Queue up!

Someone pinch us! Did we really just spend a day at Wimbledon?

What a fantastic day. The sun was shining when we queued up in Wimbledon Park. The wait went on for over two and a half hours but it was well worth the prize.

We spent our first hour watching a couple of matches on courts 18 and 19 near Henman Hill. The courts were so stunning...perfectly level and so green.



We noticed another queue and having enjoyed the first one so thoroughly we joined in. Turns out this one was for resale tickets to the show courts. We spent several hours taking turns holding our place in line and taking in matches around the grounds before we purchased tickets to court one for only 5 POUNDS a piece!

A funny thing happened during our last half hour of the queue...a lady showed up in line that we had not noticed before. We figured she was with the man in front of us. After ten minutes of watching them not interact at all I decided to ask the man if she was with him. He said he hadn't seen her before. I asked the people behind us if they had seen her and they answered no as well. They brought it up with her and she swore she had been there. Funny in the four hours of waiting and conversation we hadn't noticed her bright red polka dot dress! Anyway she tried to hold her ground against the people behind us but an official finally came and told her he would not sell her a ticket even if she did wait it out. It was quite the comedy!

Turned out the tickets we purchased were awesome. Two of them on the 3rd row behind the players chairs. We could have almost spit on them...not that we would have:)



We watched Andy Roddick's 1st round match against Schwank and Jelena Jankovich's 1st round match. They were both so unbelievable. We tried to take it all in as best we could.

The kids were so good for the long day. I think they really enjoyed the experience almost as much as Abe and I did.

We loved it...it is so fun to be right here while it is going on and the BBC coverage is amazing. We can see any match on the first five courts at any given time. So we miss nothing.

Gadfield Elm

Friday night, I headed North with the Stake Relief Society to Gadfield Elm, where the oldest chapel owned by the church is located.  In 1840, at Gadfield Elm and nearby Benbow Farm, Wilford Woodruff, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and others baptized hundreds of people within just a few months.  Abe's ancestor, Ann Green, was one of those converts so the place held special meaning to me. 

The chapel and land were sold off by the early British converts for their journey to Zion. The place fell into ruin.  In the Nineties the land was placed on the market and some local church members regained possession of it and restored it to its original condition at great personal sacrifice- then gave it to the church.  The chapel was dedicated in 2004 by President Hinckley.  

We stayed in the campground adjacent to the chapel.  I was kept completely entertained by the energetic and hilarious English women.  They sang, danced, laughed and told stories until the wee hours of morning. We finally headed to our tent for more giggles until, finally, the tent began to get lighter and lighter We heard the birds beginning to chirp and knew we should probably doze off.  I really love the sisters here and admire their kinship with one another.  

We returned home Saturday afternoon to see another baptism.  Colin Puddephat, a sweet gentleman we have come to know and love was baptized by Abe.  His wife Paula will be baptized soon.  I also learned that Vivian, a Chinese woman, has committed to baptism.  I am so thrilled for her. She has a strong testimony already. I have been on two visits with the Sister Missionaries and it has been amazing to see the gospel change her.  I love being able to go.

A neat thing about Vivian.  When the Sister's committed her to live the covenants of baptism they asked what she thought.  She bowed her head.  Sat for a moment.  Then said sincerely "I will keep my promise."  It was an incredible moment to witness.

Sadie, Sadie Little Lady

      Happy Birthday Sadie girl!

Has it really been nine years since we 

brought home this little bundle in our arms?

Here's to lots of laughs, 

lots of hugs and kisses 

and lots of great memories from your birthday here in England.

We love your smile,  

love the tasty treats you make for us

 (including the omelets this morning), 

love to watch you make friends so easily 

and love having you around to make us happy.  

We love you sweetheart.  

Between Heaven and Earth

Our fantastic adventure this past week was a trip to the Alps.  

We spent Tuesday through Sunday in a little town in the Berner Oberland of Switzerland called Wengen.  It sits on a beautiful cliff overlooking the Lauterbrunnen Valley and is only accessible by train or foot.  We rented a chalet that was just finished being built last Fall.  It was perfect for our kids to have space to move around and be loud ...which they are quite good at:)

We purchased a mountain train pass and traveled as much of the area as we could.  We took a mix of trains and gondolas to the top of the Jungfraujoch (Highest peak in Europe), Grindlewald, Murren, Mannlichen, Lauterbrunnen, etc.  

