Signe Mae

Welcoming Signe Mae

Born January 2016

We think it goes without saying that she is completely beloved by each of her siblings and her parents!  Zoeth loves to rub his face on her soft hair and say how much he loves 'smelling' her :-)
(Her name is pronounced "See-na" and comes from Swedish after a great great grandmother.)

Madaba, Jordan

You've probably never heard of Madaba.  Really, I had no interest in it until we went.  It was SO great!  It is a town in Jordan where there are ruins of  2000 - 3000 year old buildings.  Some of the ruins there still have incredible tile mosaics on the floors--and you can go look at them.  Google it for more info, enjoy some of our favorite pictures below.

This was a floor section removed and displayed on the wall

Here our tour guide used a spray bottle with water to show us how bright and colorful the mosaics would have looked in their "prime"--when the buildings were in use and cleaned regularly.  Now it is all left quite dusty, and visitors walk along raised paths to view the old floors. 

You can see the scene in the floor in the foreground here.  the pillars and walls are from the church building which this used to be.  There is another enormous mosaic on the upper floor in the background.

This is the famous Madaba tree of life.

One of the mosaic shop owners had enough contact with Mormons over the years that he designed a Book of Mormon tree of life mosaic.  It was beautifully rendered!

Here we are viewing the very famous map of the middle east inside the Greek Orthodox Basilica of St. George.  It dates from the 6th century AD.  Our kids loved being able to recognize different cities and sites we had visited on our trip.

The Dead Sea

At the very top of my kids' list of "must do" activities on our middle east trip was floating in the Dead Sea.  We found out from our friends that the experience tends to not be very fun--particularly for kids.  The extremely high salt content tastes horrid, burns your eyes, and stings any scratches or cuts you may have.  But you can float.  And it's like no other floating experience anywhere.  I got stuck on my stomach and couldn't stand up . . .   The experience was cool, and we are all glad we did it . . . even if we only stayed in for 15 minutes or so!

The Jordan River & The Baptismal Site

We visited the site believed to be where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.  We came from the Jordanian side of the river as opposed to the Israeli side.  Due to water being pulled from the river for irrigation upstream from the Baptismal site, the river is now quite small--and does not flow quite the same course it used to.

Overlooking the place believed to be the actual Baptismal site

Zoeth dips his toes in the river

Eliza steps in

Peter took a refreshing dip!

A beautiful church building at the site

Visiting Egypt

We spent 6 days on a tour in Egypt.  We learned some great things like:

there are 84 pyramids in Egypt, not 3

Sitting on the High Dam on Lake Nasser in Aswan

We took a boat ride to visit Kom Ombo Temple on a small island

We all loved the boat ride, but Zoeth got the most enjoyment from it :-) 

We paid a visit to the "Unfinished Obelisk" commissioned by Queen Hapshetsup.  It was left unfinished after an earthquake created a large crack in it.

This was our Nubian felucca boat captain who took us on a ride along the Nile

This was some serious room service!

The kids had the top deck pool on our Nile cruise ship almost entirely to themselves

Did you know the Egyptians mummified crocodiles? 

And placed painted stones over their mummified eyes?

The Nile-O-Meter.  I'm not kidding.  Google it!

Our dinner table on the cruise ship

Indiana Jones?

Did you know The Colonal was Egyptian?

Homeschooling on the pool deck while cruising down the Nile.  NO. BETTER. WAY!

These guys were selling scarves and table cloths along the side of a lock our ship passed through.

We sat next to two tables of tourists from China in the ship dinning room.  They were totally enthralled when they found out Eliza spoke mandarin!  

Queen Hatshepsut's Temple

Ramses II statues across the valley from Hatshepsut's Temple

Here a mosque was built on top of egyptian ruins.  The colorful part in the middle used to be the front entrance of the mosque.  A new entrance was constructed on the other side of the building when the ruins were excavated.

Sunset in Luxor, Egypt

Enlarge this picture (click on it).  The top left corner shows the remains of a christian painting over the top of the egyptian temple carvings

King "Tut" and his bride at age 13

Temple complex at Luxor

Our amazing 5 Star hotel (The Mena House) in Giza, Egypt.  Yes, those are the great pyramids hovering over us while we enjoyed a luxurious breakfast!

Standing on the pyramids--you are allowed to climb up the first few stones and take pictures.

The Great Pyramids

The Spinx - it was hot and bright!