the Banana Blog: Nate and Maria's life

Happy Valentines Day

2012-02-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

So I was helping anabelle make her valentines to pass out in school. They were little paper jars that said "I want you to be my Love Bug!" and we taped little plastic bugs on them. Then, jealous of how when I was little all of my valentines were the cheap cardboard Garfield ones my mom would pick up at the store, I mentioned "I wish I could make cool valentines too..." and then I asked anabelle what she thinks I would put on mine. She immediately said "E. coli!"

I laughed... and then said... "no... I'd do H. pylori" (the bacterium responsible for gastric ulcers)

Anyway, I made it real quick... enjoy, and happy Valentines day!

Since when did Halloween take over Christmas as the busiest holiday?

2011-11-13T22:03:00.000-08:00

Halloween has always been a fun holiday. When I was young it meant we'd throw together some costume, mostly from play clothes or items borrowed from neighbors, and then wear it to school on Halloween and then go trick-or-treating in the evening. Growing up it diminished in my life... mostly thanks to my mom, who would bribe me with legos to stay home and hand out treats. In college, it was even more pathetic. Several years I spent Halloween evening at the BYU testing center, taking exams for some chemistry or math class.

Well, I'm happy to say its importance has resurged in my life.. but I think it's resurged too much. We ended up going to FIVE parties for our kids over Halloween weekend, plus trick or treating.

1. Friday, Oct 28th: Livy's school had a Harvest festival:

2. Friday, Oct 28th: Mesa housing had their annual Halloween party (geared to students with children) right next to our place, so there was no dodging it...

3. Saturday, Oct 29th: Halloween Spookacular at Sea World

4. Saturday, Oct 29th: Trunk or treat... All of the congregations that meet at our church building got together and threw a Halloween party, complete with trick or treating from the trunks of the cars in the parking lot.

5. Monday, Oct 31st: Halloween parade and party at Anabelle's school. I attended this, but unfortunately forgot to put new batteries in the camera... whoops...

6. Monday, Oct 31st: Trick or treating. Livy had a blast, as did Anabelle. However, Anabelle noted at the end, "That was fun, but not too fun... I didn't like having to walk around so much to get candy... I just want people to give it to me".

After all of this, I feel like I've crammed in a few years of Halloweens into one weekend. For some reason, though, I have the suspicion that even though I think we'll probably still have some of Anabelle's Halloween candy left come next Halloween, we'll have to go through this all again.

Note to parents: Candy is sacred territory for kids. One of the late night guys suggested that parents tell their kids they ate their candy and then post the videos to YouTube (click here to watch). I showed the videos to Anabelle, and all she said was "I can't believe that mean man told parents to do that! I mean, how many kids cried?! That was mean of the parents too! Daddy, you would never do that right?" In the back of my mind the guilt swept over, as I had dumped 90% of Livy's candy and 60% of Anabelle's candy off at work the day before.

What to do when someone in Arizona cuts your power...

2011-10-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was madly setting up a number computer jobs to run for a week on our lab's cluster, and was happy when it started... but then... Somebody in Arizona flipped a switch and San Diego county was without power.

So if your life revolved around the computer, and everything you do requires internet access, what would you do? Well, I first pulled out my iPad to read some papers I'd saved on it... but unfortunately it had low battery, so I quickly started to panic...

However, fortunately our neighbors helped me shift my mind to something else... they whipped out their gas-grills and we started to have a barbecue under the stars (yes.. I think it was the first time I'd seen stars in San Diego).

Anyway, it was fun evening in the dark... and fortunately the power was back on in the morning, allowing me to get plugged back into my computer.

Anabelle told me to point out the best part of this story... "School was cancelled the next day!"

Love is spoken here

2011-08-14T21:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight the girls were driving us crazy, so at 8:30 we rushed them to bed. I tucked in the girls, but Livy didn't want to go to sleep without a song. As I started to sing "Love is spoken here", Anabelle asked if she could get up to get a stuffed animal. I said yes and continued singing to Livy. Midway through the song, Anabelle was in the bedroom doorway, playing with her stuffed animal, so I stopped singing briefly to remind her to come to bed since she had her stuffed monkey, and then I continued singing. Maria started laughing hysterically from the other room. This is what she'd heard:

(Me singing):
"I see my mother kneeling with our family each day.
I hear the words she whispers as she bows her head to pray.
Her plea to the Father quiets all my fears, And I am thankful love is spoken here.
Mine is a home..."
"ANABELLE!! COME HERE!!!" (said sternly, and then I continued singing):
"...where ev’ry hour is blessed by the strength of priesthood pow’r.
With father and mother leading the way,
Teaching me how to trust and obey;
And the things they teach are crystal clear, For love is spoken here.
I can often feel the Savior near, When love is spoken here."

oh, the irony.... everyone was laughing after this, except me... I looked at Anabelle and said, "it looks like I have some repenting to do"

The things we teach our kids....

2011-07-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

This morning, Anabelle was perusing an American Girl Doll catalog as we were all in the bathroom, getting ready for church. Anabelle pointed out how it was not good that the dolls were so expensive. She then said, "When I'm a mom, I'll help make my girls not want to get one." Amazed at the wisdom of our doll-crazy daughter, I followed this up with a question in hopes to instill the virtues of prudence and frugality. I asked her, "So you think they're too expensive and are not interested in getting one?" She quickly said "No, I'll still get them for myself. I just will make my daughters not want them."

We laughed and then when thinking about it, I had to admit that I fully understood the logic (and think I know where she learned it... whoops...).

Google Voice is trying to destroy my marriage..

2011-05-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

So, the last few days, Maria and the girls were on a road trip in Utah. Today they were coming home, and so Maria gave me a call before they left. Since I wasn't there to answer her call, she left a message, and my voice mail messages are always transcribed by Google Voice and the text is sent to my email. This is what Google Voice said that Maria said:

"Hey Larry, hi call me. I'm calling to let you know that weird leaving Saint George. Right now it's 12 30California time And And I'll call you later. I love you. Not. Bye"

This broke my heart... I mean, who's Larry??!!! and that's cruel that she'd say "I love you... Not!" So after weeping bitterly for an hour, I listened to her cruel message, only to find that Google Voice had lied to me. Click on this sentence to listen to what she really said.

On cue....

2011-03-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

In the middle of a diaper change the other day, Maria realized she'd left the desatin in the car. I was in the bedroom working when I saw a little naked Livy run in the room. Maria then yelled out her intent of running to the car for a minute. I voiced my objection about leaving a diaperless baby in the house, but Maria replied "She'll be fine. She's never peed without her diaper on before." That instant, Livy looked up at me with a goofy smile, as I heard the pitter patter of something on the small stack of children's books under her feet.....

Prelude to Christmas

2011-02-20T16:50:00.000-08:00

Christmas came early in the Lewis household thanks to Grandma Fae. Nate's mom came to stay with Nathan and Livy while Anabelle and I had some quality mommy/daughter time in DC ten days before Christmas. Grandma brought gifts with her and had her own little "Christmas morning" with our family. The girls were ecstatic.

Livy especially liked the dinosaur toys that sounded just like her!

She also loved the alphabet wheel that had all the fun sounds. Yipee for mom and dad, right?

I was just grateful that grandma came so I didn't feel so guilty leaving Nathan to hold down the fort with Livy. Grandma Fae reported that things didn't go too bad and she may even consider doing it again sometime (which is always a good sign that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be).

Polar Express Ward Party

2011-02-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

Our church had a family Christmas party and the theme was "The Polar Express." All the kids came in PJs and watched the movie, while the grown ups enjoyed a delicious meal.

Santa made an appearance and the kids had a blast.

My really good friend Julie (on the right) and her family joined us for the winter fun. I can't believe we've known each other since Anabelle and Aeryn were 4 months-old. She's one of my oldest friends in San Diego.

Two of our newer friends were there as well. Ronia and Erika live just across the way from us and have become an integral part of our neighborhood support system. This is Ronia with Santa Claus (who was having a wardrobe malfunction), isn't Ronia cute?

and of course, some of Anabelle's "bestest friends" (Anabelle's words) were there to add to the festivities too.

Precious Moment

2011-02-20T15:56:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving with friends

2011-02-19T21:39:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know we've completely neglected this blog, so we have a lot of catching up to do. Thanksgiving last year was spent with our friends the Hansen family.

We had a fun Pilgrim theme going, which the kids really enjoyed.

There was a bounty of food and despite our determination to make a dent in it, we still had plenty of left overs.

Runaway Baby

2011-02-19T21:33:00.000-08:00

Coming soon... an update on the past several months

2011-02-13T23:01:00.000-08:00

I recently realized that I hadn't posted anything since October. Also, according to Google Analytics, I'm also probably the only one that has noticed since they only report 6 visits to this blog since Nov 1.

Anyway, I'll be posting a few highlights from the last few months over the next couple weeks in case any of you 6 anonymous visitors are interested.

Anabelle's recent artwork

2011-02-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

The other day, Anabelle drew a little something for us... can you tell what it is?

Yeah, it's mommy and daddy at the Salt Lake Temple. It's fun watching Anabelle grow in her faith.

Livy's favorite fruit

2011-02-13T21:44:00.000-08:00

Guess which fruit is the official favorite of Livy? Yep! Blackberries...
Needless to say, she has blackberry stains on most onsies and pajamas...

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T17:11:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy Halloween!! Over the past week, we've enjoyed parties hosted by our housing complex and our church. Last night, Anabelle, the ladybug, had a blast at our ward "Trunk or Treat". Her great friend Aeryn even came along, dressed as a Panda. As for Livy, we'd lost her mouse costume the other day, so she had to wear Anabelle's old cow costume... though she didn't seem to mind, and just loved the free food and person who dressed up as the bird "Kevin" from the movie "Up". Livy kept chasing them, signing "bird" and saying "tweet tweet". At the end she caught up with the bird and gave it a series of soft, gentle kisses. Maria, with envy said "She's never given ME kisses like that!"

