Oh we all know the BYU U of U rivalry exists in Israel, don't we? Well a shop owner in Jerusalem had a child who went to the Y and one that went to the U. What are the odds?
So I spent several hours putting this whole thing together. So I better receive some comments- otherwise I think I'll stop blogging... Because I blog in addition to making scrapbooks- so this really just is for the benefit of other people. Also a side note- this post is not for those who are just wanting to look for a minute or two. I have included well over a hundred pictures- yep you read that right, it will take a good amount of time to go through. Oh yes, and note the title- it definitely was Emma's trip to Israel as you'll be able to tell by all the pictures.
Emma was fabulous on the flights. She didn't cry once, and she loved the little bassinet seat that they put up for her. And then she finally fell asleep like this :)
As you can tell we're kind of exhausted.
But we stopped for a day in Frankfurt Germany. So gorgeous! I'd never been to Frankfurt before, I mostly spent all my time in Southern Germany. But, we stayed long enough to have a Doner Kebab! YAY!!!
Then we went on a boat ride on the Rhine river. And saw lots of really old castles!
We started out our trip in Jordan. I had to include this because this happened everywhere. Everyone wanted to take pictures with Emma. It was crazy, in fact when we were in Jerash, there was a huge crowd of the young girls militia- and they swarmed Emma. I'm really sad I didn't get my video camera out for this, because it was so crazy. They all took pictures of her, lots of the girls kissed her. We literally could not move because they had surrounded us.
Our first stop was to look out where Moses was taken and shown Israel, and where they basically wandered for those 40 years.
This was also where Emma and Leah discovered each other. Leah is my cousin, but she's about 3 months younger than Emma, and it was really fun to be on the Israel trip with these two.
Overlooking the valley.
We stayed in this really neat hotel, it was made to look like it was old, but we definitely had electricity and even cable.
Emma loved a window that we had from our bedroom to the living room part of our room.
Our second day of the trip was to Petra. Also what we believe in the Bible to be Edom.
My mom, my uncle Covey, and us in the siq.
Emma's first camel ride- which she loved!
It really is amazing how huge Petra is. And how we think it's so amazing and it's basically a global monument, but there's nothing to stop you from climbing up in anything.
The treasury which is what people know Petra for, is huge, but is nothing in comparison to the size of the Monastery which we hiked for maybe a little over an hour up these rock stairs to get to.
Here's the treasury
And here is the monastery. It may not look like a big difference, but it's at least twice as big! And much taller. Plus you can see the size of the people who are standing in it's entryway.
The next day we went to Jerash. Also referred to as Antioch in the Bible. It is one of the best preserved Roman ruins considering it's geographic size and grandiosity. It was one of the cities of the Decapolis
These pillars were huge and to show just how huge they were I climbed up there to give you a good idea. They may not seem that huge, but to think they were built between 3200 and 1200 BC blows my mind.
My uncle Covey holding Emma. He loved playing with her the whole trip, but she seldom let him. Sad!
Sleeping during lunch in Jerash.
Some of the ruins. It's just kind of amazing. The place where they raced chariots was still in tact and that is the bottom of this picture.
It still stands.
I can't exactly remember, but I know this was an important road that the Romans built- I'll have to ask my mom about it. Oh and she's in the picture with me.
Overlooking the new city of Jerash.
Emma was really good the whole trip, she did have fussy moments, but I don't think we could have been luckier. She was pretty happy most of the time.
The cousins in my mom's family standing on pedestals pretending to be statues. James refused to be in the picture. But from left to right: Jonah, Jacob, Claire, me and Emma, Paige, Ben and Rachel.
With my cousin Rachel
Then we moved into Israel. Our first stop was Galilee where we took a boat out onto the Lake and we sang hymns. Emma just liked being near the water. Oh for those of you who don't know the Sea of Galilee is in fact a lake.
Oh I probably forgot to mention my Grandad takes tour groups to Israel because he loves studying about it and has so much material. So my grandad was a headliner for the trip along with my Grammy's cousin Elder John Groberg. We got to know them pretty well because our seats on all of the planes were right next to them.
Family Picture in front of the Sea of Galilee.
The city was really neat too- this next picture is of the synagogue where Jesus would have taught, and how it was built on top of by another synagogue in the 4th century.
Us by the synagogue.
There were a few days of the trip where Emma let my cousin Rachel's husband Ben hold her. It was kind of funny cause she'd never really seen him before.
This is what they believe to be Peter's house. And there is a building built over it now.
We ate some fish from the Sea of Galilee.
It was there that we discovered that Emma really likes figs.
And then we dipped our feet in the water.
Caesarea Philippi- where Peter was promised the keys.
Oh you know just another picture of Emma on a tank :)
The sun rising over the Sea of Galilee, we stayed right on the bank of it.
The Jordan River.
Sitting by the river with my mom and my grandad.
Here we sat on the Mount of Beattitudes.
The Mount of Beattitudes overlooks the Sea of Galilee.
With Covey and my mom
In the excavations of Armageddon.
My aunt Katie, my mom and I standing in front of the Valley of Armageddon.
Emma contemplating what will happen there in the last days :)
Sitting at Natanya University hearing about how they revere Orson Hyde as the first Zionist and the following prophets of our Church for dedicating the land for the return of the Jews. They even have a courtyard of olive trees dedicated for each of our prophets.
