Babies Update!

It's been awhile since there have been some photos of the babies, so here we go. The photos immediately above and below are from September 8. In the photo above, the babies are playing at the front of our parish church dedicated to St. George here in Panorama, just after the Divine Liturgy in celebration of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. The babies communed and then we took them to go play in the park (see below).

Unfortunately, some punk kids practice their graffiti skills (in preparation for university) here at the local park. But otherwise it's nice to have two such parks just here in our little section of Panorama. Above, Phoebe heads down the slide and Paul walks around.

Here's Benjamin walking in front of the slide, on his way to some important business, it looks like.

A friend of ours from the church also came by with her 2-year-old granddaughter, and the babies had a conference underneath the jungle gym.

Here's a photo from two days later, on September 10. This one was taken inside a local grocery store called "AB." At the entrance they have a life-sized horse replica that the boys are riding here. Of course, Phoebe also got a turn.

Two days after that, on September 12, we went with Paul's godfather, Paris, for a visit to the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, which is located near the village of Souroti, about 20 minutes from our house. It is most famous as the resting place of Elder Paisios. Because the monastery has so very many people stopping in to venerate the elder, the monastery is divided into a public part and a private part, so that the nuns can have some peace and quiet occasionally. This private part, which includes the monastery's original church dedicated to St. John the Theologian, are, obviously, usually closed, but occasionally they are opened. When we went that day, it was open, so we took the babies for a walk back there in order to venerate inside the church to St. John (see above and below).

Here we are just outside the church in a little grove of olive trees.

Here Phoebe is walking back to the nuns' cells.

Here are Paris and Paul next to the grave of Elder Paisios, where a line waits to venerate.

These photos are from September 16, when our friend Angela, her two daughters, and her godson came to visit us here at the house. Pelagia recruited them to help with the yard project, which now consists of clearing the small central patch of land so that we can plant grass for the babies to play on. On this day, the task was to remove an old tree, which they had just accomplished here. In its place, Paul and Phoebe decided to plant themselves.

Paul sitting in the hole.

Here's Benjamin taking a break from all the work to give our dog, Argos, a pet.

And here's Benjamin climbing up the stairs from our yard to our back porch.

For a few more photos click here and here.