What city do you belong in?

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, gelato in hand And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

Taking a Walk

Jay loves to take walks outside with his mommy and daddy.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Beloved Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley died yesterday. We will forever remember with love this wonderful man. His optimism and faith were inspiring and his knowledge and testimony of the Savior was magnificent. I am so grateful to have lived on the earth while this man, a prophet of God, led and guided our Savior's church. I love him and and grateful to know he has been reunited with his true love and is now serving the Lord with all his might on the other side of the veil. I am grateful that the Lord has set up His church in such a way that a new Prophet will be called and set apart to serve very soon. We are so blessed to live in a day with Prophets and Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ to guide us back to Heavenly Father. I pray the world remembers our dear prophet this day and always for the great deeds he did in the name of the Savior for mankind.

Ball.

I caught this great picture in Munich. This is Jay's face right before he says, "Ball." He loves to emphasize the "b" sound . I just want to say that it is awesome being this little boys mom. He's so full of smiles and love. Last night Mike and I finally had the opportunity to go out for date night. We went to dinner and then bowling with another couple. Jay stayed home with a babysitter and he did so well! He went right to sleep when he was supposed to and even slept until 7:00 a.m. this morning! 7 is really good for him. Oh, one of my favorite new tricks of Jays is when he pretends to take a sip of something and then he says, "ahhhhhhhhhh." He learned it from daddy and thinks it's so silly. He was also trying to sing with us in church today (that was before the complete meltdown that lasted 3 hours). Seriously. Moms out there, HOW DO YOU DO SACRAMENT WITH A TODDLER? I was even glad to be able to give a talk today just to have 15 minutes without wrestling him. Oh how I relish the naps he takes after church. I do love my little snuggle puppy. And he's so much more fun to play with after a good rest. Jay has now mastered the concept of "bye bye." He loves to look up at us and inquire, "bye bye?" several times a day. He even knows he has to get his shoes on before we leave the house. SO glad he finally figured out how to walk with shoes on.

And in closing, check out the cute doll I made on Friday night. See dad? It's not made of bread. We had a Relief Society activity and I made her myself! Sewed and everything. It only took 5 hours. Mike was about to go looking for me when I finally showed up at home at 11:30 p.m. (note to self: get a cell phone!). I had a good time though. It was nice to hang out and be crafty with other woman for a night.

Munich Part II

While on our trip we had the chance to see the Dachau Concentration camp and the Nuremberg Museum of the Former Nazi Party Rally Grounds. I want to write down some things that we learned on our visit. Please understand that the record is of a horrible time in history and I only mean to remember what we learned and what was important to us.


Dachau was the first Concentration camp opened by the Nazis in 1933. At first only "political prisoners" were sent there but by 1945, when American troops liberated the camp, over 200,000 prisoners from over 30 countries had gone through. These prisoners included Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, members of the Jehovah's Witness, and priests. Of all these 1/3 were Jewish. I was surprised to learn that many of the prisoners were not German. In fact the German prisoners eventually became the minority. Over 35,000 people died in Dachau. The real number is unknown since many of the deaths went unrecorded. Towards the end of the war, when the Nazis felt the Allied troops closing in, huge numbers of prisoners were carted to Dachau to keep them from being liberated. In this one year time span before liberation 15,000 prisoners died from typhus fever, medical experiments, beatings, starvation, torture and degradation. The camp was horribly overcrowded. Appalling forms of torture and murder were practiced in the camp. The guards main purpose was to invoke terror in the prisoners and they were very adept at their jobs. On April 29, 1945 the United States Army liberated over 67,000 people. One prisoner of the camp explained,

"I want everyone to know that there were no nameless heroes, that they were people, who had their own names, faces, longings and hopes, and that therefore the pain also of the last of them was no smaller than that of the first, whose name has been preserved."
( Julius Fucik, born 1903, executed by the Nazis in 1943)

Being at the camp was disturbing in many ways. It was unreal to stand in a place full of such chilling memories. I cannot describe the feelings. All I can say is that I am so grateful for the freedom I enjoy, for the men and women who have fought and now fight to preserve it, and for the Almighty God who is the ultimate judge in all things.



We also had the opportunity to visit the Nuremberg museum of the Nazi party grounds. It was an incredible museum, very well put together and chalk full of information. I highly recommend going. It really gave me an idea of how Hitler came into power and how he persuaded a whole nation of people to follow him. Hitler was a master of disguise weaving lies upon lies with his slick tongue to confuse people. Does it sound familiar?

“Satan stirreth them up, that he may lead their souls to destruction.” (D&C 10:22.)
“Yea, he saith unto them: Deceive and lie in wait to catch, that ye may destroy; behold, this is no harm. …
“And thus he flattereth them, and leadeth them along until he draggeth their souls down to hell; and thus he causeth them to catch themselves in their own snare.
“And thus he goeth up and down, to and fro in the earth, seeking to destroy the souls of men.”
(D&C 10:25–27.)

Hitler tried to convince the people he was come to be a savior to Germany, to unite their war torn nation in the aftermath of World War I. He used untold amounts of propaganda to persuade the German people that he was the man, and his was the party they had been looking for. The Nazi party was not actually the most popular party in its beginning. To create a following Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels as "Head of Enlightenment" which basically meant he was to head up the propaganda campaign for the Nazi party. Goebbels' work was intense. He took propaganda to a whole new level than ever before seen. First he made sure there was nothing circulating that could be construed as hostile towards the Nazi party. Second he used all manners of persuasion to convince people the Nazi ideal was unerring. Part of his job included "getting rid" of any people opposing the party. In the end the Nazi party had control of all media. Any books, papers or publications of any kind that were anti-Nazi or presented different ideas were burned and destroyed. In the late 1800s a Jewish Historian wrote:

“It is not long time after a nation is burning books until they start burning people.”

Goebbels used other tactics to force Nazism on the people including commissioning the making of the movie, Triumph of the Will and making cheap radios available so that the nation could listen to Hitler's addresses. Goebbels created a picture of Hitler as a perfectly moral man, virtually flawless in every way, but still a man of the people. He convinced the nation that Hitler was the ideal leader but remained one of them. I'm sure many of the people had no idea what was actually going on behind the scenes. We watched different accounts of people remembering how exciting it was to be a part of the Nazi rallies which took place in Nuremberg and usually included over 400,000 people. The rallies were looked forward to with greater anticipation than Christmas. Little girls would compete to see who could catch the most glimpses of the Fuhrer. Thousands of people lined up to salute Hitler and the Nazi party. Great displays of strength and a feeling of oneness was exerted. These party rallies are what made Nuremberg the real stronghold of Nazi idealism. In the end, the city was targeted and heavily bombed for this reason. After the war the Nuremberg trials were held in the very heart of where the once "magnificent" rallies took place. 24 of the most important Nazi leaders were tried there. Lesser criminals were tried there as well. Many were found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and were sentenced to death. Others were sentenced to serve varying amounts of prison time and a few were acquitted. The Nuremberg trials had great influence on the development of international criminal law. This was the first time in history that an international court held trials and passed judgment on international crimes.

In ending I want to comment on the fact that Nuremberg and Munich stand as beautiful cities today, testaments to the will of the human spirit. The things that took place throughout Europe during Nazi rule will never and should never be forgotten. It is good to see how much of Europe makes such an effort to remember the past, while also striving to build a better future. I am constantly amazed by the goodness and kindness of the German people, as well as the people in every European country we visit. Thanks be to the Lord that the Nazi regime was defeated.

The One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song

So I was going to make my next post about the second half of our Munich trip, but that has to wait. I had to post this awesome song/video first. And if you can understand it, you've passed the first semester of Spanish. ¡Que bien!

Munich

Over Martin Luther King Day weekend we drove down to Munich. We had a few bumps along the way, but we really enjoyed our trip. We become more and more grateful for our GPS every day. On Sunday we walked around downtown Munich and took in the sites. It was nice because no stores were open and there were relatively few people around. We weren't looking to buy anything so this was perfect for us. Much of Munich was rebuilt after World War II since the city had been bombed and destroyed during the war. Today the city thrives and it's rated as one of the top ten cities for quality of life in the world. While downtown we visited the Marienplatz (St. Mary's square) so named to protect the town from a Cholera epidemic. The town hall in the square is a beautiful building. In the building's tower you can watch carved figures perform the Glockenspiel or Carillon. The Glockenspiel is a dance originally performed in 1517 at the Marienplatz to commemorate the end of the plague.

We spent a good part of the day in one of Munich's many museums, the Deutsches Museum. The Deutsches Museum is a museum of Technology and Science. We highly recommend it to anyone, especially if you have children. We wandered through the exhibits on astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, energy and transport to name a few. They have large displays of aircraft, boats and even rockets. One of the best things about the museum is the children's section. Jay had so much fun playing and I can only imagine how much more fun he would have if he were older. They have mechanical models that kids can experiment with as well as a water-wave pool with little boats and plenty of things to push, pull, and turn. They also had a huge area with giant Lego blocks, a music room equiped with drums, a piano, a giant guitar and a huge xylophone. They have a giant fire engine, a projection room of lights and shadows, Apple computers to play with, and a giant model of a working camera. Mike and I had as much fun as Jay! I must admit, Jay's favorite part of the whole place was a little ramp he could walk up and down. He is only 1 after all. You have to go check out this place though if you have young children and you happen to be in Munich.

