Hinckley Blog: October 2010

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween and Hiking the Y

Davy making his first debut as a Halloween costume rather than a daily uniform, Josefina (the American Girl doll), Flamenco Dancer (or as Kate says: "Flamingo Dancer Spanish"), & Cosmo the Cougar

all dolled up and ready to go . . .

A couple of Saturdays ago we finally hiked the Y! The twins did it all on their own two feet more or less, but not without a few tears. Kate cried the whole way down she was so tired!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Special Delivery

So, I'm finally getting these photos posted. The Rowans and Bowlers made a special delivery to the Church Administration Building a couple of weeks ago. After waiting very quietly in the lobby (with Ann and I reminding the kids that we need to be reverent, and Annie continually singing "Follow the Prophet"), Pat Fought ushered us back to the office of the President, a familiar spot, where we chatted with Pres Monson for nearly an hour. (A little long for the toddlers...) He showed us all of his trinkets, including flies for fly fishing, some bolo ties, a Nauvoo bell, a Boy Scout walking stick with all of the merit badges painted on it (this was Ashton's favorite), and any other miscellaneous things he had in his desk drawer.

Annie threw two tantrums and I had to take her out and talk to the secretaries before going back in. Fortunately, the secretaries had an enormous jar of hard candies that kept Annie happy for a short period of time.

Finally after an hour of visiting, the kids helped Pres Monson open the Lladro statue, which he said he would take home and show to his wife. He enjoyed your letter, Dad, and read it out loud to us.

The kids loved going to visit the Prophet and wrote lengthy entries in their journals that night.

We finished our downtown visit with a pizza party and playing at Grammie's.

Saxony

The annual fall mission presidents' seminar was held 19-22 October in Dresden, Germany. Dresden was largely destroyed by allied bombing in 1945, but has been largely rebuilt to look like a typical German town - although the buildings are relatively new, the style is clearly traditional. We stayed in a lovely hotel right on Neumarkt with a view of the famous Frauenkirche, the large cathedral that remained only a shell after the bombings and was not restored until a few years ago.

With the Murdocks and the Brubakers in front of the hotel

Looking over the plaza from the hotel window

A view of the frauenkirche from the hotel window

We were able to attend the Freiburg Temple on Thursday. This year is the 25th anniversary of the temple and the 20th anniversary of the reunification of Germany, so there is a lot of history and Church history in Saxony this year. It is a beautiful temple and it's existence is one of the great miracles of the Church.

At the historic Freiburg Temple

Freiburg Temple

With the Stahelis

In front of the Martin Luther statue

The conference included the presidents of all 32 missions in the Area. We had the entire Area Presidency (Elders Kopischke, Teixeira, and Causse) as well as Elder Kevin Pearson (father of John Pearson, one of Lizzie's EHS friends). It was a wonderful seminar and very rejuvenating!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Blairs Visit Barc

In the mission home

In Sarria (walking over to Tomas' for patatas bravas!)

Preparation Day

It has been many weeks since we have taken more than an hour or two off - and then usually just to go to the dry cleaners. But today we were finally able to take a much needed break.

We began, of course, by walking over to the metro stop at Tres Torres:

Saturdays on the metro include live entertainment at no extra charge:

Our first destination was the Caixa Forum, an art museum at the foot of Montjuic. The museum is housed in a former textile factory designed in the modernisme style by Puig i Caldafach, a contemporary of Gaudi. The building itself is the major draw of the museum, although the rotating exhibits are interesting.

Caixa Forum, formerly the Casaramona textile factory

Looking up from the below-ground entrance lobby of the Caixa Forum

One of the more interesting pieces is actually on the sidewalk outside the museum. I am referring to the elephant...

All that walking around the museum works up an appetite - a chocolate-filled pretzel seemed like the right cure

Even on preparation day we have missionaries with medical or other issues that need contact:

The next stop was the MNAC - the Museu Nacional de Artes Catalanes - home of the world's finest collection of Romanesque frescos, retrieved from medieval churches in the Pyrenees: