Tiyul North Day 2

Everyone was awake around 7:30ish. I went to shul while Arica got the kids ready. We met at breakfast a little after 8. One thing about Beit Sefer Sadeh is that they have a good breakfast. We ate pretty well and made sandwiches for lunch. The plan for today was to meet the Gerson's later in the morning and we would go to Nachal Snir together. Since we had most of the morning to kill, we decided to do part of the Har Meron trail. The entire trail is about 2 - 3 hours around the mounatin, but we drove to the top and walked to another scenic overlook about 15 minutes from where we parked.


We walked back to the car and started to make our way to Nachal Snir, about an hour away. We drove through some more mountains and made it there a few minutes after the Gerson's. We parked the car and immediately (after some bathroom breaks) started the hike.







The hike lasted about 3 hours and we had a great time. After the hike, Seth, Dov and I walked back to the beginning to get the cars and meet everyone at a gas station a few minutes away. An hour before we left for the tiyul on Wed, I saw the guy who organized the tiyul last year and he told of a lesser known river where you can park, walk about 20 minutes and if you have inner tubes, put them in the water and tube back to the parking lot. Us and the Gerson's decided to go there next even though we didn't have inner tubes, although we probably could have bought them where we were. It was a 10 min drive and we ended up doing 1 run down the river. It was actually pretty fun w/o tubes, but would have been 10x better with. Maybe next year. After that, we parted ways with the Gerson's as they were heading home. We still had one more day to go, including dinner at Esh Besh, a really good meat restaurant in Kiryat Shmona. Luckily for us (but unlucky for the Gerson's), they tried going there the night before but were told the next table was not for another 2 hours. When we talked to them on Wed. night, they said we should call and make reservations. We did, and had a table when we arrived at 6. The meat was really good. Next time you're in Kiryat Shomona, try and get there but call first!
After dinner we headed back to Meron and everyone was asleep soon after. I want to point out that there exist in Israel wild boars. I did not know this until I went to the car Wed. night after we arrived and heard the sounds of someone or something rustling through the garbage cans nearby. When I went to go see, I saw 4 or 5 of these things looking for food. Here is what they look like (I did not take this picture):
They are large and supposedly not so friendly. When I told our neighbors about it a few days later, they said that they sometimes see them in the Wadi right outside our Yishuv. The noise of them knocking over the garbage cans right outside our room woke me up in the middle of the night. Good thing they don't know how to open doors.

Sorry, dear...(and day 1 of our Trip North)

I (Josh) promised Arica I'd update the blog with the trip details but haven't sat down to do it yet. For all those who may have blamed Arica for not posting, did you judge too soon???? That's what I thought...keep that in mind as the Day of Judgement approaches.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
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It's now time to talk about our much anticipated tiyul to the North (of Israel). This tiyul was probably about 4 months in the making. We knew we'd probably take a tiyul up North toward the end of the summer, but the dates were up in the air, especially once Arica started working full time. After the nine days, we looked at a calendar and decided to go from Aug 24th - 26th. Both Arica and I would only miss 2 days of work and we'd be back home a few hours before Shabbat. (Arica ended up getting paid for those days off, which was good news, especially after the 2 dinners we ate out during the trip.) I was in charge of the itinerary for the tiyul. I knew we would stay at a Beit Sefer Sadeh, since we stayed at one last year (Tuesday, August 17, 2010). Since we stayed on the West Coast of Israel last time, I decided to stay more toward the center and decided on the Beit Sefer Sadeh in Har Meiron. Here is a map of where we started and where we were going.

I knew we couldn't drive all the way there initially, so I decided to find something to do along the way to break up the trip. I had heard of a place called "Gan Hashlosha". The plan was to drive there, spend a few hours swimming, and then go to Tavaria for dinner. 2 Days before our tiyul, I came across a place very similar to Gan Hashlosha called Ganei Chuga. It had small slides in the water and an omega that you can slide down into the water. This sounded a little more kid friendly, so I decided to go there instead. We packed up the car and were on the road by about 10:15.
We took a little bit of an unconventional route...(directly through the West Bank of the Jordan River). The road is pretty mountainous and we had some great views along the way. At one point we stopped at a scenic overlook (I know you love the term "scenic overlook", but I can't take credit for it. We passed many "scenic overlooks" during a road trip to South Dakota that I took with my parents, Bubby Lil, Matthew and Pierre when I was about 13. There were no blogs back then, but I did take some great video which maybe I'll post one day).

The picture of course does not do justice to the view, so you'll have to come see it for yourselves. After about another 1.5 hours of driving, we arrived at Ganei Chuga. This place was as nice as it looked on their website and we ended up spending close to 5 hours there.






We left at about 5PM and headed to Tavaria for dinner. After checking E-luna, I decided to go to Cherry. We parked right across the street from the restaurant and looked around at the nearby stores for a few minutes. We bought sunglasses for Jordy and Nadav and a few pairs of underwear for Jordy. I think he wanted to be just like his father and decided that packing one pair would be enough. After a very good dinner, we walked toward the Kinneret, glancing at all the sidewalk shops and people along the way. We stood looking at the Kinneret as the sun was setting behind us. As a side note, we always talk about saving water at home and how the Kinneret is running low on water. Jordy had conjured up an image that the Kinneret was "the size of the kiddie pool at Nili". Needless to say, he was pretty surprised at how big the Kinneret actually was. We then went to get ice cream and headed back to the car.