Speaking of things to do with your kids in Munich we found an awesome kid-friendly restaurant while we were there, Hofbraukeller . We really hope something similar opens up in the States. The restaurant has a kids play area with all sorts of games, toys and movies to watch. You can drop your child off, tell the workers where you're sitting and leave them there until you're done. It's free of charge when you eat at the restaurant and they have plenty of tables next to the play area so you can keep an eye on your kid. What a great idea! When the kids get board they can play. When it's time to eat they can eat. And for us, with a little one, it was so much easier to eat when Jay was occupied elsewhere. It has become increasingly more difficult to eat out the older Jay gets.

After eating at the restaurant and a quick nap for Jay we headed out to the Olympic complex to try to go swimming. The Olympics were held in Munich in 1972, when several members of the Israeli Olympic team were murdered by the group Black September. Such a sad story. We weren't actually able to go swimming there because the pool was closed. We considered going to the hockey game but thought better of it when we considered Jay. Instead we went to a shopping mall so that Jay could wander around a little. He had a great time watching a frog fountain and playing in the water. Mike found a huge sports shop and chatted it up with an employee about snow conditions. When the man found out we're from Salt Lake City he said, "Why are you skiing here? The snow is way better in Utah!" Yeah, that's right. Even the Germans know the truth.

Some of our favorite buildings to see at night were the giant Allianz Football Arena and the BMW Welt building (BMW has their headquarters in Munich). More about our Munich trip tomorrow.

A few more pics...

Gnomes

As promised, here is a picture from the gnome house. Check out the cool horse statues too! I'm still not sure this photo does it justice, but at lease you have an idea. Pretty neat, isn't it? Just looking at it makes me feel like I'm in a theme park.

Today Jay and I went to base to look for some jeans and long sleeve shirts for him. We discovered that the Nex has virtually no good clothes for little boys. I couldn't find a single pair of pants in his size. Oh well, I guess we're just lucky to find any U.S. priced clothes at all in Germany. It's on to oldnavy.com for me! So while I was there I had an unpleasant experience. I was pushing Jay around in his stroller looking for the bath soap isle. When I found it we turned in and scooted behind a lady looking at shampoo which happened to be next to the bath soap. I said a little excuse me since the isles aren't huge and we may have barely brushed her. She said excuse me back to me, then after a pause she snapped, "I was being sarcastic." I didn't know what to do. No one has been so openly rude to me in a long time. I didn't say anything at all, assuming she must just be having a bad day... or maybe she was crazy. Either way I figured there was no use in responding. Afterwards I kept thinking about it (obviously I still am). Why are people mean sometimes? Did I really offend her by my actions? Was I being rude in some way? I was sort of bothered by it all. So my point in writing all of this down is that one little comment can turn a whole person's attitude. Whoever came up with that sticks and stones idea was way off. And if one rude comment can make such a difference, think what one kind one can mean? Maybe if I had said something nice to that lady her day would have turned out better. I'm going to start looking for kind things to say that will make someone's day a little brighter.

I'll tell you who makes my day brighter every singe second...

How cute is that little grin?

What a perfect little boy.

