DC to Germany

nik and I near the FDR memorial Two of the DC family

Tiffany windows at the Red Cross

The dining room at the townhouse

Chocolate Capitols at Costco

At the Representative's office

Gorgeous Orchids at the Botanical Garden

Elsie and Rico at the beautiful DC temple

Well, I’m currently on the plane to Germany, although, I’m not sure when I will post this since I have lost my internet connection. I’ve gotten a couple hours of sleep, which has been nice. This area of the plane is not very full, so I have a two-seat side section to myself. That always makes things easier!
The DC part of my trip seemed like a whirlwind - it was so packed with having fun with family and friends as well as sight-seeing. Looking back at my photos, most of them are of a group of us eating together or posing together in front of an important site. One of the greatest things about this trip I’m on in general has been getting to see where various family members live and work. From this DC part of the trip I have photos of Elsie and Paisley where they work, K-Rae where she goes to school and good friends like Jill and Elmo where they work or live. I so much appreciate all of them taking time out of their busy lives to show and share with me/with us.
The first few days in DC, I was on my own, then I was joined by my sister and one niece. Another niece and niece-in-law joined us on Thursday. From Thursday on, we stayed in an awesome DC townhouse north of the Capitol that my sister arranged for and paid for. It was a great place to stay, and big enough that we could have the DC area resident family members and friends over for meals. It was like living like the rich and famous for a few days, in our “city residence.” Before that I stayed with Elsie and Rico, which was awesome.
Some highlights that stand out in my mind:
-going to the DC temple with Elsie and Rico. It was my first time there, and I was so impressed with it’s beauty.
-Getting to walk to the Metro and ride it into DC on the first days with Elsie. I think I got the full Metro experience when a train broke down and we got to pack like sardines into the next one that came along J ! Don’t get the wrong idea though - DC’s metro system is very clean and very convenient. We used it lots during the week.
-Sunday Dinner at Nik’s house with the rest of the DC family gang. I had heard about them getting together for birthday dinners and other occasions, and it was awesome to be a part of it! I also loved being in Nik and Lory’s beautiful apartment, and the yummy eclectic dinner we all threw together, spur of the moment.
- going to the thrift store with Elmo. It was just fun generally, and I got a new pair of jeans that I’m taking to Europe as one of my two pairs of pants. (I like to pack light.) I also loved playing with her kids and enjoyed a yummy dinner with her and her husband.
-Getting to hang out at K-Rae’s apartment the morning before the next group arrived . I watched her clean and plant a beautiful herb garden planter. I was so impressed with her talents at making things look nice and feel nice with respect to her apartment. Up to this point in the trip the weather had been cold and rainy. That morning while I was there the clouds left and the sun came out and it warmed up dramatically in the course of a couple hours. The pleasant weather continued all through the weekend, until this morning when it started raining hard again. On two occasions later in the week we had a picnic in her back yard.
Just a little side note relating to that - the first day I was downtown, all the buds on the magnolias and cherry trees were closed. By yesterday many of them were in bloom. We all enjoyed seeing the trees “waking up.” The DC cherry blossom festival is in a couple of weeks.
- the orchid display at the national botanical garden. It was so beautiful and the humid warm air helped with a cold I’ve had this whole trip.
- getting to see Elsie and Paisley where they work in the office of a congressman!
-Paisley gave us a tour of the Capitol!
-We got to see a display of the Terra Cotta warriors from China
-Wonderful fun variety of food at the Founding Farmers Restaurant and great company!
-A Costco trip with Carolee. It was really fun. We used K-Rae’s car as a “truck” to transport luggage and food to the townhouse and everyone else got there by Metro. Here’s an “only in DC” moment: We were at the Costco in the bakery section. They had giant chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies out. They also had very large chocolate models of the capitol - white or milk chocolate filled with chocolate truffle. I considered getting one as a centerpiece for our townhouse for Paisley’s birthday, but decided she sees the capitol often enough at work J
Just a few more things:
-A tour of the Red Cross national office with it’s gorgeous Tiffany stained glass windows. Thanks Jill!
- Getting to go to the National History Museum for the first time. I saw Julia Child’s kitchen, the original Star-spangled banner and Kermit the Frog.
-A fun visit on Saturday to the Eastern Market north of the Capitol. I bought a scarf and awesome fresh wild mushrooms.
-Going to Ford’s Theater to learn about the assassination of Lincoln
-Watching a cool video reel of the presidents at the National portrait gallery. It was fun to see a video of FDR and also see President Reagan at the Berlin Wall urging Gorbachev to “come to this gate and open it.”
Getting to see the changing of the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
-Fun meals at the townhouse - Tropical desserts, Paisleys’s birthday dinner and steaks on Sunday plus breakfasts.
　
So, now I’m headed to Germany. I’m flying into Frankfurt, and my first stop is a few days at the Frankfurt (LDS) temple. You may think, “there are lots of LDS temples in Utah, why are you going to the temple in Frankfurt?” I’ll tell you. The Frankfurt temple is a “destination” temple. Unlike most of the LDS temples in the US, the Frankfurt temple has an adjoining Guesthouse or hostel. Most of the people that come to the temple in Germany come for several days, and when they do, they stay in the guesthouse. The top three floors are rooms and the bottom floor has a complete kitchen and large dining room. When you check in, you are given the use of a locker in the dining room, and also a refrigerated locker in the kitchen! So between sessions at the temple, people go prepare their meals in the kitchen and eat together in the Dining Room. It is a wonderful way to get to know great faithful people in a peaceful environment.
There are several grocery stores relatively nearby, so when I arrive in the morning my plan is:
1) get my German cell phone up and working
2) travel to Friedrichsdorf where the temple is (I take the commuter train or S-Bahn)
3) Check in, get my sheets and make my bed (They provide linen if you need it)
4) Go to the grocery store and stock up on yummy German Quark, yogurt, bread and cheese
5) Go to the temple!
To me that is like a little piece of heaven - I get to speak German, eat German food, hopefully make new friends and all in the wonderful peaceful atmosphere of the temple.
I first learned how that worked there in the Fall of ‘08 when I was in Germany. When I first arrived in Germany in August that year I noticed online that two of the Stakes I had served in on my mission were scheduled for their temple week the same week - about one week away. I hurried and called my friend Minna from Nuernberg to confirm that that really was the case, and found out she was going to be there the whole week! I emailed the temple and was able to reserve a bunk in the same room she was in :)! So many miracles happened to bring all those circumstances together. So, anyway, I went, had the chance to renew old acquaintances and make new ones and had a wonderful time, and also learned the ropes of how things worked there with the guesthouse.
I don’t anticipate anyone I know being there the same week this time, but I think It’s a great way to start a trip to Germany none the less.
It will also give me a few days to sort of “decompress” and also, once I’m in Germany with my German cell phone it will be easier to make arrangements for what I will be doing after I leave the temple.

