after we landed. The kids all loved running around on the grass and just enjoying each other’s company.

My brother lives only a couple of blocks away from the Provo Temple so I took the opportunity to show our kids that temple and any others that we came across. It had been 16 years since I was last at this temple, before serving a mission in El Salvador for our church.

Since we arrived on the 4th of July, it was great to see the kids play with their cousins and use sparklers to celebrate.

When I knew that we would be in Utah, I started the ball rolling to have a reunion for our church ward family from the Philippines. Not as many people came who said they were going to be there, but it was still fun to meet up with people who we shared time with in the Philippines.

My friend forgot about our Philippines church reunion, but we were able to meet up with her and her boys at a dinosaur museum.

As soon as we got home from the dinosaur museum we went out to dinner with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend.

We ate ice cream the Provo City Center Temple grounds and enjoy the scenery and company. A few days later we took the kids to this temple also.

My sister is going to school to get her license to cut hair. I trusted her to cut my hair a couple of inches before we left for the family reunion.

We stayed at Camelot Resort on the Strawberry River up the Provo Canyon. The kids really enjoyed the view and were excited to see our cousin from Texas already at the resort.

One of the first things we did after unpacking was to go on a short hike with any cousins that wanted to join us.

A much bigger group went on a longer hike that ended at an area that over looked our resort.

The kids enjoyed tubing down the river even if the water was really cold and only about 15 inches deep.

After breakfast was a morning of crafts that my sister planned. Painting rocks that we found on our hike, Fruit Loop necklaces, Kool-Aid lip gloss, etc.

We had nearly 30 cousins participating in a Kid-Friendly Olympics that my aunt and I planned.

Mason participating in the pool noodle javelin throw.

Kalani racing against her cousin in the pool noodle hurdles.

The finale of our Kid Olympics was to have these two cousins run around with candy glued to their shirt…they were a human pinata and it only lasted about two minutes before the candy was all taken.

After lunch my aunt and I set up slip-n-slide kickball for anyone who wanted to participate.

It was so much fun to play with kids of all ages.

After family photos and dinner we had a family talent show. My sister and I performed a song we learned from a church girls camp.

After we packed up and left the resort and grabbed some lunch, we made our way to Salt Lake City to see the temple, walk around Temple Square and meet up with a friend of ours from the Philippines.

We befriended Leslie in the Philippines and encouraged her to serve a mission. She returns home the end of this month, so we count it very fortunate that we got a VIP tour of Temple Square with her and her companions. Here we are inside the Tabernacle.

We made it to USC campus

Sisters all together again

Blake would take handful of his cousins snacks and then feed her some one by one

Farley family with the graduate

Everyone who made it to USC gradutation

After graduation we all hung out together having a swim party, BBQ and game night.

We had a birthday cake for one of my brothers. Since the sun went down it was getting cold and Matt was trying to warm up by candle light.

Blake found his cousin’s stuffed animals and was content to play with them for a while.

This is the biggest group photo that we were able to capture. One family was still at the hotel and Kalani was off with her uncle and grandma already.

Matt proposed to me in front of the castle… Apparently he’s had some practice 🙂

We got to meet Kylo Ren.

One crazy group at the jungle safari.

Mason is so good with his baby cousins.

During lunch my sister’s tongue started to swell after eating something. The restaurant took that very seriously and got a nurse to come check her out (we all ate for free!).

This was the only photo that we have of Kalani at Disneyland. We didn’t see her again until after the night parade.

Mason was able to participate in the Jedi Training.

He got to fight Darth Vader!

We had a great time going on rides and making crazy faces.

We watched a few parades since babies were sleeping and/or we wanted to sit down.

We got to walk around the Newport Beach temple grounds.

We made a stop at the Reptile Zoo. A show that we watch is filmed here often.

Blake HAD to hold the ball python.

My sisters and our family boarded a plane and headed back home after a fun weekend.

After getting only six hours of sleep, we were on the dive boat with about ten other divers. A dive boat is full of dive tanks and gear. All of the divers and boatmen were really nice, friendly and helpful as well.

Siaes Corner was our first dive site. I had problems with my mask fogging up, but Matt said that this was the best diving ever. Lots of fish and coral.

We hooked in and watched the marine life for a time at Siaes Corner.

So many sharks were here. Six are easily visible in this photo, but there were more. This trip exceeded expectations on the first dive.

Siaes Tunnel was our second dive. Can you see the shark?

Outside of the tunnel we saw a bunch of other marine life.

We found this turtle who looked like he was trying to hide.

Third dive of the day was at Chandelier Cave. No marine life, but cool stalactites.

Our couple photo inside Chandelier Cave

First dive of the day was to German Channel. We were lucky enough to see this manta ray that was near the surface while we were below.

This shark was not scared of us as long as we kept our distance.

We didn’t know why there were sucker fish on the sand until we realized that there was a stingray buried there as well.

Second dive of the day was to Blue Corner. We hooked in and watched the sharks and other fish swim around.

We went to another area and hooked in and watched more marine life.

As we were making our safety stop we saw this huge school of barracudas.

Our last dive was at Helmet Wreck. This was our first wreck dive and it was pretty cool to see a ship from World War II.

On wreck dives you need to be careful not to kick up the silk/sand that has settled on the wreck or else you can’t see anything.

Bottles from World War II

Since we were flying out later this day, we couldn’t dive. Instead we did an island tour and saw these stingless jellyfish in a land-locked saltwater lagoon.

It took us about 10 minutes to swim over to the area that they jellies were at, but it was pretty amazing once we got there.

Matt decided to do a dance with the jellies.

Our next stop was to see some giant clams.

Once that you touch the clams, they close up quickly.

Our last stop on the boat was to a place called “The Milky Way”. The water is a gorgeous milky blue color because of the limestone sediment that has settled on the floor of the water cove.

The milky sediment that was on the bottom of the cove floor.

A natural sunscreen and moisturizer that makes you look like a swamp monster.

After lunch we went to the Eco Theme Park.

We saw people riding a monorail that didn’t go very fast, but they didn’t have to walk uphill either.

The main reason we did the hike was to see the waterfall.

Our driver turned into our tour guide and took us to see a Palau Bai home. These homes were used like a city hall to discuss all matters for the villagers.

We saw some World War II machinery that is still laying around the island.

A Japanese bomb from WWII.

We were looking for souviner items to take home on New Year’s Day and many shops were closed. Our driver/tour guide took us to the jail to check out their gift shop.

Palau is beautiful with hundreds of these small islands in the middle of the ocean.

One day we were able to have lunch on the boat in this area that was secluded and peaceful.

On our way back from a dive our boatman took us over by the famous Rock Arch of Palau.

We had a great time doing six dives, seeing another beautiful country, and creating wonderful memories together.

Boarding the plane looked like this since they had the AirCon blasting, but it was hot and humid outside.

Getting ready to land in Bohol.

Eskaya Resort is on Panglao island of Bohol.

Blake liked the golf carts that we came across often and had to sit in them and “drive” for a while.

The main pool at Eskaya had a kiddie pool in front of the main pool. Basically our family was the only one using it during our stay.

If we didn’t want to be in the main pool, we could use our private pool that was just outside of our villa.

Mosquitos were a problem at the resort. We all slept under mosquito nets and the resort burned mosquito coils for all of the villas.

Before leaving the island, we found a local LDS church and attended their sacrament meeting, which happened to be the Children’s Primary Program, which was fantastic.