My Life in London: December 2011

That's right. I am updating my blog twice in 24 hours! Check me out! This one will be much shorter. So to start off, William the other day would NOT let go of my hand. Cutest thing ever!! And he said "Take a picture so you can remember how much I love you." So I did. :) And now it is on this blog so when I am old, wrinkly and grey haired.. I can always remember.

Then we did a cookie decorating night in the ward. My cupcake was an N for my name. The two people in the picture are my friend Marco and Dee. Dee's cupcake was... NICKI MINAJ!! How great is that?! I love these two veryyyy much and I am so happy I have had the chance to meet them. xx

Then I got the chance to go to the London Temple. I had the BEST experience ever. Temples outside of Utah are the best. They do a little devotional type thing before hand where we have a song, an opening prayer and a spiritual thought. It is amazing and makes the experience a million times more fantastic. They can't take everyone at once.. obviously.. and so there were a bunch of us from the YSA waiting in the room. Becca leaned over to me and said.. "will you sing with me?" I had no idea you could even do that. But her and I just started singing songs. A couple more people caught on and by the end almost every person in the room was singing. We got to sit there and sing songs for about an hour and it was unbelievable. The spirit was so strong and it was exactly what I imagine Heaven to be like. :) Here are a couple pictures of the Temple and the grounds.

And lastly.. I got to do one of my favorite things ever. Take the boys ICE SKATING!!! One of my all time favorite things ever. As soon as I stepped on to the ice, so many memories came back. Getting my first pair of these beautiful white skates for Christmas when I was 8. Having my Dad surprise me with my first private ice skating rink in the back yard. Stepping on the ice in my own house for the first time and being out there until the sun went down. That first ice rink was one of the best Christmas' ever and I am so lucky to have a Dad who stays up all night a countless number of times each year when I was growing up just to make me my own private ice rink. Anyway, I took the boys ice skating and I had a blast! The boys liked it at first.. but they wanted to leave quickly because their feet were hurting since they didn't really know how to skate. We went to Somerset House and it was beautiful. If even started raining lightly at one point and I thought that was really neat. One picture is of us on the way home. Cameron is so grown up. We were sitting on the tube and he just picked up a magazine like it was no big deal and started reading through it. He is 9 YEARS OLD!!! Sometimes I feel like he is 9 going on 14. And the last picture is for my brother Thomas. They have these ads up everywhere.. you think marketing would have caught the little English error? I see it in lots of stations but it is specifically up in Wimbledon so I see it all the time. It always makes me laugh and think of you. So that is all for this one. Love you guys again. And I can officially say... 11 DAYS!!! xx

So about a month ago I went to Barcelona and I am absolutely terrible about keeping this thing updated.. But, it was amazing!! I had such a great time and Barcelona is gorgeous. It was the first trip I have ever taken when I completely shut my phone off. And that felt great!! The trip started out with us getting on the metro to get to our hotel and a man started playing the accordion. Wendy just leaned over and said.. "We are so in Barcelona!" It was great! Once we got off the metro.. we got lost. In Barcelona. We could not find our way to the bus stop to get to our hotel. So after walking around aimlessly for what seemed like an hour (I am sure it was really only about 15 minutes..) I finally said.. "Is your Spanish good enough to get us a taxi?" And it was. That girls Spanish saved us many a times! So we got a taxi and got to our beautiful hotel! 3 minute walk from the beach. As soon as you come out of our hotel you could see the beach at the end of the road. Gorgeous! Anyway.. We were starving. So we ordered a pizza.. and it was pricey. But it was one of the best pizzas I have ever had. And I am sure the fact that I was starving made it taste that much better. :) So we finally went to bed after sending out emails letting everyone know we were safe, we went to sleep. The next day was filled with beach fun! We just sat on the beach and played in the Mediterranean water. It wasn’t the warmest water.. but it was warmer than Brighton, England water in August! I like to compare it to about SD water in June. And we were there in November. The weather was perfect! Not too hot and not too cold.. The best weather I could have possibly imagined in the middle of November when I was used to cold and foggy England. For dinner we walked to the mall which was about a 20-25 minute walk and had ourselves…. McDonalds. Yep. And once again.. I was so hungry that I actually enjoyed McDonalds. I never thought I would see the day! We picked up some food and went back home. The next day we were complete tourists! We went out to the city and did a bus tour! We went to lunch first to a place similar to Sweet Tomatoes.. Which by the way.. I cannot wait until I am home and can go there with Scar! Anyway.. I didn’t love the food. I enjoyed the pizza we got much more. It wasn’t awful..and maybe it wasn’t as good as I had hoped because I couldn’t read the signs as to what food I was getting. The man at one of the counters was hitting on Wendy and I.. I am guessing because we were Americans? Anyway he was nice and give us a lot more of the good stuff. So after that the bus tour started. We got to see all of the sights from the top of a bus. We first went to see Gaudi’s unfinished cathedral. He never finished it while he was alive so they are always working on it for that reason. It was pretty cool. Then we went to a famous park. You can see all of Barcelona. The city all the way out to the ocean and it was unbelievable and so beautiful. We finished out bus tour looking at a few other sights but it was starting to get cold. Once the sun drops.. the temperature does too quite a bit so we went home. But first.. We needed to get.. GELATO!! It was delicious!! I have never tasted anything quite so amazing in the frozen form in my life!! So we went home.. and got lost. Once again we got on the wrong bus and ended up completely off course! We had to take three buses to get us back to where we wanted to go in the first place and to be honest.. I was scared. Not only was I somewhere we didn’t know in a language I couldn’t speak.. But one of the bus drivers scared me a bit. For example.. he was smoking on the bus in a closed area! Apparently that isn’t against the law there which was something I wasn’t used to even living in London. We eventually got home and we went to the mall again so I could start my tradition. A new pair of shoes for each place I visit!! They are some 4 inch leopard print hells with a slightly pointed toe and the print goes all the way down the heel. I don’t have a picture but they are so cute! I have worn them a couple times but it is really hard to wear in shoes here since you have to walk everywhere you go! We went shopping again for food and that was the end of that day. The next day we had a lie in. And I think I slept until like noon.. It was GREAT!! So we had breakfast and started packing all of our stuff up. We ended up going to the beach one last time and walked along the front and that was how we spent our late afternoon/evening. We stayed there until the sun went down and you couldn’t see anything anymore and headed back home. Wendy and I were excited to get some sleep.. but ended up talking the ENTIRE night. Yep. We pulled an allnighter even though we were already shattered and knew we both had a long day tomorrow.. me working and her going to school.. but we did it anyway. I don’t remember much from that morning. Only that we left our hotel around 5 and got back home in London at around 9. We jumped onto the Gatwick Express (train) and as we were getting on I hear a man say to another man.. “F… off mate! Wait your turn!.” And I turned to Wendy and said.. “We are so back in London.” Haha. When we got to Victoria station, I was so lucky and got to jump right onto the right tube without waiting or having to change once. Coming back into London made me realize how much I love it here. And as we were landing I thought.. “I’m home.” I love this place and I am so happy and lucky to live here. Well that is all for this post. Sorry it took me so long. I love you and miss you all. See you guys back home in 12 DAYS!!!! xxxxx

Video of the Ocean. :)