Quotables

Elliot, half an hour after being tucked in bed tonight, insisted: "I'm wide asleep!"

Mom and Dad Visit Highlights

My mom and dad were able to come to Israel last week!! We didn't think it was possible, but at the last minute they figured out they were able to come and spend a week here. They had only a few days to prepare since their only window of opportunity was the week between terms at BYU but still somehow they were able to come prepared to take the place by storm. I hope to post more detail, but for now I thought I would get some highlights down for my siblings especially, since all of us worked together to make this happen.

Here are a few pictures highlighting the week.

We started with some viewpoints, where Dad requested a camel ride (first and last, he said)...

Grandpa and Aaron riding a camel on the Mount of Olives, with Old City Jerusalem in the right background

Went north to Galilee...

The lovebirds on the Mt. of Beatitudes
(the supposed site of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount)
scenically set against the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights

On the balcony of the church-owned building where we stayed in Tiberius,
again with the Sea of Galilee in the background

We spent a lot of time in the car

Grandma and Aaron are real buddies. He agreed to a photo but still rebelled in his own way.

Drove around in the Golan Heights, while mom and dad worried about the fact that we were basically lost, low on gas, and within a few miles of the border with Syria (and Lebanon). Then ended up in the beautiful Ceasarea Phillipi...

The family minus Aaron

Wandered around the very crowded Old City, up and down many stairs and around some important places...

Karen and LeeR at the Western Wall Plaza

Walking through an Arab Market towards Damascus Gate

Went south to the Dead Sea and Masada...

On the way from Jerusalem (700 m above) to the Dead Sea (500 m below)

Grandma and Aaron dipping their toes in the Dead Sea (notice the salt build up everywhere!) 

Triumphantly descending the steps of the Masada mountain
I'm pretty sure they were the most senior of the trail blazers that day. Go Mom and Dad!

Stopped in at the Garden Tomb on Easter morning for a service...

Dad getting into a rockin' Easter hymn

And spent at least a few hours relaxing at home...

"Grandma, do you want to sit on the couch and snuggle for a little bit?"
Of course she couldn't say no, even though she hadn't even dressed for the day yet.

We saw them off to the airport this evening. I just got an email from mom saying they had made it through security, merely five hours after leaving our apartment. So all is well. It was an incredible visit--or to quote them several times "the trip of a lifetime." More soon.

Catherine Visit: Day ???: Tzippori, "The Ornament of All Galilee"

The quote in the title of this post comes from Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian. 

On our way from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee, Catherine, the kids, and the two Peters parents stopped at Tzippori, a world-class archaeological site and national park that boasts--in a short history of the area--Assyrian, Hellenistic, Jewish, Babylonian, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, Arabic, and Ottoman influences. Lest the Christians feel left out, it is also a green valley away from Nazareth; in its day, its wealth attracted skilled craftsmen and stone masons, like Joseph, to settle nearby.  

From Tzippori, looking at Nazareth on the distant hills

As often happens around here, the six of us could spend no more than few minutes for every century of history that has left its mark on the area, and still we found ourselves leaving the site a few hours later. An amazing situation as well as an unavoidable shame. Oh, to be an archaeologist! 

To the point, this post cannot do justice to what we saw. Please pause now and familiarize yourself a site with better photos. Here are a few: 

         A Biblical Tzippori site with a few good pictures

         Wikipedia on Tzippori 

         Wikipedia on the Synagogue in Tzippori (Zodaic, meet Abraham)

         A beautiful picture of The Mona Lisa of Galilee

A few moments from our particular stay follow. 

An Amazonian warrior mosaic, covering a fraction of the meters and meters of mosaic wonder lining the floor of the ornate "Nile House." Depictions of goddesses, gods, warrior heroes, animals, harvest feasts abound. VGA doesn't have anything over this picturesque prototype of pixelation. 

One way to keep the kids from leaving the walkways in the Nile house. 

Elliot eating up the Twentieth-Century Fox action, Byzantine style.  

A busy mosaic centerpiece, the Nile mosaic, celebrating the measuring (and subsequent proportional taxation) the depth of the Nile. 

A bird's eye view of the street grid layout of the Roman city. 

