Two days at the office

 After Sister Abrams arrived, the Bendios went back to their MLS calling and Sister Nielsen came to be her companion.  Because we have 21 new missionaries this transfer, we have all been so busy getting ready for them.  Sister Abrams needed to go wait for furniture and appliances for a couple of the apartments very, very early one morning, so we got to have Sister Nielsen come and stay with us from early morning until we went to the office.  Here she is primping and getting ready for the day.
It has been really fun to have her at a desk right across from me.  She is an awesome sister missionary and we have a good time together.  An interesting story is that when we were on our mission in France/Belgium, Sister Nielsen came to France to do an internship there.  She attended our JA's Center and went to church in the same ward as we did.  We got to know her quite well.  We all liked her right away.  Then when she got assigned to come to this mission we were all quite excited to get to see her and to be with her again.  I also got to meet her Mother who came to France to get her when Kami was done.  She has easily adjusted to being a mission secretary and is a great asset to the office.  I am so happy to be working with this great gal.

                                            Here she is all beautiful and ready for the day.

 That evening we substituted for the Howards institute class.  Well actually John did the teaching and I just had my little input with a few stories and anecdotes.  The class went really well.  The students loved Elder Arhets.  After class most of them came up and shook his hand and thanked him for a great lesson.  I got lots of hugs.

              Not all of them are in the photo because several had already gone, but the class was a pretty               fair size being it's a summer class.

                             District study takes place once a week.  After their study, the missionaries always come up to the office to chat with us, get supplies and also to have some candy, which we always have for them or to have some cookies or brownies or some other goody which we often have for them too.

Like I always say, the young missionaries are the best.  I love them and enjoy having them come up.  they are the best.  Above we have; Elder Heinzlemeir from Canada, E. McCook (Arizona), E, Godoy (Spain), E. Wilber (California), E. Smith (Canada). In front of him is E. Arias(Canada). Then we have E. Yunack (Vanuatu), E. Christensen (AF) E. Smith (Provo), E. Ruby (Colorado), Sister Bolanos( California ), S. Nilsen (AF), and S. Bourdon (France).

Lana's visit days 2 and 3

 Our vacation continued the next day by a very early rising.  I thought that the Botanical Gardens had free entrance. (Info given by my usually reliable missionaries), but because of some international exhibit there are no free entrances at this time.  We decided to go to the Biodome and Planetarium instead.  The tickets were too expensive to do both.  We began by looking a little bit around the outside of the Botanical Gardens.  There was this very pretty fountain.  My foot was still hurting, so I waited while the rest of the group walked around.  They found a fun little garden where you could touch and smell all of the flowers and plants.  It's a special garden for the visually impaired. They all like it a lot.

 That is the Olympic tower in the background.  The Olympic dome is right there too, but not visible in the photo.

 We went to the Biodome next.  This wonderful exhibit has four eco systems through which you can walk.  It is housed in what was the Velodrome for the 1976 Summer Olympics.  The first is the Tropical Forest which is a replica of a South American Rain Forest.  Next is the Laurentian Forest, a replica of the North American wilderness.  Then there is the Saint Lawrence marine eco system and finally the Arctic and Antarctic wilderness.  Each area had all of the authentic flaura and fauna.  Many of the animals, birds, etc were roaming free and we saw so many of them.  Of course the penguins and Arctic birds were behind glass.  In the Tropical Forest, Grace spotted a lemur, a poisonous red frog and lots of other animals.  The beautiful birds were flying overhead.  We really enjoyed  our visit there.

Then we walked across to the Planetarium which was also great.  We got to see two shows, both of which we all thought were excellent.

Here is Grace in a dinosaur egg.  Afterwards we went to eat Poutine at the Banquese.  Poutine is a typical Canadian dish of french fries covered in a gravy and served with cheese curds.  There are many other toppings that can be put on them too such as chicken, hamburger, veggies, etc.

When we got home one of the young adults, Victoria came over to watch Grace while the rest of us went to the Montreal Temple.  It was a wonderful experience to go there together.

After we got home from the temple it was quite late, but we still stayed up even later, talking and having a snack of baguettes, cheeses, pate, and salami.

 Saturday we went to Rigaud to Cabin du Sucre or Sugar Shack.

 We got to hear a presentation on how the Maple syrup is collected and then boiled down.  It takes 40 liters of sap to boil down to make 1 liter of syrup.  The syrup is very yummy.

 We had a great lunch there and had fun entertainment.  Grace was chosen to play in the international spoon group. They had a little lesson and then played their spoons.  It was so much fun.

That afternoon or rather early evening, Lana, Rob and Dad went walking along St Denis street.  This is a famous street full of cafes, shops, and tons of people.  They stopped at a Patisserie and bought lots of delicious pastries.  After they got back to the apt. we cut them up and got to sample lots of different ones.  Grace and I stayed home and played Phase 10 and chatted.  We loved our visit together.  I loved having them all come.  Sunday after church they left for their long drive home and we were left happy to have had them come here and so sad to see them leave.

Lana's Visit

 I was sooo excited for Lana, Rob, and Grace's visit.  It had been such a long time since I'd seen them and it was a wonderful visit.  It took them much longer to get here than was expected.  A what should have been 9 hour drive took 15 hours.  Because of that, their visit was also cut short, but we made the best of it and had a super time together.  The first day we went to the mission office so that they could see where we do our work.  Then we took the metro, but unfortunately got off at the wrong metro stop.  We meant to go the Museum of Fine Arts, but instead went to the Museum of Arts.  So we didn't get to see the Chihuly exhibit that I wanted to take them to.  Instead we walked around the Place des Arts and looked at some of the sights there.  Also we heard a lot of the Jazz festival music that was all around.  We actually stopped at a little children's jazz performance.  It was very cute and the music was quite good.  Even though Grace didn't understand anything of what was said, she still got the gist of it and really enjoyed it.  We had lunch there in the food court.  After that we went to the Chateau Ramezay.  This was the home of the first mayor of Montreal.  Many of the rooms had beautiful carvings on the walls.  There were lots of interesting things to look at.

              Montreal has lots of Indians in it's history and here is a statue of one of the Indian girls.

                                               Accessories of the Mayor and his wife.

                                                    A child's toy horse and buggy.

                                                        A  morning outfit for the Mrs.

We walked from the chateau down this darling little street of shops and cafes.  Musicians are playing in the center part and the street is bustling with people.  When summer time arrives, many flowers are put out in pots all over the city.  Everywhere you go there are lovely flowers.

 We took a buggy ride through Old Montreal.  Grace got to sit up in front and she even got to drive the buggy for a bit.  She loved holding the reins.  Our guide was fun and informative.

When our ride was over we ate Beaver Tail which Grace had been dreading all day.  She kept telling me that she did not want to eat a beaver.  She did not want to eat a rodent.  I assured her that it really wasn't an animal at all, but a delicious sweet.  She didn't quite believe me until she actually saw what it was.  Then, of course, she loved it.  
After that, John and I went to the car to rest because at this point, my foot was hurting and I just couldn't walk anymore.  Lana and her family did some more wandering through shops and shopping. They did resist buying a Polar bear rug for a mere $12,000.  Haha.  When they were done, we went home, had dinner of Lasagna, salad, and french bread that I had prepared earlier and then we played some games.  After staying up much too late, we collapsed into bed ready to wake up early for another fun day together.
I must add that I feel so very blessed and so very grateful to have wonderful children and children-in-law who have grown up well and who like us and like to spend time with us.  I know each Mom thinks her kids are the best, but I actually do have the best kids.  :)