Thanksgiving

After our fun Mother/Daughter weekend I drove back to Idaho with Lindsey. I got to watch Tytyn and Halter while Lindsey and Tyrel got away for a few days. They were so cute and it was nice to have some much needed "grandma" time. 

The boys talking to Jazlyn on the phone.

Russ drove down on Wednesday and I have to say Tytyn and I were REALLY excited to see him. Jared also arrived on Wednesday, which I'm grateful for as the weather had turned really bad & if he would have driven on Thanksgiving I'm not sure he would have made it. Wednesday it snowed and it was soooo windy that Jared said it was a "white out" the last couple of miles. 

 Thanksgiving morning, because weather conditions had been so bad, Kindra (Tyrel's mom) woke up to hundreds of "lost" sheep in her yard. It reminded me of life sometimes where because of  "conditions" we loose our way. When we went to see the sheep, the herders were frantically looking for  them & said they were missing another 1,000 or so. Tyrel immediately got in his truck and tried to help the owner find them. Isn't life like this sometimes? We need to be like the sheep herder & Tyrel and help the Lord "find" his lost sheep! Its NOT always easy. It was around zero degrees while all of this was going on. 

Jared & Tytyn

Tytyn, Tyrel, Lindsey & Halter

 Halter helping with Thanksgiving dinner preparation!

 Jacob, Janette, Catherine (Janette's sister) & Kyle her fiance.

 

Lindsey had around 23 for dinner & we set it up in their unfinished basement. It worked out really good. Halter & Tytyn eating with their cousins.

Look at this infectious smile:)

 Unfortunately we had to leave early Saturday morning to go home. It was -5 degrees when we left. Thankfully the roads were clear! Around Twin Falls was so beautiful! It was so cold that the snow froze on all the trees and it looked liked something out of a movie.

I'm so grateful we were able to be together with our family. We missed Kristy's family, but at least we had 3 of our 4 kids there. We played games two of the nights and we had so much fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Tyrel & Lindsey were great hosts & always make us feel so welcomed. I love seeing my daughters run their homes! 

The day after Thanksgiving Jacob was really sick. He couldn't even keep down two sips of water. Everything his lips touched would come right back up. This went on the entire day. Friday night Russ, Jared & I decided to drive to Rexburg to give him a blessing. He looked so white & peaked! Its always such a blessing for me to see my sons and husband use their priesthood. I felt the spirit instantly. After our short visit we left. The next morning Jacob said he felt 99% better & knew it was because of the blessing. In my patriartical blessing it says, "Many times you will see your husband and loved ones use the Priesthood in your behalf or in behalf of your loved ones and through the power of the Priesthood & faith you can be made whole again....and you will be able to inspire your children with this same thing." What a blessing to have the Priesthood here upon the earth in our day. I have seen miracles because of it!!

Daughters Weekend

For the past several years I've wanted to have a little "getaway" with my daughters. Its really hard having them live far away & I know Kristy and Lindsey don't get to see each other very often. I know its hard with them having small children & husbands working, but we managed to work it out. We talked about several places to go, but ended up in good old Salt Lake City. I even got a hotel for us to stay in. 

We met at the airport the Friday before Thanksgiving. We wanted to do some sort of service so Kristy found, "The Road Home," one of the largest homeless shelters in Utah. Its right downtown by the Gateway Mall. We went in and helped sort clothes they had received from donations. If anyone is interested in donating they could use NEW adult socks and underwear. They sleep between 500 and 1000 people a night!

Janette, Lindsey, Kristy and Me

Kristy, Janette & Lindsey

Other fun things we did was attend a session at the Salt Lake Temple, visit both of their grandmas and  grandpa, shop, eat, laugh and then shop some more. We even attended church on the West side & heard some great talks in Sacrament Meeting on the importance of family and accepting church callings.  We had a GREAT time and it was fun for all of us to get to know Janette better. She fits in our family so well!!

I love this picture! We probably did enough shopping for at least a couple of weeks. Kristy said at the end of one day, "I think I'm more tired than watching my kids all day."

Thank you Wes, Tyrel & Jacob for letting me spend time with your sweet wives & my precious daughters. Most of all...thank you Russ for working hard & making it possible to have this fun little getaway:)  It was good for my soul!!

Part 2 of Mont Blanc Trip

After our trek of Mont Blanc we returned to Geneva, Switzerland to pick up our rental car. It took quite a while because we had to change the car we got to try and fit in all of our luggage, plus the four of us. We still ended up having to rent a locker at the airport to store a couple of duffel bags.

We spent the next couple of nights in the Lauterbrunnen Valley and Interlaken, Switzerland. To say it is breathtaking or beautiful is an understatement!!

