London - Day 3: Church, High Tea, & Site Seeing

Sunday morning we got ready and walked to church.  It wasn't too far away but we probably should have taken the bus with how much walking we did the rest of the day.  I was fine but my mom and Connie were pretty wiped out later in the day.
Church was really neat, and hot.  Their were lots of people there who were visiting from all around the world.
The man who blessed the sacrament had the neatest accent.  He sounded like Sean Connery.  How cool to have Sean Connery (sounding person) bless your sacrament.  Super cool.  Teagan said that he used to be an actor and came and talked to their class.  I thought that was cool.
Outside the chapel they had a little visitors center.  We only went to sacrament meeting and then checked out the visitors center and chatted with the missionaries.

After that we headed to High Tea.  Which turns out is usually done later in the afternoon, not before noon.  The waiter of the restaurant thought we were really weird for ordering it so early.
It came with sandwiches, scones with jam and a butter-type thing (I forgot what it is called), and little cakes.  Oh and two things of tea.
It was both herbal tea.  I don't like tea.  It was so hot outside that hot tea just did not sit well, and I just don't like tea.  But it was a fun experience to have a little tea party in London with my ladies.

After tea we took the bus back to our hotel so that we could change out of our church clothes and get changed to go site seeing.

We took the tube to the heart of London's tourist area.  We saw Big Ben and Parliament.  That was a really big building.  I was surprised.  So Ben Ben (the big clock tower from Peter Pan) is at one end of the parliament building and a matching tower (without the clock) is at the other end. 
Across the street from Parliament is Westminster Abbey.  That was really large and beautiful.  We really wanted to go inside of the building but it was closed for tours.  They did have and organ recital later that day that we wanted to come back and go to.  Mainly Connie wanted to go to it, but we all thought it would be cool to see inside the building.

We decided to walk to Buckingham Palace.  It wasn't too far from Westminster Abbey but it did take us a little while to walk there.  There was a really nice park that we walked by to get to the Palace.  You just follow the sidewalk and it led us right to the palace. 
There is this really big statue with water around it right in front of the palace.  It is in the center of a large round-about.  Not many cars were driving on that road, I think we saw like two.  Probably cabs dropping tourist off at the palace.
The palace is big and beautiful.  They did have a few guards in red guarding two of the doors in from of the palace.  They would march funny with their straight legs back and forth.  We even got to see them change the guard.  I don't think it was the actually "changing of the guard" because on line it seemed like that was a bigger deal then this.  But a main guard came out with another guard and switched out the guards that were there before with new guards.  It looked like the main guard told them some things and then the guard switch with the new guard.  It was interesting.
The best part was that they had two of these red coated guards and then to the side at another door were two real guards with bullet proof vests and big machine guns.  It was like the guards for show and then the real guards to actually protect people.
After watching the guards and seeing all that we wanted to at the palace, we decided to walk around some more.  We thought maybe we'd find a pup to get a drink and have a break from the heat but instead we ran into the "Inspecting of the Guard."  We walked through a large arch way and a group of people were encircling some guards and two horses with guards on them, in a line.  So we stuck around to see what was going to happen.

After a few minutes a leader guard came out and went around to every  guard and looked them over from top to bottom.  He was right in these guys face staring them down, it was intense.  He even checked out the horses and the men on top of them.  After he was all done checking them all, they all turned around and went inside the building.  It was very interesting.
After that we looked around some more before heading back to Westminster to attend the organ recital.  We cut it way too close and were lucky to make it in, but we got in and it was really neat.  Connie loved the organ music (made her think of the hubby) and the rest of us enjoyed the cool sit down and possible a short nap.
After the recital we got on a bus to find someplace to eat.  I really wanted to go to a nice restaurant that was cool and have a nice meal on our last in London.  But that is not what happened.  Teagan took us to a weird part of town and then my mom needed to use the bathroom so she went into a Mexican Restaurant to use their toilet.  Well heaven forbid we not eat where my mom had to use the toilet so we got stuck eating not very good Mexican food from a cafe-style place.  So no nice cool restaurant like I asked for.  I was disappointed.
After our food we got back on the bus to go to our hotel.  We needed to pack and get ready to go early the next day.  It was a really long, but fun day of seeing the sites and having fun.  But it was time to say our good-byes to London the next morning.

