Blessing An Angel

On Sunday, December 21st, we went to Church in Galveston to see David bless Norah, our little lady bug. She was so good and so beautiful. Here are a few pictures to enjoy of that day.

Graduation and New Granddaughter

Mid December we had the opportunity to go to Idaho to see our son graduate from BYU-I and also see our newest granddaughter for the first time.
It was a great trip with many changes along the way. Mike and I left on Thursday afternoon to fly to Utah. From there we rented a car and drove to Idaho, about 4 hours. We were very happy to see David, Katherine and of course sweet little Norah. Here is Papa with her for the first time.

On Friday were the graduation events. Before we went to the comencement excerises we went to the school sign for pictures.

After that we went to the Comencement where President Uchtdorf was the special speaker. All the graduates from the university attended this portion together. It was a very good meeting. We enjoyed it very much.

The original plan was to go from comencement to convocation where the graduates are divided into the different colleges and walk across the stage to receive their diploma. Then we planned to get up early on saturday and leave for home. Mike and David were driving down to Houston for the holidays, while Katherine, Norah and I were flying home. Well, true to Hurst fashion, our plans changed almost minute by minute.

There was a really big winter storm coming in and we didn't want to be caught in it. So we decided that we would leave that night after convocation. I made hotel reservation for Katherine and I near the airport and we went to the campus. After commencement we realized that convocation would take much longer than we thought and the weather was not looking very good. David decided to skip the walking part so we left immediately. I canceled the hotel, called to see how late the car rental would be open and we headed out in two cars. We got to the airport just in time to leave the car, climbed in David's car and drove to Provo to Jonny and Cassie's.

Papa and David, took a very quick, and I do mean very quick peek at a sleeping Hailey and started out on their drive. Katherine and I stayed with Jon and Cassie that night and Jon took us to the airport the next day.

It is a good thing we changed our plans. The guys managed to stay ahead of the storm the whole way. It was just starting to get nasty while we were driving to the airport. Katherine and I got out on the leading edge of the storm, so there were no delays. We got home Saturday night, got a good sleep and went to church the next morning.

The guys drove straight through and got home about 5 am Sunday morning. They slep for a while, then Mike went to church after the meetings to be Bishop. Although a quick trip it was still very enjoyable.

What the Dickens

The first weekend in December the city of Galveston always has a "Dickens on the Strand" street festival. It celebrates christmas, Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and the Victorian era of the Dickens novel setting. Last year was our first time to go and we really loved it.

We went again this year and once again had a blast. Even though the size was scaled down due to Hurricane Ike and rebuilding the downtown, it was still very well attended as can be seen in the following picture.

We went early in the day so the crowd were not as bad yet. But as the day wore on and more people came it got very crowded. One of the great things is the food of course. My favorite is the 'Scottish Eggs'. These things are great. I thoughly enjoyed mine. For those who don't know what a Scottish Egg here goes. It is a boiled egg, wrapped in sausage, then dipped into a batter and deep fried. They are so very good. Follow that with a cup of hot chocolate and it makes a perfect way to start the morning.

At the festival they have different groups that walk around and sing carols, people come in costume either from the novel or from the era. There was a civil war camp,lots of scheduled entertainment like juggling, singing groups. There were also Bag Pipe Bands and groups that played. Also because it is close to the Cruise Ship Port, they have a Tall Ship, the Elisa, docked that you can tour. When we were on the ship I noticed that the top of the tallest mast had a christmas tree on it.They have booths where you can shop and just have a really great time. All in all it was a great way to start our very busy December. More on that to follow but for now here are some pictures from the festival.

Finishing September and Germany

This month has flown by for me. Ihave been very busy doing a lot of sewing for new babies in the family. I did sit down to add a post to finish my trip to Germany, but I can't find the pictures. Somehow my computer had deleted them completely. So as a brief note I will finish about my trip with only a narrative and no pictures. After Mike was finished for the week in Wesseling, we traveled down to Frankfurt to stay a couple of extra days.

