February 2016

After I returned from Israel, we had lots of things going on at school!

First, the Kinder kids celebrated the 100th day of school! They have a little show they put on in the auditorium.

Caitlin got to be #9 (she's the last one in the row of kids). She rocked!

Also, since Evan has a summer birthday, they usually celebrate their half birthday at school. 

 

Evan got to be on KTEX to present his book for the library, and I brought donuts to celebrate with his class. It's fun getting your birthday a whole 6 months early!

We have enjoyed another mild winter here in Central Texas. Here we are one February afternoon playing outside at a friend's house. We saw a whole herd of cattle come by!

We also celebrated Valentine's Day with parties for each of the kiddos. Evan had to make a Valentine box as part of his homework.

And here are the two of us at his party - I'm his homeroom Mom so I had to organize it all :)

Caitlin's class did a bunch of fun activities including a photo booth!

And last but not least was Ryan's party.

Here he is passing out his Valentine's to his friends

Yummy cookie! Sweet, just like he is (most of the time!).

The Dead Sea and Masada

For our last day in Israel, we took a day trip to the Dead Sea and Masada. It was very different landscape from what you see towards the Mediterranean side of Israel. And we also crossed into the West Bank area as well.

First stop was Sea Level on our way down to the Dead Sea (which is below sea level).

In the U.S. we have herds of cows but here it's camels!

At the beach on the Dead Sea

It is really salty! Such a strange sensation when you are in the water. It was really windy that day so floating wasn't so easy due to all the waves.

After cleaning up, we drove to Masada. Along the way we learned interesting history about the area and also saw some of the sights (like where they found the Dead Sea scrolls and how the Dead Sea is getting smaller every year due to less water inflow and industrial use).

Masada is an ancient fortification on a plateau above the Dead Sea. It was originally built as a palace for King Herod as seen below.

And is full of Roman structures like mosaics and bath houses.

The fort has been rebuilt around the complex. The black line along this wall shows what is original and what is new (everything below is original).

 

View from the top

 

Some of the structure

The history of Masada involves a group of Jewish people who took refuge in the fortification during the Roman war.  Romans held them in a seige as they built a ramp (seen below) up to the fortress where they used a battering ram to break it open.  When they entered, the 900+ inhabitants had committed mass suicide.

 

After the tour, we headed back to the airport to catch a late and long flight home. It was a great trip (both professionally and personally). I would definitely recommend it to everyone!  There is so much more to see than I had time for - maybe a trip back with Bryce in the future!

More Jerusalem photos

A trip to Israel wasn't really high on my list of places to visit. But I have to admit that after having been, I think it should be high on everyone's list! The history that is there is just amazing. I mean, every step, I was in awe as we saw something else from the Bible or I'd read about.

Of course for Christians, a must see is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is the site of Jesus' crucifixion. Because of this, it is actually maintained by 6 different religions: Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Egyptian Copts, Syriacs, and Ethiopians. They all have a chapel inside the Church.

Just as you enter the church, there are stairs on the right leading you up to Calvary. The Roman Catholics have the 11th and 12th Stations of the Cross here as well. The picture above is the Rock of Calvary/Golgotha - you can actually kneel under the altar and touch the stone on which Jesus was crucified.

This is the anointing stone where they laid out Jesus' body. People touch it and pray or bless items on it.

Here is the Rotunda which contains the Holy Sepulchre - Jesus' tomb. You are allowed to go in and see the stone of his tomb. Outside of these major things, there are still a ton of other interesting sites within the Holy Sepulchre! You could spend hours going through it. We did have time to walk around and see more sites but never enough time on a tour :)

  

After the Holy Sepulchre, we saw a few more sites within the Old City of Jerusalem including the room where Jesus held the Last Supper and the Tomb of King David.  Jut walking around the old city was fascinating - so many small passageways and shops/markets all along. People often ask me if I felt safe. Really, I did. I mean, there are Israeli soldiers walking around with machine guns which is a little weird. But there are TONS of tourists there of all religions. I really never felt unsafe. 

Then, we departed the Old City and went across the valley to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Church of All Nations.

 

The Church of All Nations

The Garden of Gethsemane - olive trees

And that was the end of the tour! They dropped us off at our hotel where we relaxed until the next day when we left for the Dead Sea/Masada.

