Las Vegas & Utah

We went to Vegas this past weekend to see Garth Brooks. We left Thursday morning and met my aunt and cousins from Arizona there. Thursday night we went to see Carrot Top, who turned out to be surprisingly very funny. I'd go see him again. Friday, Jay drove from Utah with Chloe to hang out with us during the day. We went to Bass Pro Shops and looked at all the animals. Then we met up with my cousins and walked around Caesar's Palace. We saw that Pete Rose was doing a signing, and there was no one in line, so we asked if we could take a picture with him. He said yes, but didn't even stand up or anything like that. He should be a little nicer since we were there for 15 minutes and no one else even came up to him. He's old news, and should realize it. Anyway, after that we headed over to the Wynn to get out tix for Garth Brooks! The concert was at 8, so we wandered that casino for a bit. It's very fancy shmancy.
The Garth concert was AMAZING!!! It was a very small venue and just him and his guitar. He interacted with the audience throughout the show, even taking requests. He just played whatever he felt like playing. Then Trisha Yearwood came out and they did their song together, and then she sang some of her songs while he accompanied her on the guitar. Then because it was a Friday night and there was no second show, he played an extra 45 minutes for us. All in all, it was one of the best concerts I've been too.
Saturday morning we left Vegas, and headed to Utah. We went to this little town near Zion Canyon and walked around and did a litte shopping. On the way back to my brother's, we stopped at this abandoned ghost town. It was a mile or two down this dirt road, in the middle of nowhere, and it was almost dark so it was a little creepy. We checked out the cemetary, which was a little strange since there were mounds were the bodies were, like they weren't buried deep enough or something. Then we climbed over the fence and checked out the inside of the houses. They were dark, and a little scary.
Sunday, we just played at my brother's house and then went and got Coldstones. Monday morning we headed home.
Here's some pics....

checking out the lions at Bass Pro Shops

meeting Pete Rose

the old cemetary, most of the graves are from the 1860's

one of the spooky houses

inside one of the houses

playing with her toys

LOVE this little face!

playing peek a boo in the car

she loved the coldstones!

playing with Grammie

Snow fun!!!

Last weekend we went to Utah to play in the snow. We left here at 3am and drove to Vegas where we picked up my cousins kids. Then we drove another two hours and met up with my brother, sis in law and niece. Another hour drive after that and we were in Brian Head, Utah! There was so much snow. We had such a good time playing in all of it. Chloe wasn't too sure what all the fuss was about though. She thought we were all crazy. Next year though when she can walk and play in it, I'm sure she'll love it!

Getting ready to race innertubes

snow bunny

just chillin'

so cute!

Chloe and Auntie Jen!

There was so much snow, I just sank into it. It was so hard to walk in it.

Chloe in the snow

her first Diet Pepsi

Her first piece of candy...sour licorice

Who needs sleds when you can slide down the hill on your butts

the boy scouts made an igloo for us!

my snow angel

Israel and Jordan part 4

Don't forget to check out parts 1, 2, and 3....

Friday started with a trip to the pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed the blind man. (Read the story here.)
We weren't able to go into the pool but entered a large cistern that used to hold water for the city.

Lions Gate, one of the gates into the Old City of Jerusalem

inside the gate

ruins of the old city

ruins of the pool of Bethesda

going down into the cistern under the old city

underground

Mom, in the cistern

Near the pool is a church built by the Crusaders called St. Anne's Church. (Read about it here.) The church is usually full of visitors but we were lucky enough to get our group in there by ourselves. The architecture is very simple, with wooden benches to sit on. We had a short message and then sang "How Great Thou Art." It was another very inspirational moment.

St Anne's Church

From the Cathedral we walked down the hill to the Garden of Gethsemane. I have to admit that, although it was neat to go to the garden, it was a bit disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was great to have been there, but it is very small, and the trees are all fenced off, so you can't really touch them, or sit amongst them like we had been hoping to. That being said, just the fact that we were walking among 2000 year old olive trees that Jesus could have rested under during His last night before the crucifixition was amazing.

