Greece (Part 1)

Our family embarked on a very special trip to Greece!  The main purpose of the trip was to provide childcare during a meeting of Americans serving overseas in central Asia.  The workers traveled as families to gather in Greece for three days of training, teaching, and fellowship.  We went to make sure the kids were well cared for so the adults could participate in the meetings.  Our church sent a small group to join with two others churches who were volunteering in the same way.  It was a privilege to partner for a brief time with the overseas workers, and to serve as a family with others from our church.

Arrival at the airport:

Let's fly to Istanbul!

The goal was to stay awake during our layover before the second flight to Athens.  Rooke couldn't help himself!

Safe arrival in Athens!  Waiting for our hotel van pickup

The hotel was close to the airport, but we were all feeling this tired

If you ever need an affordable place to stay in Athens with great transportation to/from the airport, we recommend Tina's Apartments  The girls found a burst of energy and had fun taking photos among the beautiful landscaping

A common theme people commented on during our trip was his size - ha!

Exhausted and hungry, we forced ourselves to stay awake and rode down to have dinner on the beach.  We literally sat at a table feet from the Aegean Sea and enjoyed a fantastic meal!

A great night of sleep, quick breakfast, and back to the airport for another flight to Rhodes . . .

Once we arrived at the hotel and settled in, we made our way down to the beach.  Ryan tried to show us how to skip rocks!

The ladies worked to prepare our room for the kids!  Ryan was in charge of "security" for the adult meetings (which mostly meant he had to discourage European grannies from curiously opening meeting room doors they weren't invited to!).

The girls had a bit of time to play in the pool before our childcare duties began.

Rooke participated with the other youth and was blessed to make new friends!  

Bridgette reading to the some of the kids we took care of

Catey and I enjoying the sunset on our last night at the hotel

After childcare was finished, we checked out of the hotel and headed down to the beach for a quick dip in the water.  The colors were amazing!

Unfortunately, Rooke got sick in the middle of our last night and was out of it for about 24 hours.  He slept as much as he could for about 24 hours, then perked back up to enjoy the next stop of our trip.

We hired a van to drive our small team to the southeast side of the island and stayed one night in the quaint town of Lindos.  The views of the water were gorgeous, and we finally got to really swim in the sea!