Aaron losing a shoe along a main road cutting across the Roman city.
Notice grid layout, at a diagonal, behind the pillars in the right middle ground.

The boys, at a staged archaeological dig for kids. A very happy hour. Helmets, pick axes, major sieves included.
The closest we've all been to real excavation: Aaron and Elliot recovered an unbroken lamp, dating back to approximately the late March period of 2011. 

Ben, Catherine, and a super friendly local Park Ranger-Archaeologist of the First Iron Age.  The ranger's research surveying the valleys around Jerusalem suggest that the early people of Israel may have arrived in the land at about the time the Bible suggests, although in far fewer numbers than is usually thought. 

'Nuf said. 

From Ben: A Special Sabbath Event

This last Saturday our young family was able, in part thanks to Church service responsibilities, to attend a very special event: the inaugural meeting and the dedication, offered by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the first permanent meeting house in Tel Aviv. The meeting place, in southern Tel Aviv, is the third permanent structure in the Church district here, with the first being the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies, whose dedication in 1989 Elder Holland, then President of Brigham Young University, also attended. As of 2007, Tiberius also has a meeting house--literally a beautiful house overlooking the Sea of Galilee--which, among others, Gary Browning, our much beloved professor of Russian literature, also helped realize. The Tel Aviv branch is one of the most robustly diverse in the district, boasting a high proportion of permanent members from around the world, including a sizable group of permanent members originally from the former Soviet Union. We love that Branch dearly.

Translation from English to Russian occupied me during the meeting blocks and the dedicatory ceremony. The highlight for me, though, was simply being present at the first lesson given by a recent Russian-speaking member in one of the auxiliary meetings and to hear of his eagerness about the challenges that President Gary Player, our District President and a man I genuinely enjoy serving with, had put to him earlier. It is so meaningful to see people I deeply care grow of their own initiative: another one includes a young man whom I very recently helped ordain in a significant shift of Priesthood responsibilities. And then, once you consider the non-Russian speaking members, the dedication of this small group of members is overwhelming. The best thing about the dedication, as Elder Holland repeatedly reminded us, was the opportunity to rededicate ourselves together with these members--they know who they are--that we have come to love so much here.

It was, to put it bluntly, an unforgettable experience to try to translate Elder Holland's dedicatory prayer. Anyone familiar with his particularly and peculiarly plentiful and profound vocabulary will understand why I emphasize here that I only tried to translate it. What struck me about his natural speaking style, which flows strong and swift with literary symbolism and inimitable alliteration (you have until you finish reading this parentheses to translate the following mid-sentence phrase... go: "never envious or inflated, never consumed with...") also courses with power--plain, clear language that says what needs to be said. Even as I felt my vocabulary stretched far thinner than the task, I also found comfort in the fact that the fundamental points he voiced could be understood by anyone. That's the part that matters. The intelligible meaning found in meeting such as these. The meeting of members across times and space. Real people spending their lives building real things they believe in. As my Russian-speaking friends confirmed afterward, the day had moved us all. 

The rest of the family was happily engaged that day as well. During the opening meeting and dedicatory meeting, Kourtney entertained what she later called, with a well-received grin, "our Bedlamites in the second row"; Aaron made a sterling impression, shaking hands and smiling all on his own, all on his own; Elliot hand-delivered a picture of a knight fighting a dragon that he drew for Elder Holland; and Libbie, while charming everyone in sight, left only one salad-dressing hand print on the newly painted wall. If we all participated in dedicating the building, Libbie inaugurated it. It has now been occupied.

After a full day of meetings, a Church picnic, and a couple hours too many in the car (i.e. a couple), we spent the evening unwinding with our very dear friends in Tel Aviv--Zohar and Dan Sella--who entertained and fed us a feast on a whim's notice. It really was, and I hope this is beginning to sound like a theme, delightful.
 
So, Tel Aviv holds something special for our young family.

Ein Gedi

Today we went with some friends to Ein Gedi, a nature reserve along the Dead Sea. They have a big car with lots of extra seats and were gracious enough to let us pile in and join them on this day trip out of the city.