Mount Tabor- where we believe Christ was transfigured before Peter, James and John.
This was by far the busiest place we visited other than Bethlehem. This is Mary's home (the mother of Jesus) and there was a whole huge Church built around it.
This was Mount Carmel where we believe Elijah called down fire to consume his sacrifice.
We stopped by the Red Sea, and Emma loved her first trip to the beach!
This is Caesarea where Paul preached to King Agrippa. It is a bunch of ruins that extend all along the Red Sea coast.
The big pool of water was actually King Agrippa's personal pool.
Emma loved her "cousin" Leah.
This is part of the Shepherd's fields in Bethlehem. Although there isn't much left of them, because there is a lot of construction going on.
The traditional place of Christ's birth in Bethlehem has a large ornate Church built over it and they've really commercialized the site making it seem almost unholy because they've added so much to it making it not feel like a nativity or stable at all.
We went to Biblical gardens which was really neat because they had tons of plants that are mentioned in the Bible, for instance James and I picked fig leaves to bring home, and we shelled mustard seeds and brought those home.
Four generations in front of the Dome of the Rock.
Emma's last camel ride.
The Christensen clan in front of the Dome of the Rock.
James and I decided to climb up Masada. A long hike up to a fortification that Herod had built as a fortress for himself, which ironically was overtaken by Zealots who were then fortifying themselves from the Romans. This is part of the palace.
Masada was quite close to the Dead Sea. This is me and my cousin Jacob.
It really is amazing that this is such an amazing place, but no rules or restrictions so James and Jacob climbed up to peak inside.
The Dead Sea. James walked out into it, and the mud squishes between your feet, and before he laid down in the water he couldn't believe that he would float. But he did!
My cousins and friend painting themselves with the healing mud.
The water is extremely salty and kind of stings, so Emma didn't want to get in the water for very long.
The Hasmonean tunnel underneath the Western Wall. These were constructed under King Herod's instruction. It was really neat!
Here are the Pools of Bethesda.
These are from Orson Hyde park, right next to the Garden of Gethsemane on Mount Moriah.
Elder Groberg, my grammy, Diane Brown, and I can't remember his name right now. The cousins
The next few pictures are taken at the BYU Jerusalem Center.
Emma with Mami and then playing with the roses.
The Jerusalem Center is such a neat part of the city. It is such a landmark and so beautiful.
This room is very near the room where the twelve disciples had the Last Supper. We sang some songs and it was pretty neat. But it was one of the more bustling places.
Me and my two beautiful cousins; Claire and Rachel.
The Dome of the Rock
Emma playing on the ground by the Western wall.
Emma liked wearing James' Yarmulke.
More new excavations on the lower part of the Western (wailing) wall.
These stairs were recently excavated and in the summer of 2007 Neil Armstrong asked his private guide to take him where they knew for sure that Jesus would have walked. His guide took him here because these were the steps going up to the temple where everyone would have walked to get into the temple. And he said standing here is more exhilarating than standing on the moon.
Then we went to Caiaphus' Palace (where Jesus was tried in front of the Sanhedrin). This is also one of those places we know for a surety because it has been around forever and being an important building it has not changed. I am standing- James had to sit because the ceiling was too low, where they would have held the prisoners who were waiting to be tried.
This is Golgotha, it literally is right next to the garden tomb.
The Garden of Gethsemane is one of those places which has not changed and we know is correct. This tree has a fence around it because it is over 3000 years old- and was definitely in there during the Atonement.
Emma had just had a blowout- but we had to take a family picture in the garden.
The olive trees are so amazing because although the original tree may be thousands of years old, they graft in newer younger branches to keep them alive.
This is the Garden tomb, there are several prophets who have said that this was indeed the place where Christ was taken.
Four Generations in front of the Garden Tomb
Here is the entire Holbrook clan in front of the Garden Tomb.
The flight back home. A great trip, but we were sad to go back.
Okay- so clearly this isn't a picture of Curt's farewell, but I'm trying to catch up on a number of things that I should blog about. This picture was taken at my cousin Claire's bridal shower, we kind of grew up in our group of four cousins. From left to right it's Claire, Shea, me, our second cousin Emily Groberg, and my cousin Rachel. All four of us cousins are married now! So fun!
At Curt's endowment. I'm glad I'm the oldest, I think it was so neat to go to Chris' and now Curt's. Curt is going to the Czech Prague mission- I don't know if I've mentioned that, he's in the MTC right now. Which was also interesting because my parents had me pick him up at the airport and drop him off at the MTC- it is really so different now, but so good! It significantly diminished the number of bawling mothers and changed the tone of saying goodbye from a sad to more of a joyful occasion. It was clearly inspired that they changed the drop off. James wasn't able to come since he got a job. I don't know if I've mentioned that, so our vacation pictures will now be pretty limited since we are now reduced to a certain number of days, but that's fine with us- we're just so grateful to have a job and be making money now!
Oh yeah, while I was in Oregon for his farewell, we went boating at our favorite Detroit Lake. This was a favorite pastime of mine when I grew up, we took the boat up almost every weekend. Well we usually kept our boat up there, so it wasn't as much of a hassle to unload and then load back up. But it was so fun to be there with my family all together for one last time for 2 years. It was so fun- the boys went waterskiing, and we pulled out the banana boat and went for a ride. Emma loved it! She would wave at the other boats we passed on the water, it was so cute!
It was a big success! We loved it!
