Lawrence got married!

So, in my usual habit, I am behind and will spend this post telling you about what happened the last two weeks. I was back in the US for about a week and a half for my younger brother’s wedding. That’s right, on Friday, May 24, my brother Lawrence was married for time and all eternity to his wonderful fiancée (now wife) Erika in the Columbus Ohio Temple. Congratulations to you both!

If you don’t know what a temple is or how marriages work in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, never fear. We can quickly remedy this. Simply make a comment on this post, and I will happily send you a pair of young men or women to explain all about it. They do house calls and can access you almost anywhere in the world for free. Talk about service!

It was great to see my family and some close friends. In addition to my parents, all seven children were there (most importantly Lawrence). (1) Emma came from Abu Dhabi with oldest daughter Evelyn. (2) Laurel came from Boston where her forced poverty will soon end (see the congratulatory footnote at the end; sorry, you can’t steal the Lawrence/Erika wedding post limelight). (3) Careen came from St. Louis with husband Mark and son Dillon (winner of the largest nuclear family to attend amongst the siblings). (4) I was there. (5) Lawrence brought Erika (actually probably the other way around) from Provo, Utah where they are both at BYU. (6) Meara and (7) Lucien get lumped together because they’re still at home in 9^th and 8^th grades, respectively (sorry, you only get your own identity once you graduate and move out; until then, you’re part of the Barrett family; don’t worry, soon you’ll move on to start your own lonely family of one…like me).

Grandfather Barrett (Dad’s dad), Uncle Doug (Dad’s brother), and Aunt Cindi (Mom’s sister) also made the trek from Medford, Oregon; Reno, Nevada area; and Atlanta, Georgia; respectively. Interestingly enough (or depressingly enough if you’re Granddad), Granddad had to take the same number of flights (three) to get to Columbus from Medford, Oregon as I had to take from Addis (some of my flights might have been slightly longer). In addition, our very good family friend Andy Short drove in from upstate New York.

It was also nice to talk to other close friends via phone (even though this is possible from Ethiopia, it’s a lot easier without a huge time change), and I apologize that I wasn’t better about calling everyone while in the country.

The week leading up to the marriage had several activities. Wednesday night was the open house or early reception or some kind of celebration for the people who live in Columbus at my parents’ house. Following that, it was still early enough for me to head over to the Church building for Wednesday night volleyball (not something I get to play in Addis). By the way, if you want to see shocked / confused expressions on people’s faces, move to Africa and then just show up at things with no warning when you come back to visit.

Thursday was an expedition to COSI (very nice and turns out pretty expensive children’s science museum) and the bachelor party (details redacted except to say nice job to best man Phil)…nope, sorry, can’t let it go (WARNING: What follows is the type of thing that Charles will retype 4-5 times before deciding it’s appropriate; at which point, it will probably still be offensive)…who ditches out on a bachelor party four hours in because they need to go back and spend time with their wives. I’m all for marriage and children being your most important priority besides God, but we’re talking about one night before your friend’s wedding. Seriously? Anyway, you know who you are (and you don’t read this blog, so we can move on). Feel free to mail me any complaints at…oh, wait…they don’t deliver mail in Addis :)

Friday was the big day. It involved some pictures followed by the sealing in the temple followed by a couple more pictures. Overall, I have to give my thanks to the couple for making the pictures part of the wedding way, way, way, way, way less painful than at Emma’s wedding and at Careen’s wedding (I was going to go with six ways but thought that might be offensive…five’s totally okay, though, right?). Anyway, once the wedding was over, the bride and groom vamoosed, so I headed to a reception for a couple friends who were married earlier that day in the temple. Congratulations Tim and Alyssa!

Saturday was the ring ceremony and reception at this nice little park down in Cincinnati. Major props to my new sister-in-law (also my favorite…okay my only…but still my favorite) for the outrageous amount of work that she poured into this wedding. It was very nicely done and the vast majority of the work was done by Erika (Lawrence, good job showing up).

Anyway, I’m sure much nicer and more plentiful pictures are pending from Lawrence and Erika. In the meantime, I took a few below.

The before and after pictures. Look at the change! It's just like a commercial before/after picture set; make them look depressed in the first picture and happy in the second picture with lighting changes! Brilliant!

All the Barrett men who gathered for the occasion (that's right, I'm claiming Dillon as a Barrett). I put in the first picture because my eyes are closed in the second. I put in the second picture because looking at Dillon in the first followed by the second is hilarious. From left to right, Granddad, who's that...hmmm...oh right...the groom, Uncle Doug, Dad, Dillon, Charles, Lucien.

