some anniversaries

I was very distracted being the big, European-traveler that I was this Christmas, and didn't get a chance to blog about 2 very important anniversaries that happened over Christmas break!

First things first, Nathan has now been home from his mission for 2 years. He's been home longer than he was gone. It seems crazy, but it also seems like he never actually left. Which doesn't make much sense. But it's the way it is!

I remember that day so well. He came home the Tuesday before Christmas break, and I was, of course, working. I was super mad I couldn't be at the airport to greet him, but at the same time, I was a crazy wreck, so maybe it was for the best, haha. One of my favorite pictures from the airport is one of Amanda showing Nathan the crazy texts I was sending. They were things like, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHV VFKLGJ GJLKDSkj iowt9(#4543!! I am pooping my pants!!!!" And other things of that nature.

I'm glad he got to spend a few hours with his family before I swooped in and stole him for good. I actually wasn't supposed to come out until Thursday. Those were the only days I was allowed to take off. But after I saw those pictures and knew he was home, I couldn't stand it. I requested a substitute and had to pay for her to come, but it was worth it. I was nervous to ask if I could come early though. That is so silly to think about now. Nathan still wasn't released, so I asked Amanda to ask him (so middle school) if he would be okay with me coming tomorrow instead of Thursday. Of course he was okay with it!!

He finally got to call me a few hours later and we talked as if no time had passed. I woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning and drove the 5 hours to see him. We met alone, at a park, with no cameras and no one around. I'm so glad we did that. It's such a special moment for us.

The picture on the left is the first picture of us together after 2 years! The one on the right is us in the same spot just a few months ago. I tried to find just the first picture by itself, but I couldn't. So you get the side-by-side.

Things moved quickly once he was home. I spent 2 days with his family. Then I drove to be with mine for 2 days. Then back with his for 3 days. Then he came back with me to be with my family for another 3. We had a few silly arguments and a lot of talks as we sorted out who we were now as a couple again. It was weird at first, and then fell right back in step as if nothing had changed. It was awesome.

We spent New Years in Arizona with my family. That's the second anniversary to celebrate! OUR ENGAGEMENT!!!!! 

At almost 1am on New Years day, Nathan got down on one knee. When it was just he and I in the living room. So personal, so private, and so perfect. I never wanted a big, over-the-top proposal. I had told Nathan that a million times. I didn't want people there and I didn't want anything cheesy. So that moment for us was perfect. We knew we were getting married. Everyone else knew we were getting married. They'd pretty much known for 4 years. I knew he was going to propose sometime soon. (Although he did surprise me because I thought he would propose at midnight and when he didn't, I just figured it would be another day. Sneaky git). This wasn't some big shocking event. It was a perfect moment 5 years in the making. All the tears and frustrations and endless waiting to have this boy be completely and officially mine led to this moment. All the pain I had felt with him gone for those 2 years melted away when I got to say "yes" and know that he was going to be mine forever. We had spent three years together, and two years apart and I knew without any doubt that he was who I wanted to be with forever. The simplicity of the moment testified that to me even more. We didn't need some huge, fancy gesture. All we needed was us.

So happy homecoming and engagement anniversary to us!

They are only 11 days apart, and I am not ashamed :)

moving

I am so freaking excited to move.
This apartment holds a lot of unhappy memories.
A lot of heart break.
I am excited for a new ward.
We didn't really fit into our old ward, and there were some strange dynamics.
We are sick of the city and the homeless people and the traffic.
I am sick of having an empty nursery.
This change is so needed. I already feel lighter.

