Today, we visited Bro. Keck, "My brother from another mother"....

.....at his business.  We had no idea that he was a furrier.  He told us that he started in this work when he was 17 years old and today he is 82.  He does some unbelievable work

JoAnn looks even more beautiful....

....in fur even though neither one of us like fur.

Bro. Keck is a humble man and you would never know....

......that he is a very successful businessman.

The price of this one mink coat....

.....is $30,000.  I saw the price tag myself.

Back in January we painted some boards....

....we need at the Archives.  Some of the over spray landed on Urs's driveway.  JoAnn has scrubbed this with all kinds of cleaning agents and we even borrowed a power washer to make it look better.

On our trip to France today.....

....we have to pass the Swiss/France border and there were no guards around.

Their local train system....

.....is right in the middle of the streets.

Some of these local trains pull right up next to you....

 

We saw this very unusual steer today....

.....not sure what kind it is....but it does need a hair cut.

On the way home, we stopped and visited....

....our best friend Booke and helped her unload her new porch chair.

Rain makes the grass grow, so the cows can eat it....

.....and make the milk for "SWISS CHOCOLATE"  which JoAnn doesn't eat.

Our gracious hosts are.....

....Anita and Urs Burgi.  Urs and I are 2nd cousins.  Our great grandfather is Wilhelm Burgi born on the 3rd of October 1859 in Egnach, Thurgau, Switzerland.  They own the chalet that we live in and live in the other half.  They are the BEST neighbors you could possibly have.

Because we do not have a building in the Stake large enough...

....we have to rent this convention center twice a year for our conferences.

Another picture from Stake Conference today....

....L to R:  Sis. Savray, Eld. Rae, Ogee, Me, JoAnn, Brooke and Shannon in front.  Thanks to Ogee for this picture.  It was a great conference and was very uplifting.

Here is my "brother from another mother".....

.....we are the best of friends with his little English and my little French.

This pretty much describes my week......

 

....actually packed up all the camera equipment on Monday, went to the Temple on Tuesday, worked around the chalet on Wednesday, did home/visiting teaching & helped member with her Family History on Thursday, helped the missionaries give a lesson on Friday and Saturday/Sunday is Stake Conference meetings.

Another grocery store Swiss meat....

....check out in the lower left of this picture of the kind of meat this is.

After shoveling out of 8" of new snow....

 

....we traveled to Frauenfeld, Switzerland to visit Anita's parents.  They have been living in the same condo for over 50 years.  This is where Anita grew up.

Before dinner we met with one of my Dad's 1st cousins....

 

....she is Berty Egger.  She is 90 years old and knew my great grandmother/father.  She told us stories of them and said that my great grandmother only had one tooth when she was older.  She did develop very strong gums in order to eat.

Three Burgis in Switzerland.....

.....we three are 2nd cousins:  Urs, Sylvia and Bill Burgi

Anita Burgi, JoAnn Burgi & Sylvia (Burgi) Candrian.....

We finished my birthday with a 4 course meal....

.....at Sylvia and Guido Candrian's home in Saint Gallen, Switzerland.  She is a real chef.

Who would have thought that on April 20th....

....that we would get snow....???

April 19th snow storm....

....it was 80 degrees here this week, and we came home to this.

Woke up to 8" of new snow this morning....

 

....never had to shovel snow on April 20th before.

This is our "little" ferry" boat that took us back and forth.....

 

.... from France to Jersey Island (UK)  The top of the front of this ship is covered with solar panels for energy.  It carries 300+ people plus cars and trucks.  It's about a 35 mile trip and takes 1 hr 20 minutes.

It rained 4 out of 5 days that we were on the Island....

.....but we were able to walk almost everywhere we needed to go.

But.....we spent most of our time indoors......

 

.....at the Historical Society, Registrar's Office and Jersey Island Archives.  They were not only friendly but very helpful.  JoAnn's second and third great grandmothers joined the Church here and immigrated to Utah, in the 1800s.  We found the family grave plot after a lot of searching.

This is our little Bed & Breakfast....

....place for what else-----breakfast.  See next picture.

This is a typical English breakfast....

   ....egg, hash browns, cooked tomato, sausage, ham and mushrooms.

In our little Bed & Breakfast room.....

 

.....for some reason the outlet was 7 feet up on the wall.  There was another one just waist high.  Who knows why?

Here is a typical 2 lane road.....

.....going from one village to another.  This is a TWO lane road.

We left Switzerland (to travel to Jersey Island) a day early so we could visit some castles....

.....and this is the only one we saw, and it was under reconstruction and closed.

While traveling through France....

.....we saw lots of trees with mistletoe, but this one had the most.

In France we saw several nuclear reactors....

France derives over 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy.  France is the world's largest net exporter of electricity due to its very low cost of generation, and sells over 3 billion Euros (almost $5 billion) worth per year.  This is instead of buying oil from the Middle East.

On our way to Jersey Island....

....we stopped in Normandy, France to visit the US military war museum.

The tour through the memorial was emotional....

D-Day statistics......

The price of Freedom.....

I think this picture says it all......

Over 9000 US military people are buried at this cemetary.....

 

.....near Normandy, France.

Before getting on our ferry to Jersey.....

.....we had to stop and wait for this ship to get through our drawbridge.

This is the 114,719th page.....

....of the 332nd book at the Fribourg Archives.  COMPLETED!!

Bro. Spaltro invited us to lunch.....

.....but he didn't tell us that his wife was on a trip.  He cooked the whole meal on his own and it was delicious.  He was born in Italy but has lived in Switzerland for many years.  He speaks Italian, French, German and English.  He is a counselor to our Branch President.  He is a very kind man.

Fanny is my Dad's 1st cousin and one of his favorites.....

.....I first met her in 1959 and she loved coming to the US and shopping at Walmart.

Visiting Fanny at the rest home....

....Anita (behind Fanny) and Willy my second cousin.  He is Fanny's nephew and Godson.  Today, April 6th was her 97th birthday. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she just smiled.

I'll bet you never had raisin juice, (Jus de raisin)...

.....funny though.....it taste a lot like grape juice.  Go figure.

Marco is my favorite 2nd cousin, once removed....ready for his Easter dinner.

This is a typical Easter Sunday dinner....

....Urs (my cousin) made this from his Mother's original recipe.

Morning sun, just hitting the tops of the mountain.....

 ....beautiful view from our chalet windows.