day twelve. israel from the eyes of children

we are sitting in the ben gurion airport, waiting for our flight to board. the children are re-adjusting to our native time zone; they are still awake even though it's approaching midnight israel time

Ben says he remembers the trip this way:

• Playing roblox (the ipad app)
• Sword fighting the camel because he ate my sword (from our time near the sea of tiberias)
• Riding the donkey was one of my favorites (at the mount of olives)
• The battle field of david and goliath!!!
• The birds on the boat. Because I got to see a real shark. (i'm not sure that really happened)
• But we didn’t get to go swimming in jerusalem. (because the pool was closed until may)
• Chasing the pigeons. And I ate one. (I don’t think that really happened; he chased the pigeons near the western wall)
• They didn’t take my gun away (he bought a toy gun in the old city today, israeli airport security found it, they let him keep it)

Sam says he remembers the trip this way: 

• Sword fighting the camel (see above)
• Seeing the dome of the rock (there's a nice view from the mount of olives)
• The city of david was fun (the city before the city, just south of the present day old city. this is also where we went through hezikiah's tunnel)
• Zedikiah’s cave (the quarry under the old city that goes on for miles....it's where much of the stone from the old city was pulled from)
• Ceaserea that King Herod built (that was on day two. so long ago!!!)
• Going swimming at the hotel called the spa club (the hotel at the dead sea)
• Playing yahtzee on the plane (i taught the kids to play yahtzee)
• Chasing the pigeons (see above)
• Awesome chicken that the hotel had for dinner (sam really enjoyed the big buffet dinners at the hotel in jerusalem)

Ana: 

she's shopping with mommy. trying to spend the last of daddy's shekel's. i'll post her thoughts if she makes it back in time to talk to her a bit more before the plane takes off. 

[update] ana and mommy are back now. they spent all of daddy's money. mission accomplished. 

Ana remembers the trip this way:

• being with the entire family
• the dead sea; floating without even trying
• dinner in jerusalem. the buffet was awesome. the after dessert jokes were the best. (i enjoyed the after dinner wine)
• shopping in the old city. (she bought a scarf that is especially nice)
• meeting everyone on the bus
• when we first got there and we were all soooo excited. (day 1 at the tel aviv beach and running through the sand)
• jordan river (we weren't there long, just long enough to see the dark cloudy water)
• ben pressing all the buttons on the elevators (ben liked to recreate the scene from elf, where he pushed all the buttons for every floor to see all the lights light up)