Memorial Day Family

{we used to be able to take a "stair step" photo of us in age order. we have recently given up trying because the boys are getting too tall}

I love the spontaneous adventures my family goes on. Sometimes we pack and lunch and leave the house with no set destination, and most trips end with ice cream cones. On Memorial Day, we visited the original L.L.Bean store and had a picnic at the beach.

I love sitting back and watching everyone. The boys can be trying to beat each other's running time then turn around and build sand castles with a little sister. The little girls jump the waves together. Zach, the tallest one in the family, spins all of us around on the merry-go-round. Lydia is so patient with the little girls and all of their questions. Abbie and Zach will talk technology and tv shows seamlessly while the rest of us are mostly confused by the terms and subjects. My parents revel in the fact that all of us are home for the summer. 

Wondering and avoiding

reading

Die Empty

The Art of Work

Death on the Nile

The A.B.C. Murders

Quiet

listening

Simon and Garfunkel pandora station

Disney classics

podcasts (The Art of Simple is one of my favorite)

wondering

why I have to be a grown-up

why Maine skipped spring

how much more yarn I can store in my room

what it will be like to be home all summer for the first time since middle school

excited about

getting a job

the possibility of summer adventures

buying a new hat

new yarn

avoiding

completely unpacking the little bits and pieces still packed away from school

vacuuming

online yarn sales (I need to keep telling myself that I don't need more yarn)

answering phone calls

seeing

familiar home sights

budding leaves and flowers

overcast skies that hold no rain

green everywhere

my messy desk and clean yarn shelf

Israel // Day Nine

The Temple Mount, one of my favorite places. These steps and walls have been here for thousands of years, and we were able to walk on the very steps that Jesus and His followers walked up to enter into the temple. Somehow the order of this day's pictures got mixed up. The temple mount was one of the last places we saw. Oh, well.

These are the steps on the southern side of the temple which was the main entrance.

Hezekiah's tunnel. King Hezekiah re-routed the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem's water source, and brought it into the city through a tunnel which ended in the Pool of Siloam. In John 9, .Jesus put mud on the eyes of a blind man and sent him to wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam, and the man was healed.

The Pool of Siloam.

The temple mount as seen from the Mount of Olives right across the valley from the mount.

Olives Trees at the Church of All Nations which sits at Gethsemane.

The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. This wall was the closest to the Holy of Holies, so when Jews come here they are coming to be near to where the presence of God was located.

Excavations farther down the Western Wall.

A reproduction of the pinnacle of the temple mount. Here is where the trumpeter would have stood and blown the shofar. This may be the place that Satan took Jesus in Matthew 4 when he was tempting Him.

Israel // Day Eight

Driving through the desert.

At Mareshah, there are dozens of caves which are currently being excavated. Here, we were able to do a little bit of digging in one of the caves and then crawl through one which was yet to be excavated. Such a cool experience unless you're claustrophobic. 

Israel's national flower, the anemone. 

No, we did not find all of this pottery, but these shards were all found in the caves.

The outside of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

The end of the museum opened up overlooking the part of the city that has grown up since the Holocaust to show that, even with all the awful things that happened during that time, there is still hope.

In the Garden of the Righteous, there are trees dedicated to Gentiles who risked their lives to help the Jews. This tree was dedicated to Corrie ten Boom and her family. Around the time that she passed away, the tree dedicated to her also died, so this new one was planted.

This is the view from my hotel room in Jerusalem.