After a whole Saturday of searching last week, we found exactly what we were looking for. It's a place a friend of mine actually lived last year. I always loved her apartment, but thought it was too far away from where Nathan works and we only have one car, so I didn't even suggest it. But after we were touring our 900th apartment and I was still unhappy, the relator said their company owned a few other properties including Santa Fe Apartments. She said she had lived their for 2 years a loved it. I knew my friend had loved it as well. So we decided to head over. I knew I loved the area, but Nathan had never been there before and he instantly said he loved it. A big thing for us was a good "area" to move to. We sacrificed a good area for a good apartment for the first 2 years of our marriage. Our current apartment is perfect and we love it, but it's down town on the gross side. We can't just walk outside. It's scary outside! So we loved that the area was cute shopping centers and neighborhoods.

The second the woman showed us the apartment, I knew I wanted to live there. It's a 1-bedroom, so technically a downgrade, but I don't care! It's open and spacious and we will have a way bigger bedroom than we have now. So if we do get to bring a baby into the world soon, we can share a room. We will be on the top floor which aparently most people hate because our rent is cheaper on the third floor. We love, and requested, the third floor. I HATE living with people above me. Plus, the stairs will give me exercise. We have an awesome mountain view. It's further from Nathan's work than we originally planned on, but he can use his work car most of the time so it shouldn't be a problem. We are so excited to live in a suburb. I have lived down town for a combined 4 years. Down Town is the only place Nathan has ever lived in Utah. City life is fun, but only for so long. We want to feel safe. And we don't want to have to drive 20 minutes to get to a Walmart.

Today I needed to go to Target so i decided to go to the one that will now be literally next door to my new apartment. Then I explored the area. I made a list of all the awesome things I saw just to tell Nathan. Some of these may seem silly to you, but you have to understand we have lived in a nasty city for years surrounded by business building after business building and homeless person after homeless person. And you always have to pay for parking!!

Awesome things that are within 1-5 minutes from my new home (yes they are mostly food):

• Super Target
• Walmart
• Ross
• Deseret Book
• In-N-Out
• Chick-Fil-A
• Panda Express
• Costa Vida
• 5 Guys
• Pei Wei
• Bed, Bath, and Beyond
• All basic fast food places: McDonald's, Wendy's, Carl's, Sonic, Arby's, KFC, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell
• Melty Way
• Kneader's
• Smiths
• Jimmy Johns
• TJ Max
• Rumbi
• Smash Burger
• Chipotle
• Noodles and Co
• Applebee's
• Red Mango
• Paradise
• Old Navy
• Home Depot
• Whole Foods
• Blue Lemon
• Denny's
• Papa Johns
• Chili's 
• Across the street is a GIANT park
• We live on the same street as the fire station. Not really that cool, but hey, they'll get there fast!
• There are tons of gas stations!!! It was so annoying that down town, there were hardly any gas stations. And before they built a Maverick on 5th south a couple years ago, there weren't any gas stations near the freeway entrances. And each gas station has like, 2 pumps. It is the worst.
• Big parking lots for every store and restaurant. NO PAID PARKING!!!!
• We are 1 minute from the 215 and 5 minutes from the 15. And a 15 minute drive down town.

So yeah, I am pretty stoked.
Here's some things I won't miss about our current living situation:

• The empty nursery (can I say that one enough?)
• The weird way our ward handled the loss of our baby and how they all kinda ignored us after
• Living in an enclosed building. It will be so nice to open my front door and be outside! I feel so claustrophobic in this building sometimes.
• Having to drive forever to get to normal grocery stores and restaurants.
• Having to pay for parking every where I go. (Places like the post office! COME ON)
• Having no light in my kitchen. My new kitchen is smaller than current one, but there's no window and no natural light hits there.
• Feeling scared of the people who live near me.
• Not having a neighborhood.
• The worst of the inversion and awful air.
• All the food places around us being hole-in-the-wall places. Those types of places are only fun for so long. And they're always full of hipsters.
• Traffic.
• The homeless shelter being around the corner.
• The constant reports of drive-bys and robberies happening in the neighborhood next to us.
• The drug deals that happen at McDonald's. 
• The crazyness that happens in April and October every year. (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE General Conference. I HATE living down town during General Conference).
• Hipsters. Hipsters everywhere. And not just casual hipsters. Like, city-dwelling, I am so deep and different, all vegan all organic, super judgmental, dressing like freaking weirdo hipsters. Salt Lake is basically just homeless people and hipsters.
• The fact that we can hardly leave our apartment whenever there is an event for Jazz Game at the Energy Solutions Arena. SO. MANY. HUMANS.