Livy's first steps

2010-10-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

A few times each week, I come home early from the lab so that Maria can go work out at the local YMCA. So the other day, Livy was super cranky after Maria left. I was trying to eat dinner and feel the girls, but Livy was going nuts in her seat, so I let her down. Of course, she started throwing a fit when I set her on the floor. After a few seconds I turned around, and to my surprise, Livy was up and walking over to us with a whiny little cry. Anyway, Anabelle and I spent the rest of the evening waiting for Maria to get back and helping Livy practice her walking.

Anabelle at work....

2010-10-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

We love Anabelle soo much, but it's bittersweet to see her growing so fast... she's now quick to say "I am four AND A HALF!!" Her current favorites are dinosaurs, navigating pbskids.org and crafts. She especially loves the intersection: Caillou's dinosaur dig game at the pbs site, and making dinosaur crafts...

Livy at work...

2010-10-10T23:20:00.000-07:00

We love our little Livy Bear. She's really mellow and is able to entertain herself rather well... So with what does she entertain herself?

Anything she can get into... no drawer, purse, cupboard, or bathroom is safe from her little hands....

Happy Birthday Maria and Livy and Anabelle (sort of)

2010-10-10T23:04:00.000-07:00

This past month we celebrated 3 special days... Maria and Livy both had their birthdays (XX years and 1 year) and Anabelle turned 4.5 years. To celebrate these special days, we took a trip to the happiest place on earth.

Anabelle had a blast since she's now 40.5 inches tall... thus, she was barely able to go on even the bigger rollercoasters.

Livy also had a great time despite the fact that she was strapped to my belly almost the whole day:

Even on many of the rides...

I had a fun time taking Anabelle on rides I went on as a 4-year old:

(* note: I remember that the last ride I went on when I was 4 was Pirates of the Caribbean. While I remember enjoying it that time, I hadn't been on it since. Well, it terrified Anabelle this time, and I even found it disturbing. As I walked out, Maria and I were wondering what possessed my parents back in '84 to think it was a good ride to take a 4-year-old on. However, I should say that Livy loved it... she kept barking at the dogs that were hanging around the pirates.)

Well, except for scaring Anabelle on the Pirates ride, it was a great birthday! Happy birthday girls!

(P.S. Livy's birthday was actually a couple weeks later, so we celebrated again at home, with bit of cheese cake)

First day of school... year two

2010-09-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

Anabelle started at her preschool again two weeks ago. On the left is the photo from her first day of school last year, and the right is from this year.... I have to say it's bittersweet seeing her growing up so fast.

What we did for our summer vacation...

2010-09-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

We had an exciting summer vacation... a few things we did include:

Visiting the grandparents and Anabelle/Livy's cousin Victoria in DC. While there, the girls had lots of fun going to the zoo, the aquarium, and riding the merry-go-round with Mama Bear and Papa Bear. They were also very glad to spend time with their uncles and aunt. However, I almost had to fire Maria, since she forgot to take pictures during the entire 4 weeks out there.... :p Here's one of the few pictures she took:

Maria and the girls also visited the Tuttles, a family we knew in Israel (they moved to DC around the time we returned from Israel). Their daughter Rachel was like the big sister Anabelle never had, and was always so nice to Anabelle at church and when we visited their house occasionally... Anabelle still talks about Rachel occasionally when something reminds her of Rachel (e.g., two days ago Anabelle saw a photo booth and said "I've been in one of those before with my friend Rachel in Israel", and then tonight, while reading a book about hamsters, Anabelle told me about Rachel's gerbil).

It's a long story, but we spent about a month and a half in Provo, Utah. There Anabelle took some swimming lessons a local water park. At the end, her teacher took her on some of the water slides.

Anabelle and Livy got to go to a couple dinosaur museums.

Where they learned a number of things, as follow:

1) Mommy likes dinosaurs:

2) One should be careful about standing behind large sauropods, since there is a lot of fiber in those leaves they eat:

3) You can design dinosaurs with two tails, but they take twice as much time to clean up after:

4) Even if you are excavating and find dino fossils, you still can't pull them up since they seem to be cemented to the museum floor:

5) It's more fun to excavate dinosaurs when they're in a block of chalk:

Over the summer we also attended the annual Llama Fest held at the Spanish Fork Hare Krishna Temple

And the girls went to Fish Lake, which is the lake where Grandma Fae used to go fishing in when she'd go on vacation with her family 50-60 years ago. While I stayed home and madly worked on my doctoral thesis proposal (due that weekend), they all went with Grandpa Mark, Grandma Fae, uncle Oleg, aunt Janalee, and her cousins Petya, Florentine, and Timok.

While these are only a sampling of the things we did, you can see, it was a good summer, packed with lots of fun. Though it's nice to finally be back in San Diego and getting back to normal life!

Saving it for daddy

2010-08-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

We're currently out of town while Nate is busy working back at the lab. The other day we went out to eat and Anabelle got some Oreos. When she got down to last one, she said "I'm going to save this one for daddy!" I asked her if she was sure, since it will be a couple weeks before we see him again. She was adamant about her intent. So we got in the car to drive back, and she was carefully holding the cookie in her lap. After a little while, I looked back and saw a few nibbles on the edge of the cookie and a few crumbs on Anabelle's lips. I later looked back again and saw more little nibbles. So I laughed to myself and assured Anabelle that we would get Nate another cookie when we would see him again... Anabelle reluctantly commenced devouring the cookie... It was so sweet to see the pure love she has for Nate and the sacrifices she sincerely tries to make.

Zion trips

2010-08-01T15:15:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple months we've had the opportunity to go to southern Utah a few times... naturally, we made it a point to hike a bit at Zion National Park. Once, we decided to hike the Narrows.. the water was nice and cool, but there was a lot of it...

We gave up after a couple miles and did a little floating back to the trailhead...

Another time, we went and hiked the emerald pools trail:

Anabelle wanted to do some water ballet on the way up the trail:

It ends up that the pools were not-so-emerald... more like amber:

After a long day of hiking, a nap is in order:

And any good botanist-in-training should immediately open her flower guide to review the flowers seen during the day with her monkey friend:

Missing child... found

2010-08-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

We temporarily lost Anabelle... then I noticed that I'd accidentally rolled her up in the inflatable mattress

Our Russian Vacation

2010-05-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, we had a brief trip to Russia. Upon landing, we were introduced to the people and culture.

We were especially excited about the famous Russian ballet.

Actually, it was just International Day at Anabelle's school. Her classroom theme was Russia. Anabelle's teachers had taught them for for ~two weeks about Russia, about the matryoshka dolls, the ballet, Tchaikovsky, etc. Anabelle loved it, and all of the kids were very cute. This is Anabelle with her teachers.

And some friends

Which do you like better?

2010-05-03T23:43:00.001-07:00

I recently discovered "Picnik" for my photo editing and spend a few minutes playing around with it, what do you think?

Happy Birthday!

2010-04-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

This past week Anabelle got to go to two birthday parties at a local private park here in La Jolla. The first one was for a friend at school. After it, Anabelle excitedly told me "Daddy! Daddy! Guess what! I saw a real pirate today!"

Maria then said "Yeah! He was a great actor... he never broke out of his role throughout the whole party!" Anabelle then looked at us and said "He wasn't a real pirate?" Whoops....

Then a couple days later, Anabelle's school celebrated Israel's Birthday at the same private park. To celebrate it, they went out to fly kites. Needless to say, Anabelle had a blast!

Egyptian Adventure

2010-03-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

After a visit to the San Diego Museum of Man a few weeks ago, Anabelle decided she wanted an Egyptian themed birthday party so she could pretend to be an anthropologist.

So Nathan baked a delicious pyramid cake, while I (with help from my friend Lori) whipped up some yummy-mummy cupcakes, and we had quite an adventure.

There were bursts of giggles and squeals as we cut the cake and the kids discovered "mummies" hidden inside the cake. They kept coming back for more "excavation" opportunities (it didn't hurt that the mummies tasted an awful lot like marshmallows).

The mummy cupcakes were quite a hit too!

There were about 12 servings from the cake and I made about 30+ cupcakes, and yet we had "O" left overs. Some of the kids, including Anabelle, looked ready for a nap after eating so much baked goodness.

Good thing there were lots of games prior to the sweet feast...

As part of the adventure the kids got to decipher hieroglyphics, dance like Egyptians, and practice the ancient art of mummification (no worries, everyone went home with their bowels intact).

Doesn't Dusty make a cute mummy?

In addition to playing anthropologists, all the kids also had a blast digging for dinosaur bones (which, as Anabelle pointed out, is really the job of a paleontologist). With shovels, sifters, and rakes at hand they tore up the "dig site." Of course any good anthro-paleontologist can't do without his/her trusted dust brush. All of the kids LOVED using the little brushes to dust off their wonderful findings.

I think the dinosaur dig was the high-point of the party. Just ask Seth, who proudly displayed his find for the site photographer.

No one wanted to see the day come to an end, but I guess that just means it was a successful birthday party. Even Livy was sad to say goodbye to all her new friends.

Thanks to everyone who made it all possible.

Mushiness up ahead, you have been warned

2010-03-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

"Adapt to the changes in our lives, that we may realize what is most important, that we may express our gratitude always and thus find joy in the journey.” -Thomas S. Monson

I borrowed this quote from a friend's blog because it describes in a nutshell my greatest hope and struggle. As Nate and I approach our seven year anniversary I am astounded as I look back on the amount of adventures we've had in this journey that is marriage. I must admit it hasn't always been easy, but it is those moments of complete and utter bliss that make it worth it. Sometimes it's the simple moments that make the most difference. Just the other night as I rolled over, cold and with a stuffy nose, I wrapped myself around my warm and cozy hubby and thought, "yeah, life is good."

