First the BREAKING NEWS...as you may know from previous posts, Eli pronounces words that start with "sc" as "chhhh" sound. So "scared" becomes "chared" and "Scooby Doo" becomes "chooby Doo" etc etc. Yesterday, he handed me a Scooby Doo book and said "can you read me this Scooby Doo?" I was so sad! So I tested him and kept asking him to say "scared" and "Scooter" and "squirt" and "squirrel" and he said them all correctly. An era has ended.
Now back to the regularly scheduled post...on Monday last week, Eli had his last day of Gan Bella (the camp he went to for a couple of weeks--not sure if I ever even posted about it) and then he spent the afternoon with Marcia. Simon was already on vacation so he and I spent the day with Uncle Jon and Joshua. First, we drove to Jerusalem to pick them up from Abi's. We made excellent time. After loading up on snacks at their local macolet, we got in the car and made our way South towards the Dead Sea. When you don't get lost (like we did last time we went to the Dead Sea), it's really not a very long drive from Jerusalem. It's a pretty drive through the desert. Simon and I really saw all the different types of land in Israel that day--from the urban flatness of Tel Aviv to the hills of Jerusalem to the sand of the desert and back!
We went to the Dead Sea at Ein Gedi Beach where it was HOT. And there was no shade to be found near the water. And Dead Sea water is not exactly refreshing because the excess salt just makes everything itchy. We all lasted for about 10 minutes and then we had enough! We showered off and then made our way across the highway to the Ein Gedi Nature Preserve and Park. We attempted to get lunch there but the best we could come up with was ice cream. Simon and Joshua did not have any complaints about that. After we ate our very nutritous lunch, we set off on a hike. The boys were very excited to be going on a hike. I was a bit nervous about how they would do (fine, about how I would do too because I'm not such a big hiker) but the person at the entrance said that it was about a 10 minute walk to the first waterfall and then more waterfalls every 5-10 minutes after that and the entire thing is only about 1/2 hour each way if you don't stop at all. We figured we'd go to the first waterfall and in worst case, would just go back after that. We needn't have worried...Simon and Joshua were troopers and kept wanting to do more! It was a really nice and beautiful hike and it was great to stop and cool off in the waterfalls. The entire thing, including stopping to swim, took us about 2 hours. We were filthy, sandy and wet when it was over but it was well worth it!
David is kicking me off the computer so I will put up the rest of the pictures later!
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