would be here. Sharma picked them up at the Kaiserslautern train station on a Friday. They had flown into Paris and took the ICE train from Paris to K-town. They arrived at our house very tired but very excited to be here. They were just like little kids on Christmas morning just oooh-ing and aah-ing over everything in our house. Just so excited about everything we were doing and seeing. We spent a good hour giving a tour of our place and showing them all of our trinkets and goodies that we had collected. Jon sat at my desk and thumbed through my little book of things that I have collected. I got a sense of how an artist feels when somebody gushes over one of their works of art as Jon sat there talking excitedly about everything I had collected. The first night we decided to give them a tour of Ramstein AFB and grab a Doner Kabop. We got them checked on base, interestingly enough the pass to get them on base was never collected at the inspectio
n point. We thought momentarily about keeping it and adding it to Jon's collection, but we decided against it. After a nice dinner and tour of the 
base we drove back home and talked for quite some time. The one thing I love about the Mitchells is their interest in 
everything, they are always asking questions...to everybody in the family, and we loved it. Through questions you become introspective and find out a lot about yourself. They shared some gifts for our kids from their friends back in NC and then we had family prayers and turned in for the night. The next day we set out for Frankfurt. It was raining a little as we left our home but within an hour it was almost perfectly clear and beautiful. First, we found our way to the Frankfurt temple and spent a hour touring the grounds. We also found a LDS store with 
CTR rings in German and French, I bought a Book of Mormon in French, German and Spanish for our collection. Sharmyn bought a bunch of German CTR rings for the young women back in her ward. Next we walked down to a local square that had a local market set up. We purchased a big red pepper, baguettes, cheeses, olives and heart-shaped salami and sat in the middle of the square and watched as German life just swirled around us. It was fantastic! After the temple we went to a museum in Frankfurt that the Mitchells wanted to see. They appreciate art and know much about it so we felt it an honor to go to a art museum with them and learn about the art we were seeing. I must admit at this point in the story, although one can think art to be boring, my children have never expressed that sentiment as we have toured numerous art/museum exhibits. They do very well and try to appreciate what they are seeing, I know they are going to be much more cu
ltured than I ever turned out, thank goodness. From the museum we walked across a bridge into the main part of Frankfurt. We made it to the Goethe museum (he wrote Faust, among many other literary works). We walked to a very large cathedral and toured the inside of that, and again were educated by the Mitchells about some of the meanings, architecture etc. We stopped in a little square and did some trinket shopping. The highlight was having McKay buy some stamps, using only
German (Jon speaks some German and he was telling McKay what to say), McKay was definitely a good sport and we all had a good time and a nice memory. Thanks to you, Jon and Sharmyn, for making small moments like that the highlight of your visit. The next 
day was Sunday and we went to church. We have a German branch that overlaps their time with ours, so Jon and Sharmyn went to Sacrament with them and I think they really enjoyed it. We came home, changed clothes and drove to Idar Oberstein to see the church in the rock. We enjoyed a nice drive on a sunny day and arrived at our destination with only two wrong turns...not too bad when you consider who was driving. We hiked up to this church...in the rock. Literally looks like a giant scooped a piece out of the side of the mountain and then just placed this little church inside of it. We toured the tiny church but the highlight was looking at the paintings and getting an education by Jon about the symbolism and the content of the pictures. Then we took pieces of paper placed them over carved names on the wall and took a pencil and shaded the paper to leave the impression of the names...very cool. After the church, we decided to keep hiking up the hill to the castle. What a hike, pretty long and steep, but good company makes the time go fast. Rocks, leaves and paper were collected throughout our travels...anything can be a souvenir, many times it is the free things that are the most valuable. Jon and McKay (Jon started calling McKay 'enfant' while he 
was here) got lost from the group and ended up calling for Eddie (our dog) to help. Eddie wasn't much help and they had to find their way back to the group themselves. We drove home and munched on some food. We then had family home evening, and evening of songs around the piano and looked at a bunch of our photos on the tv. We have truly been blessed. The next day I had to work, so Sharma brought Jon and Sharmyn up to the hospital so they could see me in action, actually I just gave them a tour of the place, but I think they appreciated it. Sharma then took them to France (we love France) and went to Cora, a great French grocery store. I think they may have bought the place out of yo
gurt and cheese. Sharma then had to take the kids to piano lessons and Jon and Sharmyn stayed at our place packing and just winding down. I came home and had a lovely talk with them. Our last night together came too quickly, but our time together will always be remembered. We have truly strengthened a friendship and now often ask ourselves, 'why didn't we get to know them better when we lived in NC?'That very same day Carey, Chantel and their kids joined us. Sharma picked them up from the train station. They were tired as they had already been to London and Paris for three days each. Their kids were doing remarkably well and ready to play with our kids. We also gave them the tour of the base and basically just let them relax the first day. They rented a car and from that point on, they were go, go, go. They decided to drive to Prague, Munich and Neuschwanstein castle in a matter of two days. A very long trip but they really seemed to like it quite a bit. Our kids continued to play and entertain each other. It is great when cousins can get a long so well and entertain each other and play. They also went to Trier, Germany (one of our favorite, little cities in Germany) and then kept going to Luxembourg city. They did that on a Sunday afternoon, which just goes to show how close many places are to us. It seemed like they had a great time and would fancy a return to Europe again...maybe Italy this time. It is so nice to have friends and family come and visit, to renew ties and catch up.
