Europe Part 1: London (June 21-June 24)

Our First Day in London

    

We arrived at the airport at 6:30am (10:30pm Utah time) and went straight to our hotel. We dropped our stuff off  at the hotel and headed for the city.  By the end of the day we figured we had been awake for about 32 hours…we were exhausted but it was worth it to be on the right schedule. This is our lovely hotel and escalators to the tube.

                       

I love Hamley’s toy store. We went through every level and the lego level was my favorite. There are some talented lego people out there. We thought of our niece Kallie when we saw all the Hello Kitty stuff!

         

The M&M store was also fun. I especially loved the free samples at the door.

                      

Trafalgar Square. There was a countdown to the Olympics which was pretty cool.

Hyde Park: We sat on this bench for awhile and Bryce fell asleep for a bit. We also had fallen asleep in the National Gallery. Hyde Park was beautiful but we didn’t stay long as it started to rain and we were without an umbrella. Afterwards we found Kyle and Lesley Colvin’s flat where we got keys as they offered for us to stay there for our following two nights in London. We were so grateful as it was a very central location and  a nice flat!

Second Day in London

    

St. Paul’s Cathredral: This was our very favorite place in London. We didn’t end up getting a great picture of it, and really no picture could do it justice. We walked around the corner and there it was, standing high in the sky. There is a whisper room, where you whisper  against the wall and the person on the other side of the room can hear you. It is this big circular room and it is awesome! I whispered “Bryce, raise your hand if you can hear me” and he raised his hand! From clear across this huge room he could hear me.

View from the top of St. Paul’s

 

From St. Paul’s we walked across Millenium Bridge and went to the Tate Modern Museum. Neither of us are really that into Modern art so it was a quick stop. Then we walked along the river towards Tower Bridge. I love this bridge.

          

Looking back at St. Paul’s from Millenium Bridge, and the best picture we’ve got of Tate Modern :)

The beautiful Tower Bridge.

As we walked across the bridge we saw the huge olympic rings. It was fun to see how they are getting ready for the olympics. We were going to go to Tower of London but when we arrived it was closed, so instead we found a Wagamamas and had some delicious food there.  It was a great day in London.

Third Day in London

      

The day before we wanted to ride the bus but the bus drivers were on strike so we used the tube all day. They were not on strike this day so we took advantage of that and rode the buses everywhere. This was a great way to see the city. They had flags of every country you could think of hanging above the streets and it was so picturesque.

Tower of London: There were a couple of men jousting outside of the tower.  And this gentleman reluctantly took a picture with us. The tower was interesting to see, certainly the most medieval place we visited.

           

             

Big Ben, House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. At Westminster we got an audio guide and we were so glad we did because we didn’t realize that Darwin, Handel, Dickens and other famous people are buried there.

In front of Westminster. Pretty good self-pic eh?

Buckingham palace was very busy, but still so neat to see it. This girl sitting next to Bryce was also posing for a picture so I tried to hurry and snap mine so we could get out of the way and I cut off the top part of the statute.

W e ate at a pub and it was delish. Bryce got the traditional Bangers and Mash and I got Fish and Chips. We went to the Natural History Museum and spun around in these sweet chairs at VA museum. From there we walked and walked to Portobello road where they were pretty much cleaning up from the market. We had a hard time finding the right bus that went back to our place that night, and during our trek we dropped the camera and it broke. Sad, sad day.  The next day we headed for Paris. It was a fantastic stay in London and we are so glad we decided to fly through there so we could see this great and fun city.

Hanging out on the top of St. Paul’s

Run, Run, Run

Last summer my sister Jessica ran a half marathon. I was pretty impressed but it didn’t sound like something for me because I don’t usually do hard things :). However, I married a runner so of course I was bound to run some day. Even if it was just a little bit. In the fall some time I saw an advertisement for Utah Valley Marathon and on a whim I asked Bryce if he wanted to do the Marathon and I do the half.  Well seeing as how it is no big deal for him of course he agreed and I hurried and registered before I changed my mind. I figured if my sister who had had 3 kids and was 7 years older than me and hasn’t ever really run long distance in her life could do it, then surely I could to do it.

