Pictures!!!!

The Mediterannean Ocean
View is along the edge of Hydra Island I believe. We also went to the beach three times and got to swim in it! One beach had natural black pebbles instead of sand.

The Island of Hydra - where they only use donkeys and bicycles to travel around!! Our favorite Island we visited on our island hopping day!

The Parthenon! Amazing!! Being worked on for preservation.

At the top of the Samarian Gorge - Europe's Grand Canyon. We hiked from the top of this mountain down inside it, through the Gorge- passing old cities and churches that are now ruins or maintained by the National Park - walked out of the Gorge and through town all the way to the ocean. Took us from 7 am to 2pm ( no lunch break) !! It was exhausting but beautiful!!

View from our hotel in Crete of the port city Chania. We LOVE this place!!! Ate lots of delicious seafood in Crete!

I am in the process of trying to make a photo book of Greece - so you can see more later!!!

Happy 6 Month!

Happy 6 Month Birthday Issac!
I can't wait to see you in a month!!!

Doris- I am seriously so sad that I have missed his first 6 months.  When you were talking to Ryan the other night and I heard him say Issac was 6 months, I really did think I was going to cry.

But don't you worry Issac!
When I see you in August I will hold you and kiss you and smother you with Chinese Auntie Love like you have never experienced!!!

Love you guys!
xoxoxox   lillian

Kalimera!!

That is how you say good morning in Greek. Our tour guide would usually greet us with this every morning on our tour bus and continue to talk about the day's agenda when all everyone wanted to do is sleep!! So highlights of the trip: in Athens we stayed in the city ..... we saw a demonstration by the communist party, stumbled upon the bank that was burned down during riots (very sad), visited the Acropolis ( Parthenon!!), took boats out to several very lovely little islands where you actually see the white houses on the hillside with blue roofs!!, saw the port of Corinth where Paul visited from a distance... In Crete we stayed in the port town of Chania... it was gorgeous, our hotel was right off the port and within walking distance of the lighthouse, small town with lots of little open air retaurants - loved this place!!......we visited ruins of the Palace of Knossos, felt an earthquake - 4.5 on the richter scale, went to the beach several times and took a dip into the cold mediterannean ocean, saw folk dances and listened to folk music, hiked the Samarian Gorge - 11 mile hike, went on a bicycle ride through the countryside- orange orchards and olive orchards and old gree grandmothers waving at us saying kalimera!! On a rocky backroad, I hit a rock and fell as I was trying to correct myself, this was the last day of the trip, so currently nursing a really nasty banged up knee.
Dogs and cats are allowed to roam free in Greece and are protected by the government, so dogs would be laying around in random places on the street in the middle of the day - you would step around them and their poop all over the sidewalk... cats would crowd around you when you sat down for a meal.. not all the time, but at most places....
We devoured delicious greek salad, greek yogurt with quince ( kinda like a nice smooth jam - my fav was with rose petals - i bought some!!), lots and lots of gyros, soulvaki( grilled meat and veggis.. kinda like what would go inside a gyro but separated and without a pita) and seafood- I had lots of shrimp! Lon drank a frappe daily- an iced coffee made from nescafe, sugar and i think evaporated milk?.. not sure but delicious!! and.....Many of the kids devoured alcohol!!! Major craziness ensued as a result of this... the drinking and blantant disrepectful behaviour got so bad that we contacted the school and the president of our school threatened the drinkers, who were all graduated seniors, with a letter to their colleges explaining their behaviour and that it was not exemplory of a Webb student. After that things calmed down to a 'working' relationship.. they didn't go crazy in front of us as much, but i bet they did when we were not around. There were still so many great students, who relaly loved and enjoyed the trip for what it had to offer culturally and artistically!
Overall the trip was a whirlwhind of wonderful and extremely frustrating experiences, extreme exhaustion and lack of sleep and delicious food! I brought a little bit of Greece back for the both of you! I will try and post a pic later!

Ramblings by Lillian

Funny story behind this picture. I bribed the kids to get this shot.
I told them if they gave me kisses, I would give them fruit snacks.
Am I a bad mommy to dangle bribes in front of the kiddi-poos to get some mama love? I think not!  I got a bazillion pictures of my babies showing me affection like I am their most favorite person ever!

I know we are all super busy right now.  Sharon is in Greece.  Yea for her, but boo for us.
  I feel like everyday I am busy.  With hat, I cannot particularly name.  But motherhood does that to you.  The day flies by and you wonder what you accomplished. It always seems to reassure me to know that my family is alive, fed and clothed ....really because of me. 
But to reply to the LOST post.  I am still LOST.  Doris, we talked about it.  And sorry I never called you back.
I ended up getting new specs too.  I will take a picture so you can see.
My old ones were...well old.  Scratches all over the glass.  So new specs it is!  I am wearing them now.  I need to wear them more often.  Let my poor eyeballs breathe a bit.
I never got to tell about our visit from Dad.
It was wonderful and we had a really fun time.
It was so fun watching dad play with the kids.  And you know how dad is.  He PLAYS with them.  Running around, jumping like a frog, hide n' seek.  The kids got dad to "march " with them.  Up the stairs, then down  the stairs, then up again.  Like 5 times.  Finally I told them to stop making dad march.
So they watch TV together on the couch while Dad and Dean fell asleep.
It was a nice visit....I need to post pictures from it.  I will soon on my Prince blog.
My photo biz is quite busy right now.  As busy as I want to be.  Weddings are what I will be doing the next two months pretty consistently.  It is so fun and I love it!  But boy -o boy will it be HOT.
I have one this Sunday on a beautiful horse farm area...and it may be like upper 80's.
I am going to have to slap deodorant on triple time.  Ryan told me it would not help.  That I might as well go ahead and put it on my face and arms too....but that would not help either.
My new specs are irritating the spot behind my ears.  Prob b/c I have worn them all day. And I never do it.
I suppose my glasses need to carve out a nice niche behind my ear.
Doris, did you get your ceiling/wall patched up yet?
I saw that Peggy and Ray are in town now.  I am jealous.  I want to come too!
Sharon, if you are checking this....which I think you are far too occupied in Greece to blog...eat a GYRO for me!  You lucky gal you!

Love you girls muchos!   xoxoxoxoxox  lily-pad