On Friday we checked into our hotel and settled for the night. We were anxiously watching the weather by now as Hurrican Ike was headed directly for Houston. Even with the anxious undertone to the trip we managed to have a good time. We spent Saturday walking around the old part of Frankfurt and enjoying the typical Germany feel. We ate at an outdoor street festival, shopped in an indoor open market. I absolutely love the indoor open markets. They always have a great variety of foods; meats, cheeses, breads, vegetables, fruits, pastries, and on and on.

While we were down at the river we decided to book a river cruise for the next day. So Sunday we got on a tour bus and drove about 45 minutes north were we visited a beautiful resort type place. then we borded the boat for the trip back to Frankfurt. This river trip took about 8 hours. The first 1/2 to 2/3 was really beautiful. There were castles all along the bank, terraced farming and lots of beautiful countryside. Except for the fact that it was slightly cool, leaning on the cold side on deck, it was a beautiful trip.

Due to the Hurricane our regular flight for Monday was canceled. But we did manage to get a flight out to go to Dallas, then changed airlines and flew to Austin. This is where out family had evacuated to. From there we drove home on Tuesday. All in all the trip was a lot of fun, and I would love to go back sometime.

As for the hurricane. We lucked out greatly. We only had a few shingles missing from one ridge line, which Mike replaced, the about 60 feet of fence was down. We did have a number of trees leaning over, but we straightened them and now have stakes and ropes all over the back yard. We also got our power back the day we returned home.

We were blessed to have our daughter-in-law's family, from Galveston, stay with us for a couple of weeks before they could return home. It was great fun and we were very glad that we were there to help them out. Sadly all of my pictures are lost with the Germany pictures.

As time passes we continue to rebuild our lives and strive to get back to normal. The lord has blessed us greatly through this time.

Guten Tag Feunde, Part 2

On Thursday while Mike continued to work I spent the day in Koln(Cologne) shopping, sight seeing and generally having fun. The first exciting part of the day was that I had to take the regional train to Koln alone. This was fun to try to figure out, but I managed to get there fine. Luckily I didn't have to worry about getting back. I met Mike, his boss and the others guys for dinner that night.

While there I started at the Cathedral of Koln. This is a really beautiful building with a great history. From there I wandered the streets, shopped as I felt like it. Stopped to eat what and when I wanted. Sat and watch the people, or read my book and basically had a great day doing anything and everything that I wanted to do. Sadly, I was enjoying myself so much that I forgot to take very many pictures. But these are the few that I got in town that day.

More to come later of our time in Frankfurt and our River Cruise.

TwilightMom

So I finally went to see the movie. I know it is long after it came out, but what can I say, at least I made it finally. I loved the movie, thoughly enjoyed my self and would even buy the DVD when it comes out. I hope it does soon.

Guten Tag Feunde! More Travels

About a week after we returned from Phoenix we tood another trip, this time to Germany. Mike had a business trip in Wesseling and I went along for a mini vacation. We left Houston on Monday September 8th in the early evening. we had a direct flight to Frankfurt. As this was an over night flight we arrived in the morning of Tuesday. From there we had to take the train (ICE-intercity express)and then a taxi to get to our hotel.

The hotel was right on the Rhein River, and we had a room with a samll balcony overlooking the river. I spent most of the rest of that day watching the river traffic and catching up on my sleep.

On Wednesday, I ventured out to explore the town of Wesseling. I had a lot of fun wandering through the old town. I bought lunch and went to a park along the river. I spent about 2 hours just sitting there enjoying my lunch, reading a book and watching the river. That night one Mike's bosses took us out to dinner in Koln (Cologne) and to show me where the best places were to shop.

There was a lot of barge traffic on the river. I found it very interesting that a lot of the people actually live on their barges. They have a home in the back and even drive their cars onto the barge to use when they stop somewhere.