One day sooner

This is big news! The date has been changed! Jordan and I will now be getting married Thursday, September 27th with the reception that night. The California reception will be on Tuesday, October 9th.  :)

So... I get married one day sooner! And I could not be happier about that fact.

Less than two months!! :) I love you Jordan McKee.

Galilee!

I have officially found somewhere that might compete with my first spot for my "Favorite Places In The World". After 3 months of living in Jerusalem, I can't put in words how incredible it has been. So, Jerusalem made it to my top spot quite easily. But, Galilee was nothing short of incredible. Really. It was so relaxing and so wonderful to be in the land that Jesus spent most of his mortal ministry! I learned so much about him. So much about the Gospels in the New Testament. And so much about myself.

Pictures? Of course! :)

Mount Arbel! This is overlooking the Sea of Galilee. The first time I ever saw it! 

The Sea of Galilee. :)

Once Chloe and I found a cute little green frog in our shower!! We were scared he was poisonous... so I didn't let him lick me.

... I didn't touch him either. But I really liked him!

I was brave enough to hold him in a cup?

Isn't it just beautiful!?

Boating! There weren't any tubes involved though...

Okay, see that boat behind me? Well, it is 2,000 years old! There was a drought here that ended up bringing this fishing boat out of the water. After lots and lots of chemicals and treatments it can now be out in the air without deteriorating! Maybe this was the boat that Peter fished on? Maybe not... but I pretended it was. :)

The church at the Mount of Beatitudes.

The Mount of Beatitudes! Brother Harper gave us time to go off on our own and read the Sermon on the Mount. One of the neatest experiences I've had here. It was a beautiful place!

The rock where the resurrected Christ fed the Apostles.

The place commemorating when Jesus came to the Apostles at the sea shore. The hearts are a reminder of His questions to Peter. "Lovest thou me?"

Dinner? Yum.

We are Roman warriors. This was Gamla!

Don't let this picture fool you. It was VERY hot.

A group of us girls at the Tiberia's branch.

I had to take a picture of this...

This was the church on Mount Tabor! It was either here or Mount Hermon that Jesus was transfigured and Peter, James, and John were given the keys of the kingdom.

THIS is a beam! Here we learned about trying to rid the mote out of our brothers eye when we have a beam in our own. That's a pretty big thing to have in your eye!

That mud building behind me has been there since Abraham's time! No joke.

The Winnie the Pooh tree at Tel Dan!

In the Golan heights! Where should I go?

Behind me is Syria!

Ahh. Galilee sunsets are incredible.

One of the best week and a half's of my life. Jord, can we PLEASE go back??

Home sweet home!

I am home! Honestly, it was super sad for me to leave Galilee. I loved it there. So so so much.

I have lots of fun pictures to put up as well as a video! They will be all up hopefully tomorrow. Maybe even tonight?! Until then... Here is a tiny glimpse of my perfect week and a half...

Always on my mind

I just miss him. That's all.

Ein Karem

Last week I went with a group to a quaint little village located in Southwest Jerusalem. John the Bapstist is believed to have been born there! It was also the place that Mary would have visited Elizabeth when they were both with child.

We had a lot of fun here! It honestly felt like I was in Europe. The churches were beautiful and everything about the village was just darling.

I thought these little gnomes everywhere were so cute!

This is the church of St. John the Baptist

This is the church of the visitation.

This spring is called the "Spring of Mary". Its where they believe Mary may have drank on her way into this village!

Loved it here. But let's be honest, have I ever gone anywhere in this country and not loved it? :)

Dome of the Rock

On our last free day a small group of us woke up early so that we could beat the line to see the Dome of the Rock! It was definitely worth it. 

I have been looking at this incredible building for the last 3 months but have never been able to actually make it onto the temple mount because of the lines. I guess thats what you get for living in Jerusalem during tourist season! But I FINALLY made it there! And it was incredible.

I was shocked at the size of the temple mount. I think I heard a rumor that it is 4x that of Temple Square. It really was huge! We were also told that when the 2nd temple stood, built by Herod, it would have been 2x the height of the Dome of the Rock! 

Can you believe that I live here? I call this place home! The Dome was only a hop, skip, and a jump away. Crazy.

I LOVE JORDAN!!

See the pun in that title? There was plenty of time taken talking with David Cramer and David Burberge about funny puns I could put in this blog post. I hope I remembered them all. :)

Last week we went to Jordan! Holy cow. It was more amazing than I could ever have expected. Lots of pictures were taken... and thats the exciting part, so I am just going to post them and put a few thoughts and info in here and there... :) This is me falling in love with Jordan all over again. ;)

This was Mount Nebo where Moses looked out and saw the Promised Land from afar. He is supposedly buried here. But I just know he was translated. :)

 The Madaba Map. This is the oldest map of the Holy Land. EVER! Preeeeetty impressive.

 This is in Petra!! Oh my goodness. Words cannot describe how fantastic Petra was. I was blown away.

 After about a mile walk you see this!! We all couldn't help ourselves and had to start singing Indiana Jones. Dun da duh dun... dun dun dun.

 The treasury!! Can you believe this was literally carved out of the huge rock cliffs? I couldn't get over it.  Man those Nabateans.

 I got to ride a camel! Can you see the thrill on my face?

 I know. Way too many camel pictures. But it was really neat. :)

 Camels... everywhere.

 I think I was laughing at something someone said that was funny. Anyway, those awesome things behind me are the Royal Tombs!

 Look at the toppled over column in this backdrop...

Okay... now just for fun I have a video! I film like EVERYTHING here and I thought it would be fun to film seeing the massive Monastery in Petra for the first time! Here it is:

 This was how excited I was about the Monastery. It was massive! I hiked 837 stairs just to get here. My legs are going to be so buff.

 This picture was taken when I almost walked off a cliff. No joke. Some Bedouin men stopped me right before I did. When you're really hot and kind of delirious steps and cliffs begin to become less distinctive.

 Delirious face.

 Kindof looks like the Grand Canyon huh?

 Royal Tombs!

 I rode a horse too.

 These we're the girls I hiked all day in Petra with. We saw the Treasury, the Royal Tombs, the Monastery, and the High Place. Jon told us we looked like a posse. So we took a picture.

 Jord, this one is for you! They named museums after you all over in Jordan. I don't know why.

 Perhaps I shouldn't make fun of antiquities. But this was too good to pass up. :)

 This is me kissing Jordan. :) Tehehe.

 This river is near the place we believe Jacob had his vision of the ladder with the angels ascending and descending from it. I get to go to all of these places! Everyday is an adventure here.

Jerash was incredible. It's known as the city of 1,000 columns. There were so many!

 Look how many columns!

 We also went to the Royal Automobile Museum. Hahaha.

 Here I'm at the river Jordan! Definitely one of my favorite places we visited. :)

"Jesus came to John the Baptist in Judea long ago. And was baptized by immersion in the river Jordan's flow."

Basically, I left my heart with Jordan. :)