We started out April very busy at work with the Shelf
Reliance annual convention up at the Salt Palace. I stayed up there Thursday morning through
Saturday night and ran around making sure things went smoothly with
registration, workshops, the AV Team, slide layouts, that the owners actually
stopped to eat, etc. etc. We normally
had meetings with the AV Team until 2 in the morning to prep for the next day,
and were up early in the morning with the consultants. It was lots of fun! The executive team even dressed up as an 80’s
band for the final group session and performed some Bon Jovi and Air
Supply. They were in a band together in
college, so I think this was like a dream come true. Luckily, I was fortunate enough to use my
amazing musical talent to help make up some lyrics to their songs that had to
do with the company. We also had a
FANTASTIC guest speaker, Kris Belcher.
She travels a lot doing motivational speaking, and was phenomenal. I laughed so hard that I was crying. She’s blind, and told some great embarrassing
moments in addition to her motivational message about not letting people tell
you that you can’t do something when you believe in yourself. My favorite story was when she went to a
public restroom and used her cane to find an open stall, went in, closed the
door, and pulled down her pants. When
she went to sit down, she said she felt hair!!
She reached her hand down and felt a tiny head, realizing that she had
just walked into a stall with a little kid who didn’t lock the door, pulled her
pants down in front of him, and then sat on his head! She said to him, “Did that scare you?,” to
which he responded, “uh huh.” Hahaha.
Just a few days after convention, we jetted off to Israel
and Egypt for a trip of a lifetime. I
don’t know how to summarize that trip in a couple of paragraphs, but I’ll give
it a shot…I have a photo album posted here (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100476112403899.2531430.17802553&type=1&aft=10100476130213209&l=63df0c114e),
and most of the pictures have descriptions and explanations underneath. It was an amazing trip! Thank you soo much to Mom and Dad, as well as
Grandma and Grandpa Ludlow for the generous opportunity to go. It was really neat for me to think that we
were able to use inheritance from Grandma and Grandpa to go to their favorite
place in the world. There were lots of
times there that I could sense how much they loved Israel. Mom and dad split up the trip and assigned
each of us a couple days to research and plan, which helped internalize a lot
of the sites since we had to study and then teach the rest of the group about
them. We spent the first 5 days in Jerusalem, and our balcony opened right to
the Dome of the Rock—incredible!
We
visited lots of amazing sites every day.
My favorites were the Garden Tomb, mosaics of women in the Bible at
Dormition Abbey, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. Yad Vashem was very powerful, and I was very
moved by the section about the sacrifices and risks taken by so many to save
the Jewish people. I really liked our
British (protestant?) guide at the Garden Tomb, who said that we celebrate the
fact that Christ is not here, although He can be found in the tomb if you take
Him there in your heart.
I also thought
it was neat that the Church of the Nations at the Garden of Gethsemane stays
dark all the time so that when you walk in you remember what it was like for
Christ at night in the garden. While in
Jerusalem, we got to meet Walter Rane, who is one of my all-time favorite
Church painters (http://www.walterrane.com/);
saw a $10,000 hand carved nativity at Omar’s Shop (breathtaking amazingness); and
played lots of cards every night with the family when we got back to the
hotel. We had to be back by 6 or 7
because it wasn’t safe to wander at night.
All our hotels served us a breakfast and dinner buffet (great idea on a
vacation). It was really neat to see all
of the history behind the city of Jerusalem, and realize that so much of it is
still visible, but sad that it is so commercialized
and there are churches or cathedrals everywhere for supposed things that may or
may not have happened. For example, there
are 4 churches where Mary was buried and they all say that they are the right
one. I loved the cultural diversity,
though, especially learning more about the Jewish and Muslim people in the
area. I am so glad we went while Jared
& Margaret were living there, and loved their insight at so many of the
sites. Seeing so many of these sites in
Jerusalem, and then especially later in Galilee, really made the scriptures
come alive. It made me realize even more
what a master teacher Christ is, and the significance of the locations where he
taught to make the message He bore that much more powerful.
