Tuesday, August 18, 2009

London Adventure #1

On Saturday we decided to make a day trip to London. We made this decision about 2 hours before we went to bed the night before and it took us forever to decide what we wanted to see. There are so many beautiful things that we both wanted to see so we narrowed it down to Picadilly Circus, St. James Park, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben. We figured we would start at Picadilly Circus figuring that it was the furthest North of the things we wanted to see. Then we would just walk our way south. So we took the tube to Picadilly Circus, which for those of you that don’t know it is supposed to be their version of Times Square. It’s cool, tons of places to shop but that wasn’t why we were there so we got bored… fast. We walked to where we thought we needed to go and ended up in front of The National Gallery. It is an art museum that has free admission so we ventured in and looked around for some of the names we knew. I really wanted to see Monet because I love Monet. All Rob wanted to do was find a painting that he recognized as being famous. Well we when we finally found Monet, Rob found his famous painting. It is called the Water Lily Pond.

From the gallery we realized we were in Trafalgar Square, which is the heart of London and one of the more famous tourist spots in London. Most of it was blocked off for some kind of competition I only got about one good picture so we will have to venture back sometime. After we sat down and figured out where we needed to go, we headed towards St. James Park. This park is known for its views of the Palace and I couldn’t wait to see the Palace. We ate lunch in the park, which was a disaster as I am afraid of bees and have a huge bird phobia. So after our traumatizing lunch we headed to a gorgeous building that doesn’t even look real in our pictures. It was called the Horse Guards Parade. There were still soldiers there, two were on horses and that’s what they do for 24 hours a day. After seeing this we headed to the other side of the park over to see the palace. On our way to the other side of the park we walked along the lake, which is in the middle, and apparently it is where everyone goes to feed birds. There were geese, ducks, pigeons, and then this huge bird that was easily taller than me. Rob was very interested in this bird so I made him go pet it so I could get a picture. Everyone was petting it and I was hiding behind other people. We finally made it to the other side of the park and saw the Queen Victoria Memorial; it is located directly in front of the Palace and all of its gold gates. We missed the changing of guards by many hours. It was very cool to see and it takes your breath away. Once we were finished taking in the awe that is Buckingham Palace we headed to Westminster Abbey. I really wanted to see Westminster and it is just as incredible as I though it would be. We got there late so the inside was closed so we are planning another visit. Its gorgeous and there are sculptures of 20th Century martyrs. From the front of the Abbey if you look slightly to you left you will see Big Ben, or what we called our next destination. Big Ben is a part of the parliament building but individually its beautiful but when you see the whole of the parliament building you are amazed at how huge it really is. Big Ben and parliament are located right on the Thames so we crossed the bridge so we could try and get a picture of the whole building. After we saw Big Ben and parliament we were exhausted and we jumped on the tube and headed home.

Picadilly Circus

The Natianal Gallery and us in front of it.

Trafalgar Square

Us in front of Frederic Duke of York's Monument

St. James Park and the Horses Guard Parade

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abbey and Big Ben

Parliament

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Day 1

Well I arrived safely and am still getting used to the time difference. I got in Wednesday morning and I hadn’t slept at all on the plane. We got to the house and after the grand tour of the place I immediately fell asleep for a couple of hours. I woke up and we watched tv in the living room. I again took a nap for about an hour or two and by the time I woke up it was time for dinner. I got all dolled up in new clothes and so did Rob. We decided to go get sushi on the river. Everything really is so close here. It is all within walking distance of our place. Which by the way is coming along great. Well there isn't much more to say, so I will leave you with a picture of our first night here... well together anyways.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Last Month in the States

My last month here in the U.S. has been very exciting and a little stressful. As all of you know my passport came in about 2 weeks ago and my visa came back about a week and a half later but since all of that has happened, I figured I would let you in on what we have been doing since the 4th of July when I last posted. I know it has been awhile. Well the weekdays have been pretty repetitive but the weekends have been a blast. On the weekend following the fourth, we took a little adventure out to the coast and through some amazing parts of Washington on the way there. We packed up the car with boys still in pajama’s and everyone else still half comatose, we even brought Pickles along because she would be allowed on the beach and we felt bad leaving her home all day. On our way to our first stop of the morning Pickles proceeded to get car sick, the only reason I am bringing this up is because I had to sit next to her all the way in the back. After she got sick she then proceeded to eat it up. After this very traumatizing experience for me we drove through the town of Forks, WA which some of you might know is the setting for the Twilight series, it was interesting on how much they are marketing off of it. Every storefront had posters and signs saying, “Welcome to the Twilight Zone”. There was even a store called “Dazzled by Twilight”. From there we headed to the Hoh National Rainforest. We walked on one of the many trails through the rainforest and it was appropriately titled the Hall of Mosses. It was beautiful and very fun to climb the fallen trees and just see how cool nature is when uninterrupted. After the rain forest the boys put on their shorts and everyone was dressed for warm weather expecting the coast to be beautiful. Once we parked at Ruby Beach we realized it was about 20 degrees cooler than the rain forest. It was gorgeous but very cold. The boys climbed some rocks and we walked along the water. Jaxon ended up in the water so we immediately went to the car and got him some dry clothes after I had sacrificed 2 of my 3 layers to keep the poor kid dry. From there we headed to Hurricane Ridge which has amazing views of all of the surrounding areas, you can even see Canada from some of the paths. It was also about 30 degrees warmer than the beach so it was a nice change. The wildlife didn’t even seem wild there; it just walked around the parking lot and walked up to people like it was no big deal. After the ridge, we headed home and didn’t get back till about 9.


