Planes, buses, and camel rides

We all woke up on our last day feeling, as Reese described it, “happy sad”. We were really happy to come home to see friends, breathe fresh air, eat a peanut butter sandwich (Reese), and drink a cold glass of milk. But we were sad to say good-bye to new friends we made, to a city so full of history and vitality, to amazing hospitality, and to this adventurous chapter on our life.

We woke up & had our last interesting Israeli breakfast - hotdogs, salami sandwich and all - picked up our last few souvenirs, and headed to the Wailing Wall one last time. One thing our sight seeing to-do list still had on it was a family camel ride, and being that our flight wasn’t leaving until the evening we made our way back out to the Negev desert. There we found a Bedouin family who lives somewhat nomadic and rents their family camel out for short rides to tourists like us (we ride while he leads the camel, although it would have been fun to go off by ourselves!). Reese was excited at the hotel but we were unsure how she would really do. Camels are such big animals & we though she might get a bit intimidated. But just like all the other challenges we have put before her she rose the occasion and had a blast. Camel rides are not much different to a lazy horse ride, except the beginning. Once you have gotten on the camel the tricky part is when it stands up. Because their legs are so long and they stand up with their hind legs first, you feel like your going to faceplant into the camel’s neck. While Reese was loving it, Michelle was screaming for their lives! But they made it, and once they were up it was a pretty cool ride. Carter was watching intently, and the guy invited him for a ride as well. Jeff asked him, and he lit up and said, “Ya!”. So Jeff and Carter gave it a go, and he totally loved it (Jeff almost dropped him but we don’t need to talk about that).

No task is too small or boring for the Renauds, including our ride to the airport. Having no roof rack or trailer we had to fit everything into our rental car. The ‘everything’ included a double-stroller, 2 70-80 liter backpacks, a suitcase, a large duffel bag, a playpen, 6 carry-ons, 2 children in their carseats, and Jeff and Michelle. We made it with thankfully no cops to pass. With little delays at a VERY intense security at the airport, we headed off to London.

We arrived into London late and planned to stay over and spend the day in the city sightseeing before catching our next plan around dinner time. Well, we woke up the next morning to read that London was going to have more rain that day than they usually do in an entire month! So we ditched Big Ben and the London Bridge for the playroom at the hotel (lame, we know) before heading back to the airport. To put it mildly, our flight home was a gong show with British Airways, from a multiple-hour delay (on the plane) to being the only ones whose video screens didn’t work to losing our stroller. But the kids slept 6 of the 9 hours, so that made up for it!

We’re back in Langley now, staying at the Price’s as our place is rented out until September. 4:30am has become the new wakeup time for everyone as we fight through jet lag, but we’re all doing well and enjoying being home for the next 2 ½ weeks. Jeff’s class at Regent begins on Monday for a week and other than that we have got little going on but catching up with good friends and playing at the park.

Thank you all for your prayers while we were away, it really was an amazing experience and one we will never forget. The kids were right with us with everything and did so well. In fact, Reese is already talking about going back (for her honeymoon with her friend Isaiah she said for some reason), and we can’t wait to go back as well. For anyone who has even the slightest possibility to go, we cannot recommend it enough – it gets into your heart!