The Agle Jrs. In London – Day 7

Today, we made a quick visit to Trafalgar Square to see the large monuments up close that we had seen from the bus tour. Then, we tubed to Euston Station, where we split up briefly. The women went to the shopping district of Milton Keynes and met up with Nana and Grandpa.

I went to Bushey to visit the old university where the family once lived (a long time ago in a country far away). It still has the monument on the corner (International University – Europe), but it has fallen into disrepair.
Although blocked to traffic, I slipped through the front gate and found a man named Ted, who works under Dave Rogowski, the caretaker of the property. He remembered hearing my name (actually Dad’s name), from both Dave and his father-in-law, Norm Ballantine (Dave is, ironically, visiting the U.S. right now). He kindly showed me around and let me take a number of pictures. The campus has changed hands a number of times over the years, but it looks like the currently intended use is going to stick, since they are actually in the process of construction.
Our old house in the front corner of the campus is being gutted (see picture) and renovated as some high-end flats (in the 1.4 million to 1.5 million pound neighborhood, that’s about $3 million U.S.). Kinda sad to see, but I’m going to start saving my pennies.
I then made a brief visit to Watford, which has been transformed into a completely unrecognizable indoor mall.
Then I made my way to Leighton Buzzard (a town much more pleasant than it sounds) where I met up with the women again and we had dinner with the Hills (Linda and Andrew), the couple we first met at the temple and had once hosted during their visit to the states when we lived in Glendale.

The Agle Jrs. in London (Paris, today, actually) – Day 6

Today, we played Americans in Paris.
We got up ridiculously early (4:30 a.m.) and took the Eurostar from London’s Waterloo Station to Paris’ Gare du Nord in just under three hours, thanks to this marvelous new invention they have called the Chunnel (a tunnel under the English channel). Very smooth, very fast.
Once in Paris, we decided to skip the tourist bus and instead hit the Metro. First stop was Notre Dame cathedral. It was fun to experience it with the girls. They are the perfect age to enjoy it with wonder and awe. Danielle had just finished studying it in school and was able to share with us much of the detail about the various levels, styles, and meanings.
Then we walked over to the Louvre, which, as a sort of terribly amusing joke, is closed on Tuesdays. Who knew?! Still, from the exterior, still a pretty incredible edifice. About as immense as they come. Also enjoyed the glass pyramids in the courtyard. Then we were off to Trocadero, where as we rounded the corner, it was a treat to watch the girls mouths drop open as they viewed the Eiffel Tower in its full height for the first time.
From there, it was lots of hoofing it around the city. We saw the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees (including time spent in McDonalds and the Disney store), cathedral of the Madeline, and the Opera. Our feet were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to Gare du Nord for our return journey at about 7 p.m.
We got back to our hotel around 9:30 p.m., exhausted but happy.

The Agle Jrs. in London – Day 5

This morning, we were Americans in London. We picked up a double decker tour bus, climbed to the top deck and sat at the front, beneath the covered portion (it was a bit chilly today).
We saw the exteriors of all the sights – Big Ben, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street (see picture), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, etc. It was a treat, although some of us were still fighting jet lags and missed portions of the tour.
In the evening, we took in a relatively new musical, “Mary Poppins.” We purchased “on the day of” tickets at one of the “just off of” Leicester Square ticket booths. Not quite half price (35 pounds versus 42.50), and not quite completely unobstructed views, but hey – we were still inside the theater and saw the show. It was a delightful mixture of the familiar and new, with plenty of fun special effects.

The Agle Jrs. in London - Day 4

We awoke early (again) and took the train to Luton, where we were met my Nana & Grandpa, who kindly ferried us to Dunstable for church in their new chapel. Dunstable, where Suzanne was raised, is 20 minutes from Luton and until 2 years ago, never had a chapel of its own. It’s a smaller building, but very full. It was good to see some old friends, such as Robert Sterling, a quiet lad we knew from our old days at Watford who has since been on a mission, married Debbie Lloyd, and they now have 10 kids, all originals. We also met Bishop Jex, who married us, Keith Foster, who’s in the bishopric, Gwen Boughton, who taught Suzanne in Seminary and also taught us gospel doctrine, Graham McMullen, Glynnis Shacklock, John (Suzanne’s former bishop) and Janet Graham, Cherry (a British African American who confessed to having had a crush on Ken) (don’t know her last name), Heather Baker, and many others. They were all very friendly and welcoming.
After church, Nana and Grandpa ferried us to their home, where we had a lovely tea with Uncle Shep and Auntie Thelma, and old friends Chris Avis and her daughter Victoria, for whom Suzanne had been a nanny many years ago.
Then we made the windy road, roundabout-laden, 50-minute journey to Stevenage, where I presented a fireside to a very full chapel of very attentive and appreciate listeners. I have never felt so welcomed. It was fun to see a bunch more familiar faces, including Andrew and Linda Hill (again), Steve and Cathy Kilby, Helen and Theresa Piper, Steve Howell (a member of the stake presidency and married to Theresa Piper), Dave and Jenny Brown (Dave, ever the kidder, said “Hello, Dennis. I thought we were expecting your son, Dennis Jr.”), Cathy Scott (who had wonderful things to say about Ken), her daughters Kay and Jo Rodwell (maiden names), Ian and Cynthia Waller. It was an especially enjoyable evening.
Afterwards, the folks drove us to the Stevenage station, and we got back to our hotel around 10 p.m. A good day in England.

