The dead Sea

Yesturday we visited Masada, qumran(the location of the dead sea scrolls) and the dead sea. Above is Reed floating in the dead sea. He was cracking up the whole time. It was amazing because, it seemed like something was pushing him up.

This is Reed at the top of Masada. This was an amazing former temple site for Harod. We were able to catch glimpses of the opulence. They were really progressive.

This is me the day before at the. Mediteranean Sea. Behind is a water aquaduct that Harod built. We also saw one of the palaces that Harod built along the Sea.

The Sea of Galilee

We went to a reserve that has ancient buildings that dated to tribe of Dan.  This is where the Jordan River comes down from Mount Herman.  The meaning of Jordan means down from Dan.  One of the surprising things about being in the holy land is how how green and beautiful it is.  It is also very hilly.
This is a spot in the Reserve.  It was very peaceful and beautiful!  We also went for a ride in a boat on the Sea of Galilee.  We had a lunch at a fun restaurant that served a whole fish and usually someone in the group gets a coin in the fishes mouth.  They call it Peters fish.  This was fun!  A little scary, but fun!
This is a view from the Mount of Beatitudes.  We spent a very peaceful hour learning about the Savior.  The view from the hill was amazing.  The picture doesn't really do it justice.  We also went to Capernium.   This is the place where most of the miracles took place.  This whole area is where the Savior spent most of his three year ministry.  There is definitely a sweet spirit here.

Israel Day one and two

We are so excited to arrive safely in Israel and to be able to see Kara.  We were able to meet her at the Jerusalem Center and then we walked into Old Jerusalem.
This is Kara in the Old town in front of a bunch of yummy candy.  There are little shops of every kind.  Kara took us to all her favorites.
She took us to Omar the wood carvers shop.  He had some amazing pieces.  Kara has been checking out his shop for weeks and she was excited to have mom and dad there to buy a nativity for here.  Above is the piece that Reed and I got.  I include Reeds name but it was mostly me making the purchase.  Yikes!
This is Reed, Kara and I in front of one of the entrances to the old city.  We had fun seeing some of the sites.  We mostly had fun with cute Kara.

    On Tuesday morning we started our tour with Daniel Rona.  We traveled from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee.  We stopped at many interesting places.  I think our favorite spot today was going to the Mount of Tabor.  This site has been quoted by Pres. Kimball as being the place of the mount of transfiguration.  There was an amazing spirit.  Brother Rona compared the transfiguration to the appearance of the Savior in the Kirtland temple.  The similarities were interesting.

    We are staying at a Kibbutz on the Sea of Galilee.  This area is where Jesus had most of his ministry.  It is very green and pretty.  It is very different than I thought it would be.  We are very close to the mount of Beatitudes.  We will be spending time there tomorrow.  What an amazing experience this is.   We are truly walking where Jesus walked.  I feel so blessed to be here.

Egypt Day three

   I am now sitting in the Egypt airport waiting for our flight to Tel Aviv.  You wouldn't believe how strict they were at the airport.  They went through every piece of luggage.  We basically had to repack everything.  I think Israel is very picky about anyone coming into the region.  We are excited to be in Jerusalem and to see Kara and the BYU Jerusalem center.  We are incredibly tired and are excited that there won't be any tours tomorrow.

  Today was spent visiting the Cairo Museum.  The best part of this museum was seeing the king Tut exhibit.  You couldn't take any pictures in the museum, so I don't have any to show.  Everything with the tut exhibit was pretty much solid gold or gold leafed.  It is a priceless exhibit.  What an honor it was to see it.

   We were also able to go to the Mohammed Alli Mosque.  This is a famous Muslin Mosque in Cairo.  It was interesting to learn more of the Muslin faith and culture.  The above picture is Reed and I in front of the Mosque.

Egypt Day Two

Today is our second day in Egypt.  We spent the day in Cairo and the surrounding area.  We were able to see the amazing Pyramids of Giza.  This is something that I have always wanted to see.  It is a wonderful work of architecture,  even today no one seems to know how they did.  It is very inspiring.  I guess in the past you could climb the pyramid, but they won't let you any more.  I was so excited to climb.
It isn't that big!  I'm holding it in my hand!
Here we are in front of the sphinx.  We were so excited because we had an amazing tour guide today.  I didn't feel I was having chinese water torture.  His name Ashraf, I didn't get a shot of him.  He is guiding us tomorrow and I will put a shot of him.  First of all we could understand him and he taught us things that were interesting.  What a fun day!
Here we are on our camel ride.  I have to admit that I was a little scared.  You are really high up.  Today was a day of firsts.  I have never ridden a camel and I had never seen the famous pyramids.  