Things I will miss about this place because I'm bored and want to make more lists because this blog post isn't already long enough:

• We could walk to the Gateway. 
• We could walk to the temple.
• We could walk to General Conference.
• We could walk to City Creek.
• This apartment is new and nice and cheap.
• The management here is the bomb. Never had a problem in 2 years.
• Our apartment has a view of a really pretty courtyeard full of trees. Lady watched the birds allllll day long.
• Being in an inclosed building keeps our heating bill really low.
• Down town is really cool sometimes.
• We lived right next to Nathan's work and school.
• I know Salt Lake realllly well.
• Having 2 bedrooms is cool. 
• I have lots of cupboards.
• It's only $25 of pet rent.
• It's really quiet here. We have only heard our neighbors once or twice.
• Despite the heartache, we have had some really great times here as well.

Basically, this is a really long blog post.
2 WEEKS UNTIL WE MOVE!!!!

Scaredy Cat

Lady is not a particularly jumpy cat. She is only consistently scared of one thing: the vacuum. But she gets in randomly jumpy moods where the randomest things scare her. These are things she sees all the time and they don't phase her, but suddenly, they're scary. For like 5 minutes. Then she's over it. It's pretty funny. Her eyes get all wide and she freezes then slowly sneaks towards the thing and usually tries hitting it with her paw before running away. Here are some things she has been randomly terrified of lately.

A pair of pants, crumpled up on the floor
Her reflection

My reflection

A hanger
A vitamin that fell on the floor
Nathan's arm

A book laying on Nathan's lap

Her own blanket
Our comforter

Nathan's foot

Wrapping paper
My slippers

The computer
The sound of a soda can being opened
A piece of lint from the dryer

Her water bowl
Nathan's work bag
My iPad

My hand

The section of the floor where it stops being hard-wood and starts being carpet

A candy wrapper

 Bubble wrap

A small screw

A shoe box

 The Christmas tree lights

My computer charger

The shower curtain

So yes, she's the occasional scaredy cat, but I still love her.

