Last Few Days in Jordan

We left Aljoun Nature Reserve and stopped at Jerash, an ancient Roman city in the Middle East, and one of the cities of the Decapolis.

Hadrian's Arch marks a visit by Emperor Hadrian around 130AD

Temple of Artemis, the patron goddess of the city

The Oval Forum - heart of the city of Jerash

We drove down to the Holiday Inn on the Jordan side of The Dead Sea, where we found it to be humorous that we were greeted multiple times with, "Welcome back," or "Nice to see you again," and one waitress even remembered our daughter's name from several weeks prior when we'd visited!  This visit the weather was beautiful and the Sea was calm.  We had a great couple of days making the most of the health benefits of this area and getting some school done.

Family floating

Our oldest 'chillin in the Dead Sea

G all mudded up with a rock mohawk to help the look!

We left the Dead Sea and headed to the Citadel in Amman.  These ruins also originated as Amman, former Philadelphia, is one of the ten cities of the Decapolis, and because of this it seemed somewhat similar to Jerash.  While it was good to see, the kids were getting excited to reconnect with our family friends again, so we kept the visit quick.

Strong kiddos in front of the Temple of Hercules

G with interesting Anthropoid clay coffins that were found containing 2-3 skeletons inside each one

We spent the last couple of nights in Jordan at our friend's place in Amman.  Our oldest son was able to attend youth group with their friends, which was a treat for him as he misses his youth group back home.  Mom and the rest of the kids were able to support our friends by attending their homeschool end of the year production, this was extremely bizarre for us to reflect on our lives as home educators and yet to be distanced from this particular group/co-op.  It made mom realize even more how much home educating moms sacrifice and how the effort they put into teaching their children truly is astounding.  Our final day was spent at the baseball diamond watching our friend play a couple of back to back games.  Little league was a whole new experience for our family and we joked about the camels just beyond the outfield fence.

We wrapped up our time together with a delicious steak dinner and, of course, some Smores', which were a special treat, but somehow are always part of our times together on either side of the world!  It was a treat for us to finally get to spend time with our friends in their world, see how life is for them in the Middle East and all that they've learned in their time here. It was fun to experience their community and we are always amazed at how smoothly our families connect so well.

Forever friends... and Smores!