Simon Peter Anderson is blessed byCaleb Anderson

letter to Janell from Kay

 "We just blessed Caleb's baby Simon Peter Anderson. The audience laughed a little when they heard his name would be Simon Peter.  Not many names get a reaction from people.  Simon is cute and a good baby. everybody likes to hold him.

the blessing was simple, heartfelt, loving and spiritual.  Caleb put me in charge of the binky.  Simon was fussing a little before we started then calmed down as soon as we started.  I opened my eyes during the blessing to see how he was doing and Simon was wide eyed and starring at Caleb.  His stare was so intense that I wondered if it was intentional or just random and would he lose interest and look around at all the others holding him or have his attention drawn to the binky, which was no longer in his mouth.  I was amazed to watch as Simon stayed wide eyed and completely focused on Caleb the entire time. His eyes never left Caleb's face until the blessing was finished."  Dad, Kay

Janae - Bishop Steele was watching from the stand and was amazed at Simon staring at his daddy the whold time, all during the blessing.

New adventure

I received a call on  my cell phone Thursday from the Winter Quarters Temple asking if Kay and I could visit with a member of the Temple Presidency after our next session.  I told him we should just make an appointment now so we did for the very next day, Friday after the 6PM session.  Hummmmm I wonder what he wanted...
After the session we went into his office and he extended a call to be ordinance workers and set us apart single handedly (apparently that is not a word but works for me).  We had several choices (lowoin the totem pole in my book...)
Friday evening
Saturday shift 1
Saturday shift 2
Saturday shift 3

We chose Saturday shift 1 from 7AM to 1PM and that was the very next day so there we went.  It was fun and will be lots of memorizing.  Kay passed off several things... I will need more study time which is built into our schedule.  On our shift there are several people who travel 1-2.5 hours to get there.  We are 10 minutes away.. Lucky us.

I was a bit worried about Kay. He may find it difficult to serve in the temple because of his illness.. he gets sleeping sickness as soon as he sits down in a church or temple but he seemed to be cured today.

cruising

 

We had to stay overnight to hope the water went down, it did and we scraped the bridge going under.  I guess the boat of Americans thought we weren’t allowed on top but all we had to do is promise to duck, it was  crazy up there.

Last day in Prague

We moved hotels to join our group tour.  We are at the Hilton, which is very expensive if you are not on a tour and the internet costs $!  It is free in the lobby (kind of them) so the posts have not been as regular.

We took a tour of the city of Prague with our group visiting the Castle, Charles Bridge and Old Town Square.

After the tour we went to Lennon wall where you can write whatever you want, inspired by John Lennon who never visited Prague.

Then we found the lover’s bridge and put our locks on to “lock our love”  ours had a key so we had to throw it in the river.

After that quickly bought some “take away” hamburgers… Ben’s was a Tower burger (notice the tower behind him) we met Vida, our guide from a few days before and went on a Jewish Quarter tour with Lauren and Ben.

They were having tour fatigue, so insisted we go back to the hotel for an hour to use the sauna.

We took the underground metro and Tram 22 to the fun cafe we found before and spent our remaining money there   .  We were running late so this is snarfing down some yummy crepes.  We left all our Czech money on the table.  The waitress said it was too much but we insisted we needed to get rid of it.  We ended the night at a recommended traditional Black light theater production……. Kay had his apple strudel (flat), flattened when Kay sat on it but I guess it was fine! Very busy day.  Off to Nuremburg Germany!

Monday Terezin with the Hardy’s

We picked up our car and with the bad map, and somehow made it to the airport.  No really, we were in towns we had no clue about, going under one way small overpasses and all of the sudden we see a sign for the airport!  We found Lauren and Ben waiting “not too long”  I went in and bought an expensive map.  We went to Terezin, a Concentration camp that was a holding camp and model concentration camp. the best conditions of all camps.  it was sobering what a few bad men are capable of.

We ate lunch there and drove back to Prague. Our goal was to keep Lauren and Ben awake so we showed them the city by foot, the best way to see Prague.

goulash.   Schnitzel- breaded fried meat.

Sunday visit to Prague branch

One of our vacationing highlights is attending the Mormon church when we travel. All 3 hours and we usually meet fun people. We were pleasantly surprised to have headset translation for our meetings and met a handful of Americans working in Prague.  The Prague branch has wide boundaries, the farthest away lives 70 minutes from the church.

They had Sacrament meeting with headsets.  2 Sunday school classes, English and Czech and one Relief Society class with headsets.  For Primary, they have English and Czech classes and sharing times, with a 20 minute combined meeting.   I brought some Nativity stickers and CTR wristbands and wanted to give them out, no one could find a primary worker. 

After church the YM/YW prepared a small program and I happened to sit next to a primary worker.  I gave her the presents and asked her for her email because I wanted to email a man who talked to me but had to leave early.

Her name was Susan Zmolic.  Zmolic?  I know Zmolics!  "Gennie Zmolic is my mother in law! "she said." you grew up in Short Hills Ward then?"  Yes, I grew up in Short Hills Ward in  NJ.  Susan married Ginnie's oldest son, Martin, who was gone from Short Hills ward by the time we moved there.  What a small world. 

For our Sunday school class, I shared how we have been blessed.  I shared the story of Janell, how she was developmentally delayed. I went through what happened and now she is on a mission. After the class a man, working at the US Embassy came up to me and said his son is 2 1/2 years old and is exactly what I described.  He asked some questions and I think we gave him hope!   He told us how sweet his son is and how he wouldn't hurt anyone..... just like Janell.  Sweetness to the core!

Kay and I rented a car and after church made a road trip to Kutna Hora.  We had terrible maps but made it.  I could hardly read the maps putting my glasses on top of Kays! Frustrating!  It was a nice drive and nice to get out of town.  They had some pretty impressive buildings there.   Prague is not for cars so Budget said we could park the car there overnight and take it out again in the morning.  The public transportation is amazing here and there is no need for cars.  Even Kunta Hora and Terezin are more accessible by train than car.  Kay was glad we rented the car because he loves the adventure but if adventure means driving down the one way streets the wrong way, driving through pedestrian only zones, driving down sidewalks and getting lost in a maze with no idea which direction you are going you can count me out. With the difference in signs ( some were not in the Budget guide), sometimes we didn’t know if we were doing something wrong except for the surprised looks of pedestrians.  He followed other cars up and down stairs in the streets. We realized the “Budget Rental Car” huge sticker in the rear window was a kind of “student driver” warning, people were very kind to us. Thank goodness for all the “CENTRUM” signs that point you back to downtown, assuming you are in the right town.