Halloween

We had a really great halloween this year. We started off the season by carving pumpkins. We have planted pumpkins every year but can never get them to grow. This hear we were more successful. We got 3 large pumpkins, 5 little pumpkins, and 2 baby size. One of the large ones grew really weird. I was so excited to pick it and carve it, seeing that it could be a really interesting carved goblin or something. But then we went to harvest it and it was completely eaten away. So sad.



Collin didn't want to carve so instead colored his with markers.

The pumpkin I carved above.
Mark's carved pumpkin. We got a lot of compliments.
Clara wanted to try her hand at carving by herself. She carved a kitty.
All the pumpkins on our stairs.
Collin was batman this year. He would not hold still for the pictures. And he's into making silly poses. He was great trick or treating. Although we had to take the stroller because he will not walk more than 5 feet without complaining that his legs hurt.


Clara was a vampire this year. We got cool teeth that we molded to hers. It was just the canines so she could talk and such.

I was her vampire victim. I got to break out the theater makeup. It's still good 15 years after I took my makeup class. Clara liked the fake blood the best.

Collin and the way he thinks

You know how people say pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top? Well Collin has picked up that saying somewhere. Except when he really wants something he says pretty, pretty please with a corn dog on top.

School

Clara and Collin both started school this last week. Clara is in the 4th grade and is attending a new school this year. She got into CAS which is the Center for Accelerated Studies and it meets at her old school Grandview. She attended kindergarten there before they rezoned our school. They have 1 class each of 4th, 5th and 6th and bring kids from all over the district. Luckily 2 of her good friends got in and she has made several new friends already. She is excited to do lots of fun projects. This week they worked on their garden and also get to attend the storytelling festival. She really likes her teacher, Mrs. Kartchner and that she has a computer at her desk. She also gets to take art classes.

Collin started preschool this year. I failed to get in an application to the BYU preschool where Clara went on time. Luckily we got him into a preschool near our house. Miss Rebecca runs it out of her home but pretty much the whole basement is dedicated to the preschool area. So far we are really happy with it. We were really worried that Collin would not adapt well, but he has done great. Notice on the first day of school he wore an orange shirt and orange shorts. He is into matching his clothes lately. And I mean really match. No coordinating. Must be the same color to match. Jeans don't match anything, according to him. Unless we bought him a denim shirt. We're trying to teach him the concept of coordinating. It's a slow process.

Porec, Croatia

We have been home a little more than a week now, so I am finally settling back into real life. I didn't upload the pictures from Porec while we were there because the internet was just too slow.
Our second and last city in Croatia was in Porec. It is a beautiful coast town that is a huge tourist spot. People come from all over Europe and England to vacation there. Most of the people there that are in the tourist industry speak in part four languages. German, Italian, Croatian and English. German and Italian tourists are by far the most common.
We were attending a festival there where many different folk groups come together. There was Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Portugal, Vietnam, Turkey and several more. I had geared myself up for a horrible experience. Mark had told me the horror stories about festivals. Staying 20 to a room in an unairconditioned school. Sharing a bathroom. Performing several times per day in the heat. The organizer of this festival wanted it to be a fun experience so he put us up in hotels and we only had two performances per day. A small street performance in the morning and a show at night. So between 11-8 we had free. I felt like a tourist, we had so much time. There are many, many pictures of all the things we saw.
This is a view from our hotel room. We were right on the Adriatic Sea and it is very calm and warm. So delightful for swimming.


The first night there we participated in a parade of all the countries participating in the festival.

The second or third night we were there we had a show with just one other group in Umag, another town along the coast.


This is the small, little Croatian group that we performed with. They start teaching children in these European countries at a young age, the traditional dances.

Me eating Gelato, which I think we did every day. Probably why I gained 5 pounds on tour. That and I ate out three meals a day for 4 weeks.

Cool church next to the stage.

How cool is that tower our stage was in front of?
The band performing.

Me getting diving lessons by the Adriatic Sea. Such a beautiful swimming area with such clear water. Our kids were by far the most covered. Some people should just not wear speedos and bikinis. Several times we saw women topless sunbathing or just walking around. Hmmm.


The city view from the pier.

Every morning we had to do a street performance. People were so excited to see Americans. I guess they don't get many touring to Croatia.

