Israel 2016~by Beth

For the third time my mom took me on a trip to Israel.  My daughter Katie also joined us.  Here are just a few photos of our time from April 9-19.

Katie met me at my gate in Newark, NJ and we grabbed a Starbucks before joining our group

Ceasarea with palace ruins and the hippodrome on the right

Mom and Katie on our boat ride on the Sea of Galilee

Me at the front of the boat on the Galilee

First century boat found and petrified, called the Jesus boat

Everywhere we went flowers were abundant and beautiful

Ruins of a Roman city at Bet She'an

Cardo, Roman street, at Bet She'an

Cave at Qumran where early scrolls were found of the Bible

Dome of the Rock up on Temple Mount

Dome of the Tablets where archaeologists believe is the site of the Holy of Holies

Katie, Mom and me in front of the city of Jerusalem

Closed Eastern gate where Jesus will one day enter again

More of the beautiful flowers

Sculpture of Peter denying Christ outside the Church St Peter in Gallicantu

Window in a church along the Via Dolorosa of Christ before Pilate

sign in the garden of the tomb

sign on the back of the door in the tomb

View of the Dead Sea

Katie wading in the Dead Sea

Mom, me and Katie before touring Yad Vashem, the holocaust museum

There was a lot more to see, but this gives you an idea of some of the places we visited.

March 2016~by Beth

March was a fun month for our family.  We have 5 family birthdays this month.  Emma's was on the first and she turned 14.

 Our granddaughter turned one and our son in Texas sent us this photo.

Sophia Blikstad turns 1

March also means going to the FCAA basketball tournament.  Our varsity boys and girls teams again went to state.  The boys did okay, but the girls were the defending champions.  They played for the first place again this year.  In the 2nd quarter our team was behind by 7 points.  Christiana had the ball at the top of the key.  When she could not find an open person to pass to she decided to shoot a three pointer.  Swish, it went in and changed the momentum of the game according to Jonathan.  By the half they were ahead by one point.  The final score was 46 to 30, and our girls won the championship game two years in a row.  Christiana had 8 points in that game.  This was a special year for the girls as they have 6 seniors on the team, 5 of them starters.  Their coach, Pastor Ascol is also retiring from coaching since his youngest daughter is also graduating.  Three of his older daughters will continue coaching the girls team next year.  This is a picture of the team on the bench during the game. I (Beth) was unable to attend this year as the date of the tournament was changed 6 weeks earlier and I had a previous commitment to work early voting that week.  Jonathan kept me updated with texts.

Christiana is on the first chair left, and Charity is on the first chair right.

The jv girls, Emma, Johanna and Abigail, had a few more games after their tournament.  They are a part of two leagues.  The GCACC ended with the tournament in the middle of February.  But a few of our FCAA teams have a jv team, giving our girls more opportunities to play.  At our last game our girls gave their coach Sarah Ascol, a lovely gift.  The three girls who will age out of the jv team presented it.

Isabelle, Ashley and Emma give coach Sarah a gift

 At the end of March we celebrated Easter.  I still give the children a basket which they have to find.  Here are a few shots.

Johanna

Emmaline

Stephen

We also have some angels in the family.  Here are two of them.

March was also a month of preparation for me to get ready for a trip to Israel.  I also prepared menus and got groceries to help the family left behind.