Heaven on Earth

Heaven actually does exist on Earth in the form of the Carmel Forest Spa in Haifa (Farrah--I found the good thing about Haifa!!) I have a lot of catching up to do, so I'll get back to the spa in a minute.
On Wednesday night, we went to a chanukah party at Dodi's with all of the million Fishman cousins. Simon was a bit overwhelmed at first, but Eli loved it from the beginning. Simon warmed up eventually and had fun playing with his cousins.
Thursday was Simon's first day of vacation, so while Eli was at Bettina's in the morning, Simon and I went to the safari. Simon loves to hold the map and point out where we are and which animals he wants to go see. He also noticed the big billboard of a map that had a pink pawprint indicating "you are here." He pointed to it and said "what is that clue for and why is it pink?" It took me a couple of minutes to figure out that the pink pawprint looked just like the pawprint that is used for clues in Blue's Clues. While we were driving through the end of the safari on our way out of the park, we realized that Yishai was in front of us. We ended up passing them and leaving before them so Simon spent the whole ride home saying "where is Yishai? How come I can't see him??"
After we picked up Eli, we just hung out for a bit and then went to Tel Aviv to pick up Dina and Eliav at the bus station. They were coming to babysit for the boys while David and I went to the spa for the weekend. When I told Simon that they were coming to stay with him, he said "can you please call them and tell them not to come?" Despite that, both boys had a great time with them, and while Eliav and Dina may have decided never to have kids of their own, we are going to let them borrow ours whenever they want!! Simon obviously felt very comfortable with them because in the middle of the night on Thursday night he got into bed with them and wanted Dina to hold his hand.
While the kids were having fun at home, David and I had an amazing time at the spa. It rained the whole time so we didn't get to go out and walk around, but there was plenty to do inside between the massages and pedicures and haircuts (David got a scalp massage and they made him sit under one of those old-lady hair dryers which was pretty funny) and all you can eat buffets. Words can't do justice to how nice it was!!!!!
We came home after Shabbos and Simon and Eli weren't all that impressed with seeing us. On Sunday, Simon and I couldn't decide what to do, so we ended up going to paint pottery while Eli was at daycare. Then after we picked up Eli we went to the monkey park near Modi'in. It was great--there were lots of monkeys and also lots of fun things to play on. Eli didn't want to stay in the stroller at all so I had my first experience of one kid running off in one direction and the other going in the other direction. I let Simon do whatever he wanted because I had to keep Eli from playing in the mud which is all he really wanted to do. He did also like pointing at the monkeys and shrieking. We had another "only in Israel" experience when a guy asked me if I would take a picture of his kids with my camera and then email him the picture. Hopefully I'll actually remember to e-mail it to him.
We were going to stop at the Levines on the way home, but Simon had a HUGE fit because I wouldn't buy him a gigantic plastic alligator so he wasn't allowed to buy anything in the gift shop and we had to go straight home. He was really mad, but I was proud of myself for actually not giving in to him!
Last night, David and I went to a dinner/trivia night at the shul and Michelle came to babysit. I thought Simon wouldn't be happy being left again, but he was so happy to see her and he was making her wrestle with him when we left. Trivia night was fun--our table was losing but somehow we came back from behind and won!
This morning, Simon and I went with Boaz and Ari and their respective mothers and some siblings to a little petting zoo on a kibbutz in Herzliya (who knew there was a kibbutz in the middle of Herzliya). It smelled terrible (and Simon first said he was going to throw up, but then he forgot about it) but was a lot of fun. The kids fed pita to the bunnies and the pigs and also made their own pita and ate it with chocolate spread. They also got to help make some olive oil. All in all, it was a really fun morning!