Halloween

We enjoyed carving pumpkins.  As the kids get older, the pumpkin carving gets much more elaborate.

Adam absolutely hates being messy.  He kept begging Christopher to take him over to the sink so that he could wash his hands.

Adam's, Jordan's Ethan's

Preston's (Mario), Spencer (notes)

All of the boys were soldiers. Okay so Spencer and Preston made the costumes and Adam and Ethan borrowed them.

Jordan was Belle.

Cute little warrior.

Some how I missed Ethan in a costume so I invented him in one.  Don't look to closely I didn't do a very good job.

Sydney was a puppy for Halloween.  I borrowed a costume last year for Adam from a friend, never returned it and voila Sydney had a costume this year. But no picture.

Homecoming 2010

Spencer went to Homecoming with one of his favorite girls of all time.  They have known each other since they were little and have been buds for years.  The both looked great- and way too grown up.

Israel

We had a wonderful trip to Israel.  It wasn't nearly long enough, but we will go back.

Our first stop after Tel Aviv was the Dead Sea.The surface of the Sea is 422 meters below sea level, the lowest land anywhere in the world

This was at 300 meters below sea level. 

 

It is 8.7x more salty than the ocean.  It really really hurts when you get it in your eyes.  I found it quite debilitating in fact.  It makes you really buoyant

This is Qumran where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.

This is Masada.  The story of Masada is fascinating and can be found here.

Jerusalem is/was awesome. 

We started at the Mt. of Olives, Walked The Via Dolorosa, and then ended in the Garden of Gethsemane

Dome of the Rock

We started at the Mount of Olives and it was completely empty.  It was lunch time and everything was closed.  It was nice to have the place literally to ourselves.

One of the Stages of the Via Dolorosa

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Western Wall

The Garden of Gethsemane.  We had to come back to the Garden because the first time we went by it was closed for lunch.  We got back again, right before closing.  There were very few people around. 

This was my absolute favorite place in Jerusalem!!!

We rented a car to get around Israel.  We came back in Jerusalem to find that we had left the lights on and that our car was dead.  We were so squeezed into our parking place that we couldn't get a car in to jump us.  A nice man drove his car down STEPS, to help us out.  They found jumper cables, but they didn't have ends on them.  Never fear, one of the men just held the cables to the battery.

Giza- The Pyramids

One of my dreams has always been to visit the pyramids in Egypt.  The have always had an allure for me.  We have always talked about our Egypt and Israel trip.  And here we are at the Pyramids in Giza.  They are enormous.

Christopher asked me what I wanted to do in Egypt and immediately said that I wanted to ride a camel by the pyramids.  He made it happen!!

      Don't be fooled-Camels are REALLY big. 

Excavation continues around the Pyramids and Sphinx

The Sphinx is smaller than I thought it would be, but it is OH! SO COOL.

If you zoom in on Christopher's Glasses you can see the reflection of the Sphinx

Cairo

After leaving Jordan, we crossed back over to Israel, drove another 20 minutes and then crossed into Egypt.  This border was a bit more busy, again you walk through the crossing.  We stayed at a lovely hotel just across the border.  I think there were the two us and Father and Son staying at the hotel. We were late leaving the hotel because unbeknownst to us we needed an armed guard to travel with us and the tour company had to stop and get a guard.  If you are an American traveling in Egypt you get the pleasure of escort with a semiautomatic weapon.

We drove from the border across the Sinai to Cairo in about 5 hours over the most desolate land I have ever seen-SAND, SAND, ROCK and more SAND.  Our Driver drove most of the way down the middle of the road, which is fine except when cars were coming the opposite direction.

We drove under the Suez Canal which is heavily guarded.

Cairo is HUGE,18 million people, yet we saw donkey carts all over the place.

6 people on a scooter- who needs a minivan?

Cairo is filthy and also really dirty (as in dirt and sand from the desert) 

Our first stop in Cairo was one of biggest Mosques in Egypt.  It was huge and I got to wear a fun green outfit.  I was actually glad we had an armed guard when we visited here.  It made me feel that much safer.

That night we went on a dinner cruise on the Nile.

Petra, Jordan

If you have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, you will understand why we wanted to go to Petra, Jordan.  Petra is a stunning.  While researching the cheapest way to get to Cairo from Israel, I discovered that Petra was only a few hours from our starting point to Cairo.  We decided to throw in a day trip to Petra.  We don't usually go on organized tours, but it was really the only practical way to see Petra, especially in one day.

To Enter Jordan you walk across the border.  At this border crossing, there was hardly anyone crossing and only tourists.  Once in Jordan you ride a bus with a Jordanian Guide and Driver to Petra- about 2 hours over some incredible mountains.

On the way back to Israel after our day trip, I was luckily enough to get stopped and searched more thoroughly.

The city is carved from rock and is beyond comprehension. The level of industry is amazing.

This amphitheatre was huge. 

Raiders of the Lost Ark...

The detail in carvings was amazing throughout Petra.  If you looks at the left side of the picture you can see foot holes where they climbed up to carve this out of rock. They started at the top and worked their way down.

This is me attempting to look at ease on this maniac horse. Christopher went cruising by me on his horse galloping up the hill. He had the camera so I didn't get a picture.

If you notice there is a white circle in the front of this Bedouin tent.  YEP that is a satellite

dish.  Many tents that we drove by had really nice cars parked out front too.

For more information on Petra see here.