Category Archives: Alan

Alan, Family, Michelene, Phillip, Vacations

Spain Trip to see Marta, Pere and kids…

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After 21 years, we finally got to see our friend Marta Estrany Borrut again! On July 11th, Phillip and I flew to Barcelona where we were greeted at the airport by Marta and her cute family. Alan joined us a week later. We were able to sight see, play at the beach and spend great time getting to know their family. And of course, I got to have a Spanish language immersion experience! I took way too many pictures and of course am probably putting too many in my blog, but hey, it’s my blog right? Here are a few of the highlights from our trip:

Vilafranca…

The Borruts actually live in Vilafranca, about 40 minutes from Barcelona. Vilafranca is known for their vineyards and the Castellers (human towers: see videos one, two, three). We visited a castle, swam in the Mediterranean, enjoyed paella with some of their friends and attended church with them where Pere is the bishop.

 

Barcelona…The Sagrada Familia

The Sagrada Familia was our favorite thing to see in Barcelona. Designed by Goudi and started in 1882 with a predicted finish in 2030, it is a spectacular cathedral inside and out. We really enjoyed the headphone tour. Thousands of people tour it everyday, so if you decide to go, save yourself a long wait by buying your tickets online ahead of time. The most amazing thing is that we actually found 2 parking places right on the curb of the cathedral next to the huge line of people. When does that ever happen?

 

Barcelona…The Olympic Stadium

Do you remember the cool bow and arrow lighting of the torch in the opening ceremonies of the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics? The Olympic Stadium is a fun place to visit especially since while we were there, the 2013 International Swim Competition was taking place. It was fun to go home and watch it on TV after sight seeing there!

 

Madrid…

It was fun to spend a few days in Madrid. Phillip was our excellent tour guide. The first day we walked to the Plaza de España, toured the Palacio Real and walked to La Plaza Mayor. Not as humid as Barcelona, but still hot…I took my fan everywhere with me. Now I know why all the Spanish ladies have fans to flip open…I bought two!

 

Madrid…The Temple and Plaza de Toros

Saturday morning we took the metro to Spain’s Temple Square and attended a temple session. It’s a small but beautiful temple. It was fun to see the MTC where Phillip served as a missionary four years ago. On our way back into town we stopped and took a tour of Plaza de Toros in Ventas. They were getting ready for a bull fight the next day. It reminded me of “Ferdinand the Bull.”

 

Madrid…Retiro Park

Sunday evening we decided to take a walk through Retiro Park. It’s basically like Central Park in New York. There were lots of people…fun to see all the families. We enjoyed a picnic dinner and seeing all the statues and fountains. Europeans love their statues and fountains!

 

Madrid…Museo del Prado

For sure one of the highlights of our trip was touring the Prado museum on our last day. So much beautiful art. I’ve included a few of my favorites. Seems like the artists of the day either painted the birth of Christ or the death of Christ with a few portraits thrown in here and there.

 

We feel so blessed to have been able to take this trip. How wonderful to be with Marta, Pere, Sara and little Pere. We love them and miss them. What a great experience for all of us.

Alan, Events, Family, Home Life, Loren & Anne

Four Generations, an ordination and birthday celebrations

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So now we have the token 4 generations photo…Wally with his son Alan, with his son Loren, with his son Kenyon. Cool huh?

Today we celebrated all our August birthdays: Grandma Pat, Anne, her mother Carol, and Toby. And we also marked the day with Elliot being ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. What an awesome group of men we have in our family!

Alan, Clark, Elliot, Family, Michelene, Vacations

A bit of Church History, US History, family and friends…

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Eleven years ago we took all 6 kids to see Diane in Boston, our friends the Collettes in New Hampshire, Niagara Falls in Canada and the church sites and pageant in Palmyra in New York. Since Clark and Elliot were so young and don’t really remember the trip, we wanted to take them back as teenagers and this was the summer!

Our friends the Collettes have daughters Miranda and Jennica that are the same ages as our boys. They have been to our house often, so it was fun to spend time with them in their “neck of the woods” (literally!)

We arrived at Niagara Falls in the late afternoon, took the Maid of the Mist boat tour and then were there as it got dark and they turned the lights on the falls. The falls are just so amazing!

 

The next day we visited the Church sites in Palmyra and then saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant that night. This year the pageant is celebrating its 75th anniversary.

 

Alan’s sister Diane lives in Ithaca, New York, working at Cornell University. They have a saying there that “Ithaca is gorges” and so it is. Diane took us to see two beautiful gorges. It was great to see where she lives (with her dog, Happy) and where she works at the University. Brown family sleepover!

 

On our way back to New Hampshire we stopped to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum. He produced over 4,000 works of art – over 300 covers for The Saturday Evening Post magazine. We especially liked seeing his barn turned studio.

We finished the trip with a few more days in New Hampshire, including a day at the beach and a day in Boston checking out John Adams’s houses, Paul Revere’s house and The Old North Church. Can you have too much fun on a vacation?  I think we did!

Alan, Michelene, Vacations

Aloha!

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Rather spontaneously we found ourselves in Hawaii last week with the Lundgrens, our good friends and neighbors. The stars all seemed to line up and we decided we were ready for a much needed get-a-way!

We spent our days lounging on the beach or by the pool, sightseeing with our friends, visiting with family, attending the temple, snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, playing games, watching movies and eating fresh pineapple.

The weather was perfect and we were in Paradise….

Alan, Clark, Elliot, Family, Holidays, Loren & Anne, Madeleine, Michelene, Phillip, Tess

Happy New Year!

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As per our New Year’s Eve tradition, we enjoyed gathering around 3 fondue pots.  Our three favorites are: cheese, meat and chocolate.  Because we ate too much (as per tradition) and all went into what Madeleine calls a “food coma”, some of us had a hard time staying up till midnight!  A few of us did see the New Year in and I personally am looking forward to 2012…I feel in my heart that it will be a good year for our family.