Photography by Arika Reed

2010-02-28T16:46:00.000-08:00

Thank you Arika for bringing out in beautiful colors the love we feel for each other and the fun that it is to be part of our family. If you are local to the San Diego area, we highly recommend Arika. Here's her link www.arikareed.com

Quality Time

2010-02-09T20:05:00.000-08:00

This past month we've enjoyed a lot of quality time with family and friends.

Anabelle is having a great time showing Livy how all of her toys function.

Earlier in the month we were sad to say goodbye to our neighbors/friends Dennis and Josephine as the returned to Tanzania.

However, a few days later we were happy to see Gene visit with her girls (they moved while we were in Israel).

Maria went home for a few days so that her family could meet Livy, so Anabelle and I had a blast playing together while Livy and Maria were out of town. During that time we had fun watching movies every night like Heidi and dinosaur movies, going to the natural history museum, playing with Play-Doh to make letters, fish and spiders.

However, I have to say, my favorite moment was when I came home from work the other day and Anabelle excitedly said, "Daddy! Daddy! Can we use the telescope thing tonight to look at little body pieces?!" She was referring to a microscope I borrowed form the medical school a few months back for a histology class I was taking. So being the geeky father that I am, I said "Of course!" so we spent a good half hour looking at tissue samples and talking about all of the internal organs... poor girl...

Christmas sledding in St. George

2010-01-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

In cahoots

2010-01-05T18:06:00.000-08:00

Gifts from Up Above

2010-01-05T17:26:00.001-08:00

Our girls

2010-01-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

Mommy! Can I hold Livy?

2009-11-15T22:15:00.001-08:00

Anabelle loves being a new big sister. On a daily basis we hear her say "Can I look at Livy?!", "I want to kiss Livy!", etc., etc. It takes all the effort we can give to save Livy from Anabelle's smothering love. Livy is also growing up to be one majorly sleep-deprived baby thanks to Anabelle's love. Anyway, we regularly hear Anabelle say. "Can I hold Livy?!" So here's a bunch of those occasions from the past 6 weeks.

Maria's mom had bought her tickets a couple hours before Maria's water broke, so fortunately the airline let her change her ticket. She came out the day after Livy was born, and this photo was from a couple days later:

Anabelle admiring her baby sister:

Big hug:

"It was worth having to take a bath just to hold my baby sister!"

Sharing the baby with their cousin
It's so much easier having two... I mean Anabelle changes diapers, prepares bottles, and even bathes her little sister:

"Mommy, her breath stinks!"

Livy's not always as happy to see her big sister...

"Livy, I love you!"

Anabelle's sinister side... she enjoys seeing Livy scared...

Not quite as mature as Anabelle, but I wanted a turn too..

I had a list of postings to write, but this one managed to cut to the top of the list

2009-09-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Livya Yael Lewis! While her birth was so reminiscent of Anabelle's (water breaking in the middle of the night with no contractions, 7 hours of labor, a handful of pushes to get her out), as we look at Liviya, we wonder how can she be related to Anabelle? I mean, she's so quiet and doscile! (at least for the first 4 hours of life).

Her first bath.

Her stats:
Birth date/time: 09-29-09 7:54am
weight: 8lbs 2oz
length: just under 20 inches
hair: dark brown and curly
eyes: probably brown
favorite pastime: sleeping and eating
interesting piece of trivia: She has a cousin that was born in Arizona just a few hours earlier

Dinosaur dig

2009-09-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

On our return home from Israel we stopped to see the grandparents. Down the street from my parents' house, there is a museum built on top of a place where they found a bunch of dinosaur footprints. Anabelle had been telling me all summer that she wanted to be a paleontologist
(we took this video as we walked from the park by our place in Rehovot one afternoon in June)

so I let her try it out:

She liked it!

להתראות ישראל (see you later Israel)

2009-08-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

So we returned from our year in Israel about 2 months ago, but today when I was thinking about doing a new post, I noticed I'd started this one a while back and never finished/posted it. Anyway, though it's kind of past its date, here I go...

Being in Israel was an amazing experience and we recommend it to anyone. We learned so much and grew so close as a family. We also gained such a broader appreciation for other cultures and a better view of who we are and who we want to be. Anyway, here are some photos from the last few weeks there....

Anabelle had a blast there with friends from church:

And friends from the Weizmann:

Occasionally we'd join some friends from the Weizmann for Bible study. Before leaving, they had us over for dinner and one last reading from Deuteronomy:

Before we left, Anabelle made sure to check out the science museum in Jerusalem:

And Maria said bye to close friends who were also moving back to the states:

We made sure to take one last breakfast at the cafe down the street from our apartment... Anabelle made sure to enjoy the "American Breakfast" one more time (pancakes with fruit, ice cream and chocolate syrup):

We were so grateful for so many good friends who took us in while in Israel

Pigeons and Neglectful Parenting

2009-07-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

Bet Guvrin is the site of an old town where there used to be a big ancient pigeon farm, a limestone quarry, and some old tombs. If you look at all of the walls in the pigeon caves, you can see all of the old roosts.

There are all sorts of caves you can visit there. However, I was sad that they have closed off my favorite one. When I was in Israel 11 years ago, there was one that you could only enter if you were to climb on your hands and knees through a long dark tiny tunnel, until the tunnel ends an opens up to a small pigeon cave.

The most impressive site in Bet Guvrin is the Bell Caves. These bell shaped caves were ancient limestone quaries in which they'd dig a hole, and over time cut out limestone blocks from the floor and haul them up through the hole.
Some of these holes got pretty deep.

The sides of some of the cave walls have collapsed over the millennia, leading to some pretty lighting effects.

Unfortunately we didn't realize that Anabelle was sick until she crashed in the last cave... when we felt her, we noticed she clearly had a fever. I've since had to correct her a few time since she now think that you get sick from going in the bell caves. (and I'm still in trouble for noticing she was hot that morning when I got up with her, but not thinking to actually check her temperature before getting her ready... and yes, she even rode on my shoulders for an hour before she crashed...).

4th of July expat style

2009-07-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

It's been fun celebrating all of the Israeli holidays this past year, but some US holidays must be celebrated... so for the 4th of July we celebrated it by going to the beach right below the US ambassador's house, throwing down a towel, and watching the sun set.

Tel Aviv Beach Day

2009-07-14T01:42:00.001-07:00

Another get together before we leave for the U.S. This time with our good friends Karla, Carmen and David. We went to the Beach up in Tel Aviv and had a great time.

Anabelle is such a beach baby. She loved having several grown ups to play with and bury in sand. Mom enjoyed sitting for a change and just watching Anabelle have fun.

It was a perfect day except for the jelly-fish that decided to get friendly with Carmen. Actually, during the later part of the summer the Tel Aviv Beach gets infested with jelly-fish, so I guess it could have been worse, although I am not sure Carmen would agree.

Bibilical Zoo in Jerusalem

2009-07-01T04:59:00.001-07:00

It seems time has flown so quickly while in Israel. It's almost time to say goodbye. So, we're trying to get together with as many friends as we can before that time comes. Thus, we got together with our friends Michelle and Yitzhak (who were also here through Fulbright) at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem. It seems we got more pics of the kids than anything else, and as I look at all the photos I realize I didn't take any of the adults, woops! Sorry Michelle.

Anabelle and Yitzhak had a lot of fun running around the zoo in melt-your-face-off weather. I thought I was going to pass out, but had fun too.

The animals had the right idea, most of them were either sleeping or keeping under cover.

The way those two were running around and climbing everywhere, you would have thought it was a beautiful spring afternoon.

We did our best to keep the kiddos hydrated and Anabelle found the perfect hat to hide under (that's ok, mom didn't need her hat, right?)

-Posted by Maria, once again too lazy to log Nathan out.

Sorry, correction, this is the best!

2009-06-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

Yafah, yafah, yafah! What a beautiful little GIRL!!! I thought seeing the breathtaking views of Petra was the highlight of this month, but seeing our little bun in the oven this week, beats Petra hands down. Our doctor measured and probed every inch of our little girl, and declared her right on schedule. Well, except she measured about three weeks older in height (huh, I guess no one told her she's suppose to be short).

It's amazing to me how defined her facial features are already. Obviously, most babies look the same about this stage, but it seems to me that she looks a lot like what Anabelle looked like in her 4D ultrasound. They seem to have the same button nose and cleft chin (it's much more clear in the other views we got of her). Anabelle has made me go through the ultrasound printouts several times in the last few days. She loves, loves, loves her little sister. I can't say I blame her, it's hard not to fall in love the minute you set eyes on her (I might be a little tiny bit bias though, but not by much).

A day in Petra

2009-06-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

The hike into the city of Petra took about 30 minutes including the Siq (you can see the beginning of the Siq and Maria below).

Due to the extreme dryness and lack of water sources, the Siq was equipped with small aqueducts all along the way. Below is a carving of a camel and its handler (only the feet are clear now). Such engravings of camels usually marked the presence of water. If you look closely, you can see the aqueduct running behind the legs of the handler and camel. You can't see it in the picture, but to the right of the handler there is a small canal that descend into a small pool area where I assume rain water was collected.

Does this look familiar to any of you Indiana Jones fans? Immediately after the Siq, you will find the "Treasury" which is the most photographed and recognized building in Petra.

If you turn right from here, you'll head towards the Street of Facades, with tombs flanking both sides.

At the very back of the city, past the trail to the Byzantine Church, we found the trail up to the Monastery. It is said that there are about 800 steps. Maria and Karla were too busy holding on to the donkey for dear life and Nate was too busy playing donkey to a demanding Anabelle to notice (so don't take our word on that number).

Too late, Maria realized this was not the brightest idea, nor the safest way to get up to the Monastery. Although she probably would have never made it up there on her own with the scorching weather, so... would she do it again? probably not. Is she glad she got to see the Monastery? Oh yeah!!