After Jerusalem, we spent another 5 days driving around
the Dead Sea/Masada area, Tiberias/Sea of Galillee, Jordan River, and Tel Aviv
and the Mediterranean Sea coast. We
drove past Jericho, which is the oldest city in the world that’s still
occupied, although part of it was burning and our rental cars weren’t allowed
in because it is too dangerous right now.
I loved going to Church in Jerusalem because the Jerusalem Center has an
amazing view of the City, but then our Church (really a house) in Tiberias was
right on the Sea of Galilee and they said the sacrament prayer in Hebrew, which
was really fascinating. All
congregations in Israel meet on Saturday instead of Sunday. Christ really spent most of his ministry in the Galilee area, not Jerusalem, so I'm glad we had so much time in that area.
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| Swimming in the Dead Sea! |
We spent 2.5 days in Cairo on the way home, and I’m
really glad we decided to do that. Egypt
is really dirty and run down for being so developed, but it’s mostly because of
the corrupt government. The corruption
also makes it more dangerous, and so the government issued our group a private security
guard with a semi-automatic (SMG) on one hip and a pistol on the other.
He went everywhere with us, or at least accompanied us to the entrance
of every museum and our hotel. Crazy. We
saw the pyramids of Giza and went inside one, rode camels around them, went to
the Cairo Museum and saw the artifacts from King Tut’s tomb and lots of
mummies. One of the mummies, Merneptah
(I think?), was the son of Ramses II, who historians think is the one who followed
Moses and the Israelites into the Red Sea and drowned there. His mummy is very white compared to the dark
black of the other mummies, which is due to the amount of salt he was exposed
to in the water. He is also missing a
toe and chunks of skin probably eaten by fish.
Holy cow. It was incredible to
see the faces, skin, and hair completely intact on the mummies, and to know
that scientists still can’t figure out how to preserve a body that long.
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| Eating Lunch by the Pyramids of Giza |
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| Celebrated our 3rd Anniversary in Egypt! |
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| Playing with everyone in Chicago during our 14 hour layover |
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| We missed our baby girl! 1st day back home, wearing her new onesie! |
Craig got his mission call literally the day we left
(talk about lousy timing), and will be going to the Belgium/Netherlands Mission
on August 22nd. He just left
on Sunday to head back to California and spend the summer at home before he
heads out. The house already seems more
quiet and empty. It was great to have
him here with us for almost a year. He
was a big help around the house and with Alexa.
She loves her Uncle Craig!
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We just celebrated Alexa’s 1st birthday last week. Like everyone says, it goes unbelievably fast! She got her 12 month shots at the doctor on Friday, and the nurse was smitten. Alexa was her usual flirty, giggly self while being weighed and measured, screamed when the nurse held her legs down to give her the shots (not when the shots went in, just because she was being held down. Spaz), but then immediately smiled again when she was let go. The nurse said she’s the happiest baby she’s ever met, so she gave Alexa her first lollipop.
We FINALLY started cloth diapers this week. I know, pathetic. We’ve had them (thank you, family!) forever, but always make excuses. Anyway, we’re giving it a try. She’s soo close to walking, and will even take a couple steps without holding on to anything! Getting there.
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| Happy Birthday! |
We’ve also been busy spring cleaning the house. I think that oven cleaner must cause cancer
and should be avoided at all costs—I swear I was literally breathing in
poisonous fumes while I cleaned on Saturday.
However, feels good to slowly dejunk and clean things out…
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| Misc photo - went to hang out with great grandma sweeny on mother's day! |
Well, I think I’m done with my novel for now. This is soo long! Hope you enjoy! I would love your comments and to hear how
you are all doing!
What an AMAZING trip! I am so glad you guys got to go and enjoy that. It really is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Alexa was not ALWAYS a beast, just particularly when her teeth were coming in and she missed the comfort of mom's arms and dad's belly :)
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