I think the weekend of the 18th we actually just spent the weekend at home. But we had big things planned for the week; the reason being is that it was Steve and Gina’s birthdays.

On the 24th as a present for Gina from the boys and Steve, we went up to the San Juan islands and went whale watching. It took 2 ferries and about an hour of driving to get there. We then spent about 4 hours on a boat and it was very cool. We were about 200 yards away from Killer Whales or as some people might call them Orcas. We were within distance for about an hour following them as they moved through the Sound. One eventually stuck his whole nose out of the water; of course none of us got a picture of it. After we did this we spent another 4 hours getting home which made it an extremely long day. The following day we went to the demolition derby and had a blast. They had two special events that I had never seen at a demolition derby, which I thought were some of the better events. One was The Rollover, this is when they put a ramp in the middle of the field and a car drive onto it and tries to roll their car as many times as possible. The more sides that touch the ground, the higher the score; the boys loved this event because in Mario Kart they jump off ramps all the time, we told them that this is what would happen if they tried it in real life. The special event planned for the night was the Can-Am football game, which was nothing like I was expecting. Basically, they paint a car like a football and it sits in the middle of the field and then 5 cars from Canada and 5 cars from America line up on both sides and the first team to push it across their end zone wins. Well this was absolutely hilarious and the highlight of the night. I had never seen anything like it.

As for the first weekend in August we headed down to Portland. It was my last weekend in Washington and had never been to Oregon, so it was my day to knock another state off my list. I looked up free stuff to do in Portland and we did about 2 of them. We went to the International Rose Test Garden; they have over 8,000 different types of roses there. Since it was about 95 degrees there we headed to the waterfront, where they had a fountain the boys could play in. Xander and I went on a walk and found out that there was a Wakeboarding Competition going on. We eventually grabbed dinner and then headed back to watch some of the riders. It was cool and something I had never seen. After that we headed to Voodoo Doughnuts. It is this crazy doughnut shop that put all types of crazy stuff on them. Steve got a doughnut that had bacon on it. The boys and I had ones with Cocoa Puffs on it. After we grabbed our doughnuts we headed home. We didn’t get home till around midnight so it was definitely a late night. Other than all of these adventures I have been packing like crazy.

My last day in Washington was on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009. We all packed in the car and drove to the airport around 4 and it was a very tearful goodbye, at least for me. I already miss those boys so much it breaks my heart even thinking about not seeing them for a year and a half.

From Washington, I headed back to Illinois to spend a couple of days with my family. I got in Wednesday evening and it was so busy until I left on the following Tuesday. On Thursday the 6th, I headed down to Bloomington to spend the day at Pub II and see a couple of friends. We spent a few hours there and then I headed home. On Friday I spent the day with my grandma and some of my cousins and my aunt. We went to Chili’s and then headed to my Grandma’s house and we spent the whole night there just talking and spending time with each other. My cousin Jenna spent the night at my house that night and then Saturday morning her mom and sister came over and ended up spending the whole day at the house. Saturday night was my night with some of my best friends we had a great night. We had Arranello’s Pizza for dinner and then we started drinking. We played some drinking games and then ended up heading to one of the bars, thanks to our D.D. of the night (Chrystal). I saw some kids from high school that I never thought I would see again and we all just had a great night. After the bar we headed to White Castle. If you couldn’t tell I was trying to hit all my favorite places to eat that are not over here in the U.K. After White Castle we headed home and watched maybe 5 minutes of Scream before we all just passed out.

Sunday was a big goodbye day, I said goodbye to all of my friends and it was sad. Maybe for me, than for them. After everyone left and my dad and I tok Chrystal to our favorite Ice Cream place in town my parents and I decided to go bowling. We bowled three games and the first two we played, I bowled over 100 for the first time in my life. After bowling, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings and from there we went to see The Ugly Truth.


On Monday my mom and I went shopping and we got a late start due to a delivery guy who was supposed to be there before 11 and didn’t get to the house till around noon. After we got home from shopping and running around I headed up to Chicago to spend the evening with Michelle and John. Michelle made egg rolls and stir-fry and then we spent the rest of the night catching up and talking about the future.

Tuesday was my last day with my parents and I had to start packing. Now when I described my goodbye with my brother and my nephews I said it was tearful. I couldn’t even talk I was crying so hard saying goodbye to my parents. I miss them everyday. It is more of the little phone calls when we were in the car to each other because now it is just emails and due to the time change the emails are about once a day. I am not using my phone anymore and I have not gotten a new one yet.