Lexi

First day of Preschool. Lexi LOVES it! This is her teacher, Miss Shannon.

Lexi is in Sunbeams at church, and this fall was her first Primary Sacrament Meeting Program.

Not happy!

For Halloween Lexi wanted to be a ballerina. We were headed out to trick or treat when we noticed the little additions she had added to her costume - glasses and a crown.

An Occasion To Remember

First swim in our pool!

**Don't worry, the hideous shed behind the spa is gone, and the landscaping has been completely re-done since this picture was taken. More on that later!

Other Summer Fun

Right before we went to London, my cousin was driving through Vegas and came to visit with his family. It was great to catch up with Nathan and Sarah Jane and to see cute Nora. Please come see us again!And right when we got back from London Jane was driving through on their way home from California and came to stay for a night. It was fun to show her the house we were buying and to just hang out.

And of course we had lots of time swimming at the Tews. Lexi improved her swimming a lot from last summer. It was so nice to not have to worry about her.

My fearless little guy!

Trip Part Four: Thursday-Sunday

Okay, so the last few days of our trip are a bit of a blur for me, so I'll just put in the highlights:

1. Chicken Tikka Pita from Cafe Diana ("Cafe D"). This one's for Kel and Jess! We discovered this place around the corner from the BYU center last time we lived there. I went there three times the week I was in London, and that wasn't enough! : ) And other food - we ate at Santorini's (they were out of "Greek soup" - dang it!), pastries, kabobs, yogurt (why can't they make it that good in the states?), and chocolate.

2. Best picture from the trip - if Lexi is the judge! This was at the "Britain at War" Museum.

3. Bike tour of London. This was our favorite thing we did. It started along the south bank of the Thames and took you all over the city to a ton of the tourist attractions (Eye of London, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Buckingham Palace - during changing of the guard, Hyde Park, Covent Garden, etc. ) It happened to be a beautiful, sunny day and it felt so good to be on a bike after walking all week. 4. Plays - We went Thursday night with my parents to see Arcadia and Friday night we all met up at the Globe Theater to watch Troilus and Cressida.

5. People watching at Trafalgar Square one afternoon.

6. View from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. I tried to get on the elevator since I was pregnant, but they didn't go for it. So we walked all of those steps up to the top. It was worth it!
7. Meeting up with an old friend. We got to spend the day with Lorianne, who is my friend from high school and just happened to be studying at Cambridge this summer. She took us to Saturday's Market on the south bank, which was awesome.

8. Dinner at Khan's. Saturday my cousins, Aaron and Colin, arrived in London for a week visit, so we got to catch up a bit. We all went to dinner that night at our favorite Indian restaurant.

9. Playing Phase 10 ("skip Judy!"). This was a little family tradition from last time we lived in London, and finally Saturday night I got to play a round with Jenn.

10. Spending time with my parents. Coming from such a big family, it's always a treat to have one-on-one time with them. We have missed them since they've been in London. And I've taken so long to post this that they are done in London and are literally on their way home right now...probably just heading tot he airport. We're excited to have you guys back in driving distance!

11. Going home. Actually, just being home again...the actual getting there was a nightmare! It took us 30+ hours from start to finish, and we hardly slept on the planes. We had the worst, rudest cab driver from the BYU Center to Victoria Station, then we took a train to the airport. The airport was a disorganized mess. We were in line for over an hour even though we had checked in online. I had to leave the check-in line to throw up, then I had to leave the security line because I almost passed out (such drama!). Then I threw up on the plane some more. When we landed, Jeff's parents met us at Ontario, CA airport with our kids and the car all packed at 11pm (so nice of them to make it easy for us and save time driving back to Yucaipa). But then we got in the car and I drove the whole way home to Las Vegas while everyone else slept (NOTE: I chose to drive, since Jeff had to work the next morning, and because I trust myself to never fall asleep at the wheel). But it was good to be home and GREAT to see the kids again. We were all exhausted the next day. I had just fed Jackson lunch when I found him curled up asleep on our small, hard chairs!

Trip Part Three: Tuesday/Wednesday in London

Tuesday was our first full day in London. We started out by taking a walk all together (me, Jeff, dad, Kathryn, and Jenny) around one of my favorite places in London - Hyde Park. The BYU center is just a few blocks away, so I had spent a lot of time at the park when I lived in London before. Here I am with Jenny at Kensington Gardens.

Then Jeff and I got our tube passes and headed off to explore the city. It was so fun to not have kids with us. We would just pack our backpack for the day and head off without having to really plan and we could stay out as long as we wanted. It reminded me so much of my college days when I had done a lot of travelling. It was funny, but it made me feel so young! We went to a number of sites and were able to catch Evensong at Westminster Abby. It was great because just to go into the Abby was 15 pounds(we couldn't believe how expensive EVERYTHING was there!), but if you went for a service it was free.

After that we had dinner - curry from a take-away shop, and then walked down by Big Ben and the Thames to have a treat. While we were there some family walked up to us and gave us four free tickets for a river cruise. We had arranged to meet dad, Kathryn, and Jenny there in the evening to walk around, so we all got to go on the boat cruise instead, which I loved.

It was a beautiful evening!
And after we got off, we got to walk along the Thames. Here is Tower Bridge in the background.
Wednesday we bought a three day London Pass, which gets you in to a ton of the tourist sites. And we definitely got our money's worth out of it! First we went to the Tower of London. We got into a group led by one of the Yeomen Warders (or "beefeaters"). This is in front of the gate that comes in from the Thames where they used to bring prisoners in.

Jeff just outside of the Tower of London.

