Everett Baptized

No Everett, Jesus doesn't need your credit card.











Another of the Intel relocation families arranged for a Jordan River Baptism of their newborn and this is what we were going to do for Everett. They graciously offered to let us double up on the day. It was really pretty cool when you think of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the same river. Grandma and Grandpa are Everett's Godparents. It was a very nice casual ceremony by Deacon Steve who came to Israel from Abq just for this occasion.

We did a big dinner out at a winery after the ceremony. It was a good day below sea level in the Jordan Rift Valley. The Jordan river feeds the Sea of Galilee at 200m below sea level then flows to the Dead Sea at 400m below sea level.

Sisters

Matching dresses courtesy of Great Aunt Maxine. I walked away from the laptop mid blog last time. Can you guess where I stopped and momma started writing?

Here is our clown Hanna. She is always out to play and have some fun. She and Everett can spend hours making each other laugh.

We are making the rounds with Grandma and Grandpa. We all went to Masada last weekend and then for a swim (float) in the Dead Sea. Then yesterday we did an adult trip to Jerusalem with myself Grandma and Grandpa. Without kids its amazing how much more you can focus and see. I’ve seen everything, even Jesus. He is so cool! I told him about my “Jesus loves you” surf board and he was proud. He said he tried to surf in the Sea of Galilee but there are no good swells. LO BESEDER!

Word Cloud

From Wordle.net is this word cloud. This includes back to July of 07. Word size indicates frequency of use. This is the top 100 words.

Daddy has some Hanna guilt over how small Hanna's name is in the cloud. Maybe daddy will have to buy Hanna some Hanna ice cream to make Hanna up for it. Hanna is our great Hanna middle child and Hanna does lots of great Hanna things. Hanna is our family Hanna clown making Hanna's siblings and Hanna's friends laugh all the time. Hanna is our night Hanna owl and doesn't like to Hanna sleep. Hanna is getting very good at Hanna peddling around her new Hanna bike.

Anniversary #8 and other stuff

We got all dressed up like a normal day and celebrated our eighth anniversary the other week. I surprised Anita taking the day off work to give her some relief for with the kids. We all went out to an early dinner at the beach. With our crew of 5 we don't often go out.

Momma also made this cool puffer fish piñata for Brogan's, who lives up the street, second birthday.








We have had Rasha Shana, Jewish New Year number 5769 a couple of weeks ago. I worked that holiday and US congress didn't. Then the amazing holiday was Yom Kippur. No one in the country drives and its national play in the streets day for 24hrs. It was really amazing and quite. See the picture of Everett out in the middle of the street solo. We had the neighbors watch the kids and went out for a two hour bike ride.

Then Grandma and Grandpa arrived loaded like pack mules. We celebrated Grandma's Birthday with another great Anita Chocolate Cake. Grandma and Grandpa brought everything we ordered off the web. Kids presents for Christmas. For instance a regular Barbie bought here in Israel cost $60-70 US. So we stocked up on those and other things like learning books and movies for Christmas and birthdays.




Surf was up this morning so I took dad down to the beach. It was raining, the sea is still warm, the waves were great. I'm off to work swing shift this afternoon while Grandma and Grandma get over their jet lag.

Fall has Arrived

My swing shift work days starts at 3pm and I can start my day riding with Ella to school. Everett and Hanna also got a bonus trailer ride. We also got our first rain storm in over 5 months. It was strange to go that long with absolutely no rain. Feels like fall now with temps in the 70-80s instead of the 90s. Time change is also tonight a month ahead of the rest of the world.

A couple of week's back we went and toured old Ashkelon, a port from ancient times. The Greek Statue on the left is Atlas holding the world up with Nike on top. From the biblical end much of the history is tied to Samson and how he loses his hair (purity) and then God takes his strength.







Mama gave the girls hair-cuts, Ella's first in over two years. The swimming damage needed to be trimmed back so we could actually brush through the tangles.

Yesterday we went to the Latrun Monastery for a look around. From there we walked up to the top of a hill to explore some ruins. No entry fee, no signs, raw and completely unpreserved. It was really fun to explore with no rules. Only now writing the blog did I find it was an old castle.








We bought Hanna a bike yesterday. Simple lightweight plastic fixed gear (not coaster) with a hand brake. Kids also got some chalk and have been decorating the house.








Alfonso's mom came to visit from El Paso and fed us some delicious home made Mexican food. One night it was red enchiladas with homemade corn tortillas. They were so delicious!