Garden of Gethsemane

It is entirely possible that Jesus rested under this very tree.

From the Garden, we headed to the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. The wall is the only remaining wall of the Second Temple that was destroyed in 70 AD. It is tradition to write prayers on slips of paper and stick them in the cracks of the wall. Unfortunately, we didn't know this, so we weren't prepared. So our prayers went into the cracks between the stones written on gum wrappers. Twice a year the prayer are cleaned out and buried on the Mount of Olives. The prayer plaza is divided into men's and women's sections. There were many Jews gathered here praying, and crying. They are praying to God for the messiah to come, but we know that their prayer has already been answered in Jesus, if only they would realize it.

inside the walls of the old city.. there is a path that you can walk around, it was used to defend the city in ancient days.

Stacy and Mom

Me, preparing to defend the city against invaders. :)

The Wailing Wall

hundreds of prayers

sticking my prayer into a crack in the wall

the men's side, on the left, had tables and chairs. the women's side, did not

Mom, Me, and Stacy at the Wailing Wall

Israel and Jordan part 3

Go here for part 1 and part 2.

Thursday morning dawned bright and early. One of us woke the rest of us up at 2:00 am thinking that it was 6:00 am. I wont mention names but it wasnt me. :) Anyway after we went back to sleep for a couple hours, we loaded up our luggage (we were changing hotels) and got on the bus and headed to Jericho. Jericho is Palastinian (Arabs in Israel) so not many tourists go to this area. On the way to Jericho we stopped at the Zaccheus tree. You know the story of Zaccheus, so no need to share it here. Just the pics...

The Zaccheus tree

I kept singing in my head...."Zaccheus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see...."

After the Zaccheus tree we headed to Jericho. Jericho is where Joshua fought the first battle in the Israelites attempt to take their land back. (The quick version of the story....God instructed Joshua to walk around the walls of the city once a day for 6 days. On the 7th day they were to walk around 7 times. On the 7th time they blew their trumpets and the walls fell down.) There are some remains of the 4000 year old walls.

4,000 year old ruins

walking up to see the walls of Jericho

the walls of Jericho

perhaps the remains of Rahab's house?  you never know....

Again I kept singing those old Sunday school songs in my head...(Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumbling down.) Very strange to actually be at the site where it happened.

Outside the ruins of Jericho, there was a little shop where we parked our busses. Of course we did a little shopping. I ran outside the shop for a minute and one of the ladies on the tour stopped me and told me that a man was giving rides on his camel. So Stacy and I took turns going for a ride on the camel. It was a very strange experience.

Stacy on the camel

riding a camel :)

A note here about Jericho...because it is under Palastinian control, Jews cannot go into this area. So before we entered Palastine, we had to drop off our tour guides, who were Jewish. The bus drivers could enter because they were Arab, not Jew. Also, because it is in Palastine, very few tourist go into the area, only 1 in 20 tour buses. The people were very friendly. And while it was a little trippy to say we were in Palastine with everything we hear on the news, never once did we feel in danger. It was definitely a learning experience, and I'm so glad we got to do it.

After leaving Jericho (we stopped to pick up our guides outside the Palastine area), we headed to Bethleham. Bethleham is also under Palastine control, so we had to drop off our guides outside the city limits again. While in Bethleham we went to the Church of the Nativity. This church is built on the site thought to be the site of Jesus' birth. We went into the Church and down a flight of stairs into a small room with a star above the door. The actual site of the birth is in small little alcove, just a star medallion with a hole in it, where you can touch what is supposed to be the floor onto which Jesus was born. A few feet away there is a manger. And while we cannot know for sure that this is the actual site where Jesus is born, just the fact that it may very well be the site, and that no matter what, He was born very near where we were at that moment standing, we a very neat experience. Never before in our lives had we been closer to where He was born!

Going into the Church of the Nativity. The door was partially enclosed to keep men from bringing their horses into the chruch. They left it that way so that people had to duck their heads as a sign of humility and to remember they we were going into a holy site.