So the big smile you see on Maria here, is not because of the beautiful view, nor because she was glad to see her handsome husband again (although she was happy to see him). The smile was due to the euphoric feeling as it dawned on her all the things that could have gone wrong on that donkey but didn't. It's good to be all in one piece.

As we came around the last bend to the Monastery, the view took our breath away. It was awesome!!

We had a really long stop at the Monastery, re hydrating and having lunch. By the time we made it down it was time to start heading out.

Of course, Nathan being the energizer bunny that he is, couldn't resist hiking up to the "Urn Tomb" while Anabelle took a nap on her carrier.

Unfortunately, the day went by faster than we had planned. As soon as Nate came down we had to head out.

We were running late enough that while Nate ran through the Siq (energizer bunny, remember?), Karla, Maria and Anabelle caught a carriage at the Monastery and rode out in style (well... not really, but we'll pretend).

Anabelle and Maria were exhausted and while they regained some energy we ran into the taxi driver that drove us in from the border.

He took us back to the hostel and after a few goodbyes to our new friends (Naser and his wife, owners of the Petra Gate Hostel ***** stars for service) and a stop at the taxi driver's home for fruit punch with his family, we were headed back to the border.

It was an amazing experience, which we will not forget anytime soon.

P.S. If the pics seem a lot better than previous ones, it is thanks to Maria fiddling with her new trial version of Photoshop Elements 7 (some of the "before" and "after" pics are so shockingly different it is unbelievable). Who needs a good camera with Photoshop!

Saved the best for last

2009-06-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

thanks Wikipedia for the image

We finally made our way to the Rose City of Petra in Jordan. We've been wanting to do this trip ever since we got here, but wanted to make sure to plan it well. The trip was amazing and despite kicking ourselves for not having a good camera, we are so glad we went. Our good friend Karla joined us in this whirlwind adventure and we were glad for her companionship.

Originally our plan had been to take a bus, but luckily things didn't work out at the last minute and we had to rent a car. Good thing too, because we would have never made it back in time to catch the bus back home. Plus, the weather was scorching hot and parking right next to the Israel/Jordanian border was definitely a plus.

We stayed in a small hostel named Petra Gate, where the owner went all out in helping us get the most out of our time there. This is the view from our little room.

Because of our little mishap with the bus in the morning, we got into Wadi Musa (the name of the town next to Petra)a bit later than planned. Naser (the hostel owner) suggested we visit Little Petra since Petra was already closed by then. I must say, if you ever visit Petra, Little Petra is well worth the trip, especially if you end up signing up for a dinner package (which we didn't have time for since we were signed up for the night hike into Petra later that evening).

Anabelle loved Little Petra, especially because there was no hiking involved. The entire sight is pretty flat, and the only strenuous activity was going up stairs to look into the one temple that had a pretty well preserved Fresco still visible on the ceiling.

After about an hour in LP we headed back to Wadi Musa and had a very quick but delicious Jordanian dinner of Mandi at the El Siwani Restaurant. It was delicious and much better priced than most of the other restaurants. It came with three different types of rice, salad and pita on the side.

(picture owned by oldstock.blogspot.com)
We ate so fast I didn't even have time to take a picture.

Our helpful cab driver picked us up at the restaurant and drove us over to Petra five minutes before the night tour began. The 1/2 hour trail into Petra was lighted by candles and it was super quiet, leaving us with feelings of wonderment and reverence.

Once we arrived at the Treasury there were hundred of candles surrounding a makeshift stage area where we were entertained by two talented local musicians playing traditional music and later enjoyed a passionate rendition of a well known poem about Petra.

Nathan spend most of the time fiddling with the camera, trying to create wine out of water(it really was a miracle that we got any decent pictures out of that camera), and had great results in my opinion. Thank you Nate!!!

We were also very grateful to the friendly staff who gave us a ride back to the main gate since baby Lewis decided to give Mom cramps and make it near impossible to hike back out. I guess she didn't like being up past 11:00 pm. Go figure!

Stay tune for pics from our second day in Petra, coming soon.
-posted by Maria

It grew legs and ran away...

2009-05-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

These past two weeks I had two conferences... one in Germany and another in Cairo. However, In the near future there may be a dearth of pictures... on the way to Cairo our new camera grew legs and ran away... bummer....

However, I did get some pics from Cairo from someone else... We had dinner at the Cairo Citadel one night... there was a pretty view from there.

Finally settled on a favorite...

2009-05-09T05:32:00.000-07:00

One thing I love about Israel is the abundance of different flowers out here. All over you'll find gardens with tulips, roses, and all the usual ones. Also on the Weizman campus, a large number of the trees are giant flowering trees exhibiting a whole range of flower shapes, sizes, and colors. On top of that, in the spring, all sorts of wild flowers come out in all of the fields. However, I get to walk by my favorite flowers everyday on the way to work. Along a long wall on the side of the path is a vine which has very unique flowers... they were out in the fall, but by the time I got around to taking a picture, there were only two left... and when Anabelle saw that I wanted to take a picture of them, she immediately ran and plucked them off...

Fortunately, a few weeks ago the passion fruit vine bloomed again...

The scientific name is Passiflora edulis and here's a link to more varieties.

Spring Break Road Trip #2 - The Golan, Galilee, etc.

2009-04-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

We spent ~ 1.5 days around the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. It was very enlightening... some of the things we learned included:

1) Little fridges aren't very exciting to watch (Anabelle insisted that I join her in it...)

2) If you ever are having a great deep and lengthy conversation in the car with your spouse, stop immediately, because something is seriously wrong with that picture! When we hit that point, I turned around and saw this:After a few wet-wipes and half a day of running around...

3) The Nimrod Fortress doesn't really have nimrods in it. It's a cool fortress, but Anabelle was disappointed that there weren't any nimrod princesses there.
#2 enjoyed the fortress too... as far as we could tell...

4) Mosquitos like old crusader-era cisterns.

5) Even though Cesarea Philippi was a pagan city where human sacrifices were done to the god Pan, it is considered special in the Christian world since near it Christ asked his disciples what he thought of him. I thought it was cool because a nice-sized river suddenly appears at the base of a rocky cliff a few feet above where this picture was taken... (think... living waters gushing forth from a rock...)

6) Lizards are cool... espcially when running around on a really old basalt synagogue at Chorazin.

7) Like what happened to Jesus there, almost nobody in Chorazin listened to Anabelle as she preached at the Basalt Synagogue... though maybe it was because we were the only ones there.

8) Jesus was baptized in this river... but Anabelle has to wait until she's bigger.

9) Ostriches can deliver a kick up to 500 pounds per square inch. Don't worry... we didn't learn this through experience... we read it on a sign on the ostrich farm door.

10) There are now churches where ~all significant New Testament stories took place... this is the Mount of the Beatitudes church (see Matthew 5).

11) Peter lived under a big church... The shade must have been really nice during those hot Galilean summers. He also lived down the street from this big, white synagogue... no wonder he was so religious (not really... it's a 4th or 5th century synagogue, though the are remains of an older one under it).

12) Israeli cars can't go into Jericho.

13) Since it happened here, it's ok to throw rocks, because one might fly into a cave and break an old jar, thereby leading to the discovery of lots of old scriptures... (Dead Sea scrolls at Qumran).

14) I was surprised to see a sign pointing me to my parents' house, but they weren't home... in fact,despite the sign, I couldn't find St. George...At least there was a cool monastery down that road in Wadi Qelt.

Spring Break Road Trip #1 - Haifa and Hof Dor

2009-04-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Over Pesach break (Passover break), we decided to take a road trip. The first day we went up to Haifa to see the beautiful Baha'i gardens and the shrine of the Bab.

Near there, we went to a beach resort (Hof Dor) where there was a museum for Tel Dor, a mound with all sorts of ruins there found at the bottom of the sea.

However, we went for a special presentation on Tekhelet, a blue dye they use on tassels on Jewish garments. This dye is mentioned 48 times in the Tanakh (Jewish Bible). The interesting thing is that not just any blue dye can be used. The Tanakh is very clear about specific requirements that the dye must meet. Thus, not all Jews wear this blue thread on their Tzitzit. In this presentation they discussed how it was recently found that the dye from certain snails off of the beach in Hof Dor meet all the requirements listed in the Tanakh. There is a great push for this practice to resume in Jewish tradition because it is a commandment in the Torah: ""Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, that they shall make themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and they shall put on the corner fringe a blue (tekhelet) thread." So, our tour was educational as well as religiously inclined. They discussed all sorts of stuff including its chemistry, so naturally I was enthralled.

After the discussion they took us snorkeling to find the snails. They quickly ran out of snorkeling equipment, so I just waded through the water and looked for them. I immediately found more than 5... most were empty or had hermit crabs in them.

However, one of them had a snail! He was hiding though, so you can only see its little protective plug on the hole.

Anabelle didn't find many snails, but made a few new friends.

After snorkeling they let us use the purified chemicals to dye some wool, while they read some of the scriptures to us. Anabelle had a blast during this small "chemistry" experiment.

We ended the day at Burger King, enjoying special Pesach hamburgers, complete with unleavened buns...

Easter in Jerusalem

2009-04-17T22:16:00.001-07:00

On Easter, we headed towards Jerusalem curious as to how Christians there celebrated. Originally, our plan had been to catch a service at the Garden Tomb, but parking alone took over 30 minutes and needless to say we did not make it.