Work Trip to Israel

In early February, I traveled to Israel of all places for work. My company (now NXP) was closing our design center in Herzliya, Israel (just outside Tel Aviv). A few people from across the globe were traveling there to get first hand knowledge transfer of all the design elements that we would now be responsible for. It was a very last minute trip - I think I literally booked my flight 4 days before I left! Thank goodness I have a husband and family who can pick up our crazy lives and keep them going. It was stressful trying to put everything into place in such short notice, but somehow we made it work.

I flew out on a Friday afternoon and arrived in Israel on Saturday evening. It was a LONG flight. But this was the view from my hotel room each day when I woke up! We were staying right on the Mediterranean Sea.

We'd have breakfast each morning in the hotel and then walk about 3/4 mile to work. It was actually really nice and made me wish we sometimes lived somewhere more metropolitan and less suburban. We worked Sunday - Thursday (typical Israeli work week). It was some long days and often in the evening, we'd go out to dinner with co-workers from other NXP sites around the world who were also there for the knowledge transfer.  Every one at the Israel site was very nice and gracious - considering they were all losing their jobs! Fortunately, most of them already had new jobs. But I really appreciated how helpful and understanding they were.

I was able to skype with the family back home usually - much harder because of the time difference. I didn't sleep all that great as my body had a hard time adjusting too (I think because we spent most of our days indoors working!). We were flying back on Saturday evening to Austin so we had all day Friday/Saturday to do some sight-seeing. My co-worker from Austin and I booked a 2-day tour to go see some of the sites. The first day we spent in Jerusalem and the 2nd day was at the Dead Sea and Masada. I'll post some of the highlights!

First stop was at Hebrew University with a view of Jerusalem. Then we headed down to the Zion Gate to enter the city. It's divided into 4 sections: Armenian, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian. We visited 3 of the 4 (you aren't allowed to go into the Armenian). As it was Friday, we saw many people preparing for the Sabbath and also going to Friday prayers at the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount.

Restored Roman mosaic of the old city of Jerusalem - there are all these tunnels beneath the city which you could tour. The city was destroyed so many times and each time was rebuilt on top of the old one. Fascinating to see the different layers!

The beautiful Dome of the Rock and Temple Mount - you can see the dome from all over the city! Only Muslims are allowed into the area surrounding it on Fridays so we did not get to see it.

The Wailing Wall - this was the only area of the Old City where we had to go through a metal detector. Also, it's separated into two sections - one for women and one for men

We went along the Via Dolorosa - the path that Christ took to his crucifixion and the Stations of the Cross. We started at Station 4.

 

The fifth station of the cross - where Simon helped carry the cross

This blackened stone next to Station V is supposedly where Jesus touched the stone (which is why everyone else touches it)!

I'll post some more pictures from the rest of the trip in another blog entry - just too many interesting and fascinating things!

First Semester Awards

Having two kids in school means twice as many things to attend!  In January, we went up to school for the First Semester Awards for the kiddos on two separate days. We are so proud of them for all their accomplishments!

Great job Evan!

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Evan and his best buddy Alex

 

Evan with friends Tate and Nicholas from his class

Caitlin and Daddy (they took back her award to put in her backpack before we snapped pictures)

Caitlin and her teacher Ms. Ybarra!

Way to go kiddos! Ironically, this week is the awards for the 2nd semester... that's how far behind I am on the blog!  But I'm trying to catch up :)

Caitlin turns 6

This sweet, smart, sassy girl turned 6 in January!  

Our traditional birthday pancakes!

Presenting her book on KTEX (school news program)

Because Caitin and Ryan have birthdays about 6 weeks apart, I decided to combine their parties into one big gymnastics party that fell right between the two. Since Caitlin had to share her birthday with Ryan, I also let her have a little slumber party with a few girls - she's been LONGING for a slumber party.

First we made pizzas

Then we did our nails. And after that, the girls watched a movie and went to sleep (a few went home rather than spend the night).  I never knew 6 girls could be so loud! And they all stayed up pretty late... I figured for sure they'd fall asleep during the movie but nope, they were up until probably 10:30pm.

And of course we had to celebrate BOTH birthday girls. Happy birthday to the best sister and daughter. Love you girls!

Evan's First Reconciliation

This year in Religious Education, Evan has been preparing for his First Communion.  In January, he had his First Reconciliation (confession) which is part of the process. He was both nervous and excited. I think he was the first one to go!

Evan and some of his friends from class

Praying/doing penance after his confession

Picture with Dad

Picture with Mom

We are so proud of you Evan! It's not easy to admit our faults and wrongdoings but it's an important part of life (both religious and non-religious). We love watching you grow on this journey and are always thankful for your friendly and open heart towards others.