Safta Leah Turns 80

We had a party for my Grandma's 80th while we were in Israel. Her birthday is truly the only reason to go to Israel in August! Otherwise, choose a cooler month. :) It was held in a party room of a restaurant and had a DJ along with a trumpet player. We were worried that Ari would freak out having so many new people wanting to hold/play with her all in one room along with loud music. What really happened? She befriended EVERYONE and danced all night! Following is a sampling of the pictures from the party. Of course, most include my little angel or my grandma. :) Love you Safta Leah! Happy 80th! Oh... And everyone got up to say some nice things about my Grandma. I thought I would include the shot of me nervously public speaking. I hate talking in front of people!! I get so nervous, my stomach does flips, my hands start getting a little shaky and I drone on and on. Luckily, this time, while I got very nervous, especially having to speak in front of everyone in Hebrew, I made sure to keep it short.. Whew!

Beit Guvrin Caves and Tel Maresha Excavations

The day after Haifa, we went to Beit Guvrin Caves and Tel Maresha Excavations in the Latrun area of Israel. You park at in one of a few parking lots and then you hike around between the various caverns most of which weren't that extensive, but a few were really amazing. This was an ancient society and much of what we saw were either living quarters, cisterns, burial grounds, or the areas where they worked at olive pressing. You will also see Roadie the Raccoon in one of the pictures in this set. :) These are not the most flattering pictures of me, but I am an out of shape mom running around in 100+ degree weather through the desert climbing up and down a bunch of stairs. Please give me a little itty bitty break. :)

Grrrr....

So... This is a quick post to share my frustration. I have been trying to post another installment of my Israel trip and pictures, but I am experiencing some technical difficulty with Flickr and have now contacted them to tell me what is wrong. I tried a few different times and ways to deal with my problem, but nothing has worked so... I can't do another installment until I get that figured out. I want to use the sideshow so that you can see all the photos without it taking up a lot of space.

So... be back soon with that post.