Here's Careen, Mark, and Dillon at the Wednesday night reception. Careen looks happy, Mark looks amused, Dillon looks...I don't know what that is ;)

This was supposed to be a picture of Mom, Dad, and Evelyn. Laurel saw the first picture taken and responded like a champ as you can see in the subsequent pictures (seriously, I was only going to share one of these pictures before I looked at them all and laughed out loud). Also a shout out to Cindi and Emma who are in the background for some of the pictures.

And then there were two...

Congratulatory footnote: Wanted to end with congratulations to Laurel for finishing all her residency shifts. Graduation is later this month and then the hours go way down and the pay goes way up. If it wasn’t for the eight post undergrad years it took her to get here, I might be more jealous.

Abu Dhabi...Part 3

Back to Abu Dhabi.

On Saturday, we went to visit the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, which was finished in 2007. It is the largest mosque in the UAE and the eighth largest in the world. It is large enough to accommodate 40,000 worshipers and cost about $550 million to build.

The courtyard is about 180,000 square feet and with its floral design is considered the largest marble mosaic in the world. You can see part of the floral design under Emma, Evelyn, and Hyrum; clearly it was very, very bright. Thanks to a similar reflection in my buddy Scott's blog when he visited, I remembered to bring sunglasses. It's possible that I forgot to mention this to everyone else, though. Oops...

Outside, there are some beautifully manicured gardens with these large glass domes.

Like I said...it was bright.

Dress code.

Inside the entrance of the mosque, they have a model of the mosque...very meta.

They have the names (in Arabic and English) and times of the six daily prayers posted.

The mosque has seven imported chandeliers from Germany. The largest, seen below, is the second largest chandelier in a mosque and the third largest in the world (33 ft diameter and 49 ft height).

The main prayer hall (capacity: 7,000) has the world's largest carpet. It was made by Iran's Carpet Company, is 60,570 square feet, weighs 35 tons, and its 2,268,000,000 knots were made by 1,200-1,300 knotters over about 2 years. It is made primarily of wool (coming from New Zealand and Iran).

The 99 names of Allah are featured on the wall.

And with all that, Hyrum was most excited about the water.

Me in the doorway into the courtyard.

We also saw the Capital Gate building (aka the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi), which is the "world's furthest leaning man-made tower" with an 18 degree westward lean. The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans at about 4 degrees, and something called the Leaning Tower of Suurhusen leans at about 5.2 degrees. Therefore, Capital Gate doesn't just beat the competition; it blows it out of the water. The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Leaning Tower of Suurhusen are both unintentionally tilted, while Capital Gate was built to lean on purpose. Therefore, the Leaning Tower of Suurhusen still holds the record of most leaning tower that is unintentionally tilted, which sounds like a sore loser trying to come up with another competition category so they can still win something. Really, you're now flagging the fact that your structural tilt is ineptitude instead of a conscious decision? If you look closely (doesn't really require you to look that closely to see the reflection), you can tell that we saw the building through the car window.

On Sunday, we went to a huge mall in Dubai before dropping me off at the airport. It's a weird feeling to be shopping on a Sunday, but the holy day there is Friday, I swear...maybe not the best turn of phrase when discussing the Sabbath...okay, I promise.

On the way to the mall, we passed two things that screamed Abu Dhabi to me. The Petroleum Institute and a gas station food court that included a store called "Texas Chicken." When you combine oil, American influenced chain stores, large Muslim mosques, and beautiful beaches, you start to get a sense that Abu Dhabi is an interesting place.

The mall was huge and included (starting in picture #2; picture #1 is to indicate overall largeness) an aquarium, an ice rink, a bagel shop (mainly exciting to people who have spent bagel-less months in Ethiopia), some weird fountain with metal or stone men who are either diving into the water or trying to commit suicide head first, giant potted plants (seriously, where do you find a plant pot that big), and a small grocery store.

"You didn't really think I would leave Buzz and Woody at home to miss all the excitement, did you?"

Next to the mall is the tallest building in the world (I have no further information than that; feel free to research on your own time). The building is seriously so tall that no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get the whole thing in the picture (even with the photographer getting as close to the ground as possible and slanting the camera up). I hear the fountain show at the base of the building is really cool, but we'll have to save that for another trip.

The tallest building in the world seems like a good place to end the trip recap.

While not detailed until next week, I wanted to publicly congratulate my brother Lawrence and his new wife Erika on their union! Congratulations you two! To the many years ahead!