notable things going on in our life in the form of a bulleted list

• I am loving my job more than ever. Nathan is not as happy with his working environment. Boo.
• Nathan has officially been admitted, and we accepted, to the Berklee School of Music starting in the Fall. His degree will be for music production. This has been a hard and scary yet exciting decision for us. We realize that music is not always the smartest career to go into, (and believe me, people feel the need to tell us every time we tell them our plan) but it's what has felt right for us. My cute husband has a talent for writing, composing, and recording music. I can't wait for him to share his talents with others. Berklee is based out of Boston, but he will be completing their online programs (which they are know for) so we can kinda live anywhere. That's a discussion for a different day.
• Going along the lines of Berklee, did you know it's considered the best school for music in the country? Because it is. It also has a 23% acceptance rate. And my hot husband got in.
• Lady is still awesome. She has a giant kitty tower thing and she thinks she is a queen. She's the queen of my heart.
• There's still not a lot of news on the baby front. I feel like I need to say this so people stop asking me. Unless I have announced a pregnancy, please don't ask me if I'm pregnant. Because I'm not. I'm actually doing okay with it right now, so the reminders just make things hard.
• I have developed a strange yet amazing love for One Direction. I have no shame in this. Their music makes me happy and makes me want to dance. I also got their movie for Christmas. I watch it a lot. And dance as I watch. Jenna and I had a One Direction party. She bought me a t-shirt. My favorite is Zayn. Her's is Harry. It's just like we are 12 again, fangirling over NSYNC and BSB. She liked Brian. I liked Nick. We both liked JT, but her obsession was much stronger and weirder so I'll let her have that one.
• I eat a lot of carrots but still eat a lot of ice cream. Do you think that balances out?
• Nathan is starting his last semester as LDSBC. Soon we will both be business school alumni! Yahooo!
• I have been devoting way too much time to this thought: What if Harry hadn't been there when Snape died? Snape didn't know he was going to die then. Neither did Harry. But he died suddenly and if Harry hadn't been there he wouldn't have been able to collect Snape's memories and no one would know that Snaoe was actually good and Harry wouldn't know that he had to sacrifice himself and the whole plan would have been ruined!!! I think about this a lot. I'm sure when Snape was fit attacked by the snake, before he knew Harry was there, he was thinking, "Oh freaking crap, I never gave Harry those memories! I guess all those years of being a spy and risking my life and protecting him were a waste because he doesn't know how to defeat Voldemort and he doesn't know that I was totally a good guy. Dangit." That was probably stressful for him.
• We are definitely moving out of our apartment in about a month. It's bittersweet because this apartment is perfect. But it's time to move on. The apartment and the ward hold a lot of painful memories. I am really excited for a fresh start. We will most likely be staying in Salt Lake for at least another 6 months to a year. We'll see what happens after that!
• Oh my gosh my 5th period is dead silent right now. It's a work period and they are usually bouncing off the walls and trying to sneak food and listening to music way too loud. But they're silent and all working. This is a freaking miracle.
• I am in love with the weather this January. Remember last year? And how we never saw the sun? And it was so cold? And we all hated life? This weather has been so nice! I'm sure there will be some rough storms ahead, but the weather has been in the 30's or 40's all month. IN JANUARY! Amazing.
• Nathan got a new office at work. It's a bigger one. He's so cool.
• The vice-principal at my school is leaving us to go be principal somewhere else. I'm bummed. I loved him. And the administration here changes WAY too much! Most places keep the same principals and administrators for like 5 years. I have a had a different principal every year I've taught, and I have had 6 different vice principals! Come on guys.
• Today is my last observation as a "provisional" teacher. (Your first 3 years are provisional). I've already done all my relicensure crap, including passing 2 giant tests, so after today, I can apply for my level 2 license!! So exciting!! I'm an old-pro now. A level 2 license means I can teach in any state without having to take more classes, I have more job security, I no longer have to be observed every year, I get paid more, I can get higher paying jobs, and if I take a break to raise my kiddies, it will be a MILLION times easier to come back. I recommend to anyone who is teaching, do at least 3 years. It will save you soooo much time and stress later on!
• Right now is my free period and I have a student re-taking a test for his math class in here. He keeps grunting and whispering to himself about how he hates math. I'm with ya kid. Math sucks.
• I hate moving. Finding a new place.. packing.. unpacking.. I just wish we knew where we were going to move to!
• I really need to get my hair done. But I'm so lazy. Anyone wanna come over and fix my awful roots?
• I miss London sometimes.
• I have been having dreams where people from my past who I haven't seen or talked to or thought of in like.. 5-7 years make an appearance. It's weird. It's like my brain is releasing all these old memories into my dreams. Last night I dreamed that Nathan and I were adopting a little boy who went to the after school program I worked at when I was a junior in high school. Weird.
• I have to pee really bad.

a change of perspective

Maybe I'm a little bit cynical, call it whatever you like, but this is what I have been thinking about lately.

Nathan and I are moving out of our apartment soon. It's the worlds best apartment, but I can't stay here with an empty nursery for very much longer. Too many memories that I need to let go of. But that's not the point. As we have looked at places, I suggested we save some money and downgrade back to a 1-bedroom for the time being, since there isn't a baby on the way. Nathan said, "But what if we get pregnant in the next couple months and we are stuck with a 1-bedroom? You won't have a nursery to decorate!" I thought about it for a second and here's the conclusion I came to:

Who cares?

