A Visit

Last Saturday, we were so excited to get together with our friends, Ben and Camille Pedersen, from Logan! Ben's dad is from Denmark and both of his parents have been here in Denmark the past few months working in the temple. So, Ben and Camille came over to visit them and we were lucky enough to get to spend a day with them. I can't even adequately describe how nice it was to get to see familiar faces from home. We met them on Saturday morning and visited with them for a while. They were so nice to bring over an entire suitcase filled with stuff that my mom had gathered and sent over to us. It was like Christmas! We then headed over to the temple to do a session with them and Ben's parents. Ben's mom was so kind to set up a babysitter for us! It was so nice to make it to the temple. We both really enjoyed the peaceful spirit we experienced there. The Copenhagen temple is really neat. Dedicated in 2004, it is only the 2nd temple to be built from an existing building. It use to be a church building that was built in 1931. There are some beautiful murals inside the temple that we were able to see.  After leaving the temple, we collected the kids and set out to do a little exploring.  It was kind of late in the day and since everything seems to close so early here, we didn't have too many options, but we had heard that Fredricksberg Park is very nice, so thats where we headed.  We didn't have a lot of time to really explore, but what we saw was beautiful.  Frederiksberg Palace was built in the early 1700's and the park was established in conjunction with the building of the palace.  It was very scenic.  We definitely have plans to head back here again to do a bit more exploring.  The palace now holds the Royal Danish Army Officers Academy and I don't think there is any part of it that is open to the public.  That I know of.  But, the park was built to resemble the English countryside, complete with canals, small islands and winding walkways.
 It was very picturesque.  If you want to read more about Frederiksberg Palace, click here or about Frederiksberg Park, click here.
One of the little quirks in the park is what is known as the Pacifier Tree. In Denmark, when a child reaches the age of 3, they are no longer considered a baby, which includes getting rid of babyish things, such as their pacifier.  (It is very common to see older kids here with pacifiers, seriously, kids that are much older than 3!)  Anyway, they have this tradition, where the family makes a big outing to the Pacifier tree, leaving their pacifiers and often a little note or other gift to the Pacifier Fairy.  I guess many children also receive gifts back from the Pacifier Fairy.  Anyway, it was interesting.  I wish we knew more Danish, it would have been fun to read some of the letters.
By this time, we were pretty hungry, so we decided to head back to Albertslund for Kebab's(yum!), and then back to our apartment to visit for a while.  It was a very fun visit, and  we were so sad to say good-bye to Camille and Ben.  It was just so nice to see someone from home, so if anyone else wants to come and visit, we would love it!  Thanks again Camille and Ben for visiting!