Abu Dhabi...Part 2

Alright, Abu Dhabi post #2. It’s time to lean heavily on the ability of children to be entertaining to fill a post. I’m going to warn you that the post is going to reference Hyrum more than Evelyn and Rosemary. That has nothing to do with my love for the three of them. It’s just that Evelyn spends all day in school, and while Rosemary is cute, she doesn’t yet supply many stories you can write about (just lots of laughing and smiles). Hyrum, on the other hand, is very good (as his sister was at his age) of requiring your monopolized attention, which is fine because he’s so entertaining!

Evelyn is the epitome of a little lady. It’s crazy to see how quickly she’s growing up. I remember her being so much like Hyrum, and she has definitely moved on to the next stage. She’s really bright and clever. When we used to play the matching game, she wouldn’t find matches unless you hinted strongly at them. This time, she was finding ones even if it had been several turns since the card had been turned over. I was very impressed (especially since I some of her matches were ones I had forgotten). Congratulations Evelyn! At five, your raw mental power has surpassed your Uncle Charles’.

Here's Evelyn entering the prison where she spends her days...actually, having been inside, I have to admit it's a really nice school...but the entry gate does make it look a little like a prison (though not as much as the school Careen and I went to in Houston). Lest you think I've confused my niece with a brunette boy in a Toy Story backpack, I'll point out that Evelyn's the one in the far background in the pink backpack. Clearly, Uncle Charles is not very fast at getting the camera out. 

Hyrum is clearly still obsessed with Toy Story. Buzz and Woody are his companions of choice for playtime, car trips, going out and about, and even nap/quiet time in bed. The other characters are slightly less loved and are more supporting characters in play time. I knew my animal gifts were a hit when they also reached supporting character status. Buzz, Woody, and the African Animals – potential Toy Story 4 subtitle?

Hyrum with Woody, Buzz, and the supporting cast:

Hyrum sitting at the table in the background. New supporting cast members giraffe and lion are in the foreground.

Hyrum’s Toy Story adulation has changed a bit though in that he will no longer watch Toy Story 2 or Toy Story 3 because Zorg and the bear (respectively) are too scary. Sorry Sid (Toy Story 1 villain), you didn’t make the cut…how embarrassing.

Hyrum has definitely reached the stage of toddlerhood (is that a word?) where he asks a million questions. My favorite is that anytime anyone laughs, Hyrum will come up to you and shout, “What was funny about?” He’s definitely got some lungs on him, which I imagine reminds my parents of my childhood (okay, maybe he’s not THAT loud).

My favorite Hyrum experience of the trip might have been getting him ready for church. I put a polo shirt on him, and after buttoning the bottom of the two buttons, I thought we were done. How could I have been so foolish?

Hyrum (very loudly): “Other button! Other button!”

Me: “Hyrum you don’t need to scream. Come over here and ask quietly for what you want.”

Hyrum (somewhat softer): “Other button…please.”

Me: “Hyrum, what do you want with your other button?”

Hyrum: “Button it.”

Me: “Hyrum, you can’t button the top button of your shirt. People don’t do that.”

Hyrum (very loudly and panicked): “Mom! Mom!”

Me: “Hyrum, your Mom is taking a bath; you can’t bug her. What do you want?”

Hyrum: “I want her to do my other button.”

Me: “Fine, if you really want it, I’ll do it. Come here…but you’ll look weird.”

Hyrum (as the button is buttoned): “No, I don’t want to look weird.”

Me: “Do you want me to undo it then?”

Hyrum: “I can do it myself” (as he yanks the two sides of the shirt apart from each other).

Me: “Hyrum, you’re going to rip your shirt; let me do it.”

Hyrum: “Okay.”

Mission accomplished! Who knew watching children was so similar to consulting – you just have to get the child/client to come to the same conclusion you already did.

Here's Hyrum in the aforementioned polo with his Buzz Lightyear wings (aka hangers). Before you say anything, of course it's blurry...he's flying!

Also seemed like a good spot to insert the picture of the matching girls dressed for Church.

Rosie is adorable…I really don’t know what else to say. I’m glad I waited until her sleep schedule adjusted to the time change before visiting ;) She smiles and laughs all the time and doesn’t cry very much. Seriously, check it out (you'll also notice that she likes to stick her tongue out pretty much all the time, whether smiling or not).

Clearly, she is well loved (even though Hyrum's "loving moment" looks a little like an attack):

Let's finish up strong with a picture of everyone (except John who was working) at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. That's a sneak peek of what the next post contains. That's right, we're making it a three-parter! If I visit often enough, I won't ever have to do anything interesting in Ethiopia for the blog ;)