Nonetheless, as we walked along the old city, there was such a spirit of celebration and joy. It was exciting to walk around knowing that despite the many different Christian denominations represented there that day, we were all rejoicing in the living Christ. There was not a single bunny or egg in sight, nor were many people concerned in wearing their Easter best. I never realized before the extent that those things, back in the U.S., distracted us from the real celebration. I felt such pure and simple joy in my heart. Anabelle and I couldn't stop smiling and clapping every time we heard a marching band pass by (we saw at least three and heard them moving throughout the city).
Gregorian priests in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

It made my heart happy to hear Anabelle all week talking about looking forward to Easter Sunday, and when we asked her why she would say, "that's when Jesus came back." We didn't want to take away from the day in any way and so we decided that although we wanted Anabelle to have the experience of hunting for Easter eggs we wanted to keep it Christ centered, so we added some pieces of paper with simple scriptures inside each egg along with a few pieces of candy.

Nathan did a pretty good job of hiding the eggs in interesting places around our apartment complex, but as Anabelle was trying to get one of the eggs out of its hiding place she pushed too hard and got it stuck.

Luckily I have a smart husband who figured out how to get it unstuck without having to call our local handyman, thus saving us a lecture about sticking things where they don't belong.

Anabelle's second birthday, but she turned three. Huh??

2009-04-11T00:21:00.000-07:00

Although Anabelle had a wonderful birthday party in D.C., she wanted to celebrate with her Israel friends too. A friend told us about a new park in Herzliya and we decided to have her second party there. We couldn't believe how big it was, and yet it was free.

When it was time for cake Anabelle was quick to tell everyone that her Daddy made the cake and she decorated it (mommy helped a little too). She's been wanting a castle cake for almost nine months, since she saw a picture of one on someone else's blog. All the girls were pretty impressed, the boys just wanted to get to the eating part.

After cake the girls had fun chasing Nathan, who was chasing a little dog who kept trying to get to the cake (his owner was not too worried about it).

To finish the day everyone got a few rides on the zip line. Nate, got the last ride of the day, which was a good thing since he completely ignored the safety rules. He's such a big kid.

Say Cheese!!! Chuck-e-Cheese that is!

2009-03-26T03:39:00.000-07:00

Several wishes came true for Anabelle during our trip to DC. One of them was to go back to Chuck-e-Cheese, since we have not found anything similar here in Israel. Actually, she got to celebrate her birthday there, courtesy of Papa-Bear and Mama-Bear (the grandparents).

There were more grown ups than kids, which I thought was hilarious, but the few small friends that came really enjoyed themselves.

Wether a kid or a kid at heart, everyone enjoyed themselves and was sad to say goodbye.

Winter Wonderland

2009-03-26T03:09:00.000-07:00

Another wish come true came in a very wet and cold package. Anabelle got to play in the snow and even got to try snow tubing.

Mama Bear (my mom) got a good work out pulling Anabelle up and down the hill in her mini inner tube.

But believe it or not she had the most fun just sitting in the snow making snow balls and snow angels.

I had a lot of fun just watching her interact with her grandma and enjoying the snow.

Lazy Post.... Anabelle in Illinois

2009-03-06T23:42:00.000-08:00

Anabelle and Maria took a road trip to see Anabelle's cousins (who she hasn't seen since she was 3 months old). You can read the post by clicking here. Isn't it great when others blog for you.

Whose wedding was it?

2009-02-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

A week ago, Maria's brother got married.
When we told them we'd come, they went out and got a mini-wedding dress for Anabelle... complete with a crown and veil.
Anabelle loved being a glorified flower girl and loved the wedding in general. In fact, she loved it too much... during the toast after the wedding, she took the mic from her uncle Sergio and proceeded to say "I love Tio Hugo and Krissy (the couple) and Mama Bear and Papa Bear (grandparents) and daddy (me)." (mothers never get the credit they deserve...)
She then tried to dance during Hugo and Krissy's dance, while I tried to inconspicuously chase her. I don't know who the 2 year old boy was, but he disappeared shortly after this picture was taken... maybe it was because I was to the side, cleaning my gun.... ;) She also had a blast during the dance and was enthralled by the smoke machine.
I think we killed her though... she's never before fallen asleep anywhere except in a carseat or in her bed.

At the end of the wedding, we came out wondering who got more attention... the bride or Anabelle...

4th times a charm...

2009-02-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

We needed to rent a car for a couple things the day before leaving for D.C. Since we needed to go to Jerusalem anyway, we decided to try, yet again, to visit the Dome on the Rock.... Once again we prepped Anabelle saying that we might not be able to go in yet again (the past 3 times it's been closed or the line to go through security was too long to get in before it closed). To our surprise, the security line this time was shorter... it only took a few minutes to get in (I'm wondering if it's the recent policical situation that has made the tourist sites all much less crowded). Unfortunately, the mosques were closed to all non-Muslims (when I came 10 years ago we were able to go in... they were really cool). Anyway, Anabelle loved it, especially since ever since we saw a mosque in New York City before moving here, she's been sure that the Dome on the Rock is where Princess Jasmine (from Aladdin) lives. Through briefly a few months ago, she got confused and wasn't sure if Jasmine lived in the Dome on the Rock, or the Russian orthodox church (right) just a few hundred yards away.

What would you do with only a couple hours in Madrid?

2009-02-07T06:43:00.000-08:00

This is what we asked after booking our flight to Washington, D.C. for Maria's brother's wedding. We had a 5-hour layover, but after customs and knowing we would have to come back through security again, we felt it only safe to spend 2 hours running around Madrid. I remembered how long it takes to take the subway from the airport to all the usual tourist sights, so those were not an option. Instead we got off at the first non-airport stop to go to the Parque Juan Carlos I, a big park with lots of cool modern art sculptures... I visited it once as a missionary. Anyway, it was REALLY cold and windy (San Diego and Israel have destroyed our tolerance for temperatures below 50 degrees F). Despite that, Anabelle had a blast and did very well in the 25 hours it took to get to Maria's family's house.

After our time at the park, we found a little cafe where we ate some delicious Jamon Cerrano (Iberian Ham) and headed back to the airport.

Ironically, eventhough we were in Israel for the whole Gaza war, this visit to the Campo de las Naciones in Madrid is the closest (location-wise) we've been to any violence. A couple days later at this location there was a car bombing

Mount Tabor

2009-01-31T00:45:00.001-08:00

Our last stop on this day trip was Mount Tabor and we really enjoyed it. It was early afternoon and the lighting was great.

This is were it is believed Jesus took Peter, James, and John and was transfigured before them. If you have time, click on this picture and read the plaque.

When we first got there, there wasn't a lot of people, so the inside was quite and peaceful. Up front they had set up a beautiful nativity.

The front portion of the Church had this beautiful arch that was all done in tile. It was really well kept. As I was taking the picture I heard Nathan ask Anabelle, "Isn't this a beautiful painting?" Anabelle quickly replied, "No, daddy, this is a mosaic. Not a painting." I think "mosaic" was here favorite word during this trip.

As we exited the Church, I noticed that under this metal gate there were literally thousands of letters and photos. Most of them written on behalf of loved ones who were sick or ailed in some way.

I am still learning to use the camera and so I didn't know how to use the panoramic setting like i did in our previous camera. So here's my very bad attempt at capturing the view as we exited the church.

The view from the top.

Some more pics of the grounds and stuff.

We tried taking a family picture at the end of our visit, but Anabelle had other ideas.

Nazareth

2009-01-25T01:09:00.000-08:00

As part of our Caesarea trip we also stopped in Nazareth for a day. We started at the Church of the Annunciation, where Mary received the marvelous news from an angelic messenger about her miraculous pregnancy(Cupola of Church above). There were some beautiful mosaics displayed outside and even the doors were a work of art.

The insde was breathtaking too.

The lower level was built around some of the remains of where it is believed Mary and the Angel stood (represented by the small and large pillars).

Right next door, we visited Joseph's Church.

This too housed ancient remains on the lower level. These steps lead to Joseph's shop.

As we continued walking trhough Nazareth...

we came to an old Crusader Church, build atop the old Synagogue where supposedly Jesus declared that the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah had been fulfilled in Him.

After some lunch of Shwarmas (sp? Lamb and flat bread wraps) and chocolate Canolis we visited Mary's Well and...

The second Church of the Annunciation (Greek Orthodox). It isn't uncommon to find two different buildings where the same thing supposedly happened, and typically one building is Catholic run and the other is Greek or Protestant.

After heading out of Nazareth, and before the sun set, we headed over to Mount Tabor. The pictures of that visit were so amazing that I think I'll make that a separate post. But here's a sneak peak.

Festival of Lights

2009-01-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights is not quite as big for Jews as Christmas is for Christians, but in Jerusalem it makes quite the impression. We had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem (for the last time since the war began) on the last day of Hanukkah, and we got to see the lighting of the Menorah at the Western Wall. It was a very solemn assembly, in many levels, considering the political situation.

Afterward, we walked around the Jewish Quarter and we were amazed at the beauty of the mostly empty streets lit by Menorahs.

Galilee and Nazareth

2009-01-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

Two days after Christmas we went to church at the LDS church in Tiberias, a city on the Sea of Galilee. The previous couple weeks the Tel Aviv LDS church was disrupted since it is next door to a Discotec that was still open, kicking and billowing smoke into our church during our 10am church time, so it was nice to enjoy the sights and clean air. It was pretty cool. Afterwards we went a saw a nativity reenactment in Nazareth, in a little replica village area that looks like Nazareth possibly looked like ~ the time of Christ. It was really well done and Anabelle loved petting the donkeys and holding the baby Jesus.

Christmas in Bethlehem

2009-01-10T10:35:00.000-08:00

When some friends of us told us that they had scheduled a little bus for a trip to Bethlehem on Christmas day, we seized the opportunity to go. There we saw a few sites, such at the Church of the Nativity, where according to catholic tradition Christ was born.

Here's a few of the friends we went with, and an authentic Franciscan monk!

In the church is a little Grotto, or basement where a shrine for his birth place is found. Being Christmas, however, the stairway down there was dangerously overcrowded, (and since I'd seen it 10 years ago) I decided to pass on going down there.

