Petra hiking!

We spent the day exploring the amazing city of Petra! What a place! Its an ancient city, surrounded by mountains, caves, and deserts! We walked around for 7 hours before I begged Andrew to call it a day! I have to say, Petra is one of the most amazing places I have ever been too!! We hiked around for 12 kms in the desert. Does that say anything about how awesome it was?

In the "Sig", a 2km long valley between stone (up to 400 feet tall!) 

Its hard to tell how tall it really is! See the people? 

The first glimpse of the "Treasury"

See me jumping?! This place is HUGE!

There are thousands of caves! 

And the stone is all beautiful and swirly! 

Caves and tombs! 

He always goes where hes not allowed! 

Ok..so sometimes I do too..

Starting the 800 steps up to the "Monastery"

I love him for his brains and brawn!

The monastery!

Also, gigantic! It is seriously amazing!

The view of "The end of the world", as they call it. You can see Israel at the very back! 

Drinking hot sweet tea at the top with a random Bedouin man, awesome!

Isn't it stunning?

The walls are so beautiful!  

So there you go! We highly recommend Petra if you are ever in Jordan! 

Heading north..

We headed north last weekend. 

We went to dole out hugs and kisses to our kids (one last time) after the shabbat meeting, and also to visit with some dear friends who recently welcomed their fourth child into the world!

We spent some time at the sea (oh how we have missed it!) 

I give you baby J! So cute!!

Andrew was reunited with his biggest fan! Apparently she's my competition, she is in LOVE with Andrew! She tried to sleep in our bed (for Andrew) and showered kisses on him. Its adorable!  

Adorable baby faces! 

Andrew did hold him! Although not as much as me (the self-confessed baby snatcher/cuddle-master!) 

New toes! So cute! 

We were thrilled to be reunited with some of our precious kids! They swarmed us and were so excited to see us! It was precious! Needless to say, we had shadows the whole day! (One of the women actually cried when she saw me! Which made me tear up.)

We got to meet the newest baby (The one on the left, born just 3 hours after baby J!)

She wasn't very happy when I took this picture! The baby to her right is a month older than her! Not only is she petite, she is also a miracle!

Look at this gorgeous girl (and that hair!). Her life was supposed to end 3 months before she was born, then again the week before she was born. But God had other plans and preserved her life! Now mama and baby are doing wonderfully and so in love! 

It was such a wonderful weekend, we were reunited with precious lives, prompting us to remember that our time here was so so worth it. We are so thankful for the reminder! 

Exploring and floating!

Today we headed to Masada, which is just barely south of the Dead Sea. 

The 1.5 hour bus ride kind of kicked my butt. Turns out, when Im not sitting at the front of the bus, where I can see the road, I get car-sick! So instead of me looking out the window at the beautiful scenery, I was holding, white-knuckled onto the seat in front of me, using every ounce of strength to fight impulse to...well...you know what I mean.

But no worries, once I got off the bus, I felt 100% better! 

Masada is amazing! The history is rich and its a must-see if you are ever in Israel! It was a fortress of King Herod, then occupied by rebel Jews, then breached by Romans....you get the idea! Its amazing to walk around up there (and HOT, did I mention yet that it was so hot!)

Here is a metal model of Masada, the raised part in the middle is where we were on top of, we took a cable car up.

The zig-zag line is the "Snakes Trail" that you can hike up. It was closed today, since it was "abysmally" hot. 

Peeking out from one of the "windows." 

The view from the top. You can see the Dead Sea, a far way down!  

Trying not to melt! 

We walked on a path on the side, it must have been sketchy back in the day! 

The northern palace remains. 

The western palace remains. 

And onto, the Dead Sea! It was such an amazing experience! We took the bus (yes, I was car-sick again!) and jumped right in! It was so much fun, floating there! Its impossible to drown, but because of the salt, it completely throws you off balance! It was not refreshing at all, in fact, some parts were downright hot! A very strange but great experience! 

That is not snow, its salt formations on the rocks! 

Trying not to plunge my face into the water (it BURNS the eyes!) and working on that tank top tan! 

I love this picture! Andrew has never floated before, he was so excited to finally float!

And yes, it is that deserted in this area!  

He's loving it. 

More salt rocks! So crazy! 

So that was our day! We came home exhausted, dehydrated and loving life! Its so amazing to spend time exploring this unique country!