Pyramids and Mt. Sinai

Part of our trip to the Middle East was spent doing touristy things. We had the opportunity to see the Pyramids and The Sphinx and then to climb Mt. Sinai. Both experiences were incredible. The pyramids are amazing. You can't see them without wondering how in world they were built. The pyramids are huge and suprisingly the sphinx is not as big as I had always pictured it (but still amazing to go see, I was just suprised at the size). Here are a few of the pictures that we took.

This is group picture of us at the bottom of the Great Pyramid. There is a rope around the bottom of the pyramid so you can't get close to it, but a very nice guard let us climb over the rope and take some pictures. You can see how tall the rocks are, the one next to me is about as tall as I am.

We also had the opportunity to climb Mt. Sinai to see sunrise. We had to leave about 2am to start climbing. Mt. Sinai is close to 7,000 ft. We were able to ride camels a little more than half way up the mountain. Riding the camels was one of the highlights of our trip. It was very dark while we were riding the camels so we got to see the desert night sky. It was breathtaking. Being there made the Old Testament come alive. I could never explain the awesomeness of the whole thing. It was just amazing!

This is me on my camel. It was so fun to be able to ride a camel up the mountain.

The Sunrise from the top of Mt. Sinai!

Just a landscape picture after the sun came up.

Overall it was a great life changing trip. We had so much fun and I don't think that Matt and I will ever be the same because of this trip. I can't even begin to explain everything that we learned while we were there. We learned lessons about ourselves, other cultures and religions, we learned about God's Word, and learned more about God's heart for the nations.

May

May was a crazy month for Matt and I. We spent the majority of the month traveling. The first part of May was spent in Arkansas for my sisters graduation from the U of A. She graduated with her Masters in Social Work. Congratulations Lyndsey!

We had a great weekend with friends and family celebrating Lyndsey's accomplishments. We are all so proud of her.

After Lyndsey's graduation Matt and I spent some much needed time with family. We were able to spend about a week just hanging out with family.

Then, Matt and I had the opportunity to go to North Africa to visit some friends. We had a great time and were able to experience new things.

This is Matt and I standing where the Nile River meets the Meditteranean Sea. Matt and I were out one day and a taxi driver that we were with asked us if we wanted to go see "where salty water meets fresh water", at first I had no idea what he was talking about. He kept talking about it saying it was where everyone goes to visit. The more he talked the more I realized what he was talking about, then I got excited. I had no idea how close we were. It was literally right down the road from where we were. Matt and I were so excited that we got to go and so grateful that he took us. I would have been so sad if I would have known we were that close and didn't see it.

I'm not going to go into all the details of everything in this one post, because there is too much. I learned so much while we were gone and I am still processing everything that happened. We are still struggling with jet lag a little bit but other than that we are feeling good. Hopefully, the next few posts will be about our experiences that we had and things that we learned while we were away.