Friday, October 30, 2009

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Thank goodness Halloween is finally here. Andrew and Colin have been wearing their costumes for about a month now. Colin wakes up in the morning and wants to put on his costume first thing. They both love to dress up and are very excited for trick-or-treating. Between the Embassy and the American School they have had plenty of Halloween activities to keep them busy and their costumes dirty!




Halloween


We had a couple of friends over to carve pumpkins. Since pumpkins are expensive in Jordan, we resorted to carving melons and watermelons. They don't last long, but they do offer the advantage of allowing you to snack on them while you are carving.

Andrew and Colin with two of their friends at the school Spooktacular activity. Colin was too busy eating cotton candy to smile for the picture.


On Thursday (the last day of our work week), several offices in the Embassy decorated their space for trick or treaters. We had over 170 kids stop by and trick or treat. Our staff decorated our office based on the Michael Jackson music video Thriller. It was very popular with the kids and adults.

Gaby and her friends at school.

Tour of Our Home in Jordan

Several family members have been asking to see pictures of our house. Here is a small tour. We live in a four story apartment building. We have the whole bottom floor of our building. It is quite spacious and feels like a house.

When we arrived to our new home in Amman, it had all standard-issue white walls and a lot of empty rooms. Shelley has since decorated the house very nice. We had several rooms painted, bought plants, and arranged the furniture. It now feels like home.

Above is a picture of our living room.

The family room is where we spend most of our time. It has a sliding door that leads out to the side garden.

Off the living room is a hallway that leads to the garage. Shelley put together several black and white pictures to hang on the wall. The stairs lead downstairs to Shelley's craft room.

This is our formal dining room. We do not use it often since we have a table in the kitchen.
The door in the background leads to the lobby of the apartment building.

Shelley made the maid's quarters her craft room.
She likes it because it is entirely her room and out of sight.

The master bedroom. It looks out to the backyard.

Colin is our beach boy. We thought it was appropriate to decorate his room with a beach theme.
Andrew has a very unique room. We arrived to a room that had murals of fish, safari animals, and cars on the walls. We thought it was perfect for Andrew.

Gaby chose the yellow color for her room. She also helped her mom decorate with the vinyl flowers. It is a girly room that we convert to guest room when visitors come over.

We have a small grassy area in the backyard. We placed a swing set and sandbox in the yard to encourage the kids to spent time outside.


Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Holy Land continued.....

The kids got a little ride at the Mount of Olives.

The Garden of Gethsemane

The kids and Luisa at the end of Hezekiah's Tunnel.


The 45 minute trek through Hezekiah's Tunnel was a highlight for the kids. This tunnel is over 3,000 years old, you need flashlights to get through it. We were walking in water the whole time. The kids felt like real explorers. Colin cried the first few minutes (it was a little scary at the beginning) but then he loved it along with the others.

Pita and falafel sandwiches for lunch. Grandma and Grandpa loved their first falafels.

"Granny" and Gaby had just enough time for a short camel ride while we stopped for gas near Jericho.

Standing above the Western Wall with the Dome of the Rock behind us.

We biked around the Sea of Galilee. What was once a small fishing village is now a tourist city with all sorts of recreational activities.

Murphy's Law: Ten minutes after you rent bikes the first rain of the year will fall in the Middle East! Grandma and Grandpa kept going while we waited out the rain under the trees. At least we were all in our swimming suits!

Three generations of Hawkes' men at the Israeli Jordan River baptism site.

Swimming in the Sea of Galilee.

View of the Sea of Galilee from Caparnium, where Peter lived.
This is near the Mount of the Beatitudes.

We spent our last day at the beach at Netanya, Israel. The kids were so happy to be at the beach. The water was really warm and we all were so happy to relax after a very full week!




More Jerusalem Pictures

The streets of Old Jerusalem. There is quite the variety of everything.


We did not realize we were visiting the "Holy City" during a Jewish holiday week. The city was full of Orthodox Jews and lots of extra police. Alex got these great pictures when he walked over to the Western Wall early one morning.




Our Week in Israel

Alex's parents came to visit us this week so we all piled in the minivan and headed for Israel. It is only 45 minutes from Amman to the Israeli border. We got there when it was not crowded and it still took two hours to pass all the checkpoints.

After arriving in Jerusalem we headed first to the garden tomb. It was very nice and one of the more peaceful sites we saw.

Behind us you see the markings on the hill Golgotha.


Colin was happy to have an extra set of shoulders on the trip.


This is at Bethlehem. They have several churches built over the birth site of Christ. This is in the basement of the main church, there is a star on the floor behind us where they think he was born.

This was my favorite moment at Bethlehem. We were all listening to the tour guide tell us the history of the church (it is the oldest Christian church in the world), and Colin kept asking where Jesus was. We were all looking at the church when he pointed to the sunlight behind some clouds in the sky and asked "is that Jesus up there?" I said "yes, that is where he is". It was a real nice moment :)

At the BYU Jerusalem Center for church. This building is awesome, it overlooks the city. The location and architecture are quite impressive. Alex studied here back in college before we were married.

Inside the BYU Jerusalem Center.