It took about an hour to get to where we were staying. The ride was mountainous again so I had to drive slow, especially since it was pitch black. We stopped at a certain point to get out of the car and look at the stars. We finally got there, unloaded the car and went to bed.

Testing...testing...1,2,3

Is this thing on? Ok, see next post.

Wine and Water

Here we go again- I am not going to even try to attempt catching up. Nadav has been going to a private little "camp" that has kept him busy while I work and Josh has been entertaining Danya and Jordy in the mornings. I stop working to pick Nadav up from camp and then work again after he goes to sleep. That has been the routine. The only things that stick out are the things that I have photos of. They are:

1) Trip number 1 to the beach this summer. We ended up meeting the Gerson's at the Hertziliyah beach and had a great time despite some sunburn.

2) Josh and I went with the Bordsky's to the Jerusalem Wine Festival. We had a wonderful time however the details are fuzzy. Since Darrell and Leah, who were staying by us, were babysitting we were able to stay until the end and then head out to dinner making it a very long evening and a very hard time working the next morning. Look how happy we all look despite the fact that our glasses are empty(or maybe because our glasses are empty):

3) Trip number two to the beach. This time Rishon. Danya spent most the time in the water and helping Jordy seach for seashells.

Josh figured out a way to get Nadav to sit still:

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Today was a busy day but not much really happened. Nadav was awake early-as is his lovely little habit. I tried to get him to fall back asleep in my bed but at some point I noticed my bed was wet and when I opened my eyes he said "make a pishy in my diaper in Ima's bed". That got me out of bed. I did some work in the earlier hours while everyone was getting up and eating breakfast. When Josh got home from shul I headed to Rami Levy where I survived the Thursday morning shopping. I even hit the meat counter and the cheese counter and made it home in an hour. Not bad. I worked the rest of the morning/early afternoon while Josh and Jordy attempted to keep Nadav out of my room. Danya returned from camp a little crabby as she had a sleepover the night before. Yakir and Tamar came over to play with Jordy and Danya. Nadav was terrorizing everyone so when I took a break from work he and I went on a walk and then invited Lisa to bring Merav over. She arrived with Merav and Michali. Then Nadav spent the afternoon terrorizing Merav. The funny part was that even with all the hitting and pinching etc Merav said she had fun! Michali stayed a little later to play with the bigger kids. Tamar and Yakir stayed for dinner and I got Nadav to sleep. Jordy went to the Gerson's for a sleepover and with Nadav asleep and Danya fading fast I returned to work. Of course Nadav woke up again at 10 but then went right back to sleep. Lets hope he stays that way until at least 7. A girl can hope, can't she?

Another One Bites The Dust

Can you believe it? I am posting again. And....drumroll please-there are pictures! Wow! Even I am surprised.
Monday morning, erev tishab'av Danya had a Bnei Akiva activity VERY early-at 4:30am. We had her set her alarm and she was supposed to walk however I woke up and heard her downstairs. I went downstairs and saw she was a little hessitant about walking in the dark so I bumped up my status from being the worst mom to super mom because I drove her. Note to the Bnei Akiva organizers-parents do not want to wake up at 4:00am the day before a fast. Better yet, parents never want to wake up at 4:00am. Ever. When we woke up later, like 7am, Nadav headed off to his last day at gan. Jordy had his last day at camp and Danya was wide awake and home around 8 so she also went to camp. Nadav's day ended early due to the fast so he was home by 1:00pm. Danya was kind of tired and crabby most the day. Later in the afternoon I was working and all the kids were watching Tom and Jerry in my room:

Not much later Nadav was in the kitchen causing trouble. When I walked out for a minute and returned he was happily splashing water on the laptop. Uh oh. That is the second laptop we lost in 2 weeks. I seriously need some backup. We ate the pre-fast meal and then Josh headed to shul while I got Nadav to bed. Danya was very tired and angry that she had to go to sleep before her "annoying brother". In protest she made a sign that she hung on her door:

The 3 Weeks

Ugh, 3 weeks behind. How apropos considering we are heading into Tisha B'Av. Here we go again! So much has been going on yet I can hardly remember what. The biggest thing is that my boss went to the States for 5 week and during those five week I get to {drum roll} work from home! Hooray!!! It has been great so far. Nothing like rolling out of bed and being at work. Plus I save about 3 hours a day commute time. Ahhh. So nice. My parents went back to Chicago but we had a nice visit with them. The kids spent a lot of time with them and they really seemed to enjoy settling into their house. Danya and Jordy finished camp. They each now go to a small private camp but that all ends this week. Tomorrow is Nadav's last day of gan which is also not good news for anyone. He is going to be sad as are Josh and I. Life is about to change. We also have some house guests. Josh's friend from high school, Darrell Cohn and his wife Leah made Aliyah this week and are staying with us on and off for a while until their apartment is ready. Danya has requested they give up the apartment and live with us forever. In other news our solar panels were installed last week. They aren't up and running just yet but we are getting there. We had quite a noisy week last week as they installed them.

One night Jordy fell asleep downstairs and I had to take a picture because he looked like this:

I know it isn't much but at least Danya will not be able to say "when are you going to update the blog???"