When I got pregnant with Maddie, a lot of really dumb things were important to me:
          -Being cute and not gaining too much weight
          -Having the cutest, pinteresty nursery
          -Having adorable outfits for her to wear all the time
          -Doing fun pregnancy updates on my blog
          -Finding the best "home coming" outfit
          -Getting her all the best and most popular books and toys
          -Planning out newborn photoshoots and what shots we should take in the hopsital
The list goes on and on, but you get the idea.

Not that I am a bad person. Believe me, I was the healthiest and most careful freaking pregnant lady in the world. Always ate all my fruits and veggies and vitamins. Did my pregnancy exercises every day. Cut out all the bad things from my diet. Wouldn't so much as rub lotion on my hands until I asked my doctor if it was pregnancy safe. (Which is all-the-more ironic that I lost my baby to a simple cord accident) But I cared way too much about the unimportant stuff as well.

Losing Madelyn turned my world up-side-down. I can never look at life the same, and that includes being pregnant and raising kids. All I can think about it how little I care what the nursery looks like if my baby is safe and healthy. Why would it matter if the baby slept in our room for the first year, if it meant that I got to raise that little thing? Why does it matter what the baby wears or what giant head bands I can put on her head? Why does it matter what fun, awesome, supermom, pinterest activities we do as long as the baby is healthy, alive, loved, and happy? Oh yeah, it doesn't matter. When did these things become so important?

I let myself get so caught up in the idea of having a baby, I didn't realize what's actually important. (Side-note: I don't think losing Maddie was any kind of punishment for being caught up in the wrong stuff, just FYI). I would give up the hundreds of cute little girl outfits still hanging in Madelyn's closet, if it meant I got to have her here with me. Heck, I'd share a room with her until she was 18 if it meant I got to have her here. The things I cared about seem so silly now that I can really see what matters most.

Now as I think about my future children, who I know will come to me soon, I think about a lot of other things:
          -How amazing will that feel to give birth and to hear a beautiful, healthy cry instead of a silent
            room?
          -I hope I get really fat and the baby comes out all happy and chunky.
          -I can't wait to sit and stare at my baby all day
          -I am so excited to see Nathan holding his baby
          -I can't wait to teach my baby about Christ.
          -I hope our baby gets Nathan's nose, and his patience and big heart.
          -I hope I can give my baby everything it needs.
          -I am gonna love this baby so freaking much.

I daydream about how things will be this second time around a lot. It will be harder and more beautiful at the same time. I can't wait.

a mushy work post

There's been so much going on in my life this past while, I haven't really talked about work in a long time. I want to make sure I do for my memory's sake, because this year has been wonderful.

Teaching is hard. It will always be hard. But I love it so freaking much. Being part-time and teaching 9th grade instead of 8th grade this year has been the biggest blessing I could have ever imagined. Last year, my second year of teaching, I had a rough start. My kids were lazy and unmotivated and I wasn't bonding with them the way I bonded with my kids my first year. I was frustrated. But the most amazing thing happened- as I let go of control of how I thought things should go and prayed to meet the needs of my kids, my love for them grew overnight. About halfway through the school year, these kids became part of my heart and soul. I loved them so much! They taught me that I needed to adjust to them instead of forcing them to meet the ideas I had of how they should learn. It's the most I have ever grown as a teacher. As I adjusted to meet their needs, they opened up to me. It was wonderful. When I lost the baby, they were my rock. They sent me cards and letters and gifts. When I came back to work they loved me and gave me purpose again. They cried with me and they supported me. I adore these kids. And now I get to teach them again this year. It has been wonderful. The only-teaching-half-the-day thing is just another perk.