We also took a day to go back to Meiringen, where I lived the summer of 1995 as an intern through BYU.  I kept trying to use my German to impress my kids; but, I am afraid I have forgotten a lot.  Of course, when I did use it, they were very impressed but had no idea how many mistakes I was making.

We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of massive cow bells ringing through the valley. Herds and herds of cows were being led through town and past our chalet to the high fields to graze for summer.  We also loved picking wildflowers, hiking to a waterfall, eating fresh Swiss chocolate and bread, and playing chess on the giant chess boards.

EuroCup 2008, the European football championships,  is going on in and around Switzerland.  The boys got Swiss jerseys and cheered on the National team.  We spent a few hours on the last day in Bern where some of the games were being played and it was crowded with crazy fans. Our favorite was a guy who entered the fan plaza with a big red Swiss hat with cow horns coming out of it and a huge cowbell strapped around him with his face painted with a Swiss flag.  He was cheering something at the top of his lungs and had a laugh that was contagious. We loved it!

Later that day we took a train to Zollikofen, a little town out of the city, to the Swiss Temple. The kids ran around the grounds for a while in the rain before we boarded a train for a two-hour train ride back to Zurich and our flight home to London. 

The Boy Who Lived

In our search to find activities to fill up our evenings here as a family (especially this week with Abe gone on business to Dubai) we have started reading "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" as is it known here in the UK. 

The kids have really enjoyed having me read it to them...we get more of the jokes and proper English vernacular than before and picture many of the places she writes of now we have spent three months here. They are also big enough to enjoy it now.  Zach was just a baby when this was first printed. 

We took a trip to platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station.  There was actually a line of people to take pictures at this historic site:)

I am enjoying discovering this story all over again as it has been a long time since we first heard of Harry Potter, "The Boy Who Lived."  

 

Called to Serve

The past couple of weeks have brought some really neat missionary experiences for us.  A week ago we had the sister missionaries and Stan Plosa (the same man we took to the temple grounds a few weeks back) to our home for a discussion.  

Sister Petersen and Sister Eyre were introducing the Law of Tithing to Stan and we were able to share our own testimonies of tithing.  It was a sweet experience sharing a basic principle of our beliefs with him.  

The sisters also told Abe that a wonderful English couple, Collin and Paula Puddyfat have made a commitment to baptism and have asked Abe to baptize them.  They will be baptized in a few weeks. 

 

Yesterday I accompanied the sisters and two investigators, Stan and another man named Terry, to a baptism in Aldershot, a town 30 minutes away outside our stake boundaries.  The man being baptized will be in the Farnborough ward in our stake, but Farnborough does not yet have their own building and meets in a school for church. Stan and Terry are both considering baptism and were interested in knowing what to expect on their baptism day.  

The missionaries are required to bring a member of the ward along with them on all visits.  This is a fairly new rule put in place just last fall.  The sisters say that they have seen it be very effective in integrating new members into the ward and helping build relationships with local members. 

I really enjoyed going along with them.  It was an opportunity to look at baptism from a new perspective and to feel the joy of missionary work. The gospel is true, I know it and I am thankful for it.

Kew Gardens

We had heard the Kew Gardens (The Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew) are beautiful and a "must see" and as we had a sunny day yesterday, we decided to check them out.  

To be honest,  we were a bit disappointed with them.   It was very hard to park and so spread out we didn't see as much as we probably could.  

We did however climb the steps to the top of "Tree Walk", a new exhibit opened just this month. It was built along the treetops and made us a little weak in the knees as you could see through the walkway to the ground below.   When arriving at the top, McKay said "this is freaking me out!" 

We also walked past the Great Pagoda, a Japanese pagoda built back in 1762 and the kids spent a lot of time wrestling on the grass in front of it while Abe kept trying to get pictures of the airplanes flying overhead headed for Heathrow.  He wanted to get a good picture of an airplane with the Pagoda.  Never really succeeded I'm afraid.  

We had been to the National Botanical Gardens in Ireland in April and really enjoyed all of the different plants and flowers it had, I was a little less impressed here...but perhaps we were a little late in the season and a little too tired to get around to everything.   I am sure Mark Magleby, our local garden expert will be disappointed in our Kew Experience, he'll have to come back with us sometime and share his knowledge with us.