Home Again

First of all, I want to draw you attention to the picture below. It has nothing to do with the title of the post. It was on the door of a bathroom door. It is about the Swine Flu. It has been interesting to see the precautions that Germany and the church has started using. In church they have given strict instructions about hand washing and hand shaking before preparing and passing the sacrament. And they are instructions about hand washing in all the bathrooms.

Anyway, this is actually supposed be about my brothers, David's visit with us.

Question: How many US Army engineers does it take to strap a baby into her carseat? Apparently 2 and it took them about 2 minutes.

He is here on business so we have been spending his free days together. It has been so good to see him again. We haven't had a good oppotunity to be together since Anne was a newborn. I have loved seeing him and Jared get to know each other better and for the girls to start making memories with him. He has never met Alicia or Katie.

Our first day with him was a Sunday. We picked him and one of his fellow soldiers up and then we went to our friends' ward for the blessing of their baby. After Sacrament meeting we jumped in the car to head to Würzburg, where my family had lived while they were living in Germany.

We showed them everything about my parent's life there. Of course, they couldn't resist ordering some gelato (not my favorite.) But they loved it. There was some concerns after David ate his, that perhaps it might not have been Word of Wisdom worthy.

The fortress is so beautiful. This is the veiw from Alt Saints Bridge. This bridge is where Jared and I fell in love and one of the many places he proposed to me.

Here is David and Steve at the church where my family met. So many memories here.

Katie was such a good girl during it all. Anne and Alicia were with their grandparents at home. Steve and David were so cute with Katie and just loved her. She was unsure about them at first, but like them by the end of the day. When they first got in the car she screamed. It was her very first negative reaction to strangers.

Jared has loved having David around. I have loved seeing them together and how they have gotten to really know each other.

This is the Lutheran church in the village that my parents lived in. It is the most charming one I have seen. The surroundings are just beautiful. This is the view looking at the back of the church from the alter.

This is a tradition in Germany. January 6th is the day of the Wise Man. It is when they celebrate when the wisemen to visit Christ. They have 3 boys from the congregation fo the catholic church to go around the villages and cities to ask for contributions. If you give them money they will write this on your door frame. The number on both ends stand for the year, and the 3 letters are for the wisemen. This one was written on the entrance to that church.

I think is was what David and Steve were most impressed with. It is the Residenz. It is where the Arch Bishop in Würzburg lived. It is so pretty inside and out. In the basement are all the archives from the nazis.

They is much more about our visits with David to come.