Whit and Dal

Reminder

2011-02-17T12:33:00.002-07:00

If you didn't change your link to my blog a few months ago, you should, because I do all my posting (which is still not much) here now: whitanddal.blogspot.com.

Proud to be a Kauffman

2010-06-07T11:57:00.001-06:00

This has been a frequent conversation over the last almost-year:
Dallin: "Whit, are you proud to be a Kauffman?"
Me: "Yes, of course I am"
Dallin: "Then change your email."

So it is time for a change...new email and new blog address so that Dallin can feel included and be reassured that I am proud to be a Kauffman.

New Blog: whitanddal.blogspot.com
New Email: whitliekauffman@gmail.com

There you go, Dal.

The Long-Awaited Sleepover

2010-05-26T10:30:00.001-06:00

A few weekends ago was the long-awaited Hadlee sleepover. She turned 5 and figured she was plenty old enough to have a sleepover at Whitlie and Dallin's for her birthday, just like her older sister Shalee had. I'm so glad that we are such a reward. It was super fun to have her over and we did lots of fun things like...being doctored, having our hair done, playing ponies, and shopping for a new baby doll (she named him Bumpy...). She wanted to sleep in the cedar chest because she fit just perfectly, I told her she couldn't since I was worried that the lid would fall on her in the middle of the night. She laid in there for quite a while though and it did look pretty comfy.

She is such a funny girl and says outrageous things all the time. I love hanging out with her just so I can hear what she has to say next. It was so fun to have little people at our house. I hope that me, Hadlee and Shalee will always be best friends.

A Little Bit of Paradise...along with a few blisters

2010-05-19T12:36:00.001-06:00

As soon as we finished finals we headed down to Havasupai. I had been anticipating this trip for months and using it as a motivator to get me through those last few tough weeks of finals. The trip really was amazing, a beautiful place with lots of my favorite people. Sam and Reagan planned the trip and invited Dal and I. Sam's brother Fred, Reagan's sister Bryan and my sister McKell came as well. In order to truly have a siblings trip we were only missing Taylor. Clint and Caden were part of the party too. We got a little lost and had to drive around about a third of the Grand Canyon, but when we finally arrived at 1:30 in the morning, after an 11 hour drive, we were ready to start hiking in :).
After hiking for a couple hours we were pretty tired so we camped on the trail under a big rock overhang. It was a little cold...ok really cold...and I woke up to every hiker that passed but I was so glad to be out of the suburban and lying down that it didn't even matter.

The next morning we got into the Indian village. I couldn't wait to take my pack off :) But, after registering we still had another two miles to hike down into the campground. But from there we could see the river and we got our first view of this:

We spent the next two days at the bottom of the grand canyon, swimming and playing in the beautiful blue green water, relaxing and playing games. Oh, and eating dehydrated food (that part actually wasn't even that bad). On the second day we went on an awesome hike down the river where we played in smaller waterfalls all along the way. I loved every minute.

Dallin fell in love with all of the frogs and the card game "scum" (which we played with princess cards). We also had fun exploring some of the smaller canyons and caves up in the rock walls of the canyons. We didn't want to leave, especially because that meant an 11 mile hike back up out of the canyon with some pretty mean switchbacks. After getting to the top we collectively decided it was one of the hardest things we had ever done. And that's why we came home with blisters.

Finished.

2010-05-19T12:34:00.000-06:00

I know it's been a while since Dal and I finished the school year, and I feel like I've been taking a break from everything ever since, but I decided it definitely deserves a post. This school year was definitely tough, for both of us. I'd say that our crazy school schedules has been the only really hard thing about our first year of marriage. We both made it though! Hopefully my schooling will never be as difficult again, and, while I can't say the same for Dallin, he is that much closer to graduating :). He's not even taking a break this summer though, he's got three classes right now and will take another later in the summer. He amazes me with all he can accomplish while working so much. Even though Dal still has classes, summer has already proven to be so great.

Goodbye you cruel, intimidating first year of law school--I never want to see you again!

Last Day

2010-04-09T11:02:00.002-06:00

I just finished my last class of my first year. It does feel nice to be done with classes, but I sure don't feel quite the same relief I've felt in previous years because I've still got 4 crazy finals to go. Only a few more weeks and I'll really be done :).

A Quick Trip to Dixie

2010-03-31T18:18:00.000-06:00

A couple weekends ago we took a quick trip to St. George for the wedding of one of Dallin's mission buddies. It was a quick trip, but it was great, mostly because I didn't go to school on Thursday or Friday. Dallin had spring break so we decided to at least stay a couple days. We headed down on Thursday and went hiking. I took Dallin out to the house where my grandma lived and we hiked around behind her house. I love that place, it has so many memories of hiking with grandpa Tom and hearing all his crazy stories and then coming home to grandma and her country music and hummingbirds. It was way fun to be there and it was beautiful.

As we were hiking I told Dallin that I vaguely recalled that there were Indian Ruins somewhere...I forgot how much Dallin loves Indians. We ended up hiking around for almost three hours searching for them. He kept saying "It's ok if we can't find them, but it would be way cool if we could." Well finally we did and he thought they were pretty exciting, even though they weren't the most spectacular ruins ever.

I love St. George, and I think it is so beautiful in the spring. The blossoms were out and it was sunny and nice. Here are a couple more pictures of the trip and the wedding, which was wonderful. Congrats Andrew and Jessilyn!

Mission buddies outside the temple. I loved meeting this senior couple, they were awesome and so much fun!

MTC group...

And blossoms!

Sleepover with Shalee

2010-03-31T18:02:00.000-06:00

Every year since I moved away from home Shalee and I have had a tradition of having a sleepover on her birthday weekend (or close to it). Kell has come every year too. I love it and look forward to it every year! Shalee is the sweetest girl you'll ever meet with a compliment for everyone and a way of making everything fun. We had a blast this year. We picked her up in Provo, went home and had grilled cheese sandwiches (the girl is obsessed with cheese...), went shopping and bought her some new earrings and a cute shirt and then got some ice cream (Dallin came to the ice cream part :). I can't wait til next year...

Oh, and Hadlee decided that this year she is also old enough to have a sleepover on her birthday. She'll be turning 5 in May...and I'm sure there will be some great stories when it comes time for that sleepover.

Grateful

2010-03-17T21:03:00.000-06:00

I am truly grateful that my nose does not normally look (or feel) as big as it does right now after getting elbowed in an intramural basketball game. That's all.

(no pictures were included in this post for good reason)

Here and There

2010-02-22T21:54:00.008-07:00

Here are just a few pictures of the last couple weeks:

Dallin thinks he's still Ukrainian. Actually, now it's a mix of Russian and Ukrainian. He decided to start a Russian club at UVU and dressed up one day to recruit members. He speaks Russian pretty often, or reads out loud in Ukrainian. Oh and he's been watching documentaries in Russian. So, all of this has led to me having dreams in Russian (or at least my own version of Russian) which I don't understand when I wake up. He says he dreams in Russian or Ukrainian all the time too, but that's a little more normal...

