Vilseck High School presents...

One evening in May, Pam invited me and Joey and Bailey to join her and Annie for a girls' night. 

We went to watch our local high school play, the Little Mermaid. It was a lot of fun to see the high schoolers perform. Seeing our own Coco (a friend from church) was a major bonus. She had several parts. 

After the play we took pictures with the actors. Sorry about the quality. All of these were taken with my very old iPhone.

Pam is Coco's young women's president at church. Here is Coco wearing one of her many costumes:

Annie, Joey, and Bailey with Ariel and King Triton:

Ursula:

Sebastian:

The other daughters of Triton:

It was a fun night. I think it got Joey excited about the prospect of performing in High School. We shall see...

Amiens, France

Over Memorial Day weekend, we stayed in a hotel on the outskirts of Amiens, France. A few people told us that we should try to see the cathedral in the town center, so we decided to swing by Monday morning on our way home.

The downtown area was super cute. I especially loved all of the houses and businesses along the river. There was a statue in the middle of the river. I totally thought someone was standing out there. Looks like someone gave him a shirt:

When we got near the cathedral, we entered a beautiful park with large shade trees and flowers. These flowers reminded me of the flowers that bloom around Temple Square in Salt Lake. So pretty:

The cathedral itself was so large that I could barely squeeze it into a photo:

I enjoyed walking around looking at all of the architectural detail:

Inside we saw a statue of Joan of Arc. I really love her story. For some reason, I have always felt like she is somewhat of a "kindred spirit."

This statue holding a decapitated head is a good transition into John the Baptist. Tradition states that the skull of John the Baptist was taken from Constantinople during the crusades and brought here in 1206. The skull was protected in a gold mask-like case. The skull face is on display under extremely thick glass. We're not used to the tradition of religious artifacts of this sort, so the kids were kind of freaked out by the skull. But it led into a good discussion about the important role of John the Baptist in the life of Jesus Christ: 

I was pleasantly surprised to find memorial plaques and an American flag inside the cathedral to commemorate the sacrifices of the soldiers who died in this region during WWI:

I'm so glad that we were able to spend the morning visiting such a beautiful church and a cute town.

Memorial day, French style

I've decided that the French really know how to throw a Memorial Day celebration. They invited all the US soldiers and their families to a reception in Vendhuille complete with food, face painting, and US military memorabilia. 

The kids got to pose in pictures with men in old American military attire. They got to climb into WWII-era vehicles. They got to have the faces painted. Erick was even interviewed by a reporter for a local paper. I would have liked to see it in print. It was a fantastic day.

Thank you people of Vendhuille! We had a fantastic time!

Anyone interested in some frog legs?

After the battlefield tour, we had a nice traditional French dinner. I didn't think I was going to be able to attend since children were not invited, but Meredith, who is a thoughtful, selfless woman, stepped in to save the day. She offered to take my four kids along with her own six kids and one extra they had brought along and watch them for the night. That's right. One super woman watched 11 kids all by herself for several hours. Remember, we were eating a traditional French meal, which means it consisted of several courses. It was a long, super fun night.

Thank you so much Meredith!

Monsieur Castier joined us. LTC Lindsay and his wife Sook were greats hosts. I really love those two.

The wait-staff did not speak English, so I was able to show off my stuff by translating for them. I should definitely work on improving my language skills, but I did pretty well under the circumstances, so I'll allow myself a little (tiny) pat on the back.

The highlights of the evening were the frog legs:

And the mushrooms stuffed with escargot. Yum!

I sat next to Max and Heather:

Across the table was my handsome date, Erick, with Heather's date, DeShane, in matching outfits. So cute:

We really had a fun group. And it was a delicious night. I'm so glad I was able to come with Erick on this amazing vacation.

Battlefield tour

After the uncasing ceremony (I blogged about it here), Monsieur Castier, a gentleman that handles military relations in the area, took all of us Americans on a battlefield tour. It began in a barn which houses the Cantigny Museum: 

It was so interesting to view such a large collection of WWI memorabilia in this tiny museum:

Here is M. Castier speaking with Erick's Commander LTC Lindsay inside the museum:

We found some evidence of a visit from Erick's previous Commander and Command Sergeant Major:

M. Castier then walked us all over town showing us where all aspects of the Cantigny battle took place. It was very cool:

A street in town is named for the US forces that fought here:

There used to be a palace here in Cantigny. Now the only thing that remains of it are these iron gates. They were removed from the palace and placed on this property:

All of the damage you see on this gate was caused in battle during WWI:

Cantigny is a very small town. This building is where they held a small reception following the casing ceremony. I believe it has not changed in the last 100 years. It was very cool. Though it does not have bathrooms. There are outhouses outside that have saloon-style swinging doors and no modern plumbing. I refrained from "going" until we found a restaurant in a neighboring town:

Continuing on with the battlefield tour, M. Castier took us through a solid wall of vines to find some abandoned buildings. We had to watch out for stinging nettle, which was everywhere. But besides that, I thought these building could have made some great family photo backdrops:

He brought us here to show us this old cellar. The room at the bottom of these stairs was used as a makeshift hospital. Wounded soldiers were brought here for treatment until they could safely get them off the front line. We walked down these steep steps in the pitch dark:

Luckily, M. Castier had a flashlight. That's how I was able to see the names and dates carved into the stone:

Take a close look. I could read the following words: Fritz, E.W., USA, 1918, and FRANCE.

Here is the actual cellar at the bottom of the stairs:

Next we drove out of town to some nearby woods:

We had to cross a field...

To get to here.

Look closely at the photos above and below. Can you see an indent in the ground that looks like it could have been caused by a small stream? In 1918 (95 years ago), it was a six-foot-deep trench. It was dug by soldiers in the midst of a horrific war. The soldiers never dug straight trenches. They zig-zagged them to make it harder for the enemy to figure out their exact location:

These huge orange slugs were all over the forest floor. I love their color:

This monument is in memory of 1st Infantry Division who took Cantigny from the Germans in 1918: