More Fun Than France?

I've taken a short hiatus from France blogging - and work, incidently - to play with grandkids. And this is what we did today. Porter took us to his new found wonderland park. These boys were too chicken to slide down this tunnel slide themselves, at least the first few times, so I took 'em down. It was a pretty tight squeeze, two boys and a gramma, but it was fun!

A cute mom who went down this slide just before we did was trying to encourage a friend who was a little unsure about sliding down with HER child. She said, "Come on Lisa, it's just motherhood aerobics!" And I wondered, "what do you call it if you are the gramma?

Aren't these boys adorable? We were memory building, and building memories sure makes you tired. We wore each other out.

Thanks for taking us to the park today, Porter. I hope we get to come back soon, and next time we're bringing Chase!

Every Ville Has A Castle

Sometimes it was almost surreal as we toured France that everywhere we went there was a big, beautiful, medieval castle overlooking the city. Castles dating back 2500 years. That's much further back than my mind can think. Ironically, I had been reading The Mists of Avalon before our trip, which is a Camelot/King Arther novel, and as we walked through some of these castles it was like I stepped right into the Mists of Avalon world. Weird. This is the Castle at Lourdes - a small ville that was part of Brennan's area when he was in Tarbes, a bonus because . . .

We actually came here to see this.

The largest Catholic pilgrimage destination in France, and for a city of only 17,000, that's pretty impressive. Of course there's a story which, in a nutshell, is that in 1858 a poor peasant girl named Bernadette saw a series of 18 visions of the Virgin Mary here. People come from all over the world to hold Mass, drink from and bathe in the water of this Grotto where the sightings occurred and wait for the Virgin Mary to appear to them.

It was interesting, but not being Catholic, I was much more interested in the castle on the other side of the valley. And these circular stairs. Every castle had circular stairs, which makes sense because of the round towers. How else are they going to get up and down those towers without circular stairs? Notice how deeply each step is worn away in the center. Centuries of people have walked up and down those stairs.

The cool thing about this castle was that it incorporated the rocks and cliffs of the hillside it was built on into walls of the castle, which gave the appearance that it wasn't built there at all, that it just rose out of the ground and was part of the hill on which it sat.

Teeming with history, these castles are. Here I am looking through a doorway with medieval spikes on the bottom of the door that lifts and lowers instead of opens and shuts. I've always wondered about the spikes. Are they there to impale the enemy if he almost gets in? And notice the cool cobblestone streets. They are not comfortable to walk on, even in good shoes.

These are called murder holes. Appropriate, though a little morbid. They threw rocks and shot arrows at the enemy through these holes, which are placed all along the castle walls.

This is just a cute picture of the boys I drug along on my trip with me. They are sitting in the garden just outside the castle. I was going to join them for this picture but look, no room on the bench.

And here is a cute picture of me and my little boys checking out a map of the castle which was engraved on some kind of stone. This one was a replica, but on the other side was an original map from castle days long ago. Don't we look like medieval royalty? If it wasn't for the coldness, I think it would have been fun to live in a castle. Especially considering that if you didn't live in a castle you were a peasant, and being a peasant doesn't sound fun.

And this is a view of the city of Lourdes from the top of the castle. A very pretty little ville at the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains. This one you HAVE to click on to enlarge. You just can't get see the true beauty of the ville from this small pic. And if you think this post was long, just wait until we get to Carcassonne, the real castle of castles.

Hiking in the Pyrenees

This was the point in our trip when we officially felt like sight- seers. Brennan had lived near the Pyrenees Mountains for most of his mission without being able to actually go into those mountains. Being mountain lovers and a family that can't pass up a good hike, we ventured on up. This picture was taken from the car as we drove by. There are a lot of pretty things to see in France, but not a single place to pull over and take a picture of those things. You either get it as you drive by or you don't get a picture. I missed a lot the first few days because I refused to take a picture from a moving car.

It was cold at the top. We were just below a small ski resort here. Dave took this picture and he was apparently more interested in getting the icicles in focus than his family, but you get the idea.

We stopped and ate lunch at this little roadside table. Most of our meals consisted of baguettes, lunch meat, many kinds of cheese (I would only eat swiss) and some kind of good fruit juices that I think must have been carbonated. By the way, trying to find Pepsi in France was an adventure! Dave was constantly on a quest to find me a Pepsi.

And we hiked through these pretty mountains. We didn't have to get down very far to get below the snow and with our jackets on the hiking was perfect.

There were many beautiful waterfalls on our hike. I was bummed when I got home and found that this cute picture of my boys in front of this waterfall with their arms around each other actually looking like the buddies I had always hoped they would become had an ugly green fence in the foreground that I didn't see through my camera lens. Oh well, it catches the essence of day. It was a fun and relaxing way to spend a Monday.

Pau and the Baptism of Aicha

During Good News Minutes in Relief Society on Sunday Rhondelle, who was conducting, asked me to report one highlight of my France trip. My reply, "Going to church on Sunday, meeting the members there and seeing how excited they were to have Brennan back."

That really was so much fun, to meet Serge, whom Brennan had taught and baptized. Serge is the man closest to Brennan carrying a jacket under his arm. He told us, as Brennan interpreted, "Your son in the reason I am here in the church today." What a great thing for a parent to hear.

