Little Petra 2/15/13

After getting to our Bedouin Camp and unloading our stuff we decided to go to Little Petra and hike around. A nice man decide that he wanted to take us around and show us the sites. It was a good warm up for big Petra the next day.

Toothpaste or Shampoo? 2/6/13

Tristan got into a bit of trouble the other day, he decided that the tooth paste would work nicely for shampoo. I don't think our giggling and picture taking is going to teach him the correct lesson hmmmm......

Masada take 2 2/7/13

We went to Masada again with some friends that came and stayed with us. This time we watched the video first and then took the tram up. It was a very interesting video and it gave us a

lot of knowledge.

It talked about the ramp that was built to siege the mountain. And how when the Romans finally broke through the Jews knew that they would be forced into slavery and their women and children would be raped and killed so they decided that it would be better for them to die at their own hands. The excavators found lots that had men's names on them, after every man had killed his wife and children they drew lots to decide who would be last alive and have to fall on his own sword. Ugh! How awful but very interesting and historical.

Behind us the big square space was where the Roman camp use to lay. (just above Chris)

This is the longs staircase down to the lower palace.

This is a picture of us down in the Lower Palace.

I had to add this picture since Michael's face is so darn funny!

This is the Ramp that the Romans built to siege the mountain.

Western Palace and bath house.

The Sachne (Gan Hashlosha) 2/2/13

The Sachne: Gan Hashlosha national park.

We had so much fun at this beautiful place, Chris heard about on a blog when he was researching for our next sightseeing trip. It is said to be the Garden of Eden. When we saw pictures we were so excited to go, However, we made a rather large blunder. We knew that it was a park with a beautiful large spring, what we didn't know was that it was for swimming. We didn't pack any suits or towels :(  We couldn't let the trip be a waste though, so we had all the kids strip down to their undies and jump in (Chris went in in his Shorts).

The water was a bit on the chilly side since it is only February, but the kids still didn't want to get out, they had such a blast. The kids found that if they sat still enough little minnow type fish would come up and nibble on their toes and fingers...they were all giggling as it happened.  We will definitely be going here again, this is now on our top 10 list. 

Caesarea 1/26/13

King Herod built a large port on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, he named it Caesarea in honor of his patron Octavian Augustus Caesar. It was occupied by the Persians, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mameluke, ottoman- Bosnian refugees.

There is so much to see and it is amazing the different levels of architecture that are left. 

Chris standing in front of the theater that was built in Herod's time.

Jonathan, Michael, and Olivia (the theater in the back)

The kids are by pillars that stand where a great palace once was, dating back to the Roman period (37 BCE-324AD) 

The waves were huge and we couldn't pass up the photo opportunity so we all ended up walking away quite wet!

Herodian Amphitheater:

This was so amazing to see, there is a huge amphitheater built by Herod that use to hold horse races and sports events. It was so well intact. The kids had fun pretending to drive the chariots. 

 So many beautiful archways.

The kids are standing in front of an amazingly well preserved bath house. The tiles in the floor are spectacular to look at.

Hike to Nahal Me'arot 1/19/13

We went on a little hike with some friends of ours to Nahal Me'arot, it was only about a 30 min hike that took you up around some caves. The kids had a lot of fun doing the hike and then poking there heads in and out of all of the holes in the cave.

Fun in Utah

What a fun time we had in Utah with all of our friends and family. It was so nice to see everyone and to spend so much time there. We are missing Utah and all that it has already but are glad to be somewhere warm again. 

Thank you all for making our stay so terrific! We will see you soon.