The Agle Jr.’s in London – Day 3

We got up and hit the road fairly early this morning. We took the train to Lingfield station. Upon arrival, there was only one cab, and I asked if he could take us to the London Temple. He said sure. As we started climbing into the car, I told him I realized I called it the London Temple, even though we’re nowhere near London. He said not to worry about – he’s been taking you people to the London Temple for 13 years.
The girls were able to do baptisms with a group of youth from Bristol. Suzanne and I made it to 10:30 a.m. session. The temple has had a significant enhancement to the celestial room from when we were last in there. Truly beautiful. We talked for a little bit about what we would say to ourselves if through some weird time warp we found ourselves sitting in the same room with our 25-year-younger selves. We decided it would probably be something about hanging on – it’s going to be an interesting ride.
On the way out, we met the temple president, Rowland Elvidge, and his wife, Barbara. We had a nice chat (he asked how you were doing, folks). We also met some old friends, Andrew and Linda Hill. We were young adults together, but they have since turned into their parents – looks-wise. But apparently that goes both ways. Andrew mentioned that he thought perhaps I was my father.
After our temple session, we had arranged to visit a young family that lives near the temple and are big supporters of the Liken series, Don and Sarah McFarlane. We had never met them before, but I had traded e-mails with him. They live on this gorgeous estate about a mile from the temple. There’s the manor house, where Sarah’s parents live. They purchased it in 1999 and have been renovating it ever since. Don and Sarah’s house was once the place where the dairy cows were kept. It’s on this estate so large, the driveway has a speed limit sign on it. (I’m thinking about putting one of those up on our driveway, too.) They have three beautiful children: Brogan, Theo and Reuben. They were so appreciative of the Liken series and what it has done for their family. It was actually very touching and humbling to hear them talk about it, and I felt the need to pass it along to everyone in the Liken family. They were kind enough to feed us and give us a ride back to the train station.
Everybody is so tired, and we didn’t get back until about 7 p.m., so we decided to make it an early night in the hopes of getting closer to "on schedule” tomorrow.

The Agle Jr.’s in London (Days 1-2)

Ken drove us to the airport (bless his heart) Thanksgiving morning. We left the house around 8:15 a.m. We flew from SLC to Atlanta. In Atlanta, there was a problem with the plane that led to a 2-hour delay. The girls used the time to play a killer game of Uno (see picture). We took off and “enjoyed” a bumpy ride most of the way to England, which, of course, didn’t thrill any of us, least of all Suzanne.
When we arrived, we were met by Suzanne’s parents, John & Rosemary, who were there to greet us and lend us a couple of very handy items (i.e., a cell phone). We were also met by our hired driver, David, who squeezed us into a 5-seater with a tiny trunk and drove us for nearly two hours from Gatwick to London (traffic is not pleasant around London these days), where we checked into our hotel, Arran House (see other picture), which is located in the west end, kitty corner from where Suzanne used to work when we first started dating (University College Hospital).
We did our best to recover from the journey, then bought some half-price tix to see “Stomp.” Just got back. It was an amazing show. I think it will provide much inspiration for our Jonah show. I’m excited to see what happens to our version of Ninevah.
Now, it is just past 11 p.m. on Friday, and we are all pretty exhausted. It feels like the longest day, since there never seemed to be a clear separation of when Thursday ended and Friday began.
Will try to write more tomorrow.

Pics from Advance Utility Company Picnic

Well I finally made it! I have been diligently working on figuring out how to add comments and create posts for the past few days with the hopes of making onto the Family Blog by Thanksgiving.

I thought I would share a few photos from this summer's company picnic at Advance Utility Design, Inc. I bet you guys didn't know Erik was a surfer. For those of you that I have never met (I am hugging Nathan in the picture in the water), I look forward to meeting you at the family reunion.

Now that I have this figured out, I will share more soon. Thank you Dennis Jr. for your encouragement. All our love, Kristin, Erik, Ryan, Travis, Nathan and Lindsey.

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT

WONDERFUL NEWS!!! We have a lawyer in the family. Robert Sanders III has passed the bar on his first attempt. The exam was in June and during this busy time he was in the midst of moving houses, expecting a baby and working!! Congratulations to Robert and Melissa for this exceptional accomplishment.

Before he was a movie producer...

... he was a star of the stage. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Mr. Star Child himself, Kenny Agle!

Samuel premiere

It was fun to see family and friends at our premiere of "Samuel the Lamanite," Nov. 2 at Thanksgiving Point. Thanks to Mom and Dad for coming. Becky and Tom came, too. We had a screening for cast and crew on Nov. 4 at the school where we shot the modern-day opening and closing scenes for the movie. Mark and his "special friend" Heather came.

It's a pretty fun show and it still makes me cry. Usually. (Okay, I admit that at the second screening during the cast and crew night, after having seen the movie at least daily for the last couple of weeks, the tears were all gone. But they had a pretty good run.)

Hope everybody enjoys. And I hope everybody has a great Christmas season. Merry Christmas!