A Remarkable Visit

It felt like we had Christmas in July here in the Netherlands.  We received word that our very dear friends were coming to visit, and I was as excited as having Christmas come.  (Now President on the other hand doesn't share my excitement for Christmas, so he was as excited as the first day of the Deer Hunt!)

July 30 and 31, 2013 we spent the two days with President Frank and Faris Stevens from our home stake in Utah.  President Stevens served as Stake President for nine years and President Robinson served as his councilor for that time.  It was a great experience to work so closely with these two wonderful people, so it was a special treat for us to have them come to visit for a couple of days. 

We spent the time talking and catching up on things. We took a walk down through Leidschendam.  Downtown is a canal.  We stopped to watch a barge come through the locks and go  on up the canal.  

Watching the bridge go up and waiting for the barge.

 President Frank, Faris and Sister Robinson

watching the boats and barge line up to come through.

 It was actually quite spectacular!  You don't see this in Holden or Flowell!

The canal is not very wide, I had my doubts if the barge was going to fit through the locks.

Remarkably, it did.  I really would not want to pilot that thing through the locks.  That would be worse than getting the Houseboat back into the slip at Lake Powell, in a wind storm---(and that makes me so nervous I go somewhere else while they get it into the slip and come back when it's done)

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 The second bridge goes up behind us as the barge moves through.

Here in Leidschendam we don't pass cornfields, pivots or sagebrush patches on our walks.  We pass canals, drawbridges, and barges.  It is a most remarkable country.

On Tuesday evening we took the Stevens with us to a special session in the Den Haag Temple.  It is located in a suburb of Den Haag, Zoetermeer.  It was a please to be in the temple with them again.  However, Faris and I missed President John and Sharon.  The six of us spend once a month for 9 years going to the temple together.  We felt we were missing two friends. 

 At the front door of the Den Haag Temple.

 A view of the whole temple.  

 We also took them along with their son, Reed, and his wife and family to Kinderdijk here in the Netherlands.  They had one day, and Kinderdijk is a 'must see' experience with windmills.

 Faris with a pair of wooden shoes outside the windmill.

 President Frank and Faris, Angie and Reed Stevens and their cute family.

 The Steven family--Frank, Faris, their grandchildren,  Angie, Reed 

 Reed's cute little family.

 It was fun to spend the day with them.

 Packing up to go back to their vacation, but we were so thrilled they chose to spend a few days with President and me.

We love these people.  Thanks for the visit.

 Even after a year, we find it unbelievable and quite remarkable that we live in Europe, and in the most quaint and unique country.  Windmills like this are only in the Netherlands.  Look at the beautiful sky.  The sky is always so different and unusual, yet beautiful.