Warszawa Weekend (Jesus Loves the Little Children)

 Last weekend our team went to a conference in Warsaw.  Me and the other three teenage girls ended up babysitting the six youngest ones.  This is Nathan stacking cups.  Those were literally our saving grace, seeing as we really didn't have any toys for the two younger ones.  But as it turns out, everybody loves cup-stacking!

 Nathan poses with his creation.  There were many towers built and knocked down and rebuilt over the course of the weekend.

 Falyn, Eden, and the stacking cup.

 Megan helps Eden color.  She thought all of the crayons were "puwpul".

 My buddy Macie decides to get in on the coloring.

 Nathan wanted to play cards, so he and Falyn made a game of seeing who could put their cards down faster (seeing as Liar was probably too far over his head!).  He won, of course.

 Ella shows off her freshly-painted fingernails, curtesy of Kari.  They asked if I wanted mine painted.  I told them very politely that no, I did not.  (There wasn't any cool blue polish.)

 More of Eden coloring.

 Eden's masterpiece and her medium of choice: the crayon.

 Arin tries her hand at cup-stacking.

 Ella and Macie making crafts with Kari.  Notice the matching shirts.  (Have to say though, my favorites are the Thing 1 and Thing 2 hoodies!)

 Nathan decided that as long as markers and glue are involved, maybe crafts aren't so girly after all.

 Arin hard at work on her bookmark.  (Yes, the glue did get a bit messy.  But we cleaned it up afterwards.)

 Kari making her bookmark.  Just incase the "L<3" didn't give it away.  :)

 Falyn cutting ribbon for someone.  (Yes, I also have a slight obsession with taking pictures of people's hands.)

 More of my buddy Macie.  My mom said it looked like a RoseArt advertisement.  I was just excited because she made me a bookmark.

 This was after she realized I was taking pictures of her. 

 Kaleb and Megan pose for the camera. 

Eden playing with Falyn's phone.  Falyn was trying to teach her to say "Justin Beiber".  I told her not to teach the young child such dirty words.  :)  But we did get Eden to say my name.  Totally made my day.

Lunch Boredom, Photo Club, and Galicia Museum

 Star and the ISK lobby.

 Flags at ISK.

 Star and the cage around the flags.

 Out in the forest.

 A branch and Matthew's head.

 Star out in the wild.

 Fun shot of the grass and the setting sun.

 Mom and Dad through a window in the Galicia Museum.

 Cool view of a typewriter.

 Random posters in the museum.

 Random light pole in the museum.

 Liked the texture here.

 Mom looking at a display.

Me playing around with cool reflections.

Auschwitz Trip Pt 2 - Birkenau (A Candle Against the Darkness)

 The famous entrance to Birkenau.  This was where the trains brought people in.  A single rail of the tracks holds a small collection of flowers and candles in remembrance of those who died.

 A view of the tracks and the remnants of the destroyed barracks.  A single cattle car serves as a reminder of what these tracks were used for.

 Star and the train tracks with the entrace to Birkenau in the background.

 One of the many guard towers along the fence.  It started snowing while we were there, and you can see some of the flakes against the wood of the tower.

 Inside one of the barracks.  Someone has placed more flowers here in remembrance. 

 A plaque dedicating the camp as a memorial to all those who died.  There was a long line of similar plaques, all bearing the same message in more languages than I could count.

 An artistic shot of the main monument.

 Star on a set of stone stairs.

 The bottom step leading up to the monument held a long line of candles such as this one.

Another of the many candles.  This one was placed in front of the remnants of one of the gas chambers.

Auschwitz Trip Pt 1 - Auschwitz ("Like a Rose, Trampled on the Ground...")

 The famous sign of Auschwitz.  "Work will make you free."

 A view of the barracks from a window reflection.

 The length of the camp.

 Someone had hung a stuck a flower in the gate, a reminder of beauty in the face of death.

 A lamp with the barracks number.

 The door to one of the barracks.

 The view out of a barracks window.  The focus in the glass gives it a cool feel.

 They had a case full of glasses that were taken away from people.  When you start to realize that each pair represents a person, the number of people who died finally becomes more than just a number. 

 Another case was full of prosthetics and braces. The owners of these would have been unfit for work, and so would have gone straight to the gas chambers.

 An overwhelming ammount of dishes and cups brought by people who believed they were simply being resettled.

 Both sides of this hallway are made up of cases holding shoes of those who were sent to the gas chambers.

 The shere ammount of shoes is almost impossible to take in.  But it isn't realizing that these were real people that really gets to you.  It's when you realize that this was done to people by other people.

 The reflection on the glass was completely unintentional, but it gives the picture a surreal feel.

 There was something incredibly haunting about that tiny white shoe. 

 Most of the barracks have been turned into museums, and many of the hallways are full of pictures of prisoners who were held in the camp.  Some of them were lucky enough to survive.  Most of them were not.

 A few of the pictures are accompanied by flowers left by friends or family in memory of those who have died.

 The hard bunks inmates were forced to sleep on, usually about three to a bunk.

 There is a wall in the camp where death sentences were typically carried out.  Now it is a memorial, hosting many tokens left by visitors to the camp. 

 Someone had left this rose at the wall, and it had been buried in the snow.  I was kneeling to take a picture and saw a hint of pink sticking out.  So I dug it up and realize it was a rose.  It reminded me of the song- "Crucified, laid behind a stone.  You lived to die, rejected and alone.  Like a rose trampled on the ground, you took the fall and thought of me above all."  Suddenly I understood that image as never before.  So I pulled the rose off of the ground and placed it in a nook in the wall where no one can step on it. 

A group of people comes to learn about what happened here two generations ago.  We can not afford to forget.