Sunday, August 12, 2012

 We had a great week with Dennis and Robin being in town! The girls loved spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Jensen. We really appreciate all you guys did for us while you were up here.
 Here we are feeding the ducks at Liberty Park. We had kind of a funny experience... At first no ducks would come and eat our bread, but we noticed that some very large fish were ceasing the opportunity. Eventually we lured in a few ducks, and then the geese that had been ignoring us the whole time decided to join in.
 As is the custom, Clarisse took the opportunity to sing in church wile her parents were there to listen. It was AMAZING! I had goose bumps.

OK, I ought to say a bit about all that the girls are learning even though I don't have a lot of cute pictures to go along with it. Evelyn is getting better at making sentences. Some examples are "I did it!" "I see you" and "I get you". She can alter tenses a bit too. For example, it we say "you did it" she will say "I did it" in response. She also can put words together like "sleep, bed" or "sleep, grass" when lying on the grass. She is getting more imaginative too. She has a little orange stuffed cat, and Clarisse and I were recently discussing a name for it. I suggested Ginger and Evelyn picked up on it immediately and started repeating the name over and over. She likes the cat so much more than she use to now that it has a name. Maybe it makes her toy seem more like a real cat.

Felicity has developed a lot too. She can actually sit herself up now, and she is often on her hands and knees trying to learn to crawl. She can't really crawl yet, but she gets around by sort of flop-rolling like a fish on land in slow motion. She really likes to be held in a standing position and has pretty good balance.
 On Saturday, we took the family to the Cathedral of the Madeline here in Salt Lake. Our objective was to finally get a look at the famous stained glass windows. I won't bore you with the details, but I thought you might like to see some pictures.

The rose window pictured above was Clarisse's favorite. My window if choice was the one shown below.

 I have one funny experience to share from our visit to the cathedral. When we first walked inside, Evelyn seemed nervous and clung tight. After she got comfortable, she started looking around and saying "sacrifice?" I have no idea where she got that from. I think that it's a word that she associates with Jesus. Or maybe it was the altars. Anyway, she surprises us.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

meditation chapel, memory grove park, Salt Lake City, UT, downtown
Here's just a short post about our visit to the meditation chapel in Memory Grove Park. The park is just east of Capitol Hill in a ravine, and it is full of memorials to fallen soldiers. The meditation chapel is a memorial as well and was funded by the parents of a solder who died in World War II. The terraced area around the chapel has engraved stones with the names of local soldiers who gave their lives in World War II, and the chapel itself is closed most of the time.
Meditation Chapel interior, poem, Salt Lake City, UT
 Clarisse and I herd that the chapel would be open for a couple of hours today, so we went to check it out. The chapel is small and only contains one room, but it is an impressive space nonetheless. The interior is all marble, and there is one large bench facing this engraved wall at the front.
Meditation Chapel, interior, windows, Salt Lake City, UT, memory grove park
 The most beautiful part of the chapel was the stained glass windows. There are four windows, and each one is dedicated to a branch of the military.
Meditation Chapel, interior, windows, Salt Lake City, UT, memory grove park

Meditation Chapel, interior, ceiling, Salt Lake City, UT, memory grove park
 The high ceiling was a sight as well. I didn't get a picture of the marble floor, but the floor and the ceiling have a similar design.

Anyway, it's just a small little place, but I thought that those of you who visited the park with us on Memorial Day might be interested in seeing the interior of the chapel.