After that we went to the Sheperd's Fields, where it is believed that the angel visited the shepherds to tell them where Christ was then night of His birth.
There's now a small, but very pretty church there, and some caves that one can explore... to top it off, there was also a beautiful rainbow out.

Anyway, it was a great trip for Christmas day. We ended the day by enjoying a dinner with some other friends and finally opening presents at 10pm.

This Nativity set was pretty cool... but a few dozen grand out of our budget...

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

The past few months have been packed with a lot of adventure, discovery, and blessings for our family. Being in Israel has been challenging at times, but also very rewarding, and not just because of the road trips (althoug we have had some memorable ones). We've floated in the Dead Sea, walked the Villa Dolorosa in Jerusalem, played in the sand with friends in Jaffa, celebrated Christmas Day in Bethlehem, visited the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, and stood atop Mount Tabor (Mt. of Transfiguration) on a beautiful sunny day. We really can't complain. Despite the struggle with language and a bit of initial homesickness, moving here has been one of the best experiences of 2008.

Nathan has really enjoyed making new professional contacts, getting to know some great people, and learning to juggle two jobs (he's still working on stuff from the Sand Diego lab). He loves the pace of life here and enjoys the small town feeling of Rehovot, especially because despite it being small, the Weizmann can boast of having several prominent scientists, especially in Nathan's field. This trip has also been a source of much inward reflection for him. Nate came to Israel over seven years ago as a college freshman on a study abroad program. It's been interesting for him to see how his life is so different now. He has changed alot since those days. I personally like the man he turned out to be, I think Anabelle agrees. She's always telling him, "Daddy, you are my friend always." I think that there is something to be said about a person who can win a child's sincere friendship.

Anabelle's reaction to our big move has really taken us by surprise. From week one she has adjusted amazingly well; even the time change did not faze her for more than one night! She's taken to Israel like a fish to water. She knows several words in Hebrew and uses them regularly in everyday speech. She loves calling me "Ima" (mom) and she likes telling me "lo hayom" (not today) whenever she doesn't want to do something. Every time we go out she calls out "Shalom, shalom" to people we pass. She's even picked up some Dutch words from her new "little friend" and neighbor, Sarah. Wherever she goes she makes friends and just as many, if not more, admirers. She gets free treats on a regular basis!

For us adults, making friends was a bit slow at first, but the ones we do have now, we will remember long after we leave Israel. I am especially grateful for the warm welcome and friendship that those in our small Tel Aviv congregation have shown us. Our Church is quite small here, but what they lack in numbers they more than make up in warmth. I've had he opportunity to teach our scripture study class here, but I think I have gained far more from those I teach than what they have learned from me. They really exemplify kindness and selflessnes. I have been impressed by the sincerity of the Israeli people overall. My Hebrew teacher told me that a key to learning Hebrew is understanding that the language is all about using words efficiently. No need to be verbose and over-flowery. The less words it takes to say something the better, direct and precice. I've found the people to be similar. I feel like they are more likely to tell me what they really think and feel without beating around the bush too much. It's very refreshing. I must admit I'm still working on those skills though (as you can tell from the length of this letter).

As this new year begins it is our hope that each one of you knows that we love you and that we are grateful that our lives have touched at some point in this wonderful journey. We miss you and remember you fondly. For those of you who have inquired about our safety, please know that we are doing fine. We are staying informed and have registered with the American Embassy (and thus receive email updates from them). In addition, the Fulbright offices (the source of Nathan's funding) here in Tel Aviv have expressed that if at any time they deem it unsafe for us to stay here, they will advice us immediately and aid in our return home. So, don't worry too much about us. Know that we will do our best to stay safe and more importantly remember that we love you. Happy New Year!

Morning walks and new words

2008-12-27T13:55:00.000-08:00

Anabelle and I had a nice walk this morning. We went to the beach and strolled along it. There I taught a new word: "aquaduct". She liked it, and was excited to see the hollow inside where the water would flow in one section that was broken. She immediately told me that water used to flow in the tube. However, she eventually asked to go back because it was "freezing cold". That comment made me think that maybe she doesn't understand the entire meaning of the words I teach her... she should know that it wasn't REALLY freezing cold. I was wearing flip-flops rather comfortably, despite the cool Mediterranean breeze. It wasn't even NEAR 0 degrees C.

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...

2008-12-22T13:08:00.000-08:00

So this year, as tempting as it was to haul our 7-foot fake tree out to Israel with us, we decided to forgo that and make our own tree this year.
After Anabelle found out that the tape sticks better to the paint than the paint itself sticks to the wall (whoops...), we decided it was best to tape the tree to our glass patio door. Thanks to family back at home and some friends at church here, we even have a few gifts to put under it! (and no, that is not the Swedish flag on it... it was supposed to be a present, but just ended up looking like the Swedish flag).

On a similar note... the Tel Aviv congregation of our church had a Christmas party this past week. We all had a blast! Anabelle wore her special Christmas dress (that we thought we had left in the states, but Anabelle happened to find the other day stuffed in a pocket in our luggage...). Maria thought it was so cute that she insisted on taking a picture... but being the little perfectionist that she is, you can guess what happened after the first picture (the bag was full of some little princess dolls she had).

Our Tel Aviv ward is one of the most special wards we have ever been part of before (and we have been part of some amazing wards). We have made some dear friends. Here are just a few...

Anabelle had a blast. I think she was the only one of the young kids who had a nap that day, because out of all the kids she was the only one who was not falling asleep during the talent portion of the evening.

Nathan and I had a lot of fun too. The food was great, lots of talent, and we even got to dance some at the end. We didn't get home 'till almost 11:00 pm!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka and Season's Greetings to all our friends and family.

Jaffa- One of the oldest cities in the world

2008-12-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

Thursday we took a road trip to the oldest city here in Israel-- Jaffa. It has been inhabited for over 4,000 years and boast some very interesting history.

We went with some good friends, Anne, Nathan, Zoe and Myles. This was their last trip before heading back to Germany and we wanted to make sure they had a good time to remember fondly.

Anabelle and Zoe are great friends and get along amazingly well.

From one of the scenic stops you can see the rocks upon which Andromeda was chained as a sacrifice to Cetus (the sea monster, which goes "arghh,arghh, arghh" says Anabelle).

This is also where Simon the Tanner, known for the miracle of the mountain, lived. Anabelle wanted to stop by and say "hi," but they were closed for lunch.

The city itself is very beautiful and has that old-world feel to it; and the view from the port area is fantastic. You get a great view of Tel Aviv in the background. It was about 75 degrees Fahrenheit with a breeze.

Since it was so nice and Zoe and Myles had never been to the beach, we spent some quality time playing at the beach. Myles was not feeling too well, but the girls had a blast and did not want to leave.

New friends

2008-12-13T03:26:00.000-08:00

So Anabelle and Maria have had a bit of a hard time finding new friends with whom to play and socialize during the day. Most kids over 18 months go to daycare here and up till two weeks ago there were no kids Anabelle's age in our apartment building. Anabelle's only friends were the masses of snails that live in our down-stairs neighbor's plants by their door. Two weeks ago, though, Sarah and Timothy moved in to the apartment about three doors down with their parents. Sarah is three and Timothy is one year-old. Anabelle wasted no time befriending them, and Maria and Esther (Sarah's mom) now exchange babysitting to go to Hebrew classes. Then, just this week another family moved in from Germany to the building next door and they have another three year-old named Zoe and she has a little brother named Miles, he is 10 months old. It goes without saying that Anabelle is ecstatic about her two new friends. They hang out at the park in the mornings.

Thanksgiving in Israel

2008-11-29T05:24:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving is a time for family and turkey. However, here in Israel both are hard to come by, so we gave into the second best use of a Thanksgiving... i.e., ROAD TRIP!!! Our trip consisted of visiting Ein Gedi and Masada (both on the west side of the Dead Sea). We enjoyed swimming in the Dead Sea and finished up with a scrumptious dinner at the Tel Aviv Shearaton, turkey and all.
We stayed the night at the Kibbutz Ein Gedi. Anabelle loved that she got to sleep in a "play crib". She was hezitant to sleep there since "only babies sleep in cribs"... so, yes, our parental manipulation skills kicked in and we told her it was a "play crib" and that it would be fun to sleep in the "play crib". She quickly fell for that.
The next day Anabelle woke us up at the crack of dawn (literally) and after exploring our hotel grounds and a great breakfast we were off to Ein Geidi National Park.

Ein Gedi has two main trails-David and Arugot- each following a stream by the same name. David's trail is a lot shorter and since we only had one day to hit three different places we went with David's trail. This trail also has a series of caves that you can see up on the mountain face. It is believed that this is where David hid from Saul (1 Samuel 24:1). The terrain is very arid and it reminded me a lot of Utah. Along the trail there were several waterfalls and Anabelle and Maria enjoyed jumping in to a couple of the pools to cool off.

You can see one of the caves right next to the main waterfall at the top of the trail

Once we were at the top of the trail Anabelle thought it would be fun to go fishing

After hiking for a couple of hours we headed a bit more south along the Dead Sea and visitedMasada National Park.
This is a picture (not ours) of what the whole fortress looks like from up high, looking at it from the North side. The East side of the bluff measures about 1,300 feet in height. On the West side you can see the Roman ramp.

It takes about an hour to two to hike up, but we took the cable car instead since we did not have the time to hike it. You can see some of the hikers going up on the right, they looked like ants.

This is what the fortress originally looked like. Nate is pointing at our location at the time we took the picture.

Masada is well known for being the last place of refuge for a group of about 930 Jews during the Great Jewish Revolt, after the First Jewish-Roman war. The Romans laid siege to the fortress for three months and finally built a ramp about 30 feet high on the West side of the cliff, but when they finally entered Masada they only found death and destruction. The people had set ablaze their precious fortress before committing mass suicide rather than being taken as slaves or worse. It is believed that the actual killing was done by ten chosen men, who then picked one last man from the ten to kill the nine left, so that only one man actually committed true suicide (as suicide was not acceptable in Jewish beliefs). The picture below shows nine stones found upon the ruins with what is believed to be the names of the ten men.

