London with Rick and Sherry

While Rick and Sherry were here we played in London a couple of times.  One day with the kids, one day the next week without, and then Jake and Rick explored some of the city one day on their own.  There's so much to do and see in this place.  I just ♥ London.   

We started our first day in the city with a bus tour.  

Here we are... our bus is reflected in this passing bus's windows.  

You can get some great shots of the city from the top of a bus!  I think this next pic was taken while going over London Bridge.  You're high enough in the buses that other cars aren't blocking your view.

Parliament from another bridge...

And the 'modern' side of London...

That tall building still being built will be the tallest in Europe when completed.  It's called the Shard.

And some more pictures, just because.

I'm super excited about the Olympics next summer.  Jake and I are crossing our fingers that we'll get some of the tickets we put in for.  We'll see.  It's kind of like a lottery system.  I really want to see some of the mens swimming relays... Jake wants to see some basketball, and we both want to see a few track events.  I think we'll find out soon if we get any.  All the Olympic stuff is being put up now.  Here's a recent addition to Trafalgar Square.

All of us (minus Rick who was taking the picture) at Trafalgar Square...

Luke and El goofing around before we went on a river tour...

On the boat with Tower Bridge is in the background. 

And a close up!

All of the stores that make items for the Queen and the royal family display the royal coat of arms in their window.  This company makes the queen's horse whips and gloves.  Cutie.

We took Rick and Sherry to The Kensington Creperie. Tried their ice cream this time too. Quite tasty!

On our way home.

And some pictures from our adult day in London. 

My favorite part of the day was going inside Westminster Abbey.  I've walked by a few times, but it's the first time I actually went inside.  AMAZING.  I've been in a lot of cathedrals since moving here, but this one is my favorite.
  

No photography is allowed inside, but Sherry and I got a picture outside.  This is the door Kate entered and left from on the royal wedding day :)

Some people like fish and some don't.  Jake, Rick, and Sherry thought it was tasty.  I'll stick to my chicken sandwich, thanks.  :)

We explored the Tower of London.  There's so much to see here... if you want to spend a full day I"m sure you'd find plenty to see.  We stayed for a few hours.  Seeing England's crown jewels was my favorite part. 

A lot of beheadings and executions occured here, and many people were imprisoned in the towers before their death.  You can see little messages they carved into the walls while there.  Crazy.

Cutie guard.

There's a big area that shows the evolution of armor... check this outfit out.  haha

After checking out the tower we went over to the Churchill War Rooms.  These rooms were left as they were at the end of the war in the 1940s.  I'm not a big war buff, but even I thought this place was interesting. 

Next, we walked over to Buckingham Palace.

 

We walked around the city for a little while and browsed the candy area of Selfridges Dept. store before heading home.  Fun day!

Our Scotland Trip

So, I'll start our May '11 travel log with our trip to Scotland!  Just a little warning... this is probably going to be a looong post.  Mom and Dad Smith got here on Thursday, the19th of May.  They've been our first visitors here, so we've been excited to have them with us for a couple of weeks!!  We took them to our favorite local lunch spot, Webbs, when they arrived.  They've got great sandwiches.  We let them snooze for a bit after lunch and then we drove around to show them the area.  They're troopers!  I think they handle jet-lag better than I do.  I would have been out for the night!  We took off the next morning bright and early for Edinburgh, Scotland.

Jake and I had planned our trip to Scotland a few months before because I signed up to run the Edinburgh half marathon.  Running is my little escape from reality, my 'me' time, and my self prescribed Rx for a happy self.  Signing up for these runs adds a little more excitement to the hobby!  I didn't want the pressure of training for another full marathon now. Getting ready for the half has kept me plenty busy.  My awesome friend Stacy and I have worked out a lot together over the past few months and she wanted to run Edinburgh as well, so she and her two cuties met up with us in Scotland for some sight-seeing before the race.

Edinburgh is supposedly a 7 hr drive from our house.  On the way up it took us a lot longer though!  We were stuck in traffic forever.  In England, when there is an accident on the motorway, be prepared to sit.  for a really. long. time!  There's not usually a shoulder on the road, so accidents totally stop traffic until they are cleared out.  Emergency vehicles have a tough time reaching the accident to clear it out, and it's just a really big mess.  Anyway, between crazy traffic jams, stopping to eat, and filling up with gas at another base on the way up (definitely the scenic route) it took us a few hours longer to get there then we had planned on.  Taking pics out the car window and being with fun people passes travel time quite nicely though!  Here's one from on the way up!  It's a gorgeous drive.

We stayed at a hotel that was about a 10 minute bus ride into downtown Edinburgh.  Here's the view from the main bus stop downtown.

We spent Saturday seeing the sights around the city.  We got tour bus tickets and they were our main mode of transportation around the area.  I'm starting to be a big fan of tour buses.  Easy way to see and learn about the city!  We got lots of pictures from the top of the bus.  No ceiling means you can get some good ones :)

Group picture!

