The Sanders come for a visit

We  LOVE having our children come for a visit - But this was really an adventure...since we're currently living in this tiny one-bedroom/ one-bath apartment on the 16th floor in downtown Montreal.  So, we gave Lindsay & Cameron our bedroom with Colby on an air mattress on the floor and Cambria in her pack-n-play crib all in the same bedroom.  We slept on air mattresses in the living room.  The fight for the bathroom was...every man for himself! ha! Even though it was fun, it was hard for us since we couldn't take time off of serving in the office to show them around much. The first day after they arrived they joined all the other Senior Couples on our already planned trip to Ottawa for the Tulip Festival:

Lft to Right:  The Allens, Sister Mahaffey, The Nobles &  The LeVitres.

First step was the Parliament Building (above).  We were so anxious to tour the building, having missed it when Misty was here... But, alas, there was a demonstration going on in front of the building so they closed all the tours! RATS!

The tulips planted out front were a vibrant red!

It was a beautifully bright day! Here's Lindsay holding Cambria (in the front-pack carrier) and Cameron holding Colby.

Colby was disappointed, though... He thought the tulips should SMELL !

According to the story - Canada sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters in 1945 during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. In gratitude, they sent 100,000 tulip bulbs. Apparently they have sent 10,000 tulips bulbs every year since.  After having seen the gorgeous tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point last year, I was really excited to see these. Unfortunately - these red ones planted in front of the Parliament Bldg. were the MOST we saw!  We heard that the squirrels had eaten alot of the bulbs this year...who knew?  So walked around the Parliament Building to show everyone. Colby kept busy climbing on all the statues...




But, even tho we were stopping to let Colby climb onto &
jump off of everything in sight, we DID have to stop for
"OTHER" people sometimes while they goofed off.

We walked over to Major's Hill - where again, there were only a few patches of tulips:

But the tulips we DID find were so beautful...

                                                                    

Colby burned out on the flowers, but he just LOVED being with Papa! either sitting ON....

                 or.. of course, jumping ONTO....




 

After walking for 2 hours, not seeing many tulips, getting hotter, and more & more tired, we were ready to stop for lunch.

Colby started out at the restaurant like this:

But before the ordered food even arrived, he was like this:

It was while we were eating that we got a call from the Mission President telling us that Brooke had gone into labor. Brooke's water broke prematurely at 27 weeks (April) and they put her into the hospital until the baby came. Since this was MUCH too early for the baby to be born, we had been having MANY family fasts and prayers. She lasted until 32 weeks. Later that night - on Sat. May 5 at 8:51 pm little Ashlyn Elizabeth Monroe was born. She was 3 lbs 15 oz.

Later into the night the nurses in the NICU had problems with an IV and it caused no circulation in
her extremities. It turned her arms and legs purplish-black.  This began a whole new round of fasting and prayers. She went down to 3 lbs 7 oz. but she was a fighter. Through all the test yet to come and more IV problems, she did wonderfully and is our healthy, MIRACLE baby!

Here she is next to her dad- Chad's hand to show how tiny she was! We have so much to be thankful for and have been blessed indeed by her presence!   WHAT A DAY!!!

Our office entertainment

We serve in the office with another couple, Elder & Sister Levitre. Elder Levitre is over all the cars in the mission: new ones, old ones, accidents, repairs, maintenance, etc. So, we affectionately refer to him as The CAR CZAR. He and Elder Mahaffey often go out together to either get cars, or furniture, or check apts, etc.  So, we decided that Elder Mahaffey needed a cool name too.  We decided that since he is in charge of the finances, we'd refer to him as the CASH COUNT.  One day, while at the dollar store, they decided they needed hats to complete their duties... so here they are:

And then, of course, there is Andre Bourret.  He works with the FM Group in our building's maintenance. There is absolutely NOTHING that he can't fix.  Every Friday he takes the guys and they go to lunch as some unusual place in Montreal. Many times it's an El Salvadoran restaurant.
Today, he came in with his pet parrot on his shoulder.  Just some of the many entertaining sights we enjoy in the office!

There's never a dull moment around here...

Our WALK to work...

Today we walked to work. Now that the weather is nicer, we can just do the 25 minute walk and at least enjoy getting out of doors SOME! Let me show you what we see as we walk:First off there is a huge mural painted onto the side of the building just across the street. (Of course the street is extremely busy, so if it's a little blurry... just know I was dodging the traffic to get this!)

Then, as we walk, we see the rows of bikes for rent. This is a big business here. You can pay for either  one trip, or one day, or by the month. You pick them up where you are, ride them to wherever you want, then just drop the bike off into a similar rack & it records the time, etc. Bikers are also REALLY crazy drivers... they seem to have NO rules they have to follow & driving in a car means you also have to watch out for all the bikers. And now that summer is here, they are more prolific than ever!  So, there are the bikes like this:

But MOST of the bikes we pass just look like this: attached to just about any post or fence around.

