Juicy Pear Jelly Belly in a Bottle

We spend most of the day at Caesarea today. As we were leaving we stopped for some bottled water. They had one that was flavored with apple and pear and I said it tasted like Juicy Pear Jelly Belly - thus the title of today's post.

First I must back track though - Amy and I got up and went for a run along the Mediterranean Sea. It is much more glamorous than it sounds. There were lots of TINY bugs and traffic, but it was still a neat experience. After our run we went up and put on our swim suits so we could go for a swim in the Med. Mike had already showered, so he just opted to put his feet in. The pic is of Me, Amy & Dan's feet.

After packing up we headed to Caesarea. We had lunch at a neat restaurant inside the national park (group photo) and then filmed a podcast clip in front of the remains. It was so amazing to see actual places that we have read about in the Bible all of our lives.

We saw a statue that I thought needed some censorship ;). The last pic was taken at the Aquaduct that was built during the time of Herrod and functioned to bring water to the city. Amazing!! (Word for the day).

After spending the afternoon there, we got in the car and headed to Tiberius - on the Sea of Galilee. We had dinner down at the promenade and experienced some "culture" of the area.

Amy is waiting to update her blog - next update tomorrow (we hope).

Day 1 (or is it Day 2?)

Ok, just a quick update before I absolutely crash.  We had a relatively un-eventful flight both from Ft. Lauderdale to JFK and then JFK to Tel Aviv.  I was actually looking forward to the 11 hour flight to Tel Aviv - I was planning to read and then SLEEP!  I did manage to read a bit, the sleeping, um, not so much.  In fact, virtually not at all!  I think the longest I "slept" was about 15 minutes at a time.  CRAZY.  So, now I am REALLY dragging.  We are at a hotel right on the Mediterrean Sea (I know I spelled that wrong - don't have time to fix it right now).  Tomorrow we plan to at least put our toes in before hitting the road and heading north. 

One more thing of interest.  They almost didn't let Mike into the country.  When we were attempting to do our "border crossing" the guy took our passports and then proceeded to ask Mike what his father's name, then what is your grandfather's name.  Mike told the guy that he had never met his grandfather and didn't know his name.  Apparently they weren't impressed with that answer b/c Mike was detained by the Israeli police for 45 minutes.  The problem was that Dan & Amy had gone through the line in front of us and had no idea what was going on.  They told me I could wait with Mike, but Dan & Amy couldn't come back to check on us, and they had Mike's passport - so we weren't going anywhere!  It was a tad stressful - and kinda funny too - I will post more detail when I can put together two consecutive thoughts.  Praying for a good night's sleep!  

Thanks for your continued prayers.  Hoping to post a few pics tomorrow!  GOOD NIGHT!

We're Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Today is the day!  Mike and I leave for our trip to Israel.  It is 4:33 AM and I am too excited to sleep!  I told Mike last night that the excitement is better than waiting for Christmas morning.  This will be a trip of so many firsts for me and I can't wait to experience them all!  

We are hoping to keep the blog updated with pictures and commentary - so be sure to check back. 

P.S.  Ella is healing quite well - thank you for your prayers!

Emergency Room Visit

Well, my dear sweet Ella had to go to the ER yesterday. I was finishing a SCUBA diving lesson on Saturday morning and received a message (when we had just gotten out of the water) that Ella had been hurt. I called home and learned that Ella had been burned and they were headed to the ER.

So, I got to go to IRMC ER in a wet bathing suit for the second time in my life. FUN!

Logan was getting a bag of popcorn out of the microwave and accidentally picked it up from the bottom. Ella was standing right next to him and the butter flung out of the bag and hit her in the face. She has 1st degree burns on her arm and superficial 2nd degree burns surrounding her left eye. Thankfully she closed her eye quickly and that was not burned (she does have burns on her eyelid, eyebrow, cheek and nose).

We have a referral to a plastic/reconstructive surgeon on Monday.

Thankfully she is healing well and we are optimistic that it will not leave a scar. For now our #1 rule is NO sun!

Home Sweet Home - Tropical Storm Fay

So, we got home without too much excitement. With the exception of Spencer's scratched face, we managed to make the entire trip without injury or illness. However, when we were unloading the van at the Nafe's house, Amy ended up getting bit by a bunch of fire ants. I got one too! I guess if that is the worst of our road trip injuries, we are doing pretty good. I am thankful to be home - after 3,610 miles of driving. Amy is working on a blog to post all 2,100 of our pictures! I will post a link when it is live.