London - Day 2: Harrods, The Stalls, & Phantom of the Opera

The first thing we did this day was go to the department store called Harrods.  It is really expensive and really big.  We really were just looking around to see all the fancy things.  Not one of the workers looked at us and asked if we needed help or anything.  I guess it was clear that we were not buying anything.  Teagan said it was because of my visor.  Oh well, protecting my head and eyes was more important then looking fancy.
We saw some really fancy hats that we all thought were super cool.  They looked like the type of hats you would wear to see the queen.
After our sticker shock fun at Harrods we got on the "tube" and headed to the stalls for some shopping that we could actually afford.
Teagan found this super fun place that used to be a really big horse stall area.  They made it into a big swamp meet type area.  So each stall is now made into a little store.  Lot of London souvenirs, clothing, and other fun random stuff.  We left the stalls to get some lunch at a near by restaurant.  The other's all got fish and chips and said that they were pretty good.  I got some chicken.  It was alright.  Different.  We sat by a nice family from Spain who were visiting their son who was there studying in college.  It was fun to speak Spanish to them.
After walking around the whole place, which was huge, and buying some fun things we decided to started our way back to our hotel to freshen up for the play.
After we freshened up we were off again to go to dinner.  My mom wanted Indian food that night so Teagan found a really cute place.  It was kind of a lot of walking to get to this place, but it was actually quite nice inside.
We told them that we were going to a play after dinner and we were kind of in a hurry.  They were very good to us and got us out all our food in time.  I don't usually like India food, but it was actually surprisingly good.

After we rushed through our dinner we made our way to the queen theater about 10 minutes before the play was to start.  We had just enough time to pick up our tickets from will call (but they don't call it that) and got to the bathroom and then get in our seats.  I was the last one in the bathroom and they called in that the play was going to start.  I was moving fast to get to my seat.
I was so hot for the first half of the play.  It was so hot in London.  A heat wave that was the highest in years.  The building was cool, but I was just so hot.

The main thing that I wanted to do in London was see Phantom of the Opera.  My mom asked Teagan to get the tickets for us and she forgot to order them until the day that we got there.  In her haste she ordered the tickets for the wrong day.  She didn't realize it until the morning we were suppose to go and she got an e-mail asking how she liked the show.  So then she had to order more tickets.  We really got lucky that they still had some.
My mom and Connie had to sit in the balcony by them selves and Teagan and I got to sit on the bottom floor together.
The show was really good.  The Phantom did amazingly well.  The others did really good too.  We had a really good time watching the show and I am glad that we were able to do it.
After the show we went back to the hotel for some much needed rest.  None of us slept very well because of the heat, but we did get some rest. 

London - Day 1

My dad picked me up at my house with my mom and Aunt Connie about six on Thursday evening.  I said my good-byes and we were off to the airport.
Everything went smoothly at the airport and we boarded our plan on time without any problems.  We left around 8:30 pm in Salt Lake and landed in London about 1:30 pm the next day.  I was hoping that I would sleep on the plane, but I think I only got about one hour (if I was lucky). They did feed us two meals and a snack on the plane so that was nice.  I was able to watch 4 movies and that really helped the time go by faster.

