A Week of Sightseeing with some of the Briscoe Family

This past week we've had the opportunity to have Ralph and Lola visit as well as Tom and Sandi, Diana, Emmy, David and Daniel. They were all here to enjoy dinner and a session of General Conference with us on Sunday night. (We get to view, via the internet, the 10 AM session at 6 PM and the 2 PM session at 10 PM.) Tom and Sandi and kids left Monday morning for a trip to Paris and Ralph and Lola headed to Germany and Switzerland to visit the temples there.


On Thursday, Dennis arrived home from his trip to Utah and Ralph and Lola returned from their travels. On Friday we drove to the other side of the country and met Tom and Sandi and crew at Keukenhof Gardens. The temperature was perfect and the gardens were breath-taking. We all enjoyed the two hours that it took to stroll through the gardens. Afterward, we drove to Delft for dinner at a good Indonesian restaurant.



Saturday morning, Tom's family headed home and Ralph and Lola, Dennis and I did a little local sight seeing of places of interest to us - Alyna's school, Dennis' work, etc. We also spent some time grocery shopping and preparing some of the food for Easter dinner.

Easter Sunday was really nice. We had a really nice church service and then in the evening we had about 20 ward members here for dinner. It was fun to have some time to sit and visit. Luckily for me, they all speak fairly good English.

On Monday, or second Easter, Dennis and I and Ralph and Lola took a car trip to Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and France. In Germany we went toTrier.
Trier is the oldest ancient Roman city north of the Alps, and has many well preserved ruins. Most notable of the Roman remains here are the 1500 year old Port Negro (Black Gate) - the old city gate, a well preserved ampitheater, and a wide array of underground baths. There are also two very old churches which were built together, the oldest of which was built by Constantine in 300 A.D. This is a great place to spend a day or two, and if you're up for seeing another country, the Luxembourg border is less than 30 minutes away.

We went to the American cemetery in Luxembourg were one of Ralph's cousins is buried. From there we went to France and found the Maginot Line which is a set of bunkers that were strategic in WWII. It was an area Dennis remembered from a film, The Major and the Minor starring Ray Moland and Ginger Rogers.

Ralpn sitting on top of one of the bunkers.

On the way home, Dennis showed us the place that he lived when he fist came to Holland in the town of Heerlen. It wasn't far from there to Castle Hoensbroek so we also visited it.

The Highs and Lows of a Week with a Teenage Girl

This first week of April has been busy and full of highs and lows. It was the first week since we've been here that it was sunny and fairly warm all week long. The daffodils and forsythia are now in full bloom and the magnolias are just beginning to open up.

Alyna had several tests and big assignments due as well as trying to prepare to take the ACT test. She studied hard but also found time to watch some sitcoms and enjoy the sunshine. She did well on all her tests and assignments so that was good. She had one day where she only had one class so she skipped it and stayed home and studied. That day, she also got a special delivery.

For several weeks now she has known that she was going to get asked to Mountain Crests' Junior Prom which just happens to be the weekend we came home for Lisa's wedding. We had been wondering how Brandon would ask since we are 8 hours time difference and many thousands of miles. On Wednesday afternoon the doorbell rang (which doesn't actually happen here very often unless we are expecting someone.) It was a floral delivery service. The pictures will tell the rest of the story-
It was our great luck that Dennis was heading home to Utah the next day so Alyna hurried and prepared an answer. Dennis took home this card and a picture of her with the flowers and a little wooden shoe keychain and Dennis, Andrew and Lindsay delivered it to him on Friday night. It was a really fun event for all of us.


(The YES! is written using the petals from the flower.)

The next big thing for Alyna was the ACT test which we signed up for in January before we knew that Dennis would be out of the country. It caused a bit of stress for all of us becasue the test was being administered in the American school in the Hague. I haven't driven in any of the big cities here and was very nervous. Alyna was nervous about doing well on the test and taking it in a very unfamiliar place. Dennis helped us out a bit by driving over there the Sunday before so we could see where the school was and mark it on the car GPS system. Anyway, so we got up at 5:30AM Saturday morning and drove the hour and a half to the school. We went in and as we were waiting for the test administrator to appear, Alyna remembered she had forgotten to print out the admission form. She went and talked to the administrator when she got there and the lady was a bit grumpy about it but finally said that she could make it work. I was the only parent there so Alyna finally said I could leave. About half an hour later she called in tears and said she had forgotten her wallet and they wouldn't let her take the test. She was so upset with herself for not double checking the web site and frustrated that after all her preparation time she wasn't going to be able to take the test. It was a good learning experience for all of us.

That evening Alyna came into the kitchen while I was finishing cleaning up and said something like, "You are sure ready to be a grandma!" I was a bit confused. We hadnt been talking about babies or siblings or anything. I asked why she said that and she said that I had just decorated the bathroom like a grandma would. I was quite taken aback. I had finally decided this week that the downstairs bathroom needed some kind of decorations in it besides the bottle of liquid soap so I had gotten a little rug, some flowers and a colored towel and put in it.
I guess that it may look a bit "grandma-ish" but it looks a bit homier. Any suggestions on how to not make it look a little younger and funner?