Ella and Grandma Sherry checking something out...

Bus Riders!

Scott Tower...

One of many of churches in the city...

The royal mile.  It's the stretch of road between Edinburgh Castle at the top of the hill and Palace of Holyroodhouse at the bottom of the hill.  Lots of cool old buildings and shops in between!  I told Jake that he and Rick should try on a kilt just for fun.  He didn't think it was such a cool idea.  Whatev.

In case you were wondering where you can find some bagpipes...

Edinburgh has the same cutie cabs that London has...

Just liked the name of this restaurant!...

 

Edinburgh castle.  Mary Queen of Scotts gave birth to King James VI here.  It's home to the Scottish crown jewels.  Kind of fun to see those! 

We checked out the castle with Stacy and her kidos while Rick and Sherry looked at other things around the city.  You can see that Luke brought his sword along to Scotland.  He loves that thing.

You can see all of Edinburgh from the top of the castle. 

Sign post at the castle..

Cutie...

And more pictures of things around the city!....

A few hundred years ago, people used to come to this tall, skinny hotel and would be given a pig to take up to their room.  The pig would keep them warm.  Sick!

We weren't fans of the fudge we found in Edinburgh, but their shops sure are cute!

The large building with the clock on top was JK Rowling's inspiration for Hogwartz. 

At one of the museums...  Scottish Natl. History, I think.  Luke got to check out all kinds of stuff.

Another of the Royal Mile... 

Gates of Palace of Holyrood House.  The end of the Royal Mile... 

That was pretty much the end of our sightseeing!   It's an awesome city!  Later that night the kids and I relaxed at the hotel while Jake, Sherry, and Rick went out to look around a little more.  

Sunday morning was race time.   We met Stacy in downtown Edinburgh before the run , and she and I took off to find our starting pens.  While running over the past few months, I was thinking I'd smash my last personal best time in the half this run.  I beat it, but not by a whole lot.  My fastest half has been the first half of the Utah Valley Marathon I ran last June.  The first half of that I ran in 1:49.  I was planning on something under 1:45 for this run.  As luck would have it though, I was sick with a bad sinus cold. I hadn't run in over a week and felt like garbage throughout the run. The cool atmosphere made it worth running anyway.  I finished in 1:48.  

Rick, Sherry, Jake, and the kids had spectator bus passes and I thought I'd see them somewhere along the course.  The spectator situation is where this race got really funky.  They hauled the 'spectators' to a big bus parking lot, only to make them walk down a mile or two to wait for their runners in a field about 1/2  a mile from the finish line.  So lame!  The spectators couldn't see anything.  I felt bad that everyone came to watch and ended up standing in the cold wind and on/off rain.  If I would have known that would be the situation, I'd have had them all just sleep in and stay at the hotel.  I'm thinking that the next international run I do will just be a runners/girls trip. 

Here's a pic I snapped with my phone while waiting for the race to start.  You can see the start line way ahead in the distance!  The rain kept coming and going.   

   

The course was amazing.  You run through Edinburgh, then along the coast and through some very cool old villages and farmland.  They only gave out water, and even that didn't come up very often, so I opted to use my running belt.   At the end of the race they gave all of us a sports drink, our shirt, and medal.

I'm a little ghetto... here's a few of the copyrighted proofs the race emailed me.  haha.  I'm not paying 20 pounds for a picture!

Here's a pic Rick took after I finished and found the cold fam in the random reunion field!  The kids were ready. to. go.

Stacy and I once back in Edinburgh!  She's a trooper.  3 months pregnant and she finished her first half!  Shes' awesome. 

I took some pictures from the bus on the way back to Edinburgh after the race.   This area is so pretty! 

We drove back home Sunday afternoon.  Luckily the drive was much quicker on the way back!
I guess I'll end there with Scotland.  I loved it.  More of our recent adventures coming soon :)

Thirty-One!

We've been playing with Mom and Dad Smith and traveling around Europe for the past couple of weeks, so I haven't had time to do much blogging.  So, here we start the catching up!  I can't forget to include Jake's 31st birthday.  He worked all day and then took Luke to the father/son camp out with the ward.  Not super exciting, but I hear the guys had fun.  We celebrated Jake's big day with cake the night before... which happens to be my mom's birthday.  Happy Birthday to you too, Mom!  We were thinking about you on your day too!

Jake requested a pistachio pudding cake that his mom used to make him as a kid, so I did my best to make it like Sherry says she does.  I found a super good angel food cake recipe to use for it... Seriously, click here and try this recipe.  It's delicious!!  350 people have reviewed it on allrecipes.com and all I read gave it 5 stars.  If you want a pistachio pudding cake out of it, just make pistachio pudding, cut your angel food cake in half horizontally, fill the middle with pudding and cover in cool whip or whipped cream. Yum! 

I'm lucky to be married to this guy.  He's the best!  Happy 31 Jake!  Here's to another great year. 
I love you.