More Bishops in London

We've had a lovely time this past week! Brian's oldest brother, Brent, and his wife, Jenalyn came over for a visit. They couldn't bring all six kids, unfortunately (we all would have LOVED to see them over here!) But they brought their youngest daughter, Ashton, who's just six months old. It was so nice to visit with family and trade baby stories and get news from home.
Sammie loved Ashton -- laughed big belly laughs at her every now and then when Ashton was playing with Sam's toys. And Ashton was really nice to share many of her toys with Sam -- including her pacifier, which was often forceably removed from her hand by an adept Samantha cousin. In this picture (above) with Brent holding both girls, Ashton looks almost the same size as Sammie, but really Sammie's a head taller and much heavier than tiny Ashie baby.
We took them to our favourite park, Primrose Hill, overlooking the city. I guess it was nearly dark because all you can see is Brian and Samantha. But the city behind was gorgeous, as usual.


We also visited Parliament, listened to Big Ben, toured WestMinster Abby and rode the London Eye. Actually, I walked around my old stompin' grounds by King's College while Brent and Jen rode the London Eye. I caught this nice shot of Big Ben and Parliament just after the sun set. Not bad, eh? 

Kickin' around the house

Sammie and I have been hanging around the house a lot this week, mainly because it's been quite rainy. Sam's been finding new things to get into, new ways to entertain herself. I'm constantly on my feet, chasing her away from the stairs, pulling books out of her mouth, or just walking her around the room while she holds my fingers.

Here she is in her laundry basket. She had pulled out half the clean clothes and thrown them on the floor with the dirty clothes within a matter of seconds, silly girl. She's also learning to open cupboard doors, which is a whole new set of messes for this mamma to clean up. She found a pair of pink pants in her toy basket one day (how did those get there??). My friend Jenny helped her put them on her head, and she wore them around like a cool hat for a little while, until they fell in her eyes and she got frustrated.
"A tight spot." Sammie insisted on crawling alongside the edge of the couch the other day, even though I warned her she would not easily get out after crawling in. I guess she didn't believe me... went head first and then squealed in frustration when she couldn't back out.
Her very favorite place to be is inside her toy basket. She's climbed inside almost every day this week, just to get up close and personal with her toys. She hasn't quite figured how to get out of it yet, so I have to keep helping her out when she wants to.
 

Stratford-Upon-Avon -- Shakespeare's Birthplace

After our visit to Warwick Castle, we decided to stop at Stratford-Upon-Avon (as in Avon River... and Stratford is on the river, get it? It's an English thing.) It's the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Perhaps you've heard of him? He wrote lots of plays and sonnets? Well, something I didn't know was that he was married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway, who was 26 at the time. She was also three months pregnant with their first child. The things ya learn!

Here's a picture of Sammie and me outside the back of his house. No photos of the actual "birth room" of course. It turns out lots of other authors visited Shakespeare's birth home, to pay their respects... Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, to name a few. Brian says Bill Clinton even visited, though I'm not sure we should count him as an author??
Here's Brian and Sam outside the front of the house. Notice how blue, blue the sky is, and not a cloud in sight! It was just such a gorgeous, lovely day -- perfect to be out and about.
We also stopped by Anne Hathaway's little cottage, just to take a quick look. We didn't go in, but peeked in the bookshop and took a few shots of the outside of the place -- charming.
Brian took this shot, quite artistic. If you look carefully, we're all three in the picture, doing some of the things we love best.
 

More Warwick

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Warwick Castle. We got to see the mighty trebuchet launch... Brian got good pictures and videos. I guess I was expecting a catapult like in Lord of the Rings. You know -- the one that launches huge hunks of stone into the walls of Gondor. Well, when they finally did launch, I think there was a baseball or maybe a bowling ball that flew out of it. Not really exciting, but the concept is cool.We climbed to the top of the towers and got some spectacular views of the surrounding area. Down below we saw beautiful green gardens, a river, and some grass tennis courts. Very cool!
Here are some shots of the wax figures... some men preparing for battle.
Another wax figure, washing maid. There was real water dripping from her rag she was ringing. Pretty cool!
 

Warwick Castle -- pronounced Warick

Last weekend Brian, Samantha and I took a little siteseeing trip to Warwick Castle -- a very cool place! It was built back in the 11th century and has been kept in very good repair. The grounds are gorgeous and the displays inside were really spectacular. They had wax figures dressed in costumes from the middle ages in one wing, and in 17th century costumes in another wing. The first wax figure I saw, I thought he was a real man. Very real!! Anyway, here are a few fun pictures from our trip.
Sammie mainly enjoyed crawling on the grass, getting all wet and muddy.


 

General Conference at home

Oh, sweet technology! Watching General Conference over here is a bit different than in the States, because the sessions air at 5 and 9 pm. That makes for some late evening watching, but we love that we can actually log onto the internet and watch from our couch. We spent the weekend kicked back at home, eating good food and enjoying the speakers.

To make things easier for us to watch Sammie, Brian rigged up a "Sammie coral" by putting the coffee table on its' side and blocking the exit from the living