OUR WEEK IN

REVIEW......

You, know....the weeks here are beginning to go 'FAST' like they did when we were in Finland.  Is this just our 'routine schedule' or is it ever going to s-l-o-w down at all!?  We just want to be able to enjoy a slower 'pace of life' so we can enjoy it more.  We WILL enjoy our schedule though......

We are settling into a 'routine' of sorts with our Church Service Mission to Olde Towne Alexandria, Virginia where we have been asked to work in the 'National Council For Adoption'.  We LOVE working here.  We love the people we work with.  We are learning so much.

This is the 'SCENERY' that we see every single day that we drive there........the Washington D.C. Landmarks.......THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.......

 THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL.....and the Reagan National Airport to mention a few.  And, of course, the beautiful POTOMAC RIVER.  There is so much activity on this route.  We have tried to get our commute time down a bit but it still takes us 2 hours to go each way.....that is a total of 4 hours of commuting each day.  We have found, so far, that we can get a lot of work done while we are going back and forth.  So ...... there is really NO wasted time!  Nice.  And our gas mileage right now is holding at about 25 1/2 miles per gallon.  With the gas prices at around $3.65 per gallon, that is a very important factor for us.  Although it was a lot worse in Finland at about 9 euro per gallon.  We can't really complain now can we.  And we are LOVING our new little 2011 HONDA CR-V!

 On Friday and Saturday we drive to the Washington D.C. Temple where we serve as Ordinance Workers.  Wayne has been 'reinstated' as a Sealer (he received a letter from President Monson this past week indicating as such) so he is enjoying that opportunity once again.

 It was a beautiful drive on Saturday morning as we were driving down.

 The only thing better than this would be our wonderful Helsinki Finland Temple!!

 After our shift at the temple, we went to downtown D.C. to visit the SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART & PORTRAIT MUSEUM.  Never been here before and we absolutely loved it.

 Can you believe we found a picture of JOSEPH SMITH hanging right there on the wall!!  We were pleased to find this.

 We found that they even have some cool STATUES right here in our own hometown!  Finland has some wonderful ones as well.

 We then headed over to the J F KENNEDY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER for a performance of 

'WICKED'!!!  We had seen this last February in Helsinki (in Finnish) and one other time before our mission in Baltimore.  It was fantastic.  We were joined by Jonathan and Tina and their children along with about 40 of our closest friends!!  Great evening!  It was a very, very long day for us.....starting at about 5 a.m. and we didn't get home until about 12:00 midnight.  It was well worth it though.

 HAPPY FATHERS DAY on Sunday.......the Young Women served PIES to the fathers.  They were loving that.....the dads and the young women.

 It was quite the gathering in the hallway outside the kitchen after church.  This was definitely a BIG HIT with all of the dads.

Then it was over to J & T's for a little FATHERS DAY DINNER with filet mignon wrapped with bacon cooked on the grill.  SWEET FATHERS DAY!!

[NOTE:  unlike my almost daily blog entries of our Mission in Helsinki Finland Temple, this one may be a bit different.  I am hopeful with 'weekly' blog entries because of our long, long days and not much time to be able to make entries.  And I am OK with that!  :-)]