Just an update on what's been going on here in Germany. Jay now makes attempts to say, "thank you" and "bye bye." Whenever he hands us something we say thank you and now I'm pretty sure he thinks you're supposed to say thank you whenever you give someone something. It's pretty cute. Jay's hair is getting super long. We buzzed it back in August and haven't touched it since. We would buzz it again but our shaver is abnormally loud. It sounds more like a lawnmower than a razor. Very powerful. I think if we tried to get near Jay with it he would be traumatized for several days. Speaking of being traumatized, Jay still screams when we try to bathe him. How can a kid go from bath time being his favorite activity to it being his worst nightmare? We did go to a really fun indoor pool last Saturday and Jay actually liked it. At first he clung to his dad like a leech but we slowly got him into the water and he ended up enjoying himself. We thought it might be a turning point for his aquaphobia but alas bath time was still unpleasant tonight. We do think we're wearing him down a little though. At least this he didn't cry so hard that his binky fell out.
Jay is so happy with his new ability to say, "ball." He likes to say it as often as possible. He also associates the word with his daddy. As soon as Mike's through the door Jay rushes over to him and immediately says, "ball, ball, ball." Then they go get the ball and play to Jay's heart's content. They're such good pals.
We've enjoyed discovering a few new things about our town. There are no grocery stores. However there is a sled store. No snow nearby, but you can buy sleds. Actually I think people go sledding down grass hills when it gets really frosty. I'll have to find out how that is. Frozen ground can't make nearly as soft a landing as a snow bank. There is also a "gnome" house at the end of our street. I honestly can't do it justice by trying to describe it so I'll go out and get a picture of it tomorrow. You won't be disappointed. There is a ranch in our town that makes homemade ice cream. We can't wait to try it once the temperature reaches somewhere over freezing. Actually we've had a few days of 45 - 50 degree weather lately. And last Sunday we had a day with compeltely blue skies. No clouds at all! We were amazed. It was beautiful. Still very cold in the shade but great in the sun. I sat next to a window with sun streaming through for about an hour while Jay napped. It felt so nice! We're getting used to the cold weather though. After all, it is winter. We've been spoiled in Spain. We're headed down to Munich over the weekend and I can't wait to see the city. We hear there are some great museums to check out. Hopefully Jay will be up for it.
I don't know if I've mentioned it yet but we really love our ward. Everyone has been so friendly. Mike and I were called to teach primary together. It's been really fun! We teach the 4-5 year olds. We have 7 students and they are all so sweet and have great personalities. They are all unique in their own ways. I've forgotten how much fun it is to hear a 4 year old child's take on life. Our first Sunday we went around and said our names and we thought one of our students said his name was Jacob. So we started calling him Jacob. About halfway through the lesson another student informed us that his name is not Jacob but in fact is Diego (don't ask me how we got Jacob out of Diego). We asked Diego if his name was Jacob or Diego and he said, "I don't remember." We said, "Well is it Diego?" He sort of looked uncomfortable and said, "Maybe. I think so." Poor kid almost had his name changed right out from under him. Come to find out our roll does say his name is Diego. He's such a sweet kid. Very well behaved and answers questions like a champ. We have no idea if the kids actually retain anything we teach them but we know they really like Jay's little green ball we pass to the person who's turn it is to talk. Actually they're teaching us more than we're teaching them, as it usually goes. They know all about how to be good examples (share with siblings, help mom make cookies, be nice to animals) and they definitely know they are children of our Heavenly Father. I think we're going to gain a lot from our new calling. And it will give me a chance to remember why I do (and occasionally why I don't) want to be a Kindergarten teacher again... it takes a ton of energy to get those kids to pay attention for 40 minutes! It is fun to show off my mad skills to Mike :)
Mike's off playing b-ball with a group of guys from the ward tonight (another plus to being in Germany). I've had a good time getting to know some of the ladies in the ward through lunches and play dates. There is truly a strength in the women here. They can live away from home and country, raise their children without the support of family close by, and survive the hardships of husbands deploying. Amazing! We can always feel the spirit present in our ward on Sundays. We are blessed to yet again have the opportunity to learn and grow as we interact with our ward family. The Lord is always blessing our lives. Wiedersehen!

Wild Stallyns

When Jay gets really excited about something he goes into "Wild Stallyns" mode à la Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. We're feeding him something yummy here and he gets so excited by the prospect of the next bite that he does the "Wild Stallyn." Rock on Jay, rock on.



And just in case you've forgotten the incredible experience of seeing Bill and Ted's air guitar, take a stroll down memory lane.

New Years! (better late than never)

I never got around to posting about New Years. With all the exitement of Jay walking, it was overlooked. Actually, we didn't do very much anyway. Since we have a 1 year old little boy with an 8:00 bedtime it's sort of hard to get out. We watched the Armed Forces Bowl and rooted for Air Force to beat Cal, but were disappointed when the quarterback Carney was injured and the Falcons ended up loosing (but thanks to Tal and Jess for giving us the chance to watch the game!). After the game we watched the movie She's the Man (my pick) and at midnight we sat out on our balcony and watched the many fireworks go off in and around our neighborhood. The fireworks were pretty impressive actually. German law allows people to set off bottle rockets and all sorts of fancy fireworks. It was quite entertaining. We toasted the traditional Martinelli sparkling cider, which Mike opened with his spiffy new bottle opening flip flops - thanks Mama and Papa J. We tried to get a good picture of us drinking but it didn't work out very well. Mike narrowly caught our camera as it toppled off the cereal box I had set it up on. Sparkling cider was all over the floor, but at least our camera wasn't. We had a nice night and Mike even let me sleep in the next morning... what a great husband! Just so we don't leave Jay out I'll add that we ate some celebratory jamón the next day, a Christmas present from Ryan and Luisana, and Jay went crazy for it. He just kept begging for more and more. He ended up eating half the package! Way to go little Spanish baby.

