Shabbos is family time

Shabbos in Ramat Beit Shemesh with my sister and her family was simply wonderful. Friday night my son went to shul with his uncle and cousin while the rest of us stayed home and chatted and watched the kids play. My other son Meir got a good chance to reconnect with his cousins without the distraction of electronics and other things to do, including brothers of various ages. Atara discovered her cousins American Girl Dolls and accessories and was busy, busy, busy.

The meal was a classic Shabbos meal, lovely and tasty. Towards the end Atara climbed onto my lap and promptly fell asleep. We were able to continue to talk with each other as long as I didn't move a muscle or a falling asleep hand. We walked home and I put her to bed and hoped for the best as far as jet lag was concerned. 

As predicted the kids woke up early. Fortunately there is a park with grass and daredevil style slides that Israel loves so much and a climbing structure for older children. It was insanely windy out so after about 45 minutes of play I was ready to head over to my sisters house. Both of my boys went to shul during the day, but my 9 and 11 year old nieces were more than happy to take Atara to the park nearer to them. 

After lunch I got nap trapped yet again. My hand has a new state of slightly asleep holding a toddler. Meir and Avigail decided to explore each park their neighborhood has and to determine which is the best one. I would have loved to have had an activity tracker on those two. They did not stop for hours. 

After Shabbos we took my 2nd niece Elisheva with us to Kever Rachel. I don't know if it was because her yortziet was one week prior or if it is always so full Motzei Shabbos, but it was PACKED. I parked in a semi parking space. When some one in charge (likely army) started making announcements about cars parked where they shouldn't be, I took that as a cue to leave. It took more time to leave the parking lot than anything else. Part of the problem was in order to back out of my very tight space I had to do several maneuvers. Each time I either moved forward or backwards another car would decide to get in as close to my space as possible. When I finally got my car pointed the right way to head out of the lot, another car was blocking the exit. The driver simply couldn't see why he had to back out if he wanted to go forward. If I was able to go forward out of the lot, he could go in. Finally some one came out and started directing traffic to free us all from the gridlock. 

At least I got everyone out of the house and back.