We also met this lovely lady, Aicha. Brennan was teaching her when his mission ended and he came home. Aicha had been taught by missionaries about a year before and they had lost contact with her. When Bren was transfered to Pau he reestablished contact and began teaching her again. To him his mission just felt a little unfinished not being able to see her baptism, so we planned our trip around being there when she was baptized.

Aicha is a fun, outgoing person and she is going to be a great asset to the ward in Pau. And we got to hear those words again, "Your son is the reason I am wearing this white dress." And then she giggled and teased with Brennan - something he had missed. As we were nearing Pau Saturday night Brennan told us, "I can't wait for you to meet Aicha. She is so funny." And she was. I told her she was beautiful. She smiled and said, "Merci."

Church started at 9:00 Sunday morning, the baptism was right after church at 12:30 and at 4:00 that afternoon the church still looked like this.

And this. Notice the lady kissing Brennan on each cheek. The members were not allowed to do that while he was a missionary. It was fun to see it happen over and over again on this day. The members just stayed and mingled and laughed and talked. I was amazed that they didn't hurry off when church was over like we tend to do in Utah.

And it wasn't just because we were there, it's something they do all the time. Brennan said he thought it was because they are so spread out, they don't see each other throughout the week like we do. Whatever the reason it was fun. It filled up our Sunday. The people were gracious and friendly and we had more invitations for dinner over the next few days than we could accept. And that Sunday in Pau became one of the highlights of our trip.

Omaha Beach - Where Ordinary Men Became Heros

YOU CAN MANUFACTURE WEAPONS AND YOU CAN PURCHASE AMMUNITION. BUT YOU CAN'T BUY VALOR, AND YOU CAN'T PULL HEROES OFF AN ASSEMBLY LINE.


There are a few places I've been where I have almost felt the presence of those whose feet had occupied that space before. One was Gettysburg where Civil War Soldiers had trod. Another was San Juan Hill where the Hole in the Rock pioneers struggled. And one was here at Omaha Beach. On the day we were there it was quiet and peaceful, but if you listened very carefully, you could almost hear the confusion, the shouts of soldiers, the cannon fire as those men struggled to take this beach.


This is from the beach looking back up to the American Military Cemetery above. Once the Allied forces got on the beach, which was an incredible feat, they had to get up this ridge. They fought for this ground inch by inch.


The freedom to come here, to walk where brave men had walked before and to learn to appreciate their sacrifice was an incredible experience.

The American Military Cemetary at Normandy

Early on a fogging Saturday morning we were at the American Military Cemetery where just under 10,000 American soldiers, most of whom lost their lives during the invasion on D-Day, are buried. Their graves face westward, towards the United States.

The remains of 1,557 men who died here have never be found. Their names are inscribed on the walls of this memorial.


As I have worried about how best to teach my children the basic necessities of life, i.e. brush your teeth, do your homework, follow the Prophet, etc., Dave has worried how to best teach them to honor, respect and reverence those whose lives were dedicated to insuring that we, as people of a free United States, retain those freedoms and in the process, allow us to live pretty good lives. This is one of the ways he does it. And it works very well.


As we walked through many of the 172 acres here, ground given to the United States by France so we could bury our dead, bells from a church nearby started to peal. It was haunting and I felt my heart swell with so much love for these brave young men. And then the bells began playing America the Beautiful and the tears poured down my face. It was one of the most reverent and spiritual moments of my life.

And I couldn't escape the fact as I watched Brennan and Drew walk among those graves that so many of the soldiers buried here were about the same age as my two boys when they died, the responsibility of freedom placed in their hands. And the words of Abraham Lincoln played in my mind - "that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. . . " And I wished there was some way I could thank them. From the very bottom of my heart.

We Interrupt This Travelogue . .

It was Jr. Prom day today and for the past few months we've had a Junior living here at our house, so we been proming all day. My niece, Talisha apparently comes from an alien land were the Juniors don't practice for months learning a nice ballroom type dance to perform at their prom, but we do it here, and so when in Moab . . .

This is Talisha with her Prom date, Nathan

And Drew with his Prom date, Ashlyn. We had fun this year fixing dinner for these two cute couples at our house. I was cookin' all day, making rolls, two kinds of soup for the soup course (so they would have a choice just like a real restaurant) - Chicken Noodle or Clam Chowder, then two entrées - Orange Chicken with Wild Rice or Ginger Steak Salad and berries and cream for desert. Then it was off to the dance.

The Promenade was great. It always amazes me what they can get these kids to do. It was a very intricate, weaving and turning kind of dance.

Talisha and her partner joined the practice about four weeks late, but you would never have known it. They were pros.

They had the Juniors join in the royalty dance. Talisha danced with Dallin Dalton for that one.

And then there was the parents dance. Here is Talisha with Dave.

And this year they decided to have a second parent dance in case there was a grandparent or some other family member that wanted the opportunity to dance with their Junior, so Drew came out and danced with Talisha for the second parent dance.

These two are cute together, and they are acting more and more like brother and sister. I've always thought they were kindred spirits. Don't you just love to see good kids having a good time?