The steps down into the area where Jesus was born

The picture didn't turn out too well because it was dark in there, but behind the fence area, where the 4 little lights are, is a manger.

The spot where Jesus was born

Stacy

Mom

Me

Here I need to mention that one of the people on our tour was a missionary in Jordan for many years. He is the reason we decided to go with this particular group. His parents were friends with my grandparents for many years, and he grew up with my mom and uncles. So he kept giving us extra little tidbits of information because he was familiar with this area. So anyway, while we were waiting for the rest of our group to finish up, he told us that there were small caves in this other part of the church that is where they put the bodies of all the first-born children that were born when Jesus was born. (Remember the story, King Herod had all children in Bethleham under the age of 2 killed. Matt. 1:16) So we quickly ran to check out these caves.

Because Bethleham was under Palastine control, the whole city was very guarded. In fact. it was surrounded by a wall similar to the Berlin Wall. We had a guard, armed with a machine gun, come onto our bus to check passports, before we were allowed back out of the city and into Jewish territory. This would be like needing a passport to go from Anaheim to Garden Grove. It was very weird that people live like that on a daily basis.

The Bethleham Wall

You can't tell it in the picture, but every guard had a machine gun. They told us not to take pictures of the guards, but that didn't stop us. :)

After leaving Bethleham, we headed towards Jerusalem. We stopped at the Church of the Ascencion, which is where Jesus ascended into heaven, after the resurrection. (Luke 24:51)

        The Church of the Ascencion

 The ground where Jesus was standing when He ascended into Heaven

         The sky above the Church, where Jesus rose into Heaven

From there we went to the mount of olives to overlook the city of Jerusalem. Now I need to explain here that our guide on the bus was a little strange and wouldn't stop talking. So while she was chitchatting away and holding everyone else hostage I snuck off the bus via the back door. There were vendors at the site and one of them offered my dad 1000 camels for me. He said he would send them to California if I stayed there. I told him that we didnt need camels in California, but that if my dad were here he probably would have traded me for 2 camels. :)

View of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. The Dome of the Rock in the center. The walls are around the old city.

The little Arab man who offered to give my dad 2,000 camels for me.

    The rest of the group trapped on the bus...Mom, Jon, and Myrna

The Mount of Olives was used a Jewish burial grounds for centuries. There were tombs as far as the eyes could see.

One more view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives

From the Mount of Olives we went to the Garden Tomb. There are two possibe sites that Jesus could have been buried. This is one of them and although its probably not the actual one, it is the one that looks most like what it would have looked like then. (And again, as with the Church of the Nativity, we were closer at that moment than we had ever been before in our lives.)

There were about 60 people in our group and people were filing into the tomb a couple at a time. I hung back and was one of the last people to go in so I actually had a few minutes in the tomb by myself. It was very moving to see where they possibly laid Jesus body. And when you turn to leave there is a sign on the door that says He is risen. When I walked back outside there was a church there from the Congo that was singing and rejoicing in their native chants. It was neat to see that and to know that thats what it is all about. We had some time here, and read from the Bible about the crucifixion and resurrection,and sang a few songs. How powerful to sing, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus," in the place where Jesus' blood was shed. It was amazing. Not a dry eye among us!

The Bible notes the crucifixation as occuring at the place of the skull. Look closely, and you can see the skull in the rocks. Possibly the hill of Calvary?

Mom going into the tomb

Headed into the tomb

Where Jesus' body was laid

When you turn around to walk back out, this is what you see. And believe me it never feels the same after being here. It really is an indescribable feeling. You have to experience it to understand it.

The church from the Congo rejoicing. Although we couldn't understand what they were saying, we understood their sentiments. The sounds of joy in their voices were almost palpable.

The door where the stone was rolled away.

I know I said there were only 3 parts to this, but as I type, I keep remembering more stories, and there are more pictures that I want to post (I took almost 600), so it keeps getting longer and longer. So stay tuned for however many more parts there are. ;)