Our first stop was Trummelbach Falls. They are the world's only glacier waterfalls that are accessible underground by lift, galleries, tunnels, paths and platforms. They alone carry the meltwater of the glaciers from the Jungfrau down to the valley-up to 20,000 liters of water per second. The water carries with it over 20,000 tons of boulders and scree per year and causes the entire mountain to shudder and make a thundering noise. We actually went here with John, Jan, John Jr., Andrea and our kids 22 years ago!! It is quite something to walk through all the tunnels and levels of these falls and yes it is LOUD!

After our tour to the Falls we ask someone directions to our hotel. To our surprise we had to take a tram to get there. It actually worked out good because it was one of 4 trams we were going to take the following day anyway. We spent the night in Murren in a hotel on the edge of a cliff overlooking the North Face of the Eiger....thus where "North Face" got its name.

The Eiger

Some of the best schnitzel we had was in Murren.

The following morning we took 3 more trams to the Schilthorn which sits at around 9744 ft. On a clear day, which is was, you can soak up 360-degree views of the majestic Alps. This was the first revolving restaurant built. We spent several hours here enjoying apple strudel with vanilla sauce & hot chocolate, the spectacular view and visiting the interactive exhibition of the James Bond movie, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" that was filmed here back in the 60's.

Russ, Lynette & Rich

Me enjoying some apple strudel 

Rich & Lynette Parkin

Russ & I enjoying God's beautiful creations!!

 Our beautiful hotel in Wengen that we stayed in. The view off our balconies was so pretty!!

We took lots of trams and several trains.

Germany 

Great view out our room!

 From Switzerland we drove to Bavaria to go to the Neuschwanstein (built in the late 1800's) & Hohen-Schwangau Castles. As you can see it was a very gloomy, overcast day, but we still enjoyed it along with a great wurst & pommes frites.

Another place in Bavaria that we love is Oberammergau. Many of the buildings have murals painted on them with colorful geraniums hanging from the balconies. This town is famous for the Passion Play that is performed here every ten years. We stayed in this beautiful place. I had the most amazing raspberry cake with fresh cream here!! 

One of the places Rich really wanted to go to was Dachau, the first concentration camp built in March 1933. Russ and I went there years ago when we lived in Germany & we couldn't believe the difference. Now they have a large visitor center, cafeteria, tour guides, monuments, etc. None of these existed in the early 1990's.

 Dachau remained in operation for 12 years. Three days prior to liberation, 7,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to leave Dachau on a forced death march that resulted in the death of many of the prisoners.  On April 29, 1945 Dachau was liberated by the United States Army. At the time there were approximately 27,400 prisoners who remained alive in the main camp. In total, over 188,000 prisoners passed through here and nearly 50,000 met their death. 

Dachau was a model concentration camp, a place where SS guards and other camp officials went to train.

Since this was a concentration camp and not a death camp, there were no gas chambers installed at Dachau until 1942, when one was built but not used. This was a crematoria where they disposed of prisoners who died.

 One of our favorite places in Germany is Rothenburg. We have been here several times, but I never get tired of it. It is one of Europe's most beautiful medieval towns. It has massive stone town walls studded with 42 towers; half-timbered houses with red-tiled roofs; cobblestone streets and flower-filled window boxes. Its over 1,000 years old. At night a watchman leads a tour dressed in a black cape and a broad-brimmed hat, he carries a lantern and his tales bring the past to life. 

Russ & I seldom do "selfies" but this one cracked me up with Rich & Lynette in it.

I didn't have a good picture of "the night watchman" so I used this one from when we last took the kids in 2006. The same man does the night tours, but like all of us he's aged a little. 

 From Rothenburg we drove to Heidelberg to see the castle & wished we would have skipped it. The traffic was so bad, they were doing construction, roads were closed, there were people everywhere and we had to park a long ways away. Theres not a lot to see of the castle, because of wars & fires. The best part of it is the great view you get of Heidelberg overlooking the river.

This is the "smaller" of the two vats they used to store wine.

Another one of my favorite places is Strasbourg, France. I wish I had a better picture of this Roman Catholic cathedral. It was built between 1190-1439 and is 142 meters high (466 ft). It was the worlds tallest church until 1874 and is now the sixth tallest. It is MASSIVE!! 

After we went to the cathedral we went to the "old" part of town (la petit France), which is my favorite. It is SOOO pretty with all the old houses and flowers along the water. They had some markets along the way selling cheese, pretzels & other good things to make your senses come alive.

La Petite, France

One of my favorite places!!

Triberg, Germany

 We spent one of our last nights in Triberg, Germany. This is where we went with my parents back in 1988. They have loads of clock shops & this is where we got our chime clock we still use today. From our B & B was a short trail to this beautiful waterfall. 

Here is Russ & Rich with our trusty rental car. When we first got it the GPS was all in German. After an hour on the internet that night Rich learned how to change it to English....thank you Rich!! I have to say Russ made me nervous several times on the Autobahn 

as he has a lead foot & he wanted to see how fast he could go!! 

After almost 3 weeks we headed home with great memories & found everything as we left it.