Israel 2013

It all started the week before we received the surprising news that we were expecting our third child.  Nahum had two international conferences in June that seemed important to his career prompting him to ask if I could fly with the kids myself to Israel at the end of June while he would meet us there fresh from his 2nd conference in Sicily.  Personally, I saw little problem with this but was still a little frustrated by the request.  Yes, it would be a challenging trip but nothing I didn't think I could handle.  My annoyance of the request came because he can't even take the kids to the beach on his own while we're in Israel, and other "little" things like that.  So we bought tickets then found out I would be traveling at 6-months-pregnant.  We discussed changing plans, skipping a conference, moving the trip, but I didn't see the need.  And, indeed, it turned out to be a wonderful trip.

The kids and I headed out Friday June 28th after the easiest trip-packing I'd ever done.  The weather in Philadelphia delayed our flight long enough (5 hours) that we missed our flight to Israel prompting a 2 day layover.  We had a studio apartment style hotel room, swam in the hotel's pool and got to spend an afternoon with our dear friend Katie (she was our nanny/mother's-helper in Pittsburgh during our transplant stay and hadn't seen here since).  It turned into a very enjoyable layover and gave Nahum and his brother David some quality time together they haven't had in years.  The only 3 seats together on the Sunday flight were in first class so poor us had no choice but the get bumped (no extra charge) to first class making the flight relaxing as well (chairs that turn in to beds!).  The first-classers were a bit anxious watching me and two small children join them but we got the usual compliments at the end of the flight, "what wonderful children," because they slept well and Elijah only fussed when he had to stay seat-belted during takeoff and landing.

Visiting Katie.

Chair beds; so wonderful!

The picture at the top sums up one of the two main joys of our trip: the beach and sea were a highlight for each of us.  Neither child would touch the water on the 1st trip there but loved the sand.  On the 3rd trip, I had both of them in the water (we left Nahum to his sleep and work at the apartment) getting slashed by the waves.  By the 6th, and final, trip, both kids cared little for the sand preferring to be splashed, pushed and knocked about by the waves instead.  The waves were larger and more intense than usual but I was still able to swim out past the breaks (about twice as far as a normal year and more than twice the work) to float on my back on the rolling waves.  Nahum enjoy his sea time body surfing.  We had to watch for jellyfish. We saw 5 but all were only stung by particles in the water.  Luckily, the kids noticed the discomfort less than Nahum and I.

Playing in the water at Hof HaSharon.

The other highlight was all the time we spent with family and friends.  At the end of the day, that's what makes me want to move to Israel.  It's so lonely in Blacksburg after being surrounded by so much family and seeing Nahum's wonderful, old friends and their families.  We even attended a Bat Mitzvah for one of their daughters' (my first such event).  It was a simple coming-of-age celebration and made me wish we had those types of things in American culture.  (Since I'm not Jewish, the kids aren't so I'm not sure what we'll be doing for them.)  I was too busy enjoying the company to take many pictures of our visits so I would like to thank Yael and Kobi for a beautiful and relaxing afternoon at their country house and Dani and Sharon for sharing their view from their 29th floor, Tel Aviv apartment while our children ran amok with theirs.  We spent much time in Saba Dov and Savta Lea's facility's pool (we were in some for of water at least every 2 out of 3 days during our trip).  We found a babysitter for the last week which helped a lot while Nahum worked at the Technion for two days.  I also took the kids on a 1/2 hour train ride to Tel Aviv.  We got off at the Tel Aviv University stop and spent a couple hours a Park HaYarkon before taking the train home.  Elijah cried when we got off the train both times and constantly asked to go back to the train station for the rest of the week.  All three Shabat dinners were wonderful family events.

Visiting with dear friends at the Bat Mitzvah: Yael, Eli, Eyal, and Nahum

Riding the train to Tel Aviv and watching the trains as we wait for our train home.

Elijah feeding some of his cookie to Savta Lea.

Elijah reading with Uncle Dudi and Shayna being tickled by her (still) favorite cousin Adi.

Dov and Lea with all their grandkids: Dan, Ran, Yelka, Dov, Elijah, Lea, Adi, Shayna and Ben.

The trip home on Saturday/Sunday the 21st/22nd was long but uneventful.  My ankles and calves swelled on the 12hr transatlantic flight so I spent some time laying on the airport floor with my feet up or walking.  Sleep was also hard to come by as only certain positions kept the kid out of my lungs and those weren't that comfortable for sleep.  Luckily, there were some enjoyable movies to watch.  The playground at the airport was a highlight as usual (I love Philadelphia for that).

Fun at the Philadelphia Airport.

It was a joy to travel with older kids.  Packing was a breeze compared to every other trip we've taken and we were able to do so much more.  Traveling while 6/7-months pregnant was not such a breeze, but traveling with a baby next year will bring its own challenges.  It was also wonderful to get to do so much the four of us together.  For me, just having a partner in the normal affairs of domestic life makes everything nicer let alone almost always having a second parent around for all our little trips.

Now we just wait for baby while enjoying the rest of our mild Blacksburg summer.  I'm trying to take the kids swimming at least twice a week to keep them comfortable in the water (they made huge advances while in Israel).  I'm also enjoying getting back into crossfit.  I have to at least tweak every workout but everyone there is incredibly supportive no matter what one's ability so this has yet to be an issue.  Thanks to all the rain, catching up with the gardens hasn't been too trying.  The weeds took over while we were gone but they pop out easily with the damp soil making weeding a pleasure while the kids play outside.