Recyling

We have a massive amount of recycling in our house, since we still haven't exactly figured out where to get rid of it yet and Jay LOVES to play with it. Several times a day he pulls it all out and scatters it around him. Here's a picture of him having a great time. And here's another video of him walking around. I know his biggest fans always like to see more!

Breaking News: Jay can WALK... and TALK!

Today Jay officially started walking. He must have known what I was writing about today (in the Luxembourg post). We have been wishing so much that we would just go ahead and walk. Well he did it! He's off to a GREAT start. He's already practically running up and down the hall and he can even turn around flawlessly. Way to go Jay! We're soooooooooooo happy! Crazy enough, he also said his first real word today. He's been saying mama and dada for a while, but it almost doesn't count because he often babels with those consonants too. But today he started saying ball. Isn't ball a great word? It was his daddy's first word too. He says it whenever he sees his great big green ball. He even said it when he saw it in one of the videos we'd taken of him on Christmas day. My little guy is growing up. Isn't it amazing to feel so happy for your child? There's no joy like the joy you feel for your baby. YEAH JAY!

Luxembourg

Over the weekend we drove to Luxembourg. Just to clear things up, Luxembourg is a country which has a city in it called Luxembourg too. Luxembourg city is actually the capital of Luxembourg. A little confusing. Luxembourg is a very small country, one of the smallest in Europe but it has much to offer. It's the only remaining Grand Duchy in the world (a country whose head of state is a Grand Duke or Duchess). It, like all land in Europe, has passed through many hands but is currently an independent state. We only had a 1 1/2 hour drive up to Luxembourg city, where we stayed at the Hilton our first night. We had Indian food and looked around the city center a little, but it was way too cold to stay out for long. In the morning we headed back into town and explored the city. It's very small. We were surprised how short a time it took to see the main tourist attractions. We saw the cathedral Notre Dame, the Grand Duke's Palace and the Adolphe Bridge. We also stopped at an indoor farmers market which had a huge variety of fruits and vegetables plus a beautiful selection of tulips. It was raining a little, and again very cold, so we bundled Jay up and put his rain hood over the stroller. The window kept fogging up and Jay could hardly see anything. Poor kid. He must think we're crazy. We really liked the Duke's palace. It was very impressive. The light colored rock accented with blue trim is quite regal looking. The whole city is clean and inviting. We just can't stop commenting on how much different northern Europe is from southern Europe. After checking out the city we went to a huge shopping mall to get out of the cold for a little while. The biggest grocery store I've ever seen took up about half the mall. We had pizza and looked through the discounted clothes at H&M and Zara but then we realized paying in Euros pretty much cancels out any sale price.
After getting warm and doing a little window shopping we headed to our next destination, the town of Vianden. Vianden is well known for two things. First, Victor Hugo (French writer/poet of Les Miserables and Hunchback of Notre Dame) lived there during his exile. Some even claim he wrote Les Miserables while living there, but we don't know for sure. Second, the city is well known for the beautiful castle that watches over it. The Vianden Castle was constructed between the 11th and 14th centuries. It is one of the largest and most beautiful castles in Europe. It was fun to see it because it was actually used as a residence, unlike many of the other castles we've seen over in Europe which were solely used as defensive castles. Another great thing about the Vianden Castle is that it was restored by the Grand Duke of Luxembourg in 1977. Seeing it really gives you a glimpse into what life was like back in the gothic/romantesque period. The restoration was very thorough and we truly enjoyed touring the castle. Even antique (VERY antique) furniture was found from the 11th - 14th centuries and set up throughout the castle. We're so glad we stopped into this little town. We probably never would have known about it if a friend hadn't recommended we go there. The only downside was that we couldn't take our stroller itno the castle (castles aren't exactly stroller friendly) and Jay wanted to crawl around SO badly. The little stinker still refuses to walk. He can do it, we've seen him several times, he just chooses to crawl instead. He's very fast and I guess he figures there's no use in walking. If he only realized we would let him down to walk/run around a little if he walked. Crawling just doesn't work as well when the ground is freezing cold and filthy dirty. I know people keep telling me I should be happy he's not walking yet because it will make things even harder once he does, but come on, I know there will be many benefits too. At least I can be sure that Jay will have excellent hand/eye coordination and the left and right sides of his brain have had plenty of time to work together. Oh well, soon enough I'll be missing my little crawler. The great thing is that he is a wonderful little traveler, which makes it easy for us to go see the country while we're here. We sure love our little pal.