Mediterraen Sea and Ceasarea

Monday, December 21

Today we visited the ruins of Ceasarea. Herod himself (yes, the infamous man that condemned Jesus) built this amazing city. There is an aqueduct that ran from coastal city to coastal city carrying water to various cities. It was a gorgeous, beautiful day!

David and Goliath and the Bell Caves

Sunday, December 20

Today we went to visit the site where David slew Goliath. Gayle brought little slings for the kids to try practicing with and of course they loved it!

After escaping being pelted to death by several thousand flying rocks, we went a saw tons of amazing caves. Some natural and some man-made.

Jason and Sam squeezing through the same cave tunnel.
cute Anna!

Saturday at the Garden Tomb

Saturday we took the kids to the Garden Tomb. Saturday is our Sabbath here. It was strange because the Palestinian children were getting out of school as we were just getting out of church and walking to the Garden Tomb. The Palestinian's observe their day of rest on Friday and the Israeli's on Saturday. I guess the Christian's follow suit with the Israeli's and observe Sabbath on Saturday.

As we walked to the tomb, the men on the streets kept pointing at Scott because he was publicly holding a baby and helping his wife!

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).

Bear Badge

Josh found out last week that two boys (YOUNGER than him) were both earning their Boy Scout Bear Badges before he was. That was all it took and last night there ended up being three boy scouts earning their Bear Badge instead of two. Congratulations, Josh!

Snowflake Temple

We went to our cabin during fall break. When we showed up at the church building on Sunday, the parking lot was empty. I guess it was Stake Conference. The problem was that we didn't know where to go for Stake Conference so we decided to take the kids to the temple. We all shared our testimonies and enjoyed some time on the temple grounds.

Blessing Day

Today has been a spiritual feast for me. We blessed our little daughter Lily. My mom fixed the blessing dress I wore as a baby so Lily could wear it and the blanket is a Bethlehem Blanket from my mother-in-law. I am so very grateful for Priesthood blessings in my life. What a beautiful way to begin life - with a blessing from her father surrounded by men who love her and love Heavenly Father.

I wanted to be sure and put pictures of Lily up today for family and friends that couldn't be with us. I have especially missed Gayle. Its the first baby blessing she has missed in our family. I guess we can make an exception (ONLY because she is on the other side of the world serving a mission) but there is a void without her and a pang in my heart. I wish she could have been here.

As you can see, she is beautiful and I am loving the time I have with this little baby. The kids are so sweet and gentle with her. She is the icing on the cake to an already fantastic bunch of Brown kids!