These guys are my babies. I don't care that they are 15 and learning to drive and having to shave and 10 inches taller than me. I love them. And they love me. There's something amazing about getting to teach Resource and having such small classes. (My biggest class has 12 kids in it). I get to bond with, personally know, and love each student. I spend a lot of time meeting with their parents as well so I know their home life and background. They spend the majority of their day in my classroom. They are weird bunch, but they're mine. Over the course of the last year and a half together, we have established quite the routine. They joke that I can read their minds or predict what they're going to do before they do it. And I can, but only because I know them so well.

I was made for teaching. It gets hard sometimes when the behaviors and paperwork pile up, but it is so worth it! Just last week, an old student came from the high school to visit me. I had him my first and second year of teaching. That kid gave me Hell, but I loved him so fiercely. (It;s funny how the naughty ones are always the ones I love the most.) He sat in my room and talked and joked with me for a while and then told me how he was getting really good grades, all A's and B's. I was astonished and so proud. Then he said, "Yeah, I should be thanking you. You busted my ass so hard for two straight years, so everything after that seems easy!" I laughed so hard. But he told me he missed my class, and that he would be back soon to visit again. And then he left. It's so strange that there in front of me was a living, breathing piece of my heart that I hadn't seen in 8 months and then he just left again. I know as a mother that your children are literal pieces of your heart walking around outside your body. I know because I lost that piece of my heart 9 months ago and it's never coming back. But no one ever talks about how it is also true of teaching. Maybe not ever teacher gets it. My students are pieces of my heart, but they leave me. They walk around in the real world with their real parents and I pour my heart and soul into them and they leave. It's hard. But it's so rewarding to love like this. It helps feel the hole that gapes open where Maddie left.

Teaching has always been my passion, but I never knew it could heal me the way it has. I know that being in 9th grade this year was absolutely where I needed to be. I had to say goodbye to my baby last year, I don't know if I could have handled also saying goodbye to my 6-foot, loud, obnoxious, 15-year-old "babies" as well. It's been hard to sit and wait to be blessed with my own children, but these guys are keeping me company. Heavenly Father knew we needed each other. I am very lucky to have what I do.

FYI

I made my blog public temporarily so that my mom could send it to friends and family to read about our trip. I will be returning to private in a few days. If you followed my blog when it was private before, I have your email saved. If you didn't and want to, just leave your email in a comment. Kay byeeee.

Christmas in England part 1: Getting there

This is part 1 of the trip, but if you scroll down, I have already posted them all. I decided to post them in reverse order so that they can all be read in order. There are a million pictures and a million details, so reader beware! I also made my blog temporarily public so that all family members and friends of my parents could read the posts. Sorry for clogging your mini feed!

I was pretty dang stressed about this flight. Although, I stress over everything. So there's nothing new there. But we left on the morning of the 21st, and there was supposed to be a huge storm on the evening of the 20th. Just our luck! Jessica and Marshall slept over the night before and there was all kinds of drama trying to get me a prescription I had to take to England. We had to be up at 5am, and it was 11:45 and we were still waiting at the pharmacy for it. So I was high-strung at that point.

We got a few hours of sleep, threw some clothes (pajamas) on, then trudged uphill, in the snow to the trax station. We luckily live very close to the trax, but we live downhill. We had so much luggage and there was snow on the ground and it was freezing and pitch black outside and we sore and cold and sweating and grumpy by the time we got to the station. But we gulped down some muffins and diet coke and took the 10 minute ride to the airport.

We were worried about the holiday rush, but there was almost no one in the airport. We checked our bags (all under 50 pounds! horrah!) and made it through security in a matter of minutes. Then we had two hours to kill, haha. But better safe than sorry! We finally boarded, took off on time, and made it to our first destination: Phoenix. Yes, we had to fly south to Phoenix before we could start heading east.

Here's our first plane picture. So fresh-faced and energized! It slowly goes down-hill from here.

Going off 3 hours of sleep, I thought I'd be able to sleep on the plane. But I suck at sleeping.The flight went quick, and we had a nice, long layover in Phoenix. We boarded our slightly longer flight to Philadelphia. Nathan and I played this game on my iPad where you solve riddles pretty much the whole flight. Thank goodness for technology. Jessica read an entire 500 page book. She's insane.

