Good-byes and Thank You's

We are home. We are jet-lagged and sore, but we are home. It feels nice to be home, but at the same time the goodbyes were very hard. We just finished the trip of a lifetime! And we are so grateful to my parents for allowing it to happen! We are also very grateful to Mike and Debbie and Hannah and Brad and Martin who "took care" of everything at the house :) It is a reassuring feeling to know people have your back. We finish our adventure off now with a living room full of suitcases to unpack, a husband very sleepy in bed and a question on both of our minds.....where to next? :)

Love you all, thanks for reading

b.

Today we did Petra and Wadi Rum.

Both were unreal.

Hard to grasp.

Petra is the city carved out of stone, Wadi Rum is a "Grand Canyon" like desert

We are tired, so tired and sunburned.

But it was amazing, so amazing.

Today we floated in the dead sea, I can scratch another thing off my "25 things to do while I am 25" list. It was so salty, the water felt thick. Its a very weird feeling floating and not being able to sink. You literally are not able to sink, Stu and I went deep and if we tried to stand up, you are still floating, just bobbing in the sea. We than coated ourselves with mud, or Stu coated himself, and I coated my arms :) We will include pictures, and when it looks like Stuart is holding a large rock, its actually salt. Any "rock" in the sea is actually large chunks of salt, it was crazy!

mission: to find a camel

status: completed

Jerusalem again

Jerusalem

Stuart and I conquered Jerusalem. Like seriously, we are backpacking maniacs and we just did so much stuff in 24 hours. It is just after 2pm and we have seen everything you could think of. The old city of jerusalem, the mount of olives, the garden of Gethsemane (where Judas betrayed Jesus), walked the via dolorosa (where Jesus walked with the cross on his back to Calvary), golgotha (where He was crucified), the Garden Tomb (where Jesus was buried), Zedakias Cave, the Church of the Sepulchre, Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall and so much more. It was amazing! The best was probably the Garden Tomb, we happened to be there at the same time as a group from Nigeria so they were all singing and dancing which really added to the experience. I can only include 5 photos here, so one will be of Stu and I outside Jesus' tomb, one will be me placing prayers into the wailing wall, two will be Stu at the garden of Gethsemane and one of the dome of the Rock. Our feet hurt so we are relaxing at the hotel, eating some Israeli candy, than heading out later for supper.

we are in israel

we sucessfully passed a million checkpoints armed with machine guns and are now checked into our hotel.

we are leaving momentarily to explore the old city of Jerusalem, will include photos of view from our hotel.

all is well.

Today: Mount Nebo

"Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. 4 Then the LORD said to him, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it." - Deuteronomy 34

Tomorrow: Backpacks and a ride across the border into Palestine

its hard to believe how fast time flies, and how soon we will be home. i want to stay forever, but also want to be at home. i heard from our house sitter brad today, and all is well at home, apparently our cat doesnt miss us as much as we imagined, Hannah and Debbie are making sure she is well loved. Stu and I are going to expand this adventure a little bit, put on some backpacks and venture into Israel. We spent the last few days exploring around here. The girls and I went to a princess party one night while the boys hung on their own. Went to a Childrens Museum that was amazingly awesome! Really hands on, and I think Levi and Stu might have had more fun than the kids! We than went to the King's car museum and saw billions of dollars worth of old cars, trucks and motorcycles, again I think the boys enjoyed that quite a lot. Tomorrow we head to the dead sea to float in some salt. Due to the number of us, Stu rented a car, and has gotten really good at honking and driving in the Middle East!

it was hot today. not hot for people who reside here, but hot for us "foreigners". we went to a bird zoo, than soaked in the sun outside while my brother planted lemon trees in his yard. stu and my brother went and got a rental vehicle so we can all drive further together. tomorrow we are heading toward palestine. we went out for a traditional arab meal and the bread is made right in front of you, lots of hummus and bread. that is a pretty major staple around here. there is still lots of north america here, as you can see in the photo of the beautiful sun setting behind a KFC sign :) we went downtown to all the local shops for gifts for us and friends, I guess since Brad is living at our house, we should bring him back something :)

and to purchase our traditional palestinian scarves, maybe we will look a little less like foreigners now......

top 10 hard things to get used too

These are the top 10 hardest things to get used to in the Middle East:

1. being stared at (we are the strange looking ones here, everyone stares, no matter where we go)

2. the difference with men and women (men do not talk to women, women do not talk to men, men do not even look me in the eye)

3. the driving (its insane, no lights, no lines on the road, no stop signs, just a horn)

4. the food (stu ate fried lambs brain)

5. the smells (smoking is allowed anywhere and everywhere, even in stores in the mall, people are smoking)

6. the noises (call to prayer broadcast over the entire city 5 times a day)

7. the houses (no houses just insanely huge apartments built one on top of the other all the way up the mountain)

8. the laundry (no dryers exist in Jordan, everything is hung out to dry)

9. the police (they are all carrying machine guns)

10. the temperature (its warm, and plants are growing beautifully in February!!)

Hello Friends

It was a warm sunny day here, visited old historic areas, ate at an Arab restaurant and explored the city. We will post some pics hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Got to call home today, talk to our friend Brad who is staying at our house while we are gone, and make sure my cat August doesnt miss us too much :) All is well. We will be home very soon!

"you give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will chose to say, Lord blessed be your name"

For those of you who have been wondering how long I could make it in a foreign country before getting into trouble, the answer was 9 1/2 hours. I was yelled at by a police officer today, he thought I was taking pictures of the embassy, and apparently that is a no-no. My wonderful sister-in-law explained to him that I was a Canadian tourist and just taking pictures of tourist places, and that I did not take any photos of the embassy. He only believed us, once we showed him all the photos on my camera, than he smiled and let us go on our way. But let me tell you, being yelled at by someone with a huge machine gun across their chest is a little concerning. If Rob Johnson is reading this, you are lucky I didn't just tell them to call you :)

Surviving so far,

Well, here we are. we have finally arrived at the destination, of Amman, Jordan. It is cool weather here, I mean, warmer than Canada :) but still nice and cool. We slept good, nothing woke us up, and Stu was dissapointed because he wanted to be woken up by the call to prayer. All the luggage made it, and we feel not bad at all. We feel a little gross, kinda just like we have just spent the last 3 days on a plane :) . Levi and Theresa's house is amazingly huge, its gorgeous and so are my nieces! We have already played princess and are now watching some Winnie the Pooh movies, going to go explore in a little bit. I will include some photos of the view from their deck, its definately something we will have to get used too, but its amazing! miss you all, thanks for reading, the adventure is just beginning......