Jordan Joys

Before I get to the good stuff let me give background for the pictures I took in Jordan. Day before we left it had been rainy all day and a few of us were feeling a little cooped up in the center. To release a little pent up energy we decided to play a round of body ball. For those of you who don’t know this Olympic sport, it is where you take a large exercise ball and play with it like soccer, with a goal on each side of the gym, but you can hit the ball with any part of your body. Ten seconds after I walked in to play MATT MORGAN (shout out) told me to hit the ball with my fists when he kicked it to me. He kicked with all his might and instead of my fists hitting the ball, the ball hit my fists and my fingernail went up into my eye… causing me to look like a hardcore fighter. I had quite a shiner during our trip; needless to say, no one in Jordan messed with this! Elyse also received a black eye from BRYAN BOZUNG. We were a pretty sad sight.

If I had to live somewhere here in the Middle East, I would definitely choose Jordan. We spent our first day in Petra, which is one of the modern 7 wonders of the world. Even more importantly, Indiana Jones (The Last Crusade) was filmed in Petra. We saw the treasury where Indiana passes the tests to get to the Holy Grail. It was pretty rad and I took a picture as Indy Jones for dad, because as most of you already know, my dad IS Indiana Deaver.

Cate, Jessica and I were feeling a little USA pride at the monastery for some reason, so our red white and blue was a tribute to the land we love and miss!

Speaking of the monastery, we had to hike up 850 stairs to get to it, then we hiked up to the sacrificial high place and tested it out. Good times hiking my tail off in Petra.

(thats me in the green shirt)

Dear Aunt Jeannie,

I tried to ride a horse just for you... I failed.

love,

Miriam

My voyage to Jerusalem was all for the purpose of learning a new culture, trying new things, and learning to appreciate everything possible in this amazing land! After conquering my camel in Egypt I knew I was ready to retackle horseback riding. For those of you who don't know, I have had a couple of "near death", as my family likes to call them, experiences with horses and have been deathly afraid of them for sometime now. So on the way back from Petra we had the opportunity to ride horses up the path. Shelby, Angie and I all started the trek together and were having a grand time when they asked me about my fear of horses. I explained my bizzare encounters with them when suddenly my horse started bucking! no joke! I asked for my money back because I was definitely given a defective horse (jk). It happened three times where my horse just started going wild when another horse would pass us. It was kind of ridiculous. Once I got off, I treated myself to some ice cream since I could barely walk I was so shaky and vowed never again!

More Jordan fun to be continued...