First photo - Wonderful Finnish lunch we had yesterday (Friday) Second photo - Sara's bed after we got it all put together.

A wonderful family-style Southern meal we had Friday night.

Georgia on my mind - part 1

Written Tuesday, March 9th.
I have been at Susanna’s for just over a day. It is my first visit to Atlanta (outside of the airport, that is) and it has been really fun and interesting to see the different landscapes. Of course, seeing Susanna’s house has been delightful as well - she has an amazing talent for interior design and every room of her house is beautiful, as well as practical and useable.
First though, back to the landscape. Flying in, I was amazed to realize that most of their dirt is really red - as red as the reddest dirt in southern Utah. Susanna confirmed this saying that every time her kids play outside, they come back in with the knees of their pants stained red. It was also interesting as I flew over to see where the forest has been cleared for housing developments. Sometimes there were bits of forest left between the houses - mostly tall pines of some sort interspersed with tall deciduous trees. At Susanna’s I’ve gotten to see this close up. Her house is in an area of rolling hills and there are bits of forest between each of the houses. Next to her house is a little stream. Its very pretty. I guess they had snow/sleet last week, but yesterday and today have been in the high sixties and sunny.
Susanna’s house is three stories, with lots of nice storage areas. The basement has a guest suite and a large storeroom and a walk-out patio, the main floor and upstairs are the main living areas. She is lucky enough to have her laundry room on the top floor next to the bedrooms and has a really cute walk-in attic for storing off-season clothing and that kind of thing. I wish I could adequately describe her taste in décor - it reminds me of the most tastefully done bed and breakfasts I have seen. One thing that is cool is her little girl’s room has a secret hide-away that goes into part of the attic. I haven’t gotten to play in there yet, but I’m hoping Sara will let me. Sara is in second grade and is learning about telling time and using a calendar in school at the moment. Niklas is just a little younger than Audrey and he loves I-spy books. He also likes to build with duplo blocks and is very good at it. Niklas likes to help clean things.


Wed, March 10
Yesterday the weather was gorgeous and I took the opportunity to explore the neighborhood and the little bit of woods next to Susanna’s house. Last night it started to rain and rained hard all night and almost all day today. There were even flood warnings.
Today Susanna took me to see some of the cool stores in the area. After having heard about "the container store" (that's its name) for years, today was my first chance to go there. What a great store for someone who likes to organize. :) We also went to a really neat farmer’s market store (Harry's) that had great produce of all kinds and lots of other foreign and specialty items. Since we were able to get the ingredients there, I attempted making the Pad Thai recipe Elaine had made for me last week. It came out quite well, for a first attempt.
Susanna has ordered new bunk beds for her kids room that will be delivered tomorrow. Also, Carolee and Gary and Jeniel arrive tomorrow. We will probably have a bunk-bed-putting-together party sometime this week!

