Shalom from Erezt Yisrael

It is so nice to have older children to play with Monkey when she wakes up and Mummy is exhausted. Princess & Magoo gave her, her bottle and played with her as we attempted to get up this morning. Breakfast was yojurt, it is so creamy (3%) and delicious here, this morning's choice turned out to be strawberry cheesecake and banana and toast.

Once again our rental car was loaded up with strollers, beach towels, packed lunch, 2 huge water bottles + 4 smaller sippy cups and bottles full of water, GPS, maps, diaper bag and swimming stuff. Off we went West towards Tel Aviv and then up hyw 2 to Queserya (Ceasarea). On the way we told the children the Bible stories surrounding the places we were going to visit today. Paul persecuting the ecclesis then being in prison himself there (yesterday's reading!) for 2 years. Cornellius and Peter and then the best we saved for last, Herod being eaten alive by worms! Magoo thought that was cool. We slightly changed plans and headed for the actual Tel first and ate lunch in the parking lot.

It is humbling that Paul witnessed even to the Roman authorities even appearing to Ceasar himself and how that we need to follow his example.

Last time we went (3 yrs ago) there was almost no one there, today it was packed! The children absolutely loved runing and climbing all over the ruins and there were quite a few hilarious episodes. Magoo thought the sand on the path was ancient, Princess was so excited to get yet another Israeli scrape on her arm, Monkey driving us all nuts in the background of nearly all the video clips. This trime we watched a 10 minute video presentation on the history of the city which was very good, though we didn't get to record it as we were sitting to close to the screen. The Hippadroom was huge and they had a pretend chariot there for the chidlren to climb up on, a highlight for Magoo. The tiled mosaics on the public bathroom floors were neat, the theater was great and they actually still use it today for events and productions. We have a hilarious video clip of the Goons up sitting in the theater with Daddy but that will have to wait until we download it all!

There seem to be so many more tourists around this time. Even at the Aqucduct (which is a couple minutes up the road) there were 2 full buses full and so many people. The children and Daddy still swam (we choose to pretend we couldn't read English and ignor the sign posted there) while Mummy stayed with Monkey near the car as she was FINALLY asleep! After about an hour or a bit less she woke up and we joined the family on the beach to collect shells and perfectly smooth rocks. I cen see luggage weight being a problem on the way home! Princess was so sweet chatting away as she picked up rocks "and this one is a Daddy shell and this lil one is a baby shell..."

Thankfully we packed some snacks as it was 5 when we left and shoule have taken about an hour and 15 to get home. We sorta forgot about rush hour and spent forever stuck in Tel Aviv! People watching, trains and giggle fits kept the children entertained. Watching 8 police cars race up to Jerusalem made us wonder what was going on tonight.

Oh and Monkey learnt a new word "yes" which comes out as "bes"

Finally we got in around 7:30 and quickly made a dinner of fried eggs on toast and fruit. Tomorrow we are planning on staying in Jerusalem as they are calling for rain (it sprinkled on the way up the mountain) and there is a wet warning!

Li La Tov!