Everett Walks

Everett moved today from 1-2 steps of walking to the real thing all on his own. The video really best shows momma’s excitement about it better than his walking. He’s 10 months old tomorrow the 18th.

Beit Guvrin

Yesterday we went to Beit Guvrin, its real close to where I work. Anyway lots and lots of caves. Some where built out as homes with bath houses and it was a really cool. It ranged in size from huge to tiny. You crawled all around this maze of cave houses, through holes, up and down stairs. People lived and stored things in them. They also pressed olives in the caves. In the second half off the site they have this place where they quarried granite by only opening a small hole in the top and then digging out this bell shaped cave and lifting the pieces they cut out the top window.

While in the park I spied this supper cool custom El Camino extended cab. If only the General had figured this out and given the El Camino a back seat maybe it would have survived.

Hanna has a tea party while Ella is at school.

Safari Park

We went to a super cool safari park in Tel Aviv last weekend. The safari had lots of Rino, Hippo, Gariff, lion section, etc. It says don’t feed the animals but the way they approach the car is a good indication that the signs are ignored. That and we saw every other car windows down feeding the animals. There was also a zoo inside that was very good as it had ice cream. Seriously it was a great zoo.



One of the big sources of entertainment for us and the kids is the big sand dune. It stays nice and steep because they keep taking sand from the bottom of it. Check out the video of Ella jumping about 10ft down this thing. While Ella walked up and jumped right off it was a bit daunting for me the first time.

Anita figured out why our home made baked goods come out different here, the flour doesn’t have as much gluten. Pancakes come out pretty good though everything takes some trial and error. Tonight the BBQ fired up the first time and we had some steaks for dinner. The BBQ hook up requires the gas company to come provide a bottle or do the connection to the house line. And then after that it took me 4 stores to get a simple ‘T’ line to complete the connection and replace the regulator. It was great to have our first home grilled steak. At this point though the biggest thing I miss about home is the quality of meat products. Kosher butcher rules result in significant difference in beef flavor and tenderness. On the other hand things like Ketchup are 10x better because it is made with sugar instead of corn syrup.

Living in Ashdod

Ella is in school and loves it! Anita succeeded in the monumental task of enrollment. Ella had a good time. School is 8 to 1pm and she has to take a breakfast snack. My hope is Ella will learn Hebrew and then be my translator.

Today is Israel's Independence Day. The Air force flies all of the planes around the country and the Navy parades the sea shore. People BBQ Everywhere. I'm sure Tel Aviv was a zoo and I hear that people get so desperate for space they will set up a BBQ in a traffic circle (we didn't actaully see this).


Here is some perspective on our lives. We live in Ashdod, about 200,000 people but check the physical size 3.5 x 2.5 miles. Most of the housing is 10-15 story apartments. Oregon has nothing on Israel when it comes to controlling urban sprawl. There is a lot of parks here also. The problem is there is only 2 exits in and out of the city and the traffic can be horrible. The bus ride (Intel shuttle) took 1hr 45 min for 25 miles the other night to get home. Next time I'll get out and start walking. Typical time on the bus is 1 to 1:15 to get home. By road bike it is 24 miles and 1:30 to ride. I can also take the car or Mt bike and take the 3rd lesser known exit right by our house that is 6km of sandy road and makes the work commute 21 miles but its still 1.5hrs because I'm riding my Mt bike.

The best thing about our location is we are only 0.5 miles to the sea. The second best thing is we are on the south edge of town. The edge of town is well defined with a fence to the dunes that is a nature preserve. I've seen foxes and antelope there. With all the open space to the south it doesn't feel like we are in the compressed city until we have to fight traffic.

We didn't make Petra this weekend, hotels were all booked. It will be a future trip.

Ella's Magic Birthday

Ella turns 4 on the 4th, those two numbers only line up once and that's what makes it the Magic Birthday. Momma made a pinata and dressed it up like a princes. We had the neighbors over for some hot dogs, sausages, sodas and goodies. It was a good afternoon. Ella got a great princess outfit and we also had gifts from Grandma that came with the movers.













Everett tries to decide if he like's cake.










We got a gate and a shed for the house so we can enclose the yard and secure kids bikes and stuff outside. We haven't seen anything to think theft is a problem other than the dogs that ran off with my shoes as chew toys. Only things left are a pool cover, water in the pool and grass for the small yard. The coming weekend is a 3 day weekend for Israeli Memorial Day and Independence Day. We will see if we can figure out a trip to Petra in Jordan if possible.