We've made it to Israel

Here we are at Sky Harbor waiting to leave!

...and here we are five minutes later....

We made it! And truthfully, the voyage was not horrific as I had planned it to be. The flight was long but the kids really did great. On the flight over the Atlantic, each chair had its own TV screen from which the user could retrieve flight information, select a movie (from about 20 options), or play video games. It cost us $5 to buy each one of our kids earphones and we decided it was well worth the price. The kids were happy and each one watched movies until they passed out with exhaustion.

The only one that didn't seem to care so much was Zach. Every time I checked on him, he was either reading a book or excitedly writing in the journal I gave him for Christmas. He made about 5 entries by the time we reached Tel Aviv.

Meeting Grandpa and Grandma for the first time!

On our way home to the Jerusalem Center from the airport, we ended up in an enormous bottleneck of traffic. Nothing out of the unusual for us, of course. Until we got to the source of the bottleneck and realized the reason for the traffic delay. We passed about 7 armored vechicles with Israeli soldiers and what appeared to be 3 small army tanks. My father-in-law nonchalantly mentioned the small tanks were machines designed to seek out and detonate bombs. Apparently a metal cylinder had been thrown over the separation wall between the Palestinians and the freeway that was being investigated as a bomb. Nice way to start our trip (don't let Mom see this).

Nighttime last night was not fun, though. The baby was in tears to go to bed at 8:30. I kept her up until 10:00 hoping she would be tired enough to sleep well. At 1:00 a.m. she woke up and decided to play. She also woke up Sam and Anna who likewise decided to play. I had not slept on the plane and so I really wanted to sleep. Scott helped out and got Lily to fall asleep around 3:00 and then worked on Sam. Sam crashed around 4:00 a.m. at which point the miniarettes began their calls to prayer for the Muslim worshippers. That naturally woke up Lily again. So keep your fingers crossed for me tonight!

This afternoon we went into the old city. Its amazing to see the same things happening today that I would imagine happened in Christ's time. Shopkeeper after Shopkeeper yelling at us to come and look at their things. Then at dusk the city began pouring in with Ultra-Orthodox Jews coming to pray as Sabbath began. It was loud, dirty, exciting, amazing and beautiful all at once. We also had the chance to visit the Church of the Holy Sepluchre. It was great to view so many people of different faiths coming to worship the Savior.

We tried to get pictures of the Ultra Orthodox Jews coming in for prayers (one on the left). We'll keep trying!

Here we are in the Old City. Behind us its hard to make out but you see many satellite dishes and barbed-wired fenching. The fenching also has a Israeli flag pinned to it that has been torn down. We noticed a man inside the wire walking around with a 9mm gun. Scott asked his Dad about it and was told the man is Israeli and bought the home in a Palestinian neighborhood. Friendly neighbors.

Actual doors to homes inside the Old City (These homes are also on top of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre).