What a glorious few weeks we have been enjoying here on the East Coast. Unseasonably warm temps, I'm not complaining. Put the spring garden in, kids enjoyed spring break and loved have friends visit the past two weekends.

A riding the tractor loop at a Easter festival

I think her lanky legs are a little long

M & J

S & J

My little tree hugger, Grandma H you better watch out she might turn vegetarian!

Kites at the Cherry Blossom festival in D.C.

Little specks are kites

Our attempt at a "girl" pic. J wanted nothing to do with sitting down. We had just pulled her from the stroller and she wanted to roam the grounds

Even worse attempt

Spring, so happy to see you have arrived

Belated

My girlfriend came over to the house a few weeks after Jo's official birthday. She was able to shoot these adorable pics. You can check out her web-site here http://tiffanykrieger.com/
Jocelyn is growing by leaps and bounds. Life with her gets better everyday. She is a smart, active, crazy little one. She will sit for a few minutes at a time if you have a book to bribe her with, otherwise she is into cuboards, closets, shelves, drawers, plants, etc.

Fun is over, it's time to clean-up, so grateful for wood floors!

Holy Land Visit

A whirlwind adventure, a trip of a lifetime, call it what you may...it was awesome. I had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem and the surrounding area this past month. R was there on "official" business. I was there as a tourist with really awesome benefits such as an incredible hotel room, perdium to help pay for food, souvenirs, tour guides. Thanks to Grandma who was called on a Wednesday and was able to fly out the following Wednesday to hold down the fort and shuttle the monkeys to their various activities. Jerusalem was never on my top 10 list, it sure is now. Here are a few pics of the trip, if I had loaded all of them you will still be viewing them tomorrow.

Day 1: The wailing wall. Frequented by Jews from all over the world. There holiest site on the earth. The wall was smaller that I had imagined. Friday is the busiest day and usually most volatile day to visit. We were required to be out of the "old city" by 10:00 a.m. Friday morning.

Day 2: Entrance to the BYU Jerusalem center. What a spirit. The minute we passed the guard and walked onto the grounds I knew that the church that I belong to is true.

Poppy's in bloom at the Orson Hyde Park. A short drive/walk from the BYU Jerusalem center. What an awesome feeling and place to be at. Reading from the New Testament and sitting where they things occured. Awesome!

The Garden Tomb. Believed by many Christian faiths including our as the site that Christ was buried in. Again, a different place that I had imagined. To enter the garden was a busy/loud walk through the city. A large bus depot is located right outside the gate. Once you enter the garden area, peace, quiet, trees and flowers. There was hardly any outside noise.

Day 3: Cats everywhere...I knew my girls would love this pic. I saw ten dogs total and this was including the bomb sniffing dogs in our hotel.

Ruins that have recently been excavated. This was in the coast side town of Akko. Also had the opportunity to walk through Templar caverns, tunnels under the city

Rosh HaNikra is a geologic formation in Israel located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near the border with Lebanon. The Rosh HaNikra grottos are cavernous tunnels formed by sea action on the soft chalk rock. The total length is some 200 meters. They branch off in various directions with some interconnecting segments.

This is how I reached the grottos, a short ride down by cable car.

Impressive gardens & Baha'i temple in the city of Haifa. This was the last stop on my tour of the Mediterranean coast

Day 4: Haram esh-Sharif, the "Noble Sanctuary" or Temple Mount, is a vast rectangular building in the south-eastern part of the Old City. Traditionally the site of Solomon's temple, it later housed the Second Temple, enlarged by Herod the Great and destroyed by the Romans. Left in ruins for more the half a century, the site became an Islamic shrine in AD 691 with the building of the Dome of the Rock.

Do any of these carvings look familiar?

Shepard abiding over his flock

Day 5: Long driving day...visit to Yardenet Baptism Site, the area has become developed for modern baptism to occur here. There were no baptism while we were visiting. Our tour guide had been baptized in this location. There were HUGE catfish swimming in the water. I don't think you could have convinced me to get in the water.

Stopped at the Sea of Galilee, it is really a lake 13 miles long and 6 miles wide with water draining into it from the Jordan river. Unfortunately the day was crummy for picture taking.

Beautiful flowers outside the restaurant we ate at. It was a feast for the eyes and belly. Chicken kabbos, 8 different middle eastern salads and eaten with fresh pita bread, hummas, tahini, etc...YUM

We also made a stop at Mount Tabor where heavenly messengers conferred the keys of the kingdom upon Peter, James, and John.

When President Spencer W. Kimball visited the Holy Land in October 1979, he visited Mount Tabor and said: “I felt very sure that this was the spot where Jesus had taken his three disciples, Peter, James, and John, to this ‘high mountain apart,’ and there had given certain blessings. [See Matt. 17:1–9.] I felt a very warm Spirit as we gathered together and felt what came to us from this experience.”

Beautiful church, wonderful feeling on the grounds.

Typical signage around the city

Good Eats

Food comprises much of my opinion about a vacation. Slovenia has awesome gelato. Paris has wonderful french fries, croissants, antipasta platter and the list could go on. Jerusalem was an awesome surprise, so many yummy tasty foods! It was hard to come back home and have to cook again.


Rob and I dropped a lot of shekel's at this yummy waffle bar. Crisp Belgium waffles with any topping you could think of. After stopping by two nights in a row we were treated like regulars. I mentioned to Rob that we need to try Belgium's, make sure they match up.

Able to enjoy the last few days of Pomegranate season. Locals would cut these in half and squeeze them into fresh juice.

Our best meal of the trip. Saturday afternoon, recommended restaurant in our guidebook. Falafal that melted in your mouth, hummus with pinenuts, fresh pita, fresh squeezes lemonade with tons of fresh mint, kabobs, Jerusalem salad (cucumbers with tomatoes). We ate until we were stuffed.

That divine hummus I was talking about

Mint lemonade, this was at least a daily purchase

Typical fruit market, a few blocks down from the garden tomb

Fresh yogurt for breakfast every morning. In addition to all the tasty bread you could eat, a lot filled with nutella! Fresh fruit, fish, vegetables, cheese oh the cheese.

Pomegranate juice

Typical bread stands in the Old City

Rob enjoying his Shawarma, sandwich-like wrap of shaved chicken. The meat is placed on a spit, and may be grilled for as long as a day. Toppings included tahini, hummus, chips (french fries), Jerusalem salad, pickled turnips and pickled cabbage.

Spring on the horizon

After a month of "rest" I am back to the blogging world. The snow has all melted from our yard. Now we are faced with giant mud puddles, the girls thought it was a fun idea to play soccer yesterday. The washing machine faced a giant challenge. Jocelyn realized that the outdoor world is for playing. She spent a lot of time yesterday adjusting to walking on uneven ground surface but loved every minute of it. She threw her first real tantrum when we had to come inside to get sissy's homework done. This summer should make for some real fun.
It is such a wonderful sight to see the daffodils start to bloom, this spring is an extra sight. There were a few days in February that I never thought I would see the ground again. Now I am picking a date for the hubby to deliver some manure to my garden and let the planting begin, this time with a extra helper.