First Flight

We flew from Budapest to Tirana, Albania a week and a half ago. We were going for Gary to teach part of a new course to the Albanian staff. This was Ethan's first flight. It was a short flight, so a good 'practice' before we leave in 3 weeks for the States.The plane was pretty empty on the way there (though overbooked on the way back).

Ethan slept much of the flight. One of the flight attendants thought he was so cute sleeping like this that she told another flight attendant so she could look at him. In fact, evidentally they thought he was so cute that surprisingly they didn't even make us put the tray table up when we were supposed to. Course, we did on our own so his head wouldn't hit against it when we landed.

We stopped in a small village during our 4 hour drive from the airport to just across the border into Macedonia. This woman gave us permission to take her picture. Some of the men in Albania still make women do the hard labor.

This bridge is believed to be a part of the Egnatian Way, an old Roman road that went from present day Istanbul, Turkey to Durres, Albania, which the Apostle Paul used in his travels.

Pot Luck Dinner

We invited the school staff over for a pot luck dinner so the new teachers could meet people before orientation began. There were 66 people who came. Thankfully the weather was nice, so we were able to have people inside and outside. We're so thankful that the Lord has blessed us with a home where we can entertain.

First Solid Food

We started Ethan on solid food on his 6th month birthday (August 15th). He had been displaying many of the signs of being ready for solid food (thankfully not waking up during the night though), but we wanted to wait until he was 6 months old if possible. Now we don't feel so guilty to eat in front of him. :-) We just started with rice cereal that someone brought us from the States. The Hungarians typically begin with apples (according to a few Hungarian friends).

The food was such a hit, when I put the spoon near his mouth he would grab the spoon and pull it to his mouth. And, he actually had good aim. If his fine motor skills were a little sharper, he would already be able to feed himself.

Friends

One of my friends, Edit, invited Ethan and me over for lunch one day in August. It was interesting to see Ethan and Zsuzsi interact again.Ethan was much more full of energy than Zsuzsi. Total boy!

The Beattys are on our team. Evan was born last November. His family went to the States just before Ethan was born. This was the first time that Ethan and Evan met one another. I think they hit it off. It's a good thing, because they will be spending much time together. It will also be interesting to see how often we get their names mixed up and confused.Just putting another pic on here because I like it and think that Ethan looks cute.

Catching Up Once Again

Well, once again, I'm behind on our blog. Our first extended time traveling with Ethan was the beginning of July. We went to Germany for me to take a class. We traveled over 9 hours the first day with only two stops for 45 minutes. Ethan didn't even leave the car during one of those stops due to us being at a rest area with no shelter and it raining. He slept much of the time and did great.We enjoyed getting to tie in a few days of vacation around this trip where we went hiking. We loved the backpack that my mom bought us, and he was able to use it before the suggested time of 6 months. Ethan enjoyed the outdoors, and especially loved watching waterfalls and running water.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Ethan, taken while we were in Germany, so I just had to throw it in here.