Ruins on the South and central side of the fortress.

There are at least 100 pics, but I can't post them all, so here are a few that I thought were interesting.
Here's one of Nate looking down on a huge cistern. There were several of these throughout the fortress, which is how they managed to stay barricaded for many months without needing to go out for provisions.

Byzantine Chapel (about 5th or 6th Century).

One of two Mikvahs found still pretty much intact.

Original flooring of the bath house.

Going down to the second level of the North side

Original pillars still standing on the first level on the North side

Well, there's lots more pics, but I'll spare you the scrolling. After spending almost three hours in Masada we finished our day (after having a very late lunch) relaxing and playing in the Dead Sea. Nate and Anabelle did the playing,

Maria did the pampering and relaxing at the Bein Gedi Spa for a couple of hours,
(these are pics from the Spa's website, since Nate took the camera and Maria couldn't take any pics of herself covered in mud and soaking in the Dead Sea hot springs. How convenient, no?)

and then we headed back to Tel Aviv to have a late Thanksgiving Dinner, courtesy of teh Fulbright Fellowship Israel Offices. It was the perfect ending to the perfect vacation. Anabelle ate a lot of food and ended up wearing a lot of her food too.

In search of courage

2008-11-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

Last night, I had one of the most uplifting theater experiences that I've ever had. I felt uplifted spiritually. I felt strengthened as an individual. And I felt a deeper level of spiritual resonance and respect for the "children of Israel" then I have ever felt before. So how did this happen? Well, I had the opportunity to see a musical production titled "In Search of Courage" that was performed by the Raise Your Spirits Summer Stock company. In a nut shell the play is about a young woman seeking to understand how to deal with the atrocities of life by looking at past Jewish heroes and how they demonstrated courage. One of the goals of the production was to encourage the audience members to find that courage within themselves. It was phenomenal!

The RYS company is very unique in several ways. 1. It was established with the desire to help out victims of terrorism and their families. Thus, all of the proceeds from their performances go towards fulfilling that purpose. The production itself is funded by donations. 2. The company performs only to an audience of women. No men are allowed due to the company's religious beliefs. 3. Thus, and not surprisingly, the company has an all women cast. Even the backstage hands and some of the lighting people are women. Therefore, the male roles are also played by women.
(Below is Deena Lawi, who performed the parts of Boaz and Mordecai in the play).

Now, this is not a professional company. In the sense that not all of the cast members are trained in nor make a living by acting, although some are. Yet, there is a great variety of talent to be enjoyed from this cast. There was wonderful acting, singing and choreography.

(This is Rivka Adina Dror who has an amazing voice and presence on and off stage. She played Naomi and Devora in this performance. She sang a beautiful soulful song that made me think of Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson. Not only for the similarity in voice, but also similarity in passion when singing. You can tell she really enjoyed it and felt it.)

Yet, I was most impressed with the depth of feeling found in many of the songs (some of which were RYS originals). Two songs in particular moved me to tears. I don't remember all the words, but the resounding messages were that of unmoving faith in God, and the responsibility to find and fulfill one's personal role in life. Although not directly stated, I left with the impression that these people (and I don't mean just the characters) truly understood and trusted in the scriptural promises, "This too shall pass" and "Be still and know that I am God."

At the end of the performance the cast and audience all stood up and sang a prayer of sorts in Hebrew. It was almost melancholic in tune and definitely sacred. I meant to ask what it was called, but in my haste to talk to the cast members and express my enjoyment I forgot to ask. Yet, I will not easily forget the feelings I had while they sang. I did not understand a word, but words were not needed. I felt the importance of and faith in what they sang by the emotion that was almost palpable in that small auditorium. I only wish that some of you reading this could have been there.

Mommy and me time

2008-11-23T01:08:00.000-08:00

Anabelle is at a fun stage where helping mom do anything is fun. She even likes to help me clean up at the end of the day before she goes to bed. Our last two projects were cheap and easy (and yes that only applies to the projects). Anabelle had a blast with the glue stick.

Tuna is not our favorite food (well, Nate will eat anything, but Anabelle and me, not so much). But, as some of you probably recall from your college days, it's a very cheap and easy solution to "what shall we eat tonight?" So, when we saw "Big Chef and Little Chef" making fish cakes the other day (British kids cooking show. Anabelle loves it) and they used tuna, I thought, "why not, let's give it a try." Anabelle really liked the messy hands-on experience.

The recipe is simple but I don't have exact measurements.
First, boil some potatoes and when soft mash them up with butter, diced green onions, a little sour cream and parsley flakes. Blend in a tuna can or two and squeeze 1/4 of a lemon with it. I added a pinch of season-all too. I made about 12 balls out of our mix and Anabelle and I then rolled them in a little bit of corn oil and then in bread-crumbs. Once covered in bread-crumbs flatten the balls to the thickness of a chunky cookie and set them on a cookie sheet to put in the oven. Bake until golden brown. I served them with lemon on the side and marinara sauce (Anabelle loves dipping). Oh, I did have to flip them half way through because the top was taking longer to brown than the bottom part, but that my be an oven thing. Enjoy!

Another day in Jerusalem

2008-11-19T00:22:00.000-08:00

Once again we went to Jerusalem and had a blast. We started off with David's tomb where Nate and I had to separate to go into gender prescribed entrances.

Right above David's Tomb there is a room which is believed to be the room in which Jesus and His apostles had the last supper. Although as we were discussing that we highly doubt that this is where it took place. It seems unlikely that they would just let anyone use the room located above such an important and sacred place as David's tomb; and Jesus was not very popular during his lifetime. Anyhow, it was a cool place to visit nonetheless.

Next, we hit the Church where some say that Mary "sleeps." Which is interesting because last time we were here we went to the Church where she supposedly ascended into heaven.

On our way over to the Western Wall we found lots of great places that seemed perfect for pictures. Anabelle had the best deal since Nate carried her most of the way.

The last place we visited was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but I will have to post those pics later on since there are a lot of pics.

More food for thought

2008-11-09T11:08:00.001-08:00

"Civil government cannot let any group ride roughshod over others simply because their consciences tell them to do so."
— Robert H. Jackson

Think about it.

2008-11-08T14:30:00.001-08:00

"On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right."
— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Trick or treat!! Todaraba!!

2008-11-08T06:40:00.000-08:00

Anabelle has continually told us this past year how much she loved dressing up as a cow last year and trick or treating with her cousins in San Diego. So naturally ~ 2 months ago I looked into whether or not Halloween was celebrated by anyone in Israel. After reading blogs of depressed expatriates talking about how lonely they felt on Halloween and how it took them forever to find a pumpkin in a store and how it cost $30-$50 to buy a small one when they did, I declared that there would be no Halloween this year. Well, Maria had something else to say about that. She approached some of the Americans in our ward about getting together and celebrating Halloween, and she found out that most of the Americans in our ward (who are also connected to the Embassy in one way or another) were already attending a Halloween activity in their neighborhood. One of them invited us and all of a sudden Maria and Anabelle were scrambling to put together a costume for the event. Believe it or not it was close to impossible to find any store that carried children's dress up clothes and so most of Anabelle's costume was home made or already in her closet. We ended up saving a bunch on the costume...so we spent probably ~$40 to travel to that city so Anabelle could get ~$0.40 in candy. She loved it.. and we had a great time too.

Anabelle dressed up as a beautiful princess, complete with plastic... I mean "glass" slippers that were the ipitomy of fashionable... impractical, noisy, but very pretty.

When we got there we met up with some friends from church and started making our rounds.

She had a blast with her friends from church.

As you can see in this picture, I dressed up as a California grad student... actually I'd come straight from work since my work is right between our apartment and the train station.

Anabelle was sure to say hi to all of the dogs and cats on the way. The night was definately worth it, especially when we saw how happy Anabelle was.

The Best Type of Road Trip...

2008-11-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

... is the type that someone else pays for! This past week we the orientation for all Israel Fulbright Fellows. We met at the Fulbright office in Tel Aviv and listened to discussions on Middle Eastern affairs by the ambassador, a professor, and a security representative from the embassy. They were really good, but the best part was the road trip they planned afterward.

This was our bus (though this picture was of the 2nd day in Ramon).

Anabelle got some Cinderella candy in which she'd dip a foot lollypop in some sugary stuff which when put in the mouth would lead to a popping sensation... she loved it, and it kept her entertained before taking a nap on the bus.

The first place we stopped was a goat farm. ~15 years ago the Israeli government encouraged people to settle the Negev desert and do any sort of work they could. However, recently the government is saying that those people are no longer welcome there and don't get any support. Anyway, it interesting to learn of that issue and Anabelle had a great time playing with the goats... until one of them started eating her hair.

That night we stayed at a really nice hotel (the Ramon Inn)...

though I did sneak out to go to a telescope owned by one of the Universities here.

The next morning we went to see the Makhtesh Ramon, the world's largest erosion cirque (Makhtesh). The crater is 40 km long and 2-10 km wide, and is shaped like an elongated heart.

Inside the Makhtesh we saw a hill upon which volcanic rock had fractured the underlying sandstone so that now the stone breaks off into little bricks, which now cover the entire hill.

We also went to a spot in which they had piles of different colored sand that had been gathered from the surrounding area. They had the following colors: pink, dark pink, green, yellow, orangish...

Also, there is a little camping area in the middle of the Makhtesh that we went to... there was a little store there, so we got some ice cream. I think that was Anabelle's favorite part, as can be seen smeared all over her face.

We saw some environmental art on the cliffs of the Makhtesh Ramon. They took us there to discuss the controversy of environmental art (large pieces of art built out of the surrounding rock, etc.)... however, for most of us it wasn't controversial... it was fun!