On the way we pass a little fish pond. Apartments here a built VERY close to the street, so there isn't much room for landscaping out front, but they have managed to make a cute little pond.

The fish are hiding at the back, under the rocks... probably because the squirrels try to get them:

We just love to see the different styles of architecture on each apartment building as we pass:

And we love to see the amazing and intricate iron scrollwork on the railings and balconies:

We pass a huge City of Montreal building-built in either 1847 (which is on the left side of
the building.. or 1896 which is on the right side?)

We also pass a cute outdoor market - selling plants, flowers, and food:

Of course, as we walk there are constant reminders of the students' protests. Their symbol is a red square piece of fabric. You see them everywhere...people wear them, paint streets signs solid red, put red pieces of fabric on statues and sign posts, and... hang them from their balconies as a sign of support:

And, of course... every walk needs to have protective gargoyles that must be passed:

Then, just as we are almost there.... we encounter IRON MAN!!

You know, in this city there is alot of noise, traffic and people. There's not much in the way of grass or trees, but it's a lovely walk to work.  I guess there is beauty everywhere, if you just look for it!

Our trip to work

While we are here in Montreal we have several ways to get to work. We can always drive, but we are close, so we've tried some other options. First: We take the Metro. This is wonderful because we don't even have to walk outside! We just go downstairs to the main floor of our apartment building and we have an indoor walkway into the Metro. This is our building. We live on the 16th floor.

We take the escalators down:

Go through the turnstile entrance:

We put our cards down onto the electronic readers on top of the turnstiles for admittance:

Then we jump onto a Metro train, which come about every 3-5 minutes during the week. There are 4 different lines running through Montreal. Luckily when we get onto the Orange Line, we only have to go 2 stops and we are at the Laurier station. We get off and it is directly across the street from the Mission Office.

But here's a kick:  We aren't actually OLD enough to qualify for the senior discount cards!! Imagine that! The rest of the senior couples who are over 65 get a monthly unlimited pass for $45. If we had to buy the monthly unlimited pass it would be $75. each. So, it's really too expensive for us to ride the metro all the time. We decided that when the weather gets good enough we'll probably just walk.
(More on that in the next post!)
We go up to the 3rd floor and unlock the front doors about 8am each day.

My desk is on the right. The one with the big chart of our baptisms on it.

Roger has his desk in his office as Financial Secretary in charge of money and apartments.

We have a large supply room where we store all the office supplies and all the Missionary supplies like Books of Mormon, Bibles, Pamphlets, DVDs, etc.  Luckily for me - the other senior couple - Sister Levitre is in charge here.

We also have the President's office. I opened the transfer board so you could see part of the huge board that he uses when he does the transfers. Each missionary has a card with their picture on it. White are French missionaries, blue are Spanish, and yellow are sisters and couples.

We also have a huge conference room and a bathroom... When Elder Packer was here he told us we have one of the nicest mission offices he's seen. It is only 1 year old, so it's nice & new! 

Welcome to the Allens

We had our Bienvenue (Welcome) Dinner at the Mission Home to welcome the Allens.

All the senior couples get together for dinner at the Mission Home and we get to know the new couple or maybe say goodbye to departing couples.

From Rt. around the Room: Mahaffeys, Cheneys, Thibaults, Levitres, Nobles, (Allens and Cannons are not in picture)  We enjoy having the Thibaults come - They are in charge of the Center for Young Adults up in Quebec and so don't get to come down very often since it's about a 3 hour drive. (They are doing what we were originally called to do - but we see the wisdom in them being in charge there! The Lord definitely knows how to run his kingdom)

Easter Dinner

HAPPY EASTER at the Noble's apartment.

We all got together for Easter Dinner. From front left around the table: LeVitres, Mahaffeys, Nobles, Allens, Galbraiths (Temple President & wife)

The Allens just arrived last night. They are from Gilbert Arizona and are here to replace the Florences who went home in February. They are the Records Preservation Missionaries. They go to the archives in downtown Montreal each day and digitally take pictures of all their documents. They send them into Salt Lake which makes a digital CD and sends a copy back to the National Archives. It's a great deal for them because they certainly do not have the time, money or manpower to make those records into a digital format so they are available to the public. Still, I just don't know if I could stand being in a 8x10 windowless room all day, just taking pictures of old documents. I admire them. AND - this is their second mission doing that! Amazing!  Pres. & Sister Galbraith are wonderful. They live in Provo and he teaches at BYU - but mostly he is known for his time in Jerusalem. He & his family lived there for 20 years. He got his PHD at the Hebrew University & he was in charge for finding the land, and getting the BYU Jerusalem Center built. Then he was the director for like 17 years. He has given us several firesides explaining about the Arab-Israeli conflict. They are here on a mission of sorts. They were called to the be Montreal Temple President & Matron for 3 years. They will go home in October of this year. It helps us to get together for these holidays. I guess it makes us not miss our families quite so much!