  We are still adjusting to the time difference.  We came home from our fun day totally tired and we ended up taking a four hour nap.  It is now 1:00a.m. and I am posting on my blog.  Hopefully I will be tired soon.

Egypt Day one

After about 22 hours of travel we arrived in Cairo, Egypt. We arrived around 7:00p.m. at night. We were met at the airport by Taric and he took us to our Hotel. We were pretty surprised to be staying in one of the nicest hotels we have every stayed in. This was not what we were expecting! We had a hard time going to sleep but by around midnght we grabbed a few hours of sleep. We had a wake up call at 4:30a.m. and we were taken to the airport to go on a hour flight to Luxor. Taric told us to follow him and to not talk. We followed him as he cut in front of everyone else in line. Yikes!

The airport was packed with people of all nations. Taric left us with our boarding passes and told us we would be fine. We proceeded to go through the security and the man told us we couldn't go through because our flight wasn't going. We walked back out and at that point Taric was long gone. We didn't know what to do. We tried to call but there were no phones and we tried to ask for help but no one would help. We finally decide to try the security line again and we were granted entrance. Who knows why? We waited in the really crowded room and the men would yell out flight numbers. There was no PA system. Our flight was finally called and we left to Luxor about a half an hour later.

We landed in Luxor and we were greeted by our tour guide Mohamed. Mohamed proceeded to talk for the entire 45 minute ride to the valley of the Kings(A mountain site that has many tombs of kings). At one point when Mohamad was distracted, I asked Reed if he could understand him. I said that I couldn't tell what in the sam hill we was saying. The top picture is Mohamed. We spent the whole day seeing amazing temples and tombs. Mohamed had to give us very long speeches at every spot. I thought I was going to have to kill myself to get out of the misery. We were so worried that our whole trip was going to be this way.

Every where in Egypt you see women with scarves on their heads and their bodies totally covered. The young men are dressed pretty much like the western world.

There are many older and younger men dressed in the traditional robes. I was able to sneak this picture of this man. You have to be careful with pictures because they either don't want their picture taken or they make you pay. I thought this was my best shot of the day(this is the photographer talking not the sightseer.)

We were able to go to two temples the Luxor temple and the temple of Amun at karnake. This shot was taken at the temple of Anun. The temple was full of these amazing columms.

This is Reed in the middle of the 134 columms. They were very tall and filled with beautiful Egyptian drawings and stories about the king.

This is Reed and I at the valley of the kings. This a site where many Kings were buried. We were able to go into four different tombs. Our favorite was the tomb of Ramesses V-VI. It was very beautiful and colorful. This is the valley where king tut's tomb was found. This was amazing because most of the tombs had been robbed by grave robbers.

San Francisco with the Brendles

This past weekend we met the Brendles in San Francisco.  We had the best time roaming around the city.  Reed and I even went for a run on Saturday morning.  I was so sore from attempting the hills.  
This is our group minus Jim(he was taking the picture)
Cute Kylie!  I had so much fun taking pictures.  There were so many interesting spots and places.  
Jim and Julie, they are in a cute park we found in the middle of China town.
My cute niece Megan! I loved how the colors looked with her sweat shirt.

The House of Nanking is Jim's favorite place to eat.  When ever we are with the Brendles we go there.  It is pretty fun!  They don't give you menu's.  You sit down and they start bringing you food.  If you don't have an adventurous spirit it could be a little scary.  We loved it all.  
Me having fun with my camera.
Reed and Kylie.
One of the Highlights of all our trips to the Bay Area is finding the bush man.  This is how you see him.  He hides and scares unsuspecting people.  It is pretty funny.  This time I was almost the one to be scared.  I was busy taking pictures and not watching.  Luckily someone right by me got it instead of me.  My family were hoping to get a good scream out of me.  I was sad to disappoint them.