Birthday Party, Summer Heat, and Our Last Desert Adventure

Asher celebrated his fifth birthday in preschool-camp last week. Here he is in the special birthday chair next to his mother who prepared a special chocolate birthday cake.

Teacher Maggie did a special dance for the birthday boy to the delight of all.

Then everyone danced together.

All of the children hoisted Asher up on his chair and danced around him.

Another classroom tradition is putting the birthday child in the middle of a parachute with balloons and shaking them up while the birthday child pops all of the balloons.

It was a great party!

It's Hot Out There!

Summer heat is here. It is regularly 100+ degrees in the sun. Asher and Margalit went next door to our neighbors for a swim last week. (They even had a diving platform.)

A cool time was had by all.

Our Last Desert Adventure (For Now)...

Our friend David Biton took us out to Ein Ekev, a desert spring near the base of the mountain in the center of this photo. We drove in a four-wheel-drive jeep to get there.

After a bumpy ride, we parked the jeep,

and David led us on foot to the spring.

The spring flows down a 30-foot cliff into a deep basin full of water

which is ideal for swimming.

After a swim, we all enjoyed a watermelon snack.

Here's a photo of Tami Biton, David's wife.

After our swim and snack, we walked back to to  the jeep.

We drove to a nearby picnic area at dusk, where Tami and Rachel prepared salads and David grilled a feast, including spicy Moroccan sausages, marinated chicken hearts, chicken tenders, and steaks.

Winding Down

The end of our sojourn here in the desert is soon coming to an end.

A couple of weeks ago, Margalit's class held a ceremony celebrating receipt of their first Bible (actually just the book of Genesis) in preparation for the start of their formal Bible studies next year in second grade. Here's a photo of the school rabbi (speaking) and the principal (standing behind him).

Here are Margalit and her friend Ma'ayan with their new Bibles.

After the ceremony, all of the children sat with a parent to officially begin their study to the book of Genesis.

Asher also had a graduation ceremony from preschool.

Visit to the Dead Sea

We also had a chance to visit the Dead Sea. Here are Medad and I floating together. We were both overjoyed to find a place where we could swim and talk simultaneously!

Here's the view of the mountains on the Israeli side of the sea.

Ein Avdat

Shimi, Daniel, and Tali are visiting us for a couple of days. We took them to Ein Avdat, one of our favorite places in the area. (We started at 8 AM to get in and out before the 100 degree noontime heat of July.) The trail follows the riverbed along the bottom of a canyon.

Here you can see the caves along the canyon wall.

Here you can see the water from the spring.

At one point, the trail climbs up steps carved into the canyon wall.

At the top of the stairs, we walked along the canyon walls.

Here is the whole crew.

At the end of the trail, we relaxed in the shade of a poplar grove and looked back at the trail.