Fun times in Lakeland

It was wonderful to be able to spend a few days in Lakeland and see where they were living and what they were up to and what the weather was like. One of the highlights was getting to enjoy Lainey's wonderful cooking. Pictured here is the night we had homemade Pad Thai - even the sauce was homemade (see detail photo below). This was Saturday night and the girls were at a babysitting play group, so that's why it's just us. Sunday Lainy made a wonderful Lemon Chicken recipe from Cook's Magazine, and the girls and I set the table fancy. We closed the blinds and had a candlelight dinner :)
Earlier in the afternoon on Sunday while Lou was napping, Curly got dressed up in her Ariel's wedding dress costume and we went outside to take pictures for fun. (see picture below). Oh yes, the last picture here is from the garden center we went to Saturday. I couldn't help but take a picture because what was available there in the outdoor section of the garden center was so different from what's available at home in the snow right at the moment! Maybe this will give all of you out there in the snow hope that spring will come.
Here's a list of other things I got to do:
see Curly's preschool; play with the disney princess mat and figures with Curly; hear Lou recite part of "the proclamation on the family" from heart in her cute two-year old voice; sing songs in the car on the way home from the zoo; have both Curly and Lou come slip into the futon where I was sleeping in the early morning to get warm; dance in the family room with Curly and Lou; have Lainey help me with how to put photos on a blog; have Fisher take me to the airport and have that quality time to chat with him; help Lainey organize a cupboard (sucess! it all fit back in:); have a picnic on the family room floor with Lou; watch Curly draw a picture of her testimony after church on Sunday.

A visit to some friends

On Friday we took Curly to Pre-school, then Lainey, Lou and I went to a fun garage sale. After that I got to go to the "Trader Joe" grocery store that I've been hearing about from various friends for years (they did have lots of good stuff -including some of my favorite German and Dutch cookies.) After a couple other errands we picked up Curly and headed home for lunch and naps.
In the evening, I took the girls and Lainey and Fisher's car and we headed off on a little adventure. Pato and I have some good friends living in the Phonix area. It is about an hour drive from Lakeland. They have two little girls, so it seemed like a fun expedition to do with Curly and Lou. The girls played outside while I got a tour of thier awesome back yard, then we had a delicious dinner. After dinner the girls played with dress-ups and we had a little time to chat and catch up. In the photos here you can see (1) thier gorgeous tomato plants (2) three of the girls all dressed up - Curly is on the right. (3) Our friends' daughters, N and E. (4) the cool firepit area in their yard - when you are down in it it feels like you are out camping somewhere.
I had never used a GPS before and never driven in Phoenix before, so it was a little bit of an adventure to just take off, but everything went well and I think everyone had a good time.

The Zoo

When I was flying into Phoenix the man next to me pointed out the zoo. It was right by the airport and I had a great view of it from the right side of the plane as we were on our final approach. I was excited to see it since our plans were to go there as soon as I arrived. The zoo looked beautiful - lots of trees and lakes. Another thing I found interesting flying in is that the whole Phoenix area was dotted with small mountains - just a peak here and a peak there with houses or buildings nestled up to them. Near the zoo there were some blobby, southern Utah looking formations with arches in them.
Lainy and the girls arrived from Ikea to pick me up just as I reached the curb and we headed off to the zoo. It really was a neat zoo with very natural settings and some cool animals. We saw a komodo dragon, walked through a monkey area where squirrel monkeys roamed free in a natural setting and I saw a giant anteater. The zoo had a lot of interactive displays (including the giant shell in the picture and the tractor below) and had a very nice pettting zoo that included the pigmy Cebu (photo below.)
Traffic was really bad heading home, so I ended up dropping Lainy off at the elementary school for a meeting and took the car and the girls home. Between Curly, the GPS and the garage door opener, I managed to find the right house :)
For those of you who haven't been there, the house is all one level and has a really nice big kitchen/dining/family room. The girls' room was very cute with its new coat of bright pastel paint. Their newly planted garden was looking good with 9 tomato plants, 6 or so pepper plants and rows of corn, zucchini and onions all rapidly sprouting.
The weather the first day was sunny and nice, like a typical day in May where I live. Friday was the same and Saturday was hot - like a warm June day. By Saturday afternoon it was starting to get cloudy and there was a wonderful warm summer cloudburst. Sunday was cooler and it rained hard the whole day with thunder in the evening. Lainey commented that I had gotten to see the whole range of Phoenix weather except for the hot weather!

Off On Another Adventure

Well, I tried to enter the world of blogging in December, but wasn't sure quite how it all worked. I'm still learning, but today I'll give it another try:)
So, I'm off on another adventure. Today is March 4th, and today I'm marching forth. This weekend I'll be in Phoenix visting Lakeland, then it's on to Atlanta, Washington DC and Germany. This all got started for me in December when Paisley announced she was going to DC to do an internship. Lainey mentioned that she was planning to travel to DC for K-Rae's spring break. That got me thinking. With four nieces living in Washington DC, it sounded like the perfect excuse for some travel. I had been wanting to visit Susanna for over a year, so I thought that would be easy to add to the itinerary. Then I thought "Well, I'm already paying to fly to the East coast, I might as well pay the extra to continue on to Europe." Then, in trying to find the best flight the search engine kept routing me through Phoenix, so I thought, I might as well stop there too! Thus began the planning for this "world tour" . . .