Nest we went inside the Tower Bridge and saw a short documentary on the construction of the bridge. We got to walk up all of the stairs to the top of the bridge and walk across to the other side. It was an awesome view from up there.

And then we took a tour of the HMS Belfast. It reminded me of when we lived in London the first time as kids and Jon Jon had his birthday party there.

After pounding the pavement all day we got something to eat and then went to the Apollo Victoria Theater to see Wicked!!! Jeff was a champ and had woken up early that morning and went to the theater to see if we could get some of the last minute tickets that the cast had not used. He was first in line and got us center seats on the front row for 35 pounds!! It was so fun to see the show again, but I have to admit, it was better in LA!

Trip Part Two: Wales

Sunday evening we got dropped off at our hotel near Conway Castle (you can see it in the background). Jeff had served close to this area when he was on his mission, and when I was on study abroad in London in college we had taken a weekend trip up to the area and had loved it.

They claim that this is the smallest house in Great Britain.

We walked down by the bay and then walked the castle walls that surround the city.

Pretty cool view! After walking around we got fish & chips for dinner and then relaxed at the hotel.

Monday we had breakfast at the hotel and then Jeff picked up our rental car that he had arranged for the day. He did great driving a stick shift on the opposite side of the road! We pretty much drove around the whole Isle of Anglesey, which only took a few hours and was absolutely beautiful. This was our first stop at Beaumaris Castle.

We stopped at llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is the city with the longest name. After that Jeff wanted to see if he could find Lizzie, a woman he had baptized on his mission. I could not believe it, but he drove right to her house without an address or anything.

We had so much fun visiting with Lizzie. She was hilarious and had us cracking up the whole time. I was amazed how much she remembered about Jeff and other companions he had served with that we know. We were sad to learn that her husband had recently passed away.After touring the Isle I wanted to take Jeff to Betsws-y-Coed, a little town in the mountains that I had visited and loved eleven years before. It did not dissapoint! It is beautiful there.

These pictures do not do it justice!
I wish I had a better picture of Betws-y-Coed. It is the cutest ilttle town with shops and restaurants and a tiny train station. We ate lunch and walked around a bit and then headed back to Conway to catch a train to London.

Trip to England Part One: Manchester

Jeff served his mission to Manchester, England, and for as long as I have known him, he has wanted to go back to visit the people he met. Last year my dad was asked to be the director of the BYU London Study Abroad for Summer and Fall 2009. As soon as we found out, we knew it would be the perfect opportunity to go back to England. We planned a trip for late July, and now that I'm expecting, it turned out to be the perfect timing - minus my being so sick!

Jeff's parents agreed to watch our kids for ten days (yes, they are saints!) so that we could go alone. Thursday night we drove down to California to Jeff's parent's house. We got there late, slept for a few hours (had to be up at 4am), and we were off to the Ontario airport. We slept most of the way to Atlanta, where we had a six hour lay over. We knew we couldn't wait at the airport, so we bought tickets for the MARTA (local train system) and went off to explore down town.

We ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and then walked down to the Centennial Olympic Park. It was a really nice day, and we were happy to stretch our legs a little. Then we headed back to the airport for our all night flight. Neither of us could really sleep, and the next morning we were in Manchester!

Ihrfan and his wife, Hannah, picked us up from the airport. Jeff had taught and baptized Ihrfan while he was on his mission. Hannah's dad was the bishop of the Stratford ward back then, and a few years later, after Ihrfan served a mission to London, he married Hannah. They live in York, but they came and stayed at her parent's house (the Saunders) in Manchester, and arranged for her parents to watch their kids so they could host us for the weekend - and we stayed there, too. So nice of them! Really they were just amazing to us.

We were really tired when we arrived, but we knew we had to stay awake most of the day to get used to the time difference. So, they took us downtown in Manchester and past several places Jeff remembered from his mission. Then we ate at a kabob shop - something both Jeff and I had been craving since we planned the trip to England.

Saturday afternoon we visited Janet. She had been inactive for decades, and Jeff and his companion visited her and helped reactivate her. Since then she has served as Relief Society President in the ward. She was so sweet and fun to visit with.

We took a short nap in the afternoon and then went to an indoor skiing place called Chill Factore. I've never seen anything like it. Then went miniature golfing and ate at a huge mall there called the Trafford Center. It was a really fun day, and we were definitely ready for bed that night.

Sunday we went to the ward there in Manchester. It was pretty small, but everyone was so friendly! Several people came up and welcomed us. Jeff recognized many of the ward members from his mission. And we had a "small world" moment. There was a couple there serving a mission. I knew the wife looked really familiar and it took me a second to figure it out, and then it hit me. They were the Hafens from Las Vegas. Their twin daughters, Julianne and Marianne had gone to BYUH with us. Marianne dated Jeff's roommate/friend, and in the summer we all met up at the Hafen's house in Vegas for a few days and stayed with them.

Anyway, church was great, but I was starting to feel the jet lag. It totally made me think of the general authorities and wonder how they are able to travel all over the world and be tired and jet-lagged and then sit through hours and hours of meetings!

Ihrfan, Hannah, and two of their kids (I think it was Luke and Marianna?)

After church we went back to the Saunders, and they fed us a full traditional roast dinner with yorkshire pudding, roated potatoes, gravy, etc. It was delicious!

The Saunders - you could not find nicer people! That evening Jeff and I were heading to Conway Castle in Wales, and we had planned to take the train. Ihrfan and Hannah absolutely insisted on driving us. After several attempts to try to get them to just drop us off at the train station we gave in. They were too good to us, and we hope we can return the favor and host them here in Vegas sometime.