Day 7: Thanksgiving celebrations

Today was a day of resting and feasting. Although actual Thanksgiving is tomorrow, we celebrated today because tomorrow morning we are heading on a road trip to Jordan. And it was the perfect day to do it, it rained and rained so hard all day. The rain never stopped and in fact tonight when the girls went upstairs they realized that their room had been flooded from the rain! There was literally an inch of water in parts of their room-yikes!

Anyway, the girls had school today and Haydin even had a performance in the morning that we all got to go and watch. It was so cute, she was great and it was so fun to see her school and her classmates.

Morning cuddles with my love bugs. On this day of Thanks, I'm so thankful for my sweet little family.

Haydin killing it during her 1st grade show.

Kari and I slaving away at our Thanksgiving dinner

Sebi entertaining himself with pinecone earmuffs.

Final preparations and CJ finessing his smoked turkey masterpiece.

Let the feasting begin!

These 3 were ready to devour some turkey. The other two, there in the back... not so much. 

Hannah had a special request that I sit next to her. I felt so honored!  I love her so much and I love the bond that we share with these kiddos even though we're lucky to see them once a year.

Day 6: Dead Sea and Jericho

Today we headed to the Dead Sea with CJ and Haydin and stopped by Jericho for one of CJs favorite lunches. 

The Dead Sea is 1400 ft below sea level and 10 times saltier than the ocean. Because of the salts and minerals, it works wonders on your skin and has even been used for its healing powers. Also because of the salt, you float vs swim. It's the strangest feeling... You just float with your feet up like you're on a raft except you're not. Somehow we picked the best day ever. The temp was about 70 and no one was there, we literally had the beach to ourselves!!!

This is the view as we walked down, it was quite beautiful.

Again, because of the salt, this water can be dangerous. Especially for children, I was so nervous about Sebi getting some in his eye and the wiping his eye, it would burn sooooo badly!!

The girls were so excited to float in the water

Stella found tons of salt crystals 

Mike and CJ soaking in the salt

Stella and mike floating

CJ and Haydin floating 

Stella and Kenz

Mud baths

Mike and I went for a mud mask too

At first he was unsure, but...

Eventually, Sebi got in on it too! 

He loved the mud

We even put it on our faces

Mud face and a view.

After we washed ourselves clean, we hopped in the car and headed to Jericho, the oldest city in the world. Jericho was unreal... although it resides in the West Bank it was everything I imagined the Middle East to be: Kids riding bikes down the main street, guys riding donkeys, big trucks, camels, street vendors, bright colors and the smell of middle eastern spices filling the air. And again the Palestinian people were so kind and welcoming, We loved it!

We had to stop by CJs favorite peanut guy and buy some peanuts.

The girls eating their pitas and Jericho chicken

My family of blondies really stood out here. Little girls were coming up to Stella, rubbing her hair and pinching her cheeks... She loved it:)

Probably one of the strangest things... You can pay to ride a camel at the gas stations-ha!