Dallin was really sick on Valentine's day last week, so we didn't do too much. I had a really good dinner and dessert planned but that just didn't work out...so we had a make up Valentine's day last weekend, and it was great! Best Valentine's day ever, for sure.

And, sadly, here's what we look like on a typical night when we get home from school / work no earlier than 7:30, quite often as late as 10:30. Love the student life! :). We're definitely busy and very often tired, but life is great!

The "I Love You" Squash

2010-02-16T19:11:00.004-07:00

When we had been married for about a month, and I was still painting, Dallin made me lunches to take with me almost everyday. One day I opened up my bag to find a yellow crookneck squash, with "I Love You" carved into it. All the ladies I worked with loved it and were convinced that I had the best husband ever (without me even telling them that I did). Dallin still makes our lunches pretty often when I'm running late in the morning. The other day I found an acorn squash with the same message carved into it in the bottom of my lunch. I had been super busy that day and didn't even find it until my classes were over at 4:00. It made me so happy. I have the best husband ever. No question.

Rainy Mornings

2010-02-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

Waking up to rainy mornings like today always make me miss London. I used to hate the rain, now it brings back so many good memories that it always makes me really happy. I want to go back. Someday.

Why I Love Intramurals

2010-01-28T17:58:00.001-07:00

All day I sit, and read, and read, and read, and sit. And read, and sit. Sadly, this is not an exaggeration. Occasionally I sit and read blogs and the newspaper, when I can't take case books any more. And then, once a week I stop sitting and I play basketball. And then I feel like I can think and be a normal person again without a million legal terms and case holdings floating around in my mind. I love intramurals...my only regret is that I don't have time to play inner tube water polo AND basketball. I have a game tonight which means that later I'll feel like a normal person again. I can't wait.

Happy Hump Day!

2010-01-22T18:28:00.000-07:00

Today I got my first semester grades. It's been termed hump day throughout the law school. One of my professors even brought camel shaped sugar cookies in celebration of the occasion. Overall I felt really good about my grades but more than anything it was just proof to myself that I can really do this whole law school thing and live through the process. Hooray for hump day and hooray for the first semester being OVER!

Highlights

2010-01-08T18:42:00.004-07:00

A few of the highlights of our Christmas Break:

Christmas Eve at Kauffman's with lots of fun little (and big :) people, yummy food and talking to Taylor on Christmas Day.

Sleepover at Murdoch's. Staying up til 1:30 talking and "rapping" with Lance and McKell. New pajamas and opening presents.

Shotgun shooting with the brothers. It was so freezing cold that the first time I shot I thought the trigger ripped my finger off. Although not pictured I may, or may not have, won Annie Oakley :)

Hiking to the wishing tree. Love that place.

Teaching Dallin how to ski. Actually, as you can see, we started out a little smaller with snow blades. He was awesome and it was so fun to be up there with him and my family.

Hanging out with people like Marissa (and E-pants). We got to see lots of friends. All my roommates and hubbies came over one night and the next night we had a big group of high school buddies over.

Christmas break was wonderful. We loved celebrating with family, seeing friends again and not worrying about anything but how much fun we were going to have the next day. Now it's back to the 10 hour a day school grind, but we've done it once so that means we can do it again right? We really are excited for a new semester, a change in classes and the beginning of our first full year together. :)

p.s. I still haven't taken any Christmas stuff down...guess I should have thought about that before I didn't have any time once again...

A Taste of Freedom

2009-12-04T21:25:00.002-07:00

We had so much fun over Thanksgiving! It reminded us both what freedom from school feels like and now we're counting down the days 'til the semester ends. We both finish on the 17th...and I'm a little jealous of Dal's finals compared to mine :). Not complaining, just can't wait to finish. Anyway, here are a few pictures from our wonderful three days without school last week.

Lance has grown so much, look how much taller he is than me!

Turkey Bowl!

My parents were kind enough to let us borrow one of their old trees and we had so much fun decorating it together. It's a rare Friday when Dallin's home in the evening and doing this together was a great way to spend it!

Party!

2009-11-23T09:13:00.002-07:00

Saturday morning we had our primary class over for a party. After we realized that they were really hard to keep under control (the first week we taught) we told them that we'd have a party at our house if they could earn 50 points, 4 points possible per week. I love incentives like that. There were plenty of weeks where 4 points weren't earned, but for the most part it worked pretty well.

While planning what we were going to do at our party they decided that we should have a dance party (it wasn't our suggestion, I promise). And they told us that they wanted a disco ball. So we got the disco ball, burned a dance party mix and figured that would probably last for about 10 minutes. Wrong! They could have danced the whole time, it was so funny. After about 45-50 minutes Dallin went to get pizza so we could move on from dancing. It was hilarious to watch. They even had a competition, and of course the two cute girls that came in matching outfits and had a routine all made up won the contest.

Post Dance Party (notice our little disco ball)

We love teaching primary, mostly because it makes us feel so loved and appreciated. Almost every week we have someone tell us that we're the best teachers they've ever had. At our party one little girl asked if we would adopt her. Dallin has become known as "the bomb diggity" and one little boy is constantly yelling, I LOVE THE KAUFFMANS! It's not unusual to get a plate of cookies from somebody about every other week. It's really fun to teach them, even when we're not sure if they get anything out of what we're saying, and it's especially fun to prepare lessons together. Hooray for primary! I am definitely happy to be singing with the 9 year olds in sharing time again :).

Crowded

2009-10-22T12:01:00.002-06:00

Last Sunday we invited my family over for dinner. We had to pull out the camping chairs and the office chair...and have them bring one extra plate. But it was sure fun to have them over.

Happy Birthday!

2009-10-22T10:53:00.005-06:00

Dallin turned 22 on October 10. While he didn't initially have work off that day, he did end up staying home because he got sick. So he did a lot of sleeping on his birthday, but he did get to stay home! We celebrated the night before, then had a birthday dinner and cake with my family that Sunday and we'll be celebrating with his family this weekend. So he basically gets a two week extended birthday.

It's crazy to think that Dal is 22 and has almost been home for a year (this week!) Crazy what can happen in 12 months... It's fun to look back to a year ago today and think about how excited I was to see him again.

Curing the Homework Blues

2009-10-06T21:03:00.001-06:00

These days I have A LOT of homework. Sometimes I do homework for so long that I start to go a little crazy. See...

Last week Dal had a fantastic idea of how to chase away the homework blues. We went ice-blocking. I had never been before, somehow I missed out on it all through high school. But it was fun, more fun than I expected it to be, and especially fun because Dallin was there.

That's all it took, a little ice-blocking and a movie night and I'm sane again.

Beaten, Battered and...

2008-11-17T14:03:00.004-07:00

Kidney stoned. I had my third kidney stone this week. Really not so fun. But, I am grateful for hospitals, emergency rooms and modern medicine. I think I might have died without them (of pain that is...). I've also decided that I can't eat nearly as many nuts as I'd like to any more, and apparently I need to cut back on the spinach. Who would have thought? Oh and not so much chocolate either, darn. I'd be completely fine going at least another two years without having that experience again...

