Jordan Rocks, part 1

We've had an amazing week so far (almost a full week)! This country is amazing and very beautiful and above all, not so stinking hot! Our friends think it's hot - and to them, to this place, maybe it is. But, we sleep each night with only an oscillating fan in the room and we keep the windows open all the time! There's an amazing breeze! Moving on...

We got here last Sunday. We arrived in Amman and set out to the grocery store and then drove the 2+ hours down to their town. They live in a big village that's in a valley (wadi in Arabic) and it reminds us a lot of when we went to Shimla, India to visit other amazing friends. All the houses, businesses, everything is piled onto the sides of two mountains, all in the same valley. Cool. And their house is at the top-ish of the left side of the valley. We look down on what looks like piles and piles of buildings on top of each other. Like a mini "avalanche of houses" like in Shimla!

They have an amazing porch/balcony that, to us, really makes this house! We spend almost every waking hour out there. We've eaten every meal out there, played games out there, watching Lucy run around and play out there... it's amazing! And at night, wow, the lights down below in the wadi are beautiful! But you can hear all the mosques and their prayer calls - they ring out across the valley reminding us how lost this place really is, despite it's beauty.

 The balcony/porch. You come up steps through the blue gate to get into the yard from the driveway area. 

 Here's the amazing porch. It's under a real life grapevine! Very cool. 

Here's my usual view. 

This is the view from their roof looking out over the valley/wadi. 

The five kiddos! Preciousness and 5 big messes all rolled into one! 

(From Right: Joshua - 11, Evie - 9, Lailie - 4.5, Lucy - 2.5, Sadie - 10 months)

Lucy and Lailie were fast friends! They share their love of mud and dirt. And we can't forget those beautiful blonde curls!

Here's Lucy's CHEESE face!

So, Sunday and Monday, we hung around the house. Tuesday, we headed down to Aqaba, a beach city and Jordan's only port/access to the sea. The RED SEA. Remember that one from the Bible? Oh yes. We stayed down there for 3 days and enjoyed the fast food and mostly the pools and, did I mention, the RED SEA? I had quite a moment during one of our snorkel sessions where it hit me that we were in the Red Sea - the sea Moses parted so that the Israelites could cross over to escape from Pharoh's army.

 They were so sweet on the car ride there! They watched a movie and were just cute!

 The view from the apartment where we stayed. See the RED SEA down there?

 Joshua!

 Evie!

 The Parvins!

 Us!

 Sadie!

 Of course, Brad has been like a jungle gym for the kiddos. He tends to play that role. And he loved throwing the kids around in the pool! This is Joshua in mid-air.

 I think this shot is cool - Evie, upside down in mid-air. 

Lucy bug got cold. She'd say "own towel, un cold" (I want a towel. I'm cold.) 

So this is Sunday to Thursday. I'm going to split this up into several posts, so as to not have a 25 page long post... More soon.