The Middle East Part II: Masada and the Dead Sea

Dave had been to Israel before so he made an excellent tour guide. Some of our highlights:

We noticed that everyone in Israel smokes and we figured out why... they start them young.

Yep, those are packs of cigaretts in the claw machine!

Sunrise from the balcony of our hostel in Eilat (that body of water is the Red Sea, it's crazy to believe that this is the sea that Moses parted)


We had to stop at a gas station on our way to Masada and we came across this camel all saddled up. I wanted to take him for a ride. People just ride their camels into town and tie them up while they shop.

This is a portion of Masada. This is a plateau where the Jewish people came to escape the Romans and built a little city. They were completely surrounded on each side and eventually committed a mass suicide rather than being taken prisoner or worse by the Romans... sad story but very interesting.


The ramp the Romans built to reach the top.

The rectangle is one of the many Roman camps. I swear this country is all the same color!

We spent the rest of the day at the Dead Sea and played in the mud. Don't mind my yellow shoes... oh yeah, and that's just mud on my swim suit...

The Middle East Part I: Jordan

Dave and I had a unique oppotunity to visit Israel and Jordan with Dave's sister Bethany and her husband Austin a couple of weeks ago. It was fun to see the different cultures. Here are a few pictures our adventures in Jordan:

When I think of the Middle East I always imagine camels everywhere so it was great when our cab driver pulled over and let us see some random camels hanging out on the side of the road.

This was the one and only Diet Pepsi in the Middle East... I swear. It didn't taste anything like it but the can was cute. You could find all the Diet Coke you ever wanted though.

Our awesome cab driver (can't pronounce his name though).

Our purpose of going into Jordan was to go into Petra and see the Treasury. The walk down to see it was much like the Narrows in Southern Utah only there was no water to wade through and the ground was even.


There were lots of cool little spots that had random caves built into the rock. We later found out that some people still live in caves. Dave wanted to ask them if they knew how to buy Geiko Insurance... I thought that was kind of funny.

There was a giant rock so of course we had to climb it!

Once you get through the canyon it opens up into this huge area with the Treasury straight ahead. You may recognize this place from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

This just shows how huge this place is.


We of course had to ride a camel.

I may or may not have ripped my jeans getting onto this beast... he was huge!

These are the guards who stand up in the doorway of the Treasury so no one enters.


Around the back of the Treasury there were a lot more of the caves.

When were were exploring these stairs we heard a bunch of racket and a little boy came barrelling down riding his baby donkey. So cute! I wish we had gotten a picture of him.

A giant ampitheater

We had a great time in Jordan!

Coconut Cream Pie

Each year for Christmas my mom asks me to make the pies. I usually try to make a new kind each year but the Coconut Cream is a staple. My Uncle and his family come over every Christmas for pie and this one happens to be Uncle Clarke's favorite. I tried a new recipe this time and he asked me to post it here... enjoy!

Coconut Cream Pie

1 can coconut milk

Half-and-half or heavy cream (enough to add to the coconut milk to make 3 cups)

3 egg yolks

¾ cup white sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup flaked coconut, toasted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon coconut extract

Whipped Cream

In a medium saucepan, combine half and half, coconut milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Mixture will become very thick. Remove from heat, and stir in ¾ cup of the toasted coconut, coconut extract and the vanilla extract. Pour into baked and cooled pie shell and chill 2-4 hours or until firm. Top with whipped cream and the remaining ¼ cup of toasted coconut.

I got this recipe from www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com and tweeked it just a little. I love this recipe blog!

Israel

We leave for Israel on Sunday... wish us luck!

Some Good Reads

I just finished the first two books in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Definitely some good reads but a tad on the brutal side. They are what my sister Liz classifies as "Survivor on steroids"... I thought that was pretty accurate. It reminded me somewhat of Lord of the Flies meets The Giver. Anyway, since they are not your typical book I found them to be quite good. Can't wait for the next one!

New York, New York

Dave + Delta = Major Flight Benefits


Since Dave started working for Delta, we've planned a few trips. We decided to start out small and took a quick weekend getaway to New York! We took the red eye on Friday night and had only Saturday to see everything we wanted. Our first stop... Times Square. I thought the police department was really cool...

Central Park

This is the bridge in "Enchanted" where the prince jumps off and gets run over by the marathon runners... love it! There were so many cool bridges in the park.


This is where we think they filmed that part in "Big Daddy" where Adam Sandler throws the sticks in the road to make the roller bladers fall into the lake... this is Dave pretending that he's rollerblading.

On top of the Belvedere Castle in Central Park (this park is huge!)


The Subway Singers

Of course we had to have some pizza. I thought about ordering "The Joey Special" (for all of you Friends fans) but that would have been way too much pizza for 2 people. This was delicious!


Ahhh... Rockerfeller Center. This was probably my favorite part of the trip.

Outside of 30 Rock!

Dave and I both love Kenneth the Page so when we saw a real life Page giving a tour we had to get a picture! He even looks a little like Kenneth...

And finally Madison Square Garden. My sisters and I grew up as big NY Knicks fans so it was nice to be in the "Holy Land".

Last but not least... the Subway Dancers. We thought they were pretty good. I love the head spin... it reminds me of Step Up 2. We ran into them after an accidental 45 minute detour to Harlem... we were trying to go 5 blocks and ended up 75 blocks in the wrong direction!

We didn't get a picture of the Manhattan temple but we were able to go in and do a little temple work while we were there... that was an awesome experience.

For our next trip we think we will be a little more daring, a once in a lifetime experience... we're thinking Israel!

October

October is over (sigh of relief). Between a broken leg, surgery, an appendectomy, a sprained ankle/hairline fracture (we don't know, Sue won't go to the doctor) and massive blood clots in the lungs all I can say is thank heavens October is over! The Bradshaw's can't take anymore!

Sue looks a little stressed in this picture... little did she know that her opportunity to be on crutches was about 2 weeks away!


We spent a few hours in the ER. Dave and Tom found ways to entertain themselves.

We love 30 Rock! It's so darn cleaver and it's no drama... just pure comedy. Now I will admit, I was never a fan of Alec Baldwin (besides Beetlejuice) until now... he's awesome. My friend Connie hosted a 30 Rock party at her house and we all made hats (in honor of Frank) and Dave's hat won! It was so clever! Thanks Connie for such a fun party!

The next day was Sue's birthday and we all know that Sue has Diet Pepsi that runs through her veins, so I thought I would make her a Pepsi cake.

Dave loves to carve pumpkins. I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was little. We always just painted them because they lasted longer. In fact, I had a pumpkin last year that stayed on my front porch through December. Dave finally ended up carving it for me with a Merry Christmas message (that's a story for another time). So we decided to be festive and carved pumpkins this year. Mine is the creature on the left and Dave's is the awesome castle with the ghost in it on the right. We got so caught up in carving that we forgot about the roasting pumpkin seeds in the oven. The next thing we knew, there were large orange flames in the oven. Whoops, next time we'll have to keep a better eye on them!


We decided to go on a Sunday walk through Mueller Park Canyon and enjoy the changing leaves. Aren't they beautiful? I was nervous we'd run into a mountain lion (someone already did that this year) or rattle snakes. Dave told me that he had never seen a snake up there before. Well, there's a first time for everything because we saw one! Well, I saw it, screamed and that was the end of our walk... we hightailed it out of there!