Indiana Jones Date

We went to visit our friends in Jordan over the long weekend. With the help of them and their nanny we got to go explore Petra for a day child-free. Petra is where the last scenes in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade took place and I can see why this was the perfect place for an adventure film. It was spectacular!

"The Treasury" - over 2000 years old

The Amphitheater

"The Monastery" - lies high up on the mountain. We hiked, but there were many Bedouins with teams of donkeys eager to sell us a ride.

For true perspective on the size of this structure, check out that man at the entry. It looks like a simple entry, but at the base is a head-high wall that must be scaled to get in.

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Home is where the heart is

Tradition in my family is to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Rob said he had to tell me my gift, so I threw a blanket over his head, carefully unwrapped his mouth portion, and he told me that he was sending my parents to visit us that Saturday! The mouth received a giant kiss mixed with some salty tears. What a sweet, heart-melting surprise! Just hours before I was telling a friend how I missed my family and how it would have been the perfect time for them to come visit, and little did I know he had already secretly been arranging it all.
My favorite part of their visit is all the fun Michael and Ella had with them. Michael about tic-tac-toed them to death, but they gladly humored him about 100 times a day.
We got to do plenty of sight seeing as well. Any time I am around my mom or m.i.l. I get pretty lazy about picture taking since they both like to take about a zillion and I can just steal theirs. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them of her camera yet so here are the only few I got.

At the Nahal Me'arot caves. Scientists have found evidence that these caves were inhabited continuously for 200,000 years, including 5 prehistoric cultures. But I'm pretty sure the Neanderthal people in the background are fakes.

Friendly cat at Ceasarea

My mom and Ella at Ceasarea. Sometimes I don't know where Ella gets all of her sweetness and peacefulness, and then my mom visits and I realize it just skipped a generation.

Having my parents come stay a couple weeks with us definitely made Israel feel much more like home to me.

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Unexpected

Last night I went for a run. All day had been heavy storms, the kind where wind knocks over trees, streets flood, street lights are out, power goes on and off, and the rain pelts. It is reported to be the worst storm here in decades. But my parents are here to play with the kids, so I can run solo. So why not? I ran along the boardwalk and the sea was all in a major tempest. The winds made me run in place one minute and fly the next, the rain came and went, came and went, and *shocker* I didn't see another soul outside for six miles. Until the very tail end along the boardwalk. I saw a tall, lean, athletic looking runner coming toward me along the deserted beach. It felt like he was the only other soul on the earth. I sensed a kindred spirit in this stranger. I contemplated what brief comment or action (high-five?) to make to him as we were about to cross paths. And then he said hello and grabbed me! And then I realized it was Rob! I thought he was still at work! And there he was, my tall, lean, athletic stranger, the only person in sight for miles around, the kindred spirit crazy enough to be out running on the stormiest day in decades, grabbing me unexpectedly while the sea raged in the background.
I thought it felt like something from a romance movie.
He was happy to run into me and have my company on his run, but not blown away by the romance of it like me. I guess he didn't have the element of the unexpected like I did, since he figured he might run in to me. And he is a guy. But it was amazing, I swear. I love that we are so alike.

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