Today

2008-10-31T09:57:00.002-06:00

Today I wish I was dressed up as a pink Power Ranger...

Welcome to My Crazy Life

2008-10-20T13:28:00.003-06:00

Ok, I know, I know. It's been way longer than I promised since I last posted. BUT, I have good excuses, my life has really been crazy. My life seems like it's always crazy but believe it or not, I think this last month or so takes the cake and there was some tough competition. Anyway, I'm back.

So obviously some of this craziness has stemmed from the whole applying to law school process. A lot of people (ok almost everyone) I talk to asks me what I want to do with a law degree and why I want to go to law school. So, we've got the obvious answers like, I love history, I like constitutional law, and it just seems to fit my interests. But, today at the forum here at BYU, I came to a better understanding of the core reasons that I want to study law. The forum was given by a man named Robert George who is a professor at Princeton. I loved the things that he had to say; he talked about the sanctity and fundamentality of the family and marriage in our society and he asked us to be willing and do what we need to do in order to feel able and ready to defend those fundamental principles that our country is built upon. Ideally, this is exactly what I would love to defend on a legal level. I would love to be involved in legal counsel or legal spokesmanship for the Church.

In the past few months I've really become involved in the politics and issues (particularly in Utah) behind this upcoming election. I've been working for a state Senator, on her campaign committee, and I've come to understand a lot about the importance of our own political input, interest and desire to understand. I've been able to form my own opinions and realize the power of the individual if they are willing to put themselves and their opinions out there. This too has helped me realize the kind of involvement that I someday want to have and the reasons I want to have a law degree to back up that involvement.

One final note, I just want to add my own support for Prop 8. I hope that anyone who can vote for it will, and that anyone who can't will show their support in other ways. Even if that just means voting for your own local representatives. Ok, enough of my political views, I promise that'll be the last one of this kind--but surprisingly being involved in that whole process and thinking about the issues has sure helped me realize some important things that I hope will become major goals for the next few years of my life.

Reagan Thinks I'm Boring

2008-10-01T09:25:00.002-06:00

Dear Reagan and anyone else who reads my blog,

I promise that after Saturday I will once again become a regular blog poster and fun person. The LSAT is on Saturday at 8:00 am. I can't wait for it to be over. That's all for now! I promise to be back soon!

The Ancestral Homeland...

2008-08-10T21:00:00.004-06:00

London and Scotland with my parents was so much fun. I was so excited when they got there and it was so fun to spend a couple of days with them in the city that I love so much and then to go to Scotland to do some family history. I think the Scotland part was a dream realized for both of them, that had been a long time coming. I'm not sure that my dad would say that it was worth the twenty hours of travel both ways for a week...haha...no he probably would. But it made my whole trip to see them there. It was fun to have them visit the center as well and my dad even did a little jig during the talent show to end my program. Hard to believe...but true.

This was one of the old churches we visited in Scotland where my 4th great grandparents were married. The cemetery was FULL of Murdochs and Steeles.

This is the church where I became inbred. I'd better explain that...haha. My mom's 2nd great grandma and my dad's 2nd great grandpa married eachother here. Basically Anne Steele, the woman that was married here, became both my 3rd great grandma and 3rd great aunt that day...haha which still kind of confuses me but it's cool anyways. I guess...
We drove into the Scottish countryside to the area around where the Murdoch/Steele family probably homesteaded. It was beautiful and it looked completely unchanged and untouched over the last 200 years. I loved the rolling hills, all the sheep and cows and the beautiful clouds.

Stourhead Garden

2008-06-09T08:05:00.004-06:00

Stourhead might be my new favorite place. It was one of the most pristine and just beautiful places I've ever been. They filmed some Pride and Prejudice scenes here, in particular Darcy's proposal in the rain. It was such a fun place to just walk around and explore, and it was an absolutely beautiful day to do it.

Perfectly formed lichen thought bubble. My thinking face.

Jane and I by the lake.

There it is, the Temple of Apollo proposal in the rain temple itself.

My long lost twin.

Look at those clouds!

My pillar pose in the Temple of Apollo. Couldn't pass it up.

Stonehenge ROCKS!

2008-06-09T07:56:00.003-06:00

After Bath we took a little drive and came to Stonehenge. It was really interesting. What I found most intriguing about it was the flocks of people who come to see it. I couldn't believe how many tourists were there. It was funny to me because it's all roped off and people just walk around it and ponder what it possibly could have been used for. Kind of a must see in England I guess. I thought it rocked!

I'm sacrificing Lindsay to the sun gods. Druid style.

Recreating our own Stonehenge. We played missionary tag right after this for a good hour just on the lawn in front of it...haha.

Splish Splash...

2008-06-09T07:43:00.012-06:00

Bath was our first stop on our excursion this past week. It's a pretty great place. They have lots of ice cream, lots of hills, some really cool architecture, and of course, the Roman baths. It was a great little place to be.

A view of the Baths from the top. Aren't they a lovely color?

My thinking face. I was learning lots about Romans and bathing from that little audio guide.

I didn't really go swimming, but I thought about it more than once.

Tasting the water. Not so good, really.

The sunset was really cool from the top of the hill our hostel was on. This picture just doesn't quite capture it.

The Royal Crescent. Dad, I checked out Real Estate prices. You can buy one for 500,000 pounds. That's only a million dollars, wanna move to Bath?

Stopping to play at this playground made my whole day. They had swings! The clouds were really cool too.

London's Funniest

2008-06-09T07:24:00.006-06:00

I've started a collection of all my favorite signs I've seen in London. Here they are...I think they're pretty funny.

And NO FUN!
Don't touch the water? Really? Why ever not?
Are the cyclists and pedestrians supposed to beware? Or are we supposed to beware of the cyclists and pedestrians?
Mmm...my favorite.
We tried to pass for unemployed...they said we didn't count.
These signs are everywhere. I really don't know what they mean or what the danger is...but I try to be especially wary as I walk by.
I've never heard of anti climb paint. Mom, maybe you should invest in some, it might keep the boys off stuff.
I bought five of these. Guess what my presents for my family are going to be...
True.
Should have eaten here.

Picnics and Paddle Boats

2008-06-09T07:09:00.014-06:00

Picnic in the park with our EAT and Pret sandwiches before we headed to the lake.

View from the lake.

Jane and I paddling away. I just kept thinking of my family in Lake Powell. I bet I was having just as much fun...

Becoming British

2008-06-09T06:02:00.003-06:00

So last week we went to visit the home of Samuel Johnson, who wrote the first comprehensive English Dictionary. The house and the tour were great ...but we couldn't wait until our guide finished so we could rush back and try on the children's dress-ups we had seen in one of the rooms. So here we are. They definitely weren't the most flattering clothes I've ever tried on...especially not the padded dress. No, I'm not just saying that, it really had hip pads :)

The picturesque English family. Obviously I'm the head of the fam. I have a cane. I'm actually a little scared by how genuine I look, minus the capris and tennis shoes.

