Israel trip!

I've missed you all! I took a bit of an internet break while on vacation, and it was good for me. And now I'm trying to catch up on everyone's blogs!

I thought I'd share a few photos from our Israel trip today! I (clearly) took way too many, so this may be a few posts!

Our trip began in the afternoon at Newark Airport, excited for our trip but VERY VERY nervous about a certain someone was going to do on the plane.

We fortified ourselves with some Crumbs:

And then S was able to catch a prayer service while we waited for our flight. Only on flights to Israel:)

I haven't flown to Israel in about 7 years, and security has really tightened up in that time. We had our own special gate that you needed security and a pat down to get into, and on the flight everyone had to be sitting down once we reached Israeli airspace. It was intense!

Despite all my fears, E was great on the flight there, slept a lot, and we made it to Tel Aviv in one piece!

We got to the hotel on a Friday and had a wonderful Shabbos with my family. Early Sunday morning, we hit the breakfast buffet--I have a soft spot for breakfast buffets, especially in Israel!

Breakfast in Israel has some normal components:

(Exhibit A)

but also some different foods, like cheeses and vegetables:

There are also some completely random breakfast foods.

Spaghetti and tomato sauce, anyone?

Later that day we went to a local mall. We got especially excited with this sight:

Most of the malls in Israel have fun play areas for kids, which we really enjoyed!

We also got to enjoy some European frozen yogurt--instead of mixing in topics, they take a plain frozen yogurt base and mix it with whatever ingredients you want. Delicious!

The next day was the day before Tisha B'Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year. We packed up this monkey and went to Jerusalem to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum.

It was sad, but very powerful. I think hearing about the Holocaust as a parent is very different than before--it made it so much harder to bear.

The setting of Yad Vashem was beautiful, high up in the Jerusalem hills:

Next, we visited the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem--coming up on a future post!