There is a cool, old church in Porec that claims it is the oldest, best preserved Byzantine church in the world. It dates back to the 4th century. They have started uncovering and restoring some of the mosaic walls and floors. There was a baptistry and a old tower. This is me in the top of the tower.


Some of the Mosaic flooring.



We had one full day off and so we got to go on a boat ride down the coast. This was our lunch on the boat. It was actually really good. This is how they mostly eat fish there.

One city we stopped at on the boat ride was Rovijn. They call it little Venice the way the houses are right up against the water. It was a really neat town with small winding cobblestone streets that lead up to the church at the top of the hill.

Me climbing the stairs up to the top of the tower of the aforementioned church. The stairs were really old and wooden and narrow. A little scary. But the view was worth it.



The whole group in front of the city skyline. I am not in it because I am taking the picture and Mark was back at the hotel. But the kids look cute.



This was our last day performing. Look how cool the clouds looked.

The kids performing their last street performance on the pier.

On the edge of the peninsula there are these remnants of some Roman ruins dating back to the 1st century.

That's all for Porec.

Zagreb, Croatia

Zagreb, Croatia is an interesting city. It is the capital of Croatia, but is not really a touristy town. It's kind of nice after being in Prague. It has a nice old town but it also has very modern buildings. I would say most of the city is modern. We are staying right down in the old town so we can go sightseeing quite easily, although there is not much to see. We are also here on the weekend of their Independence day so a lot of shops are closed. Everybody takes the weekend off and goes to the coast. We got in Thursday night and then had Friday morning to sight see. We were supposed to have a show Friday night but the theater called us Thursday afternoon and cancelled the show because the air conditioning was broken and they couldn't get anybody in to fix it because of the holiday. So Chrisian, a local member of the church who's been helping us, got permission from the police to do a street performance. Then this morning we did an interactive with the members here. They have a beautiful church here. In Croatia, they have about 500 members but only about 30-50 active in this city. They have a hard time with the church here because to be Croatian means that you are Catholic, and if you give up that religion, they feel like they're giving up their nationality. Then this afternoon we had more free time, but everything was closed because of the holiday. So we took a nap then went to dinner. We then enjoyed some cookies at The Cookie Factory which is a local cookie store that was started by a member from Croatia who was a student from BYU. Tomorrow we head to Porec, which is on the coast. Hopefully we'll get to go swimming.

This is the Church of St. Francis. It is the tallest building in Croatia. It is a very beautiful building and they are in the process of cleaning the outside. We went in and enjoyed an organ performance.

Mark in front of the statue in the main square.

Mark again near the fortification wall that surrounds the upper old city. Most of it is gone but a few of the towers remain.

The kids performing in the street.

Us with a few of the members in front of the church.

Prague

We have been in Prague for 2 1/2 days now and leave tomorrow for Croatia. The first night we got here we were whisked away to the church for an interactive night with the single adults.

Then last night we had a show with Dvorna, a local folk dance group. We worked with them last time we were here. Other than that we've had time to sight see and do laundry. Hooray. I swear Prague is the only town in Easter Europe that has a laundromat. No other place have we been able to find one. Here are some pictures from our sight seeing adventures.

Mark and SEVERAL other people by the Astronomical clock. Prague is way too crowded this time of year.

A look at the castle at night.

This morning we went to Terezin, a concentration camp here in the Czech republic. It was not a death camp, although some were murdered here or died of sickness or exhaustion. It was more of a transitional camp, where they were held before being shipped to Auschwitz or other places. This was also where they brought the red cross to show them that prisoners were not being treated inhumanely. Several rooms were fixed up with nice looking sinks to show that prisoners were clean. They were never hooked up to water though. They would also take the healthy looking prisoners and stage plays or whatnot. The sight is interesting. It is built inside a huge fortress that was built in the 17th century. So there are all of these underground tunnels around the camp. We could go in some of them. But there are barracks as well to remind you what the housing was like. Sometimes several hundred fit into one large barrack. Above is the cemetery they have out front with graves for the bodies they exhumed after the war. Some were Christian as you can see by the cross. Others were Jewish. Below is a picture of the outside fortress wall. We couldn't take pictures inside so none of that.


Mark looking over Prague from the wall around the castle.

Me at the entrance to the Charles Bridge that connects the Old Prague city with the castle.