Once we got to London we had to wait in line for customs and it was very long.  We chatted with all the people around us and that helped the time go by.
There was a huge picture of a Solder in his funny hat so I had to take my picture with it.  I am such a tourist.
I was able to get my first stamp in my passport while going through customs, so that made me really happy.  I am a nerd.
After we got our luggage we headed to the "tube" or subway to make our way to our hotel.  It was pretty slick and we stopped just a few blocks from our hotel.  We were able to check in and after we dropped off our luggage we decided to go to the pub next door for some lunch.
We were a little confused as to where to go but once we figured it out and ordered our food we were good to go.  My mom and Connie shared a large fish and chips plate that they both really enjoyed.  They were both super excited to be eating fish and chips in England.  I got a cheeseburger.  It was okay.   A little different then in the states.
By the time we were done eating Teagan joined us with her luggage and we took her to the hotel to drop off her stuff.  The hotel was very different from anything I have ever been in.  They didn't have any air in the room and it was just different.  They had two twin beds and a full sized bed that Teagan and I shared.
But they did have a little fridge and we had our own bathroom.  They also gave us free waters and treats.  They were also really friendly at the front desk.  They gave us breakfast each morning, but it wasn't very good.  We asked for just toast and corn flakes one day and they gave us dry toast with no butter and they already put milk in the corn flakes so they were all soggy.  It was very interesting and we didn't eat much breakfast while we were there.
After we got settled in we decided to go for a walk around the hotel and to the park that was near by, Hyde Park.  We found lots of funny statues around London.  They like their horses and naked people.  It was interesting.
While we were in the park we walked along the water edge and they had a ton of geese.  Teagan told us that the Queen has made it a law that you can't harm the geese, they are the Queens Geese.  So since people can't harm them they have a lot of them.  It was fun watching them swim, waddle, and dive for food.
After we left the water area we got to a wooded area that was really pretty.  There was a man there with a lot of pretty birds.  He was giving people bird seed and letting them feed the birds.  It was pretty fun holding the birds and having them flying around us.  After a while we tipped the man and continued on our walk in the park.
We got around the wooded area and found a fun statue of the queen (I assume) that was located in front of a big building that we were told Prince whoever stays with his wife and children sometimes.  Who knows if it's true, but it made for a fun story.

We decided to take the double decker bus back to our hotel but before finding our bus stop we stopped on a park bench for a little break in the park.  It was nice to see all the people out in the park enjoying the day.  It was unseasonably hot for London and since no one has air in their homes, they were out in the park.  They had big groups of young adults hanging out (and drinking).  They were all fun to watch.
After our break on the bench we found our bus stop and got onto the top of our double decker bus.  It wasn't as exciting as it sounds, but we had a good time being tourist on the bus.  It stopped close to our hotel where we went in and got ready for bed.  We were super tired from our very long day and were more then ready to sleep.

Megan's First Mini Pedi

I needed to get a pedicure before I leave for Europe, so when I was about to leave Megan asked if she could go with me.  I hesitated at first, but then decided to let her come and then we could get her toe nails painted.  She did so good the whole time.  She listened so good and watched what they were doing to my feet.  The lady who was helping me kind of did little things to Megan's feet to make her feel special.  She was a silly lady.  Megan chose orange paint because that is her favorite color.  She loved getting her toes done with mom.  I see many more pedicures in our future.

Trip to the Cannery

Today we went up to Ogden to see Tony and the new building.  We always have a good time going to daddy's work, seeing all the machines, and going to lunch.
I thought Allie looked so cute with her Minnie sun glasses and the mint in her mouth.  It was a pretty good day trip to see daddy.

Tyler's Last Baseball Game & Bee's Game with the Angles

Tyler had his last game today.  He did good and had a great time.
Later in the day Tony, Josh, and Tyler met up with Josh's team at Godfather's pizza because Josh's team won a pizza party.
After the party they all went to the Bees game as a team.  Tony said that Tyler watched a lot of the game but Josh mainly goofed around with his team mates.  They all had a good time and it made the perfect way to end the baseball season.

Memorial Day at the Cabin

Josh's Shiner

Josh got hit in the face with a baseball while up to bat at his last game.  It was thrown pretty hard and really hurt him.  I was up at Tyler's game, but was told that his face got swollen really fast.
Luckily a mom had an ice pack and some Motrin that she gave to Josh after it happened (her son got hit the game before).  So Josh sat out the rest of the game and then came up to Tyler's game.
I decided to take a picture of his face everyday to see the change.  It started out as a pretty big goose egg on his face and then went to changing colors.
It was pretty bad the next morning but then luckily each day it got a little better.  Josh had a good attitude about the whole thing, but is still pretty scared of the ball after this.  I can't say I blame him.

New Chair

Our old double chair broke so we needed a new one.  We had been using one of Margie's old chairs while we looked for the right chair.
Well we found that chair on Monday.  We went up to the cabin that morning for a BBQ and then on the way home we stopped at RC Willey's to see if we could find a chair that we liked that was an extra good deal.
We got lucky in the clearance section and found this sweet electric reclining double chair.  Tony worked out a good deal that included delivery and the chair just came today.  So far we all really like the chair.