This was in the fall some time so I had a long road ahead. I started just running 3 miles because even 3 miles was tough for me. I had a lot of knee pain when I ran so I thought maybe I would never make it to 13 miles. But I kept up my training. I remember the first time I ran 4 miles…it was the furthest I had ever run in my life!

Finally it was race day and it was great. We got up early and took the buses up. Bryce went to his point and Jerika (Jerika was so kind to agree to run the race with me. It was perfect because our pace is pretty close to the same) and I went to ours. We hung out for awhile then started the race! It was tons of fun and there were tons of people. (by tons of fun I mean in an exhausted sort of way). I had to go to the bathroom from the beginning because I drank too much water before starting. I didn’t ever want to wait in the line for the port a potty so I toughed it out. The best part about the race was NO knee pain, and NO side aches. I actually think that training for this half marathon made my leg muscles stronger to better support my knees. My right knee used to hurt when going up and down stairs but no longer! I am a big supporter of running. Let’s just see if I can keep it up now! Bryce did great in his Marathon, not his best time but after running a half marathon I have even more respect for marathoners. He’s my hero.

Sitting in the dark in some weeds, waiting for our race to start.

                 

     Finished!! 2h20min. Jerika and I sprinted to the finish. It was great!                Watching Bryce come in. What a stud!

                                                                   We did it!

Goodbye Eagle Valley

 

2 years ago I got hired to be a Kindergarten Teacher at Eagle Valley Elementary. It was really a miracle that I got a job with how few teaching positions were open in comparison to the number of applicants. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to start my teaching career at such a great school. I am transferring to Bonneville Elementary in Orem which reduces my drive time by a half hour. I’m excited to start teaching there…The principal has been so nice and I love the teachers I will be working with.

This is what my classroom looked like 2 years ago when I walked in. Now this is what it looks like when I walk out. So sad

 

I think Kindergarten teachers get showered with gifts the most. One mom gave me this and I thought it was pretty cool. It may have come off pinterest but she sure did a great job! I also got a lot of other great gifts. Parents are the BEST. I will miss my little kiddos next year. I wish I could post pictures of them so you could see how cute they are :)

St. George with the Packers

I love going down to St. George to enjoy the sunshine and have a break from work time. We were going to go down Memorial Day weekend but we wanted to go with the Packers and since they were leaving us for Washington, we found a weekend in early May that we could go. We left Friday after school and came home Sunday morning. It was a quick but great trip.

          

There was this tiny space between the rocks that squoze through to get into this enclosed cave that was dark and mysterious. It took me forever to get through that crack. I told Bryce as I was stuck “This isn’t very comfortable”. But it was pretty cool on the other side!

Aunt Time!

 

I sure love being an aunt! I am lucky enough to have Bennett and Ryan close by (except they left us for the summer!). I wish I could be close to all my nephews and nieces!!

Becky needed me to babysit one day while she met with someone on campus so the boys and I went to the bean museum. They were great. It was good times.

Jake and Stacey came out for one of Stacey’s cousin’s weddings. They went to a wedding dinner and I was excited to hang out with my niece and nephew that I never get to see! Bennett and Ryan hung out with us too (Nate and Becky were there as well). After we played on campus for awhile, we came to our place. I read books to these three for about an hour. Kallie had a stack of books and she just kept handing me them. I sure love being an Aunt!

Happy Birthday!

Bad at taking pictures and slow at writing about them, doesn’t make a very good combination for having a blog. But a little is better than nothing!

My first married birthday was fantastic. The Pinder family spoiled me on Sunday with one of my very favorite meals: hamburgers! and gave me wonderful presents.

On Monday I spent the majority of the day at school teaching little children, then after school in hours and hours of meetings about how to better teach little children. I got home about 6:00 and went to one of my very favorite restaurants: Red Robin! Why? Because they have hamburgers!! Soooo delicious.

That evening, Becky was gracious enough to let us come over to celebrate. So the Pinders, the Packers and some of my great college friends: Jerika, Maren, Marina, Kim, Jenny and Heidi (and Heidi’s fiance) came and celebrated with me. It was a very enjoyable 26th birthday. My husband spoiled me too :)