"Soldiers' graves are the greatest preachers of peace."

Dad is still tired! He went to bed at 9:00 pm tonight...he's worse than mom!! He's fine while we're up and about working or sightseeing...but the second he sits down he nearly falls over dead.  Hopefully one more night will get him on track...otherwise, he'll just barely be getting used to the time zone, and then it will be time for him to go home and he'll just be messed up for a month straight.

Anyway, we got a lot of work done in the yard today. Dad cut out three or four trees and trimmed three or four bushes. I picked up the scraps. We got the cover off the pool and finished cleaning the bowling court. We still have to fix the patio and the fence around the goat's house. Other than that...we've pretty much done everything they wanted done...we work fast!

By noon, we had done all of the above. Like I said, we work fast. We ate lunch (leftovers...MWAHAHA Roger!) and then decided to go to the American cemetery in St. James (about 30 minutes away), and also the German cemetery near Mont St. Michel. 

While we were driving out to St. James, we noticed that every little village has its own church.  It's almost like the Wasatch Front and LDS meeting houses except these are 300 year old, stone, and Catholic.

Dad's French is getting better. His driving is outstanding! You should see him blinker in the roundabouts...Parfait!!! Today he called the Boucherie the "butchery"...maybe he was just translating the word and not trying to read it? Yeah. I'm sure that was it. What's funny is that he says the words in English  but with his French accent. So it was like..."boot-cher-eeeee." I can't explain via text. If you know dad you probably get what I mean...While we were working in the front yard, a truck driver stopped to ask me for directions. I kindly said, "Je ne parle pas le francais," he said "oh, merci," and went on his way. Another stopped and asked dad for directions, he said "English." like I told him to. We worked on Je ne parle pas le francais yesterday and it was kind of a failure. But instead of confusing the French by responding in English...it's better to just say one simple word that they'll understand and know what you mean..that's what I've discovered in my travels anyway. 

Dad wanted to stop by the French "Home Depot" for "fun." You know...just to see what a shovel would cost...for "fun." So dad...

We accidentally passed the American Cemetery and had to turn around after about 5-10 minutes. When we got to the cemetery we had no idea how we missed it as there as a huge sign in the front as well as two American flags flying high right by the road. We're so French that we don't even notice them, I guess...

The cemetery was beyond fantastic. Seriously...it's probably one of the coolest things I've seen. There were rows and rows of crosses, and an ocasional Jewish Star. Each headstone had the name, division, and home state of the American soldiers. There were about 4,000 grave sin this cemetery plus almost 400 "missing" names listed.  The missing soliders get a bronze rosette by their name when they are found...we only saw 3 or 4 of those among the 400.  The grounds were very well kept. All the lines were straight...clean cuts. The flower gardens will be beautiful come summertime. There was a memorial church with very motivating/inspiring quotes as well as informative maps that amazed both dad and I. They showed the Allies moving in on the German territory and slowly taking France.  It took a lot longer than I ever knew...it was like 2-3 months just to get from the D day beaches to Paris. Soooooooooo many people died. We're going to Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery there on Saturday. It's 4 times the size of the one we saw today...it should be pretty moving! We visited the visitor's center after walking around the grounds, and there was an American army veteran that talked to us, gave us a free movie and many brochures and told us about the cemeteries in France. He was super nice! He also told us that we should go to the visitor's centers first because they treat Americans kinda special and give them a tour and a nice presentation of the cemetery. So there's some good advice for you all! He gave us the name of a worker at the cemetery near Omaha Beach so we will see what happens there. There was a purple heart medallion, pictures of the other possible medals, and a dedicatory something signed by Eisenhower. There was also a pretty pathetic picture of Obama. The label was a piece of paper so they must be pulling for Romney...then they'll get a nice plaque or something.

Shoot...dad's computer just died. Back to the stupid iPod. So, where was I? Ah yes...we left that great cemetery to find the German one. We got a little lost, but it was enjoyable because the countryside was beautiful. We decided that a sheep will be the next addition to the Gardner household. There were so many cute little lambs, and I just fell in love with them!! They're so cute! Dad wants a sheep more than a goat so that we can put my niece and nephews on them and have races! Haha!

We finally found the German cemetery. It's built up on a hill and is two stories of around 11,000 German soldiers. They cremated their bodies so the 11,000 fit in a place less than half the size of the American cemetery. It was a little more dark and gloomy, but it was only funded by donations and charity whereas the American cemetery is well funded by the US government. I liked the brochure at the German cemetery because it had stories about individual soldiers. Yeah, the Germans were the "bad guys," but there were SO many innocent victims on their side too. When you get down to an individual level with the soldiers it makes it all the more real. There was a great view of Mont St Michel up top.

We made it home and dad went out and burned some stuff while I got dinner in the oven. I then went for a run for the first time in a real long time. I went 2.5 miles so I haven't gotten tooooo out of shape! It felt so good!!!

Shout out to Rachel and Kylie. I dibs not setting or clearing the table for at least a month. I have been cooking every meal, setting the table for every meal, clearing the table after every meal, and doing the dishes after every meal for toooo long. I need a break. :)

We had lemon garlic chicken, red potatoes, and green beans. It was easy to make and alright tasting. The beans were too hard, but it was less of a failure than the pork yesterday. Progress!! We had chocolate chip cookies for dessert, but his oven is weird and they were bubbling in the oven and turned out too crispy. I can't wait to shop at an American grocery store with American ingredients!!

After Roger's ramblings (like 45 minutes) dad went to bed and I watched football with Roger. Tomorrow is our last workday! Neither dad not I can wait to get to Paris!!

I wish I could label the pictures for you. I will in the morning if you want to come back in eight hours and look then. :)

U.S.A. Stained glass window

Mosaic map of the battles in France

Representing Utah

Stuck behind a tractor during our coutryside journey

German Cemetery

The front of the memorial

USA

Cemetery and Memorial

Pathetic and seemingly temporary picture of Obama ;)

Jogging view

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my cause, I have kept the faith

Every little village has a church, cemetery, and WW II memorial

In the memorial

German cemetery

Weird trees

The bronze rosette

I want a lambie!

Baaaaaaaa

Representing Nebraska!

German cemetery

Memorial

Purple heart

Jewish gravestone

French countryside

German cemetery

French countryside

French countryside with Mont St Michel in the distance

Eisenhower's sig

The huge sign we somehow missed

Amazing



Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God



I love America

St George church

Memorial