Just about the time we were settled snugly in our beds the outer bands of Tropical Storm Fay came rolling in. We have had about 24 hours straight of rain and winds. The worst of it should be over sometime during the night tonight. There was no public school today (and they only started back up yesterday!).

Here are a couple of clips of Logan telling us about the wind and rain.

Day 17 - Shopping and Celebrations

Today Amy & I spent some time shopping for clothes for Israel. The Daddies took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese (but neglected to bring a camera). After dinner we had cake and ice cream - to celebrate Amy's birthday (which is actually on Wednesday, but this was the time when the family would all be together).

Day 16 - Part 2

Here are some pics from our lunch at the Sun Dial.

We also went out for dinner with Dan & Amy (horray for babysitters!) at Aria for Amy's birthday.

Day 16 - Downtown Atlanta

Today we took the MARTA into downtown. We visited the Olympic Centennial Park and the World of Coke. Then we headed to they Wyndam and had lunch at the Sun Dial restaurant. It is located on the 72 floor of the hotel. It a restaurant that rotates as you eat - giving you a 360 view of the city. The kids thought this was VERY cool, but wished that it moved faster than the one hour it took to complete the revolution.

Day 15 - Driving Back to Atlanta

Today we headed back down to Atlanta. We took a picture at a rest area in NC where we had stopped to get keys from Elisi. Logan wanted to be sure you noticed his new WV hat.

When we arrived at the house we took the kids for a walk down to the river. Mike & Dan got in about 9 PM. We are looking forward to spending the weekend all together.

Day 14 - Part 2

After the creek we went to Heaven Sent Ministries where the kids got to package some meals to send out to the mission field.  We watched a short video and then assembled 864 meals!  They worked very well together.  Charly wanted to know when we got to take the meals to the people!  

Day 14 - Exploring in West Virginia

So how would you like to sleep like this?  LOL - ok so we didn't actually sleep like this, but here is what our bed looked like at 7:30 this morning!  

Today we took the kids to explore a waterfall and creek.  We packed a picnic lunch and had a fabulous time.  The kids played in the water and Ella even had a butterfly land on her finger!  

Day 13 - Driving to Princeton, WV - Gravier's

Our drive today was only about 4 hours.  We arrived at the Gravier's late afternoon and the kids had lots of fun playing outside.  

We went to "Anna's Chick-Fil-A" for dinner (the kids asked if she owned it) and then came home and had brownies that Molly had made.  YUMMY!  

The kids continued to play outside until it got dark and they were able to see fire flies.  They had a great time trying to catch them.  They also picked some daisies.  

Day 12 - Canaan Valley, WV

We had a great time at our cabin today.  We took the kids on a hike to a waterfall (It was really more of a decent down 214 stairs, but it was fun).  The falls were called Blackwater Waterfalls.  There were some CRAZY people swimming at the bottom of the falls.  They must have been COLD!

The kids also had fun in the hot tub, and playing on the property.  There were some woods and apple trees in the front yard.  If you look closely you can see Spencer in the apple tree!

BTW, the rental cabin was SUPPOSED to have WiFi, but it didn't really.  The owners told us that we could "sometimes" get it if we sat in one bedroom.  So, we spent a lot of time trying to find a decent connection - we are pretty sure they didn't really have internet, but were using the neighbors. 

The boys got to see shooting stars last night!  It was clear enough for them to see 3 and they were SOOOOO excited!  

Back on the Road

Yesterday we drove from the Kehley's to a cabin in the Cannan Valley, WV. We stopped at Hershey on the way down. We just did a quick tour of Chocolate World and then spent some time shopping at the outlets there. Temps are supposed to get down in the 40's overnight in WV - and we only packed shorts and t-shirts - OOPS! Expect the next few days of pics to be of the kids in mis-matched, but warm clothes (whatever was on sale!).

I did manage to "sort of" re-create another picture. The 2nd pic was from when we visited Chocolate World in Oct. of 2005. And then the kids standing in the same spot almost 3 years later.

Day 11 - Memories

Before heading out from the Kehley's I tried to re-create a picture from 4 years ago. It was taken 4/04 in Vero. I thought it was cool that we were exactly 4 years and 4 months later. We even found the quilt the kids were sitting on in the original picture. However, Ella was NOT interested in sitting on Matt's lap. So - here is what we got. . .