Our first stop was at the gas station, which in most places would be a boring stop, but not along the West Bank's Route 90! Here the gas station had camels to ride on. Just yesterday Elliot said that he wanted to ride on a camel. I had kind of been avoiding it because I try to avoid tourist traps and the camels never look too happy to me but Elli really wanted to do it and we were right there and it wasn't too expensive so we went for it. Aaron and Ivan were the first to jump on.

When the camel first stands up it's a surprisingly rocky ride. Aaron was frightened for about 1.5 seconds.

After the initial shock, it's quite a fun ride.

Elliot, Emily and I took the next ride. We really had to hold on tight while standing up. Elliot had a blast.

The rocky beginning to a camel ride

I was surprised at how bumpy the whole ride was. The bum ache puts bike bum aches to shame.

Elliot, Kourtney, and Emily

Libbie didn't want to ride but she did tolerate sitting on a camel with mama

After getting our fill of camels at the gas station parking lot and only getting spit on once (that was me) we piled back into the car and continued down highway 90 to Ein Gedi. We considered stopping at Qumran but decided to save that for another day.

Libbie was really tired (after a late night last night at the new church building dedication in Tel Aviv... more on that later I hope) and we realized that we forgot our Ergo so we were really hoping that she would nap on the way. Alas, she did not sleep on the way. So our peaceful nature reserve hike/walk turned into a take-turns-holding-the-kicking-screaming-two-year-old jaunt through what must have been a beautiful park. I didn't see much on the way in because said tantruming-two-year-old preferred her mom's arms to anyone else's. She kept trying to get down to lie on the ground and sleep. For fear of sun stroke and wanting to move on, we didn't let her. I finally found a nice cave where she could lie in the shade but of course she decided against it once we got there. So I managed to carry her the rest of the way to the first waterfall. Within a few minutes, she was at peace with the world again...

Enjoying a waterfall pool at Ein Gedi

Standing near the actual waterfall was pretty intense. Here is Aaron trying to get closer and closer saying, "I can't do it!"

Aaron eventually made it all the way into the waterfall

Elliot loved the pounding pace of the waterfall

Ben managed to get his entire head into the waterfall, which he reports caused him to have a headache and to see lots of spots. Apparently he also couldn't hear his daughter wailing.

Taking shelter from the storm of the waterfall and the people

Aaron, Ivan, and Elliot played lots of splashing games

Libbie just wanted to snuggle up in the "pipi" (blanket) after she was done swimming

The hikers, with the Dead Sea in the background

An attempt at a family picture
(Those boys in the back were waiting for their turn to get a family picture.)

Our fellow adventurers for the day

The largest waterfall in the park. I think it was called "David's Waterfall."

The Family

Stalactites inside the cave by David's Waterfall

Libbie finally fell asleep on my shoulder during the walk back to the car.
(We really missed our Ergo... what a difference it makes. All that kicking and screaming just wouldn't have happened.)

We got back to the car and enjoyed some ice cream. Some of us went over to check out the ancient synagogue and enjoyed that as well.

When we arrived in Jerusalem, we invited our friends to our local falafel place and enjoyed some fresh eats from our buddies at French Hill falafel.

We had a really marvelous day. The only downside to this whole day (besides forgetting the Ergo) was that somewhere between the ice cream and the falafel, I lost my favorite shoes! I am so sad about this... I am just hoping that somebody will turn them in to the lost and found and tomorrow when I call they will say they have them and will send them to me. I love those shoes, and can't really justify buying a new pair right now since I have another pair of Vibrams (KSOs, which I don't love as much). So hopefully they will show up. So sad.

Quotable

After Aaron heard that my sister Kelcie gets to go see a real rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, Aaron said, "No fair! I never get to see anything cool in my life."

I laughed and said, "What about the Statue of Liberty? Empire state building? Mt. Rushmore? The Dome of the Rock?" He interrupted me at this point and said, "The Dome of the Rock is boring. I see those things like everyday."

Just wait till we move to Oklahoma buddy.

From Ben: Campout with Aaron

Mid-last week Aaron and I had our first minimalist camping experience in this part of the world. After a failed attempt to roast marshmallows the week before in a tin can (an experience which bruised my survival skills self-confidence given I had a gas-fueled fire starter in hand), Aaron persuaded me to give the outdoors another try. So we bundled up our minimal gear--two spring sleeping bags and a couple pairs of pajamas, and, after a grocery run, made our way with bags of pita, chicken sausages, dark chocolate (60% cocoa!), and mini-marshmallows to a make-shift fire pit in a small clearing behind our apartment building and the local kindergarten overlooking north Jerusalem.