"Britain's Greatest Medieval Experience"

2008-06-02T04:26:00.006-06:00

Warwick Castle was one of the coolest places I've been so far in England. I thought it was incredible. It was a bit like a theme park Castle and definitely touristy but way cool anyway. We got to climb up to all the turrets and the view from the top was incredible. They also had a some really cool "shows." There was a bowman shooting arrows and targets, a birds of prey show, the launching of the Trebuchet, and, my personal favorite...the Great Joust.

Quick rundown of the pics: the Castle, me and Jane in the stocks, all of us and the archer man, view from the top, the joust, the Trebuchet, me after I broke a fence (I think I've gained more weight than I thought), a sweet video of the Castle and me and the queen. Yes, that is the queen. At least...in a wax form. But it was good to meet her since I'll be taking her job in a couple of years.

And a couple videos of the day too. The Castle from the highest tower and footage of the Great Joust :)

Shakespeare Town

2008-06-02T04:09:00.004-06:00

This past weekend was our free travel weekend for the program. A group of six of us decided to go to Stratford-upon-Avon overnight because it was one of the main places that we are not traveling to altogether. It was a super fun trip. We stayed at this little Bed and Breakfast complete with Brambles the cat and a full English breakfast (that really did keep us full until 6:00). We made laps around the town of Stratford, saw all there was to see and then planned a day trip to Warwick Castle. Stratford was William Shakespeare's birthplace and hometown and I think they basically worship him there. For example, the church he is buried in is called "The Holy Trinity Church (Shakespeare's Church)." So we saw all the Shakespearean houses and a few other cool things there...here are the highlights.

We met this man dressed as Shakespeare on the street and he took us up to the schoolroom where Shakespeare went to school. It was really cool because it's usually not open to the public but he was hosting an art exhibition there that night. The top picture is Shakespeare's initials carved into a window pane in the school. The bottom pic...um, the Shakespeare guy wanted to do a dramatic pose. I think he was pretending to be the headmaster...and we were the students. It works right?

The best part of our whole meeting up with Shakespeare's double was that he invited us to be his "personal guests" at the art exhibition that night. So of course we went and walked around and looked at all the art holding our wine glasses full of apple juice (lucky they had apple juice). It was really cool. The best part of the whole night...one of the original founders of the Royal Shakespeare Company had been invited as an honored guest and he performed a scene from King Lear. It was so cool. He was really really talented and just blew the roof off, even though I'm pretty sure he was close to ninety. It was a pretty cool random thing. I think we make new best friends everywhere we go. It's great.

Shakespeare's birthplace

All of us along the river Avon. We hung out here for quite a while after the art exhibition.

The Creaky Cauldron: Museum of Witchcraft and Wizardology also makes its home in Stratford, right next to Shakespeare's birthplace, so of course we had to go. Here I'm being sorted by the Sorting Hat...and I was definitely Gryffindor. Woohoo!

I made some friends at the museum. This is Matilda. I don't think many people like her much, but I decided that she probably had some good qualities. Come to find out, we have a lot in common.

Me, making potions and other such things. With my hat I sort of look like a Newsies boys making potions...but I guess it works.

Cadbury World

2008-06-02T03:38:00.003-06:00

Initially, when we planned our trip to Stratford-on-Avon we thought we would be making a little side trip to Cadbury World, which was supposedly only like an hour away. Well, after a lot of deliberation we decided that we would have to choose between Warwick Castle and Cadbury World...and Warwick Castle came out victor. We were a little disheartened until we had the brilliant idea of having our very own Cadbury World in the comfort of our little Bed and Breakfast. This is truly kind of gross that we did this...but man was it good. I think I've tried almost every kind of Cadbury candy bar now and they are incredibly good. If you love Cadbury mini eggs at Easter time...you have no idea how much you are missing by not being able to try the entire line of Cadbury product goodness.

Yes, we really did cut them into sample sized pieces and serve them on trays :).

At the end of the night...

Live footage of our very own Cadbury World:

Day to Day London Living

2008-06-02T03:05:00.004-06:00

I had all of these random pictures of some of my favorite things that I really wanted to post...so here they are. An average day for me in London would include: waking up around 6:30 and running through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, class until noon, a museum, park, or other excursion to a historical site, dinner, a night walk and bedtime...way later than it should be.

Big Ben. I love him.

Shopping at Harrods. Everything there costs about 300 pounds of more...so in my bag I have a chocolate muffin, one of the few things under 100 pounds. Don't I look like a regular though?

South of the Thames with our Bueno bars. Mmmm. Chocolate here is way Way WAY better than at home.

The Tower Bridge. I think it's my fav.

I took this picture when we made our trek to Wembley Stadium when the US was playing England. The only bummer is...we didn't actually go in...because tickets were too expensive. So we went to a really funny little restaurant that was completely empty, and watched the game. It was an adventure though!

Hampstead Heath. I should have gone there earlier. It's been one of my favorite places. It's totally natural and so beautiful. A huge HUGE park of just fields and fields and lots of ponds and forests and all kinds of stuff. It was way fun to walk through.

The Kenwood House at Hampstead Heath. This house and the grounds are beautiful. I would live here if I was a really rich guy in London. Actually, it totally reminded me of somewhere my dad would live if he could pick anywhere in the world. It's surrounded with hundreds of acres of beautiful land it was just perfect.

Borough market is truly one of my favorite things about London. It's a huge food market that they have everyday. The best way I can describe it is...Costco sample day + the Farmer's Market x about 1000. It's so fun. We just make laps around it and get samples so we don't have to buy lunch :).

Punting on the Cam, and other Cambridge Things

2008-06-01T16:06:00.003-06:00

We went to Cambridge on Wednesday...and it was just great...just like all of our trips are just great. It was a pretty fun little town, and it was really green and beautiful. We walked all over the town, became best friends with a little old woman who worked in the church (at first she was mad at us for coming in to use the restroom, by the time we left she was calling us "darlings"), went to a market, saw some of the different colleges (but most were closed off because it was exams week), and best of all, went punting on the Cam. Punting was super super fun. Actually it was really hard, but it was great. It was ten pounds to hire one of those guys to steer your boat down the river for you, two pounds if you wanted to do it yourself. Of course we opted to do it ourselves. I think it made it way more fun, but, it was pretty intense. I think I would become a professional skipper of Cambridge punting if I went to school there.

We got stuck in lots of trees and little side eddies...this was just one of them.

Punting in front of the Bridge of Sighs.

The London Temple

2008-06-01T15:40:00.005-06:00

About a week ago we took a day trip to do baptisms at the London Temple. It was so beautiful and so great to spend some time there. I've been looking forward to it since I got here, and I thought it was just perfect. Loved it!

BLADE OR DIE!!!

2008-06-01T14:23:00.007-06:00

If you were to ask me what my very favorite thing I've done in London so far would be....this would be the answer: BLADE OR DIE!!! We definitely didn't die, we just bladed, hard core, through about seventeen miles of London. This probably won't mean much of anything to any of you...but I'll give you a little rundown of our route: we started at Hyde Park Corner skated past Buckingham palace, up around the Museum of London, around St. Paul's, Regent's Park and Primrose hill and back down Oxford Street. Doesn't that just sound like a cool route? It seriously was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Bladin' to music through the streets of London with about 200 other people on the FNS (Friday Night Skate). They totally stop traffic and let you blade down the middle of the road. I only crashed about three times. It was grand. It was absolutely amazing.
The whole crew at the Centre...we were so prepped.

