Summer 2014...A Fantastic Visit From the Josh Romig Family!

At Muiderslot Castle
Elder and Zuster Romig, Joshua, Courtney, Kamille, Whitney, and Cameron Romig

When we received our call to serve a mission to the Netherlands, it didn't take long for us to start hoping for a visit from our family while we were here.  The first to visit (and hopefully not the last) was our son, Josh and his wife, Kami and grandkids, Cameron, Courtney and Whitney.  What an exciting time we had showing them part of Netherlands!

Cameron just graduated from high school, and it was a great way for the family to celebrate.  They flew into Germany, rented a car, and drove to Netherlands.  We planned to meet them in Deventer, but we were so anxious to see them that we drove to a border town called Venlo to meet them.

A picture is worth a thousand words! That hug was the sweetest feeling a mom could feel!

Just moments after seeing each other for the first time...left to right:  Cameron, Courtney, 
Elder Romig, Joshua, Whitney, Kamille, and Zuster Romig 

We drove back to Groningen by way of Deventer and took them to the beautiful molen we had discovered when we first visited this city where the Denkers family originated in Netherlands. The Denkers family was baptized in the Ijsel River that flows by Deventer and this molen.  They later immigrated to America and settled first in Ogden, Utah, then moved to Pocatello, Idaho.












After spending the night with us in Groningen, we drove through Friesland, crossed the Afsluitdijk and down to Zaanse Schaans.  It was so much fun to show them this village of Windmills!

Cameron

                                                             Courtney

Whitney

                                                                Kami

and Josh.

We spent the night in Amsterdam and headed to the Anne Frank home in the morning.  It was a special place for Whitney to visit because she had just finished reading the Diary of Anne Frank.

Whitney signing the guest registry at the Anne Frank Home.

Then we took the tram, train and bus to a medieval castle just outside Amsterdam called...

Muiderslot

Muiderslot is the #1 castle in the Netherlands and ranked #20 in all of Europe.  It was built about 1285 A.D. and is very well kept.  Besides touring rooms in the castle, there are interactive games for children (and adults) to help understand the life of a ridder (knight) or courtisans who lived there.

Then back to Amsterdam and a visit to Madame Trussard's Wax Museum...

Cameron took a close look at  Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt...

Courtney went digging for ear wax...

Whitney went for a ride with ET...

and we were all a little "creeped out" by how real Albert Einstein looked...amazing!

After another night spent in Amsterdam, we drove to the beautiful city of... Delft

We climbed the tower of Nieuwe Kerk and took some fun pictures of family and of the city below...

We discovered a wonderful antique shop and each family purchased a pair of old ice skates.

We could have purchased older skates, but the ones we decided on
were made in 1820, an important year for us to remember!

We had been watching for a special antique tulip vase to purchase as a souvenir.  It was found and became our 43rd anniversary gift to ourselves.

The owner of the shop was absolutely delightful to visit with, and we felt we had made a special friend besides having special treasures to take home!

We watched couples arrive at a church to be married and leave again about 30 minutes later while we had a delicious meal at one of the sidewalk cafes.  We didn't get a picture, but there is a tradition of the groom biking around town with his bride in the wagon on the front of the bike...which we enjoyed watching, along with plain old limosines.

Then off to Kinderdijk...

One of our favorite places to visit is Kinderdijk, where there are 18 working windmills within about a mile.  It is a peaceful and quiet place...it feels as if you've stepped back in time.  One of the molens is open to the public so you can go inside and see what it would be like to call a molen "home".  Beautiful and fascinating!

After these few wonderful, fun-filled days with Josh, Kami and the kids, we said our painful good-byes.  They headed east and south to Belgium and France while we headed north to Groningen, our JoVo's and our friends in Groningen and Leeuwarden.  What a blessing to have family visit, and a blessing to continue to serve  these wonderful Dutch people we love!

Springtime in the Netherlands Part 2...Keukenhof Gardens

Two days of unbelievable beauty...the Den Haag Temple in the morning and then Keukenhof Gardens in the afternoon.

As a young elder, 45 years ago, Elder Romig had hoped to one day bring his wife to see these beautiful gardens.  This year he had the opportunity he had dreamed of!  He realized that dream as we walked through the front gates of Keukenhof Gardens.  He wasn't able to talk for a few minutes while he got his emotions in control, and that began an afternoon of strolling through the most beautiful gardens we have ever seen.

We have so many missionaries that we needed to divide the mission into two days.  Day one is the top picture, day two is the second picture.  Most of the Senior Couples are in both pictures because we helped at the temple both days, prepared and served lunch both days and provided transportation for some missionaries to Keukenhof on both days.

Okay, be ready for about 30 pictures from about 300 taken!  There was a new and unique and beautiful design around every corner!  Color combinations were perfect and many flowers were types we had never seen before.  The pictures will do the talking for us...no captions needed!

We have several pictures of the swans.  There were 10-12 swans and they came right up to people.  There are round platforms in the water pictured below where we could take close up pictures of the swans. The elders and zusters had fun walking across the platforms (and so did we!)

We wanted a picture of us together, but there was no one there to take it.  There is always next year!

The Keukenhof Gardens are in their glory for about six weeks.  We hope you felt some of the wonder we felt as you looked at these pictures.  We can't wait to experience the gardens again next year!