The highlight of the trip was supposed to be our visit to Avdat, some beautiful ruins of a Nabatean city (built by the Nabateans... the same people that built Petra... the place in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Anabelle loved the goat outside of the visitors center; however, a downpour hit minutes later so we couldn't go up to the ruins.

This is what the Avdat ruins should have looked like.

This is what we saw instead (which was beautiful itself, since there was more rain that day than I think is seen in the Negev most years).

Happy Birthday to Momma Bear

2008-11-02T13:21:00.000-08:00

Anabelle loves, loves, loves birthdays, and when I told her that today was my mom's birthday (her momma bear) she kept singing this little song. When we called my mom to wish her happy birthday she kept interrupting my conversation to sing to her, so I thought it would be a sweet birthday gift to save this little song here for my mom to watch whenever she needed a little happy. So, momma bear, this one is for you!

-posted by Maria

Our 100th post... and our first time sight seeing here in Israel

2008-10-18T12:35:00.000-07:00

Anabelle woke up today with a smile on her face and this on her lips: "We are going to Dome on the Rock today Daddy." Today the Tel Aviv, Tiberias, and Jerusalem congregations from our church met together at the BYU Jerusalem Center for a district conference (on Mount Scopius, next to the Mount of Olives). The meeting was great (though between the great view of the Old City that dominates the meeting hall, and a wiggling, cookie-obsessed, sugar-charged 2-year old, I'm not sure how much of the 2 hour meeting I heard). We loved the peaceful feeling that permeated the place.

A view of Jerusalem from the BYU Jerusalem Center

After our meeting and luncheon, we headed into the "Old City" with two good friends, Erica and Carla, who go to Church with us in Tel Aviv. Because of Shabbat we went to most of the Catholic and Muslim sites.
The Garden of Gethsemane, oldest olive tree in the background

On the steps of the Church of the Nations (next to the Garden of Gethsemane)

The Church of the Nations

A view of The Golden Gate (currently sealed shut with stones), where it is believed by most Christians and Jews that Christ will enter when He comes. It is Jewish belief that when He does he will waken the dead and bring them in with him. Ironically, the cemetery you see below is Muslim owned.

Entrance to the Church where Mary's tomb is found

Lion's Gate, entrance to the Old City and to the "Via Dolorosa" which is believed by Catholics to be the route Jesus took on his way to Golgotha

Ecco Home Convent which houses below it ancient Roman cisterns, ~1st and 2nd Century A.D.; as well as ancient roads that now lie under the convent.

Here we are descending into the actual cisterns. Erica and Carla are behind Nate and Anabelle.

The stones you see right in front of this picture are part of the ancient road originally found during Christ's time and which is part of the Via Dolorosa, thus the mural of Christ carrying the Cross.

Muslim Quarter

I love this picture because the board sign on the bottom left advertises "hubbly bubbly." We almost bought some just to see what it was, but we figure there was a good chance we would end up "hubbling" home if it was bubbly, so we passed.

Family pose in front of Damascus Gate

Garden Tomb

We are glad we decided to come here today. There were several different religious services going on all around the Garden, plus a good size LDS tour group was singing hymns near the tomb itself. When we entered it we could still hear them. It really made us ponder the infinite beauty and mercy of the Sacrifice of our Savior; and the miracle of His resurrection. Anabelle wanted to sing too, since she heard others singing, so we sang "I know that my Redeemer lives" in Spanish. I (Maria) am not one to usually do something like that, but it felt good. As we came out, Anabelle ran over to this rock and said, "this is to cover the tomb, it got moved so Jesus could come out. It was amazing to see how much she remember from what Nathan told her before coming here, even though she only saw the pictures from the internet and guide book, she remembered the names of a lot of the sites, as well as some of the history.

Our little tour guide was so pooped at the end, she passed out in Nate's arms even before we got into the bus home. Nathan and I fell asleep soon after taking this picture.

Even though Anabelle squealed with glee when she saw the Dome on the Rock from the bus as we entered Jerusalem, she never got to go inside. It is usually closed on Saturdays (although both the internet site and the guide book said it would be opened). So this is as close of a look as she got of it today. I guess we'll have to go back!

-posted by Nate and Maria

Where did all the cars go, mom?

2008-10-11T07:15:00.000-07:00

Anabelle!! Watch out for the cars!!!

No, I didn't finally loose it and let Anabelle run wild in the middle of Rehovot's main street. This week Israel celebrated Yum Kippur, and in honor of this special day all the streets are closed off to cars. Families than set out on their bikes and ride on the streets. This is why this day is also known as "bicycle day." There are absolutely no cars allowed and thus it is safe to let your child run wild down the middle of the main road.

The blob you see towards the back near the round-about is actually a group of five boys on their bikes that almost ran over Anabelle.

Although it was fun to see all the bikes what Anabelle and I found most refreshing was all the time we had to ponder. Anabelle really enjoyed stopping along the way at different spots and for some reason she would just sit quietly. It was really interesting and very unlike Anabelle.

As I was explaining what Yom Kippur is to Anabelle, I asked her if she knew what repentance meant, and she said, "you say, 'sorry God,' and you be nice." So simple and yet so many of us find this hard to do. I thought about how grateful I am for the opportunity Christ has given me to say,"I am sorry" and to know I am forgiven as I feel peace fill my heart. I am amazed that through his grace and love I can be a nicer and a better me.

Now, what can we do?

2008-10-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

Anabelle does not have a lot of toys here in her "Israel home." So, we have to get creative about our pass-times. Some of the things she loves to do are:
play with her Playdough,

build castles in the park with daddy,

knock down castles in the park with daddy,

and practice her tumbling.

The wheels on the bus go...

2008-10-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

As you may imagine, there are not a lot of LDS members (or mormons) in Israel. So, unlike in the U.S., there are only a few congregations spread throughout the country. We are very lucky, in that there is a "branch" or small congregation, just twenty minutes North of us. The bad news, however, is that because our Church keeps the Sabbath on Saturday here (partly out of respect, partly because it is more practical) we thought we had no way of getting to Church (all public transportation is down on Saturdays). The first Saturday we rented a car the day before and drove to church. This, however, was not something we could do every weekend, since it cost $50 per day (minimum two days)to rent a compact size car!!!! Luckily once we got to church and got to know some of the members, we found out about the church's "sherut."

These little buses usually operate as scheduled during the week, but because there is no public transportation during the day Saturday, they can be rented by a group to operate on a "custom-made" route. So... now we have our own personal little bus!
This is us waiting at the bus stop.

We are actually not the only ones who ride it, there are a few other members (most of them Russian speaking) who are picked up along the way (we are the furthest out and so we are usually the first ones on the bus). Here we have two of our beautiful Russian sisters.

Things have seemed to work out so well for us here, it is hard to believe that it is all just coincidence. We are so grateful for the small things that remind us that we are not alone here, and some ONE is ever mindful.

Welcome to our Neighborhood

2008-09-27T11:23:00.001-07:00

I love our neighborhood, it is an amazing mixture of old and new. Our building itself is not new, but not too old; it is in a gated community within the Weizmann campus. Right across from us there are three luxury high-rise apartment buildings, with one more under construction.

Then, just down the street there is this "historic" area with a beautiful and quaint plaza where the "young at heart" sit at night and socialize (some of them even come out in their wheelchairs). There are also a few really old run down buildings that stick out like an old hand-made quilt among fine silk. Both are beautiful in their own way, but look kind of funny right up against each other.

Just around the corner from this historic area there are a few luxury condos with secured entrance and gated parking.

About five more blocks up, you'll find Herzl Street. This main street in Rehovot has almost every kind of business you could ever need. There are restaurants, boutiques, book stores, there is also a "paper" store (local mom-and-pops version of Home Depot), a grocery store and a pharmacy.

Anabelle and I walk up to Herzl on a daily basis and get a good work out. There are even a few street vendors who specialize in tantrum provocation, I mean children's toys. That's Anabelle's favorite part. I must admit, one of my favorite places is a brick-oven pizza place where we have pizza night every Thursday right before doing our grocery shopping for the week.

"Bring your daughter to work" Day

2008-09-27T10:33:00.001-07:00

Anabelle has been struggling letting Nathan go to work in the mornings lately. In order to help her understand where daddy goes and what he does, we walked him to work the other day and visited his "office." Anabelle took her duties as "daddy walker" very seriously and held his hand the whole way there.Once inside the Weizmann Institute computer science building, Nathan gave us the grand tour. Displayed in his building's lobby there's the first electronic computer in the Weizmann Institute and first in Israel back in the early 50's. When we explained to Anabelle what it was she commented, "that's daddy's computer. You can't put that on your lap, too big." I guess she's seen us with the laptop often enough.
When we finally made it to Nathan's office, Anabelle made herself comfortable and decided she would stick around for a bit to help daddy do his work.Needless to say, he didn't get much done while we were there!
On our way home we stopped in a couple of places. The Weizmann campus is pretty big and the walk home can be a bit much for Anabelle, so we take a lot of breaks as we go along.
One of Anabelle's favorite places is called the Jubilee Plaza. She says it looks like a castle.

This is some kind of memorial, but Anabelle says they look like robots. She likes pretending to be a robot (yes, can you believe she knows what "pretend" means. This girl is growing too fast).

The sun here is scorching hot (it's mid September and we are still in the high 80s on a daily basis) and so we take as many "shady" short cuts as we can, this is one of them. There is a small pond with bamboo shoots all around it. It's peaceful and pretty.

This is another favorite place. Anabelle thought it would be a good spot to stop and read for a bit.

She also loves to pick flowers as we go. Even though Rehovot is very arid, the Weizmann goes to great efforts to make its grounds green and flowery.

Walking around here, you almost can't tell you are just north of a great desert.