Our layover in Philadelphia was not even an hour and we knew we'd be cutting it close. We got to the airport and the heat must have been blasting. The airport was a million degrees.  And we had to run, literally run, from one end of the giant airport to the other with heavy bags. I was drenched in sweat. And I already felt super gross from traveling all day. Jessica almost peed her pants. It was rough. We met up with the Crosby's at this point. We had just finished our run, and a very adorable 5-year-old wanted to be held. I was exhausted, but dang she's so cute!

(Ps. This is what Ava said when I showed her this picture, "OH. MY GOSH. That picture is SO cute! I look the cutest, but you guys look fabulous!")

Our plane was already boarding by the time we got to our gate. So we ran to the bathroom and got in line. We had a sweeeet set up on this plane. It was one of the huge planes with a set of two seats on each side and 4-seats in the middle. All 8 of us were in the middle. The 4 Crosby's in one row of 4, and Jessi, Marshall, Nathan, and I in the row right behind them. It was a party!

 

This was a long flight, but it actually went really quick. We got served some dinner, which actually wasn't gross, and we had those little TVs and they had tons of free movies and TV shows. Again, tried to sleep and had to no luck. I think Ava and Blake are the only ones who slept. We got to watch the most beautiful sunrise as we started to land. We landed at 8am England time and 1am our time. Customs was a breeze (there was no one in line!) and our bags were already there when we got to baggage claim. We were exhausted and felt disgusting, but I can't believe how easy the trip went! No problems at all!

My mom, dad, and brother greeted us in the waiting area and led us to a 17-passenger van! My dad rented it for the whole two weeks so that we could always travel all together. With all our luggage, we barely fit! We had been traveling for over 20 hours at this point, but that hour and half drive to my parents house from the airport was the longest part of the trip! We were so exhausted and felt so disgusting and were starving but all food sounded gross. Halfway through, we stopped at McDonald's and that helped a little, but that drive home felt longer than the whole day of flying on an airplane, haha!

By the time we got home, we'd been awake for 24 hours. But we decided to stay awake! We knew the easiest way to adjust would be to not go to sleep until that night. So we explored the house, took a swim in the lovely indoor pool, hung out, showered, finally all gave in for a quick 1-hour nap, watched some TV, and ate some food. Then we finally feel asleep. Some of us for 13 hours. Some of us for over 20. But that's a different story.

Christmas in England part 3: Beverly Minster

Yay! Christmas Eve!!!!

On Christmas Eve we headed to the village of Beverly! It's a really cute little village. Our first stop was the Beverley Minster. It's one of the largest parish churches in the UK and was built in the 1200's! It was amazing. So gorgeous. And in one part of the church they were actually having a Christmas Eve service, so the organ was playing Christmas carols and it made our experience exploring the church even more incredible.

 

 

After the Minster, we explored the village and all the shops! 

Then we headed home for some Christmas Eve celebrations!

Christmas in England part 2: The first real day

Like I said last time, most of us slept for about 13 hours. We had a lazy morning.

While Blake and Marshall continued to sleep and dad and Cameron babysat, Nathan, Mom, Jessi, Kels, and I explored a little! I was so anxious to get out and see things. We ran some errands and explored a cute, little village. We tried some cheese straws, found a store filled with rare American candy, did our first English grocery shopping trip, and ate a delicious lunch at a bakery.

We finally got home hours later, a bit before 5pm, and found out that Marshall and Blake were still asleep! They had slept almost 20 hours! That's talent. Or laziness. Either one. We hung out the rest of the night as we continued to adjust to the jet-lag. We watched Elf, of course. That movie is always funniest when watched with my dad. His laugh is amazing. The boys ended up going to a late-night showing of The Hobbit. Except for Blake, who says you couldn't pay him to go see that.