46 years and only 30 to go!

Yes, although we don't look old enough, Alan and I celebrated our 46th year Anniversary on May 10th.  Last year we were still relatively new to the mission and didn't dare leave our assigned area.  We have since learned that the Mission Pres. encourages travel within the mission, so this year we took an anniversary trip.  It will be our last trip until we trip home.  We traveled to see our favorite part of the mission, Slovenia.  

We went back to our favorite castle (and there are many many castles in Slovenia) the Predjama Castle and then 9 miles up the road we went to the Postojna Cave. This cave is one of the largest in the world with huge interior rooms inside...rooms like ballrooms.  A train takes you into the cave for about 8 kilometers after which you walk quit a bit.  It was a nice walk except at the beginning there was a lot of climbing (During the climb, I didn't see anything around me for concentrating on breathing).  There were some amazing stalagmites and stalactites.  The cave was well lite and touristy but amazing to see.

What they call a train...but more like a Disneyland ride.

A huge white Stalagmite that is really pretty

The yellow coloring is from the lighting.

 The Predjama Castle is wonderful but I have talked about it in past blogs but will include this picture to remind you of it's beauty.

You can go through the castle back into the cave which extends for several miles.

Alan, being the geologist that he is, says that Slovenia is known for the many caves and has some of the largest in the world.

We also traveled to Lake Bled, but this time continued on to a lake situated above Lake Bled that was just as beautiful.  The country side is indescribable as to it's beauty and greenness.

You can see from the area around the lake that there are lush forests

We also drove to where the Sava River, that is so huge here, originates as just a stream and back to Lake Bled.  It was so busy with tourists on this Sat. that we didn't stop but continued back to Ljublijana to spend some time in the Center.

Slovenia is much more modernized and clean compared to Serbia.  We saw several castles and wish that we had more time to poke around.  We did stop as a castle that is truly picturesque from the auto-put.  It turned out that it is now Hotel Grad Morrice.

View from Auto-put

I always thought entrances to castles were bigger...there is a large inner courtyard.

We had a relaxing adventure and will always treasure the beautiful country that is here in the Balkans.  Very seldom to you hear about people wanting to take a trip to the Balkans, and yet it is truly a beautiful place.  I am so thankful that we have had this opportunity.

Our little branch is doing well except we lost Sister Matthews who was transferred to the mission office in Zagreb because of reoccurring knee pain and swelling.  They have not been able to find the cause yet but think that it is a result of over-use. She goes home the end of July, so will probably finish her mission in the mission office.  This has been hard on her because she is a hard working devoted Sister.  But I told her not to feel bad because she has already worked as hard as two missionaries while being here.  We got a Sister Sturtevant from California and Sister Palmer is still here for at least another 3 weeks.  She is a trooper!

As usual I am having problems getting more pictures to upload and so I will finish this Blog and do another one soon with more continued pictures.

We hope everyone had a delightful Mother's Day.  No matter the country, Mother's are important and special.  They not only shape our lives but they shape our countries.  We may not all teach the same things, but generally, we love our children and families the same way.  May God's love be with all the woman of the world.