We admitted no cameras onto the camping premises, as that would spoil Aaron's wilderness purist instincts while, of course, mini-marshmallows would not, so I'll just leave it to your imagination how the setting sun, emerging stars overhead, and small field of billowing grasses and spring flowers obscured the bustling, busy world of streets and interstates visible just over the side of the hill. First we set up camp, which involved unrolling sleeping bags (two seconds) and gathering fire wood (one hour). After gathering separate piles of tinder, kindling, squaw wood, and bulk firewood, we built a Tom Brown-directed tipi fire setup, which crackled into flames after exactly one match. You better believe we were counting matches after our tin can embarrassment. It was a triumphant moment for both of us. A week later we are still bragging about it. The fire burned long and hard for five some hours, providing heat for our deluxe four-course meal of chicken hot dogs wrapped in pita, repeated four times, topped off with pita-s'mores.

Candles lighted a long hour of late-evening reading of Isaac Bashevis Singer's Stories for Children. I added to Aaron's favorites, "The Elders of Chelm & Genedel's Key" and "The Fools of Chelm & The Stupid Carp," a couple of my own "Dalfunka, Where the Rich Live Forever" and "The Wicked City." We followed Singer with an hour of our own storytelling. I offered a remixed version of the Cyclops chapter of The Odyssey and Aaron re-rendered elements of Christendom, Greek mythology, and science fiction into a short morality play featuring immortals on distant planets. Aaron and I then talked deep, counting stars to the sound of his happy chorus that this was the best day ever.

I awoke after midnight utterly frozen with my head wedged between a rock and a stump. So I put out the fire, schlepped Aaron and the stuff the 50 meters to our apartment, and drifted off to sleep in my own bed, amid an ocean of campfire stink. Indeed, Aaron. Best campout ever.

Catherine Visit: Day Seven (Shabbat--Mt. of Olives)

When we arrived at the church on Saturday morning, the huge chapel was full (90% tourists) so we went down to the front left (where rows were still open) and encouraged Catherine to find an empty seat in the top right area so that she would have a better view. She agreed, went to sit down, and found her friend Bonnie Parkin to sit next to. They were pretty excited about that.

After a nice church meeting, Catherine and I set out for some site seeing on the Mt. of Olives. We got almost to the Garden of Gethsemane where we found a staircase going down into a building I'd never been in. It turned out to be the tomb of Mary and her parents Ann and Joaquin. The place was empty except us and a few priests. We tiptoed around, feeling like we had discovered something unknown. Catherine oohed and aahed over the lanterns inside.

Catherine in front of Mary's tomb

Inside the tomb area was a place where people had stuck little pieces of paper with names on them. A prayer roll, I guess. Almost every paper I could see was written in Russian. There were also a few Greek and Italian lists. On our way out we were unpleasantly confronted with the fact that this was not an undiscovered jewel. Several tour groups (mostly Russian) were pouring in while we exited the building.

After a brief stop at an unrecognized and mostly uninteresting church, we made our way to the Garden of Gethsemane. In case your New Testament knowledge is rusty, the Garden of Gethsemane is the place where people believe Christ and his disciples went to pray on the night before the crucifixion.

Thousand-year-old trees in the Garden of Gethsemane

I really appreciated the chance to see these old olive trees and see how the new trees literally grow out of the old ones.

After walking through the Church of All Nations (also called the Basilica of the Agony) we stopped at the Orson Hyde Memorial Park.

Entrance to the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden

We winded our way through the park, enjoying the amazing views...

Once we exited the park, we made our way along the Mt. of Olives and Mt. Scopus back to our home in French Hill. Along the way we turned down many invitations from Arab men to eat and/or drink (grilled meats and vodka!). It was hard to resist but we walked on nonetheless. Close to our home, we were amused by the Arab boys driving their bikes on the sidewalks-- they would try to get as close to us as possible then veer off. On Shabbat, the Arabs sort of rule the streets since the religious Jews don't drive.