The competition. Don't worry, they look hard core but we blew them out of the water.

I had to choose to bleed or die...when I fell...and bled. Don't worry I chose to blade.

Right in the middle of the bladin'

The pink tights made the whole night. Really.

And here's a video of the bladin' craziness.

"I'm Henry VIII, I am, I am"

2008-05-28T00:21:00.005-06:00

Last Wednesday we took a day trip to Hampton Court. It was a pretty awesome place. It's a pretty good sized palace (I wouldn't mind living there...) that Cardinal Wolsey built and the Tudor family ended up living in. It's apparently haunted by the ghosts of Henry VIII two wives who were executed. I didn't see any ghosts though, and I was searching for them. Basically there was a lot of drama that went on under this one roof (or several roofs I guess) with Henry VIII crazy family. It was cool to see. We spent hours walking all over the castle and then hours walking through the gardens, which were beautiful. After Hampton Court we wandered along the south bank of the Thames and ate dinner down there instead of going back to the Centre. So that was last week's excursion...and we leave in twenty minutes for Cambridge, our excursion this week. I like that they call them excursions, it makes it sound really intense.

The architecture was really cool in all of the buildings. I think that the kitchens were my favorite part. They could cook for like 800-1200 people almost daily. Lots and lots of meat I guess. I'm glad I wasn't a cook there.

The entire inside of the palace was beautifully painted and really elaborate. We weren't supposed to take pictures...so we snuck a few :)

Me and Henry. I didn't like him much before I went, but, after singing his song all day and walking around his house, we became better friends.

The chimneys were my very very favorite part of the whole castle. They all had different cool patterns in the brickwork.

This is the Privy Gardens behind the castle. This isn't a very good picture of it but it looked like the place where they hold the ball in the Count of Monte Cristo. I wanted to wear a mask and walk around and stuff. It really did look like it...a lot.

More of the gardens.

The hedge maze behind the castle. Yep, it was just like Harry Potter...except not quite as long, not quite as hard and not quite as dark with some really funny theme music playing. As you can see, I got lost.

The whole group of us behind the palace.

wearing holes in the soles of my shoes

2008-05-20T16:32:00.000-06:00

At one point I thought that all of the crazy walking would slow down after those first few days. Man was I wrong. We walk ton and it's just fantastic. I think though, that after three weeks, my nearly brand new shoes are nearing their end. As the English would say--they're about ready to croak. Time for a new pair?

A need tae practice mae Scots

2008-05-20T16:30:00.000-06:00

I LOVED Scotland! I think I loved it for three main reasons. 1) They really do wear kilts 2) they really do play bagpipes all the time and 3) they really do talk like that. None of it is just romanticized in movies...it's all real. Despite what you may have thought...I didn't really learn how to speak Scots, but I tried. I think it's my new favorite accent to impersonate. Other favorite words/phrases I heard: they call their friends "mukkers," "a mist ye sae muckle" would be "I missed you so much" and "Guid cheerio" means goodbye.

Edinburgh was a way cool place to be. It's a very old city. There were so many medieval buildings and so much history in one little place. It was also just the right size to walk around and see everything without being dead tired. And, besides all that, it's totally where my family was from so I was definitely connecting with the ancestors right? Right. Actually, the very first day we got there we immediately set out to hike Arthur's Seat, which overlooks the whole city and surrounding area and was also where the first missionaries in Scotland dedicated the land for missionary work. It was really cool to be there--the very place that the gospel had its beginnings in my family. There was a really neat spirit about it.

We did so many things in the two days that we were there that it would be impossible to write about all of them so I think I'll just post pictures and maybe explain them. I love Scotland though and I'm excited to go back there in just less than a month!
The Castle. It's sweet. I don't want to run for Queen of Scotland though. Not quite as warm and inviting as Buckingham.
Just a random street. The city looks really dirty...and that's because it is. Everything is covered in soot. I guess the Scots are too lazy to clean it off. Oh well, it looks older and more important that way.
Felicia, Lindsay and I about half the way up Arthur's Seat. Little did we know that we were only half way...or we might not have been smiling so big.
A pretty neat little wall and road that we passed on our hike. The mountain was covered in those yellow flowers. So pretty.
I'm sitting on top of Arthur's Seat. Carolyn is...uh standing by me I guess. Carolyn is probably one of my new favorite people.
Me...and the view from Arthur's Seat.
This looks like a postcard. So I had to stick it on here. On the way down Arthur's Seat (yes, it was a long hike...)
View of Arthur's seat from the bottom.
Look! I'm a true Scot. Tartan cloak and all. There were some sweet charity shops in Edinburgh.
There were also some sweet alleyways in Edinburgh.
Lots of men. In kilts.
Me. And a man in a kilt. I think I'm a little more excited about his kilt than he is.
I found this at some museum I went into. I thought the answer, which is B, fits me quite well...so I finally and officially accept the name of Whiskey. They drink a lot of Whiskey in Scotland...
We're warriors. Watch out.
Me and Abby and a statue with the Castle in the background. I don't really know who the guys on the statue is. Oops.

I LOVE SCOTLAND! And I'm now quite proud to claim my Scottish heritage :)

York and Jorvik!

2008-05-20T15:32:00.003-06:00

After Edinburgh...and after one more 5 a.m. train ride we got to my new favorite city of the English countryside. York. I don't know why I feel such a bond with York but I do. It created probably the best day of Study Abroad yet. We stayed in a sketch hostel and there was nothing extremely important to do in the town...but we found a lot to keep us entertained. York Minster was great, we didn't pay to go inside because we're cheap, but we went to Evensong there. I got a few glares when I didn't say the prayers. Oops. My favorite thing about York though...the entire town smelled like chocolate. No really, it did. From the moment you walked through Monks Gate you could smell chocolate, and pastries. They had such good pastries. Mmmm...it's a good thing I don't live in York.

The best part of the day...is that instead of paying to go to York Minster, which is only the largest cathedral in the northern half of the UK, we paid seven pounds to experience Jorvik! the Viking City. Oh my goodness...it sure created a lot of laughs...and a lot of good memories. There was this little ride-thing-sort of thing that took us through a the sights--and smells--of a typical Viking town. It was like a really bad version of the Haunted Mansion. After we got off the ride, we had the chance to meet a few Vikings and even find out if we were Vikings ourselves. It was so funny. If you ever go to York, don't feel pressed to go to Jorvik, but, if you have a little spare time and money, don't pass it up. Besides that, it's really fun to say.

York also had some pretty awesome little shops. My favorite was a bookshop that was kiddie corner to the minster. It was awesome. Actually there are awesome used book stores all over England. We also made sure to stop by Whip-ma-Whop-ma-Gate, which you just can't miss (it's the shortest street with the longest name) and we did a really cool walk with this cute little old tour guide, on the old walls of the city, and she told us all about the history of York. It was really interesting and York has a lot of history to it. Basically, it was a great place to stop and spend the night in our sketchy hostel before heading home to good ol' Palace Court.The Minster. The coolest stained glass window was behind scaffolding. Sad.
Um...I'm a Viking? And that scary man...he's a Viking too.
Making friends with Vikings. We fit in really well at Jorvik.
They had some great hat shops in York. I wanted to buy one and go to the races. Maybe even cheer for Dover.
Old Roman ruins of the wall surrounding the city. Yes, those stone boxes are coffins, but I'm pretty sure they're empty. I didn't get close enough to find out.

Mummies and Mummies and Mummies

2008-05-13T14:56:00.007-06:00

I wasn't going to add anything until I came home from Scotland...but today was my first experience in the British Museum and I think I'm moving in there (as soon as I get back from Scotland of course) and so I thought I should let everyone know. Actually, this entry is totally for Zach because I know how much he would absolutely LOVE the Egypt sections of the museum. Here are just a couple of things that I saw.

So many mummies. They were everywhere! You can tell from my face that they were a little bit, just a little bit scary. It was weird to be surrounded by them. They also had other cool Egyptian artifacts there...like tons of different sculptures/statues of pharaohs, like this one, of Ramses.

And finally, probably my favorite part of the museum (that I've seen so far) was the Parthenon frieze ruins, the Elgin Marbles, that are there. Why they are in London no one really knows, and there are many people who aren't too happy about it. But at least for today, I'm glad they're here. I guess that's just one of the benefits of being an empire, you can bring all kinds of cool stuff back to your capital. Maybe I'll consider returning them if I'm elected queen.

Oh and just one more thing, the Rosetta Stone was really really cool too. Zach do you know about the Rosetta Stone? If you don't you should wikipedia it or something because I think you would think it's pretty awesome.

High Tea

2008-05-12T16:34:00.005-06:00

Wow, I think I am finally caught up on all my blogging. I can't believe how little time I had those first few weeks. I'm sure it's not going to get a lot better, but at least I feel like I have a little time in the evenings after dinner now...at least on Mondays after FHE. I am having so much fun here in London I can't even describe it. It's everything I hoped it would be for sure and I am meeting some amazing people and seeing some amazing things.

This week we go to Scotland! We're leaving on Wednesday morning at 4:15 in the a.m...I guess we'll see how that goes...and we're traveling to Edinburgh and then to York, which is actually in England. We'll be home again on Saturday night. I'm so excited to see Scotland and northern England. I guess I'll have a lot to add next week when I get home.

I realized that the one thing I haven't said much of anything about is my classes...which are really the main reason that I'm here :). I'm loving them. English is awesome, my professor is absolutely hilarious and so entertaining. Today we went over T.S. Eliot's poem, The Wasteland (which is about London) for about four hours...and I loved every minute. My history class is awesome too and is totally hands on, get out and see stuff. I love it. They are going great.

Today in between class time (he gives us like an hour break) a group of us walked over to Kensington Orangery for high tea. It was so fun. The Orangery is beautiful, actually all of Kensington gardens is beautiful...and the cakes and scones and drinks were really good. Way too expensive...but really good. I think it's just one of those things that you have to do while you're here. Especially because we live so close. Me and my bunkmate, Kylie, chillin' at the Orangery. The whole group of us outside the Orangery. It's a cool building and there are some pretty neat pathways and fountains right out in front of it.

Kew Gardens

2008-05-12T16:11:00.009-06:00

Kew Gardens! We went there this last Friday and it has been one of my very favorite places I've been so far. It was absolutely incredible. Being here has made me realize how dry and brown Utah really is. These gardens cover over 300 acres and are just full of beautiful trees, bushes and flowers. The azaleas and rhododendron gardens were probably my top faves...but the palm house was pretty cool too. We spent three hours just walking through and I could have spent all day. Mom, I'm taking you there no question...so get ready...you're going to love it!This palace belonged to King George III (the American Revolution King) and is right in the middle of Kew Gardens. All of these beautiful parks used to belong to the royal family and most of them have an old palace there. I found this sign to be very true...and pretty amusing as well.
I had to add this one for the boys. Zach and Lance...any idea what this cool bird is? I captured him on my own camera...even without a motion detector :)

Greenwich...spinach?

2008-05-12T13:58:00.013-06:00

Last week, on Thursday I think it was, a group of us made an excursion to Greenwich to stand in two hemispheres at once. Greenwich was a headquarters for astrology and navigation in earlier times and the Prime Meridian cuts right through it. It's also said to house the clock that has the most perfect time of anywhere in the world. This is Jane and I, standing in two hemispheres at once.

Not only is the old observatory and famous Prime Meridian here, but the Old Royal Naval College was also quite a sight. King Henry VIII actually lived here at one time and had a palace built just outside the Naval College, overlooking the Thames. It's a pretty cool place, all of the walls and ceilings in the hall of the College were beautifully painted with murals (which took something like 19 years to complete) and even the pillars and fireplaces were faux-ed on the walls, which I found really cool.

Our day ended with some pretty good fish 'n chips. Actually, they were by far the best I've ever tasted. We found this little pub just outside the Tube stop in Greenwich. They also had a wide array of condiments, which we made sure to sample...some were well...interesting.

Oh...and Greenwich Spinach...that's a Dr. Seuss pun, that my mom referenced as soon as I told her I'd gone there :)

Nursery!

2008-05-11T17:07:00.005-06:00

I got called to be the nursery leader in my ward. I go to a family ward that is about an hour south of where we live. It's kind of crazy to get there and back on Sundays, but definitely worth it. I love it. Today we talked about hands and why we should be thankful for our hands. I have all little girls and they are so adorable. There is also another lady in there with me, named Sister Lolia, and she is great. It's been such a great thing and I'm so excited to keep seeing these kids every week for a while. I got at least four goodbye kisses today and I can't wait to go again.

This is Sharon. I don't know if she's really old enough to be in nursery, but I don't mind that she comes because she is so adorable.

This is Katrina. I think she speaks more than one language because she randomly spurts things off in what I think is Russian all of the time. Sister Lolia is holding her.

Excursion #1: Canterbury, Rye and Beachy Head

2008-05-11T15:06:00.013-06:00

Our first "excursion" was so cool! We drove through miles and miles of the Southern English countryside to get to awesome places. Fields and fields of canola (which flowers bright yellow) looked amazing as the sun rose (we left really early). I loved the three places we stopped. I think Beachy Head was probably my favorite though, I've always wanted to see the White Cliffs of Southern England. Our day culminated in our bus almost breaking down...but luckily we made it home safe and sound. Here are a few snippets of my day:

Canterbury and Canterbury Cathedral:

This Cathedral was awesome and one of the oldest sites we've seen so far. It was founded by St. Augustine (the first Christian missionary to England--sent by the Romans) in 602 and then it was made really famous when St. Thomas Becket (archbishop at the time) was martyred here in 1170. From that point forwards hundreds of thousands of pilgrims made their way to Canterbury to pay their respects to Becket at a shrine that was built for him. This is where Chaucer's Canterbury Tales had their origin. It's really crazy to think that I have actually stood where all of that happened. I also loved the architecture. All of these really awesome Gothic buildings are making me really excited for my Gothic period class next fall.

The Cathedral was falling down, but don't worry, we held it up and everything was ok. It is a pretty old building...

Rye:

Our next stop was the little town of Rye. It was kind of a quintessential English village. Nothing really profound happened in rye, it was just sort of a stop to see the English countryside. It was complete with an old fortress, gate, cobble stone streets, a church set on a hill, Victorian style houses, Simon the Pieman pastry shop and just an old town feeling. The Mermaid hotel was awesome and I loved the way they named their houses instead of having house numbers. Such a fun place with a really unique atmosphere. I think I could live there and write a book. Henry James did it.

When I saw this little cottage I thought of McKell. Kell, does this look like something you should live in some day? Do you want to move to Rye with me?

Isn't that old Victorian architecture awesome? It's picture perfect, just what you'd think of when someone talks about a sort of vintage English town.

These two pictures were of my favorite street, Mermaid Street, which was so cute, complete with cobblestones and all.

Beachy Head:

Finally we went to an amazing site on the southern coast of England called Beachy Head. It's part of the "Seven Sisters" series of white English cliffs that span along the coast of the English Channel. I loved this place! I think I could have easily spent the whole day there. Not only could you see the amazing and breathtaking cliff views but there was so much open English countryside and rolling hillside in the opposite direction, and little pastoral sheep farms everywhere. It really was an astounding place.

The cliffs were really neat, and straight off. Word to the wise: never EVER take the Murdoch boys here. They'll just get too close, I know it.

It was so windy, we had to be careful not to get blown over the edge :). Look at that though, the English Channel and White Cliffs--WOW!

I took video of all of these places but I can't figure out how to add them and actually have them work. Soon, when I become a pro blogger I'll figure it out.

Pirates in the Park

2008-05-11T14:48:00.004-06:00

I've become best friends with all of the professor's kids. Who needs to bond with other students when you can be the favorite of 4 kids under 10? We play in the park quite frequently. Kensington Gardens has an awesome Peter Pan playground and some even better bushes just outside of it that are instantly transformed into secret pirate headquarters. Even though it might appear as such...I really wasn't the only one dressed as a pirate.

Just on the street where I live...

2008-05-11T09:18:00.009-06:00

This is it! 27 Palace Court. It's such a cool street, in a really nice neighborhood with all kinds of cool things to do right around the corner. We're so lucky to be able to live here. As our professors keep reminding us...we live in a very "posh" place. It's actually in the Notting Hill area, in case you really want to rent that movie and see what it looks like. Kensington Gardens is right across the street and Embassy Row is also really close.
Kensington was also a key area in the literary movements of the late 1800s early 1900s in which hundreds of expatriates gathered to London to write. We live in the same neighborhood as Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, etc., which makes for a really fun English class.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2008-05-11T08:44:00.012-06:00

The first week of our study abroad was absolutely crazy. I really think that we walked the entire span of London and got a quick overview of everything in three days. I've never been so tired. We saw so many cool things though, lots of things that I really can't wait to go back and visit for longer. Here are a few of the things I loved the most.

This first picture captures the biggest reason why I love London so much. You can see a building that was built hundreds and hundreds of years ago, directly backed by a brand new skyscraper which is a major "icon" of London today. Where else in the world are the layers and layers of history and the present so intermixed? Definitely no where in the US. There is so much behind this place, so many things that have been left by others for me to discover. I love it. The age and the cultural depth of this place fascinates me. I don't know of another place like it.

The Tower Bridge/Tower of London might be my favorite thing I've seen so far. We walked along the South of the Thames at night so all of the bridges were lit up...and it was rainy and just beautiful.

This is the London Eye and the Aquarium...it's one of the first things you see as you come out of the Tube station in Westminster. I just loved the sight of it over the Thames.

This one goes without saying. The houses of Parliament are so amazing. So elaborate and gaudy and just really really cool. And they're HUGE! I hope I get to go in there and watch some Lords in action soon.

Here's another view of Victoria Tower at the Houses of Parliament. It's beautiful!

I truly love the Tube. We've spent a lot of time together and become best friends. Really.

They have statues EVERYWHERE! I'm sure all of them have a lot of meaning but this one just really seemed to be...well...different. Her name is Venus. Honestly that's not what I thought of when I looked at her. I tried to make friends anyway.

These guys were playing a mean game of what appears to be Wizard's Chess. Where else would that happen in the middle of a square?

WICKED!

2008-05-11T08:40:00.003-06:00

All my hopes and dreams came true when we got to go see Wicked. I've waited a long time to see it and I loved every minute. I think that the whole hopes and dreams coming true thing seems to be a daily event here. :)

Try another sweet?

2008-05-11T08:25:00.004-06:00

Alright, so basically what it comes down to is that I've eaten WAY too much sugar since I've gotten here. Chocolate has become a basic food group. Oh well I guess, I don't see that changing anytime soon. So I've decided to just embrace it. A few of my favorites so far: waffles! Orange Chocolate Golden Crunch, Double Deckers, Boost, Hob Nobs, Yog Fruit Digestives, any pastry, Cadbury Crunch McFlurries...the list goes on.

Dad?

2008-05-11T08:23:00.002-06:00

I just had to stick this one on here. I stole the little lego man that looks like my dad out of our cupboard at home. He's been my buddy all over London.

Danger on the Bus

2008-05-11T08:19:00.010-06:00

The buses here are sweet--double-decker like and such--but they can also be quite scary. The first time I rode one I really thought I might die. Luckily we made it through...but our bus driver needed a few more lessons in my opinion. It's way fun to ride the bus...but I'm still not very good at it and I tend to get rather large groups of people lost when they decide to follow me.

Dance Partay!

2008-05-10T09:43:00.007-06:00

So we went to a rockin' Singles Ward dance and I met the love of my life. To all of you who were worried about me falling in love with a British man...don't worry too much...I think he's 80. He's a pretty sweet dancer though. Check it out. (Oh...the dance was 80s...hence the headband and sparkles :)

Does this make me look Euro?

2008-05-10T09:39:00.003-06:00

I have to say, I've done a lot of shopping since I arrived in London. And if you know me well...you know that's probably been a bit of a sacrifice. Actually though, and a little surprisingly, I've loved every minute of it. Too bad I'm not really rich and can't buy all the cool stuff they have here. I think it's pretty sweet. I might have second thoughts about buying this one though...

First Day Footage

2008-05-08T01:44:00.005-06:00

I'll admit, we were a bit confused about where we were and what we were seeing the first day we came out of the Tube...and it's now a bit embarrassing because I know sooo much, haha, not really, but I at least recognize these places now. But I thought I would include these two videos anyways, they pretty much capture what my first day in London, with Reagan, was like.

A London Smorgasbord

2008-04-29T15:34:00.003-06:00

LONDON is AMAZING!!! Yesterday Reags and I, and her two cool cousins, Alex and Connor, went on a crazy adventure around the city. We hopped on the tube and headed straight for Westminster and Parliament. It was so cool to come out of the Tube and be right there on the Thames river, Big Ben staring me right in the face (and yes, it did take me a minute to even realize that’s what I was looking at). We walked all along Parliament and also went over to see Westminster Cathedral which is incredible. I couldn’t get over it. So so beautiful. We didn’t go inside, I decided to save that for another day, but the façade is amazing. It was like a dream come true walking through all of these places. I also discovered the coolest gazebo I’ve ever seen right behind Parliament. Ok, so it’s probably not really a gazebo and I actually have no idea that it is or what it’s used for, but it was cool. There were tons of old men playing futbol (soccer) there too and it was so funny to listen to them. I just love listening to people talk, especially old men with gray hair and glasses and little kids. They’re definitely the most entertaining because you feel like you’re in a movie. Reagan and I have been trying to get the accent down but I don’t think we’re very good…people look at us funny when we say stuff. But back to what we did. From Parliament and Westminster we walked through St. James’ Park and then saw Buckingham Palace. I’ve decided that I’m going to run for Queen of England. It’s always been my goal to beat Mikala out for the position of First Lady, but yesterday, as I was looking at the huge palace and big circle and fountain in front of it, that’s all for the Queen, I decided that it totally trumped the White House and that I’d make a much better Queen anyway. She’s getting pretty old, somebody is going to have to take over. I know it’s not traditional that people run for Queen, don’t try and explain that to me, because I really think there can be exceptions made if I’m persuasive enough and...I think that’s now my only real goal for the next two months. I’d appreciate your vote. Thank you.

Besides that life changing decision, we also did a little shopping in Kensington yesterday and walked down Embassy Row (I don’t really know what it’s called but it had lots of really cool Embassies on it so that’s what it gets to be). H&M is like a dream come true here too. Today I found at least twelve things that I can’t afford. We also went to the Victoria and Albert Museum today which was super exciting and full of really cool stuff. Reagan’s aunt came with us as well, which was really great, because she’s a classicist and knew everything about anything. I loved being there. I can’t wait to explore the rest of the museums. Oh and the London Centre is great too, and all of the people here. I’m super excited to get to know all of them better. It was quite exciting and really funny watching all of them arrive today with the totally glazed over look and then try their hardest to stay awake until 9 pm. They were tired…and it was entertaining…especially during the meeting.

On a final note…tomorrow is probably going to be the best day of my life. The schedule is…wake-up, walk, Wicked and waffle. I think I’ve been dying to see Wicked my whole life and I really can’t wait. That’s probably all, I’ve definitely seen a smorgasbord of London so far and can’t wait to see even more and to go back and see everything in a little more depth.

(So just to secure your vote for me as future Queen of England I've included a picture to show you just how good I can look in front of Buckingham Palace. And this is the only one I had on my camera...Reagan had the rest :)

The Weasley Brothers

2008-04-27T15:59:00.003-06:00

We made it! Alive. Safe. Sound. And almost sane. Fourteen hours on the plane is a really long time. Here’s the story. Our plane landed in Heathrow, we walked out of the plane on those cool stairs like movie stars in sunglasses who wave at their fans (but there were no fans waiting for us) and we got on a bus (my first experience of driving on the wrong side of the road) and I think our bus driver, who I appropriately named Freddy, was a little bit crazy because we almost slammed into another bus. Instead he hit the brakes and we all slammed into each other. There were some angry people. Anyway, that’s not important, the most important thing is that I think I met the Weasley Brothers. Here’s how it went.

These two boys with bright red hair were sitting behind us on the plane and they were pretty funny the whole time but when we stopped and they stood up and started talking to each other it was even better. Here’s the conversation. Try it in an English/Irish accent, it’s much better.

Fred: “Did you call mum and dad?”
George: “No, I don’t have any battery. Leave me alone, I’ll call them in a minute from another phone.”
Fred: “Well then, are you going to be a grump all morning?”
George: “No, just until I can get away from you.”
Fred: “I don’t want to see you again until Thursday”
George: “I don’t want to see you until Thursday either but we have to practice on Tuesday."

It just continued from there. It was so funny. What a way to be welcomed to the UK. After we got on the plane we went through customs, where I made several new best friends, but Reagan was nearly rejected because she sounded like she didn’t know what she was doing or where she was going. Which she didn’t, and neither did I. We passed though. Got the stamp. From there we tracked down our luggage and caught the Tube into the city. It was a long ride and I suddenly got really tired. It was beautiful though! So green! It was rainy and cloudy and really, really beautiful. From there we found our way to Reagan’s aunt’s flat and went straight to sleep. Six hours, it was wonderful. I still haven’t seen much of the city. That’s tomorrow’s big adventure and I’m excited. We did eat some pretty good food though and definitely tried some Happy Hippos. I’m a fan of Kinder. That’s all for today. I’ve gotta go play a mean game of golf, with princess cards, and maybe eat some more flatbread.

Departure and a Truly Inseparable Trio

2008-04-27T15:23:00.010-06:00

The day is finally here! Reags and I are on our way to London. This day has really seemed so far away for so long that it feels a little surreal. Or maybe that’s just the 14 straight hours on a plane…not sure which. I guess it’s been a pretty good travel day. Ok, that was a lie, it’s probably been the best travel day ever, and I never thought I’d say that flying all the way across the Atlantic. Here’s what’s made it so great.

Jane Ann got married yesterday and left for her honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico this morning. The wedding was awesome and I loved every minute but it was quite an interesting experience watching my best friend get married. Super exciting and so good but accompanied by some pretty weird emotions. Anyway, the day was great. Reagan and I, and really all of the roommates, have joked with Jane Ann about coming on her honeymoon with her ever since she got engaged. About a week ago we realized that we’d be flying out of Salt Lake at about the same time so we figured we’d probably seen each other in the airport or something, which would be fun, one more final goodbye before we went our separate ways across the world. When we pulled up to the airport this morning I called Jane Ann to ask her if she was there and to get a feel for what the chances of running into her would be. Here’s how the conversation went.

“Hey Jane, you’re married! Um, what time do you fly out?”
“Um, Gabe, what time do we fly out? 12:45?”
“Sweet so do we, we’ll run into you for sure! Where are you flying to? Do you have a layover?”
“Ya, I think we have a layover in Houston”
“HAHA! Jane! We’re on the same flight!”

Not only were we on the same flight but Jane and Gabe sat right across from Reagan and I. Even after all of the joking I never thought that we’d actually end up accompanying Jane on her honeymoon…but I guess some things are just meant to be. But we did say goodbye in Houston…after giving Jane and Gabe the option of switching us destinations, London would be a fun honeymoon too right? Basically, I think that gives us the right to say that we really did go on Jane and Gabe’s honeymoon with them, even if we decided that it would be for the best if we parted ways in Texas. I guess we truly are an inseparable trio…with the new addition of Gabe. I don’t think it could be better.