London

This is basically a big long journal entry... just so you know.

Last fall my dad got a job transfer to London. He and my mom are all settled in now and loving every second of it. Especially my mom, who is going crazy with spreading the gospel. She loves living in the mission field and invites people to church like every week. We decided that we'd better go to London while we had a place to stay and a mom to make us food everyday! It was.. go 30 weeks pregnant or go with a 2 month old little one (because they will coming home in Aug). So we went. The nine hour flight was pretty miserable, especially because it was overnight. We got to London at 9:00 am (2:00 am our time) and with no sleep. It was awesome. We survived with a little ambien and had a wonderful trip!

My parents live in this beautiful neighborhood in Kensington - the first pic is of their apt. It's like one of the neighborhoods I would walk through in NY and dream of moving to someday. We got off the plane, dropped off our stuff and went and saw the city.

Did you know that in February it's Spring in London? We were so surprised to find green lawns, flowers, and blossoms on the trees, while it was snowing in Utah. We walked through Green Park...
...and saw Buckingham palace

and died strolling through the cute old streets! There are all sorts of little alley ways that make you feel like you're in Disney Land.

My mom was so proud of her navigating skills that she has acquired since living in the big city - knowing how to use the public transport etc, so we let her take us around for awhile Thanks mom! We rode lots of buses. It was just fun to be in the city.



The National Gallery...

and Trafalgar Square

Our first night there my mom took us to evensong at Westminster Abbey. It was actually a really cool experience. FYI, if you go evensong it's free and you get to see the Abbey etc. If not, you have to pay like 10 pounds (20 bucks). For evensong you get to sit in the choir seats right by the choir. We heard an all boys choir that was amazing - such cute little boys, I couldn't believe the voices coming out of their little bodies.
Parliament and Big Ben at night. Beautiful.

We wanted to see an old English town, so we took a day trip to Canterbury. It's a charming little place with a beautiful cathedral.

I had to take this picture because I totally felt like I was in the movie Harry Potter! Behind the Canterbury cathedral there is a school where the kids really wear Harry Potter uniforms and have British accents! They were just getting out of class as we were walking by.

This area is right by Chaucer's house.

Adam wanted a prep pic of me in England - here it is!!

Canterbury still has an old city wall around it with a gate! This bus could barely fit!


This pic is for Sarah.

I've always wanted to see a real castle so my mom and dad took us to Hever to see the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. Here we are at the train station.


To get to the castle you either have to take a cab or walk a mile on a country lane - hello, cab or walk in the English countryside?
It was basically what I always pictured it to be. We even saw real thatched roof cottages. The English countryside walk was definitely my favorite part of the trip.


When you get to the castle you have to walk through the back gardens first. I wish I could have taken my wedding pictures there.

An awesome candid side-view of my growing belly.

The Hever Castle
Adam and I made it through the maze! Can you feel the excitement?

Our last day in London Adam and I took some time to ourselves and basically walked half the city. We saw the London Tower and Tower Bridge. We walked across the river and visited St. Paul's Cathedral. We went to the Museum of London and saw remnants of the old London city wall.
We ended up at Regents Park (the most beautiful park in London, according to Lucy) It was actually really gorgeous and so different from the parks in the US. Everywhere we turned it seemed like we were in some palace garden.

My mom kept raving about the "secret garden" she found. It's part of Regents Park but supposedly, well according to Lucy, nobody knows about it! From her directions (and the huge map of the park) we found the hidden place.


There were only a handful of people that came into the garden while we were there, so maybe it is kind
secret. We liked to pretend that it was.

It was a short trip but lots of fun. Thanks mom and dad for everything! We loved staying with you in your perfect flat and romping around the city.

I had to include these pics. Random I know, but kind of cool. This is Greenland from the airplane window. Pretty eh?

31 weeks!!

63 Days to go! Seriously, how can my stomach grow for 63 more days. I swear it's huge.

amber

If you don't know the Furst sisters i'm very sad for you because i'm slightly obsessed with them.

Amber not only looks beautiful in her own B-Day crown but has crowned so many others on their special days. Always making them feel special. She's the kind of girl that invites you to come to dinner and then when it's time to leave doesn't let you go out in the cold without digging up an extra coat for you to wear and outfitting you with scarf and leg warmers even though you only have a 3 minute walk to the subway! (ps. I think I still have those pink leg warmers)

Then when you need to move she comes to your apartment and cleans and packs your car!

She knows the best taco place in town (she is mexican you know) and doesn't even mind sharing her secrets

She comes to visit you and helps you prepare your primary lesson! She makes the best spirit children.
She might be the most fashionable girl I have met. Yep, I pretty much don't even try to be fashionable when I'm around her.

She rented a red mustang when she was in town. Ha. That was awesome. Adam got to drive it.
We miss you AMBER!!



P.S. We love you too Diane. Good Luck on American Idol. We've been texting in our votes.

what do you do?

My sister Lyndsey had her baby two weeks early a couple of days ago! Adam and I are actually in London right now staying with my parents and having one last trip by ourselves before we are parents. Everything was planned perfectly...we would go to London on Wed., stay until Mon., my parents would come home that next Thursday and we would all be there for the birth of the new grandchild, which wasn't supposed to come until March 12th. On Wed. morning I got a phone call from Lyndsey at about 6:30 saying she's bored, in the hospital and in labor! What?! The baby wasn't supposed to come yet! Lucky for her she was in the hospital for like 30 minutes, got an epidural, waited a couple of hours, by 8 am was at a 5, when I got done teaching my class at 10, she was the having the baby!! Lucky for me I didn't have to be to the airport until noon, so I stopped by the hospital to see her for two seconds before heading off to London. Sad for my mom that she couldn't be there. She thought for sure if her flight was on the 6th, practically a week early, that she would never miss the birth. I guess babies come whenever they feel like their ready. Some nine days late (so sorry Rebecca) and some 14 days early.