The obligatory vacation pics

Even though we only took day-trips and goofed off near home during our Passover vacation, the bylaws still make it quite clear that vacation pictures must be shown in front of friends and neighbors. 

Sorry for any inconvenience, but rules are rules. 

Look at the bright side.  You get to see these on the web from the comfort of your own home.  Once upon a time (say, 1965) you would have been a hostage guest in our family's living-room, eating potato chips and bad onion dip, while my father wrestled with a balky slide projector. 

Feeling pretty lucky right about now, yes?:

One of our day trips was a two-and-a-half hour trek through the Judean Desert down into Wadi Kelt (Nahal Prat in Hebrew).  We took the dogs along and everyone sweated buckets.  Much fun was had letting Yonah wander close to the cliffs and watching Zahava's heart stop.  If memory serves, we put my mother through the same treatment at the Grand Canyon.  Good times:

Next up is a picture of Gilad using a cliff as a convenient backdrop:

Ariella had some fun taking arms-length self-portraits... a genre of photograph that is apparently all the rage with the teen glam set:

Down at the bottom of the Wadi there is a nice cool spring-fed stream flowing into a series of pools.  This is an incredibly welcome reward for anyone stupid enough to hike through the desert to get there.  We all got nice and wet... even the dogs.  This is a shot of Zahava and Lulu relaxing, post dip (Note: those are not Zahava's cancer sticks there on the rock.  She does not now, nor has she ever smoked.):

After I got wet I did what I do at the end of every hike; I took a nap.  Lulu liked the idea and joined me:

The next day we took a trip to the ruins of a Nabatean city near Dimona in the Negev Desert where there was a Bedouin festival going on.  [update:  The Sandman, whose lovely family we enjoyed this particular tiyul, points out in the comments that it was a Nabatean festival featuring Bedouins].  For some reason I didn't take very many pictures (or maybe Zahava deleted all the pictures I took of the Belly Dancer), but all I seem to have left is this shot of Yonah playing near one of the stone walls of the ruin:

Last up is another picture of Yonah. 

Here's the deal.  When Gilad was about Yonah's age, he wanted desperately to learn how to catch a baseball.  But he was also desperately afraid of getting hit by the hard ball.  My solution was to buy him some mini-catcher's equipment.  Once he was all decked out I was able to chuck balls at him full speed without him being afraid of getting hit.  And sure enough, he's grown up to be an all-star utility infielder (including catcher, of course) in the Israeli Little League.

So a few weeks ago Gili and I were having a catch and Yonah started pestering me to throw him the ball too.  As soon as I lobbed the ball to him he ducked for cover.  I knew it was time to break out the catcher's gear.  Trust me parents... there is no better (or safer) way to teach your kids to catch a baseball without all the flinching and closing their eyes!

So now that you've gotten the whole explanation... here's a picture of Yonah calling for 'the deuce' from his big brother:

Well that's about it.  The chips are all gone and only a few smudges of onion dip are left in the bowl.  That wasn't so bad, was it?

[maybe if you ask nicely Zahava will send me one of the belly dancer pics to post]

Bonus Pictures (thanks to my lovely wife who 'found' the missing shots of the belly dancer) For those who are interested, she was Israeli... not Arab.  Oh, and one more thing.  In his comment, The Sandman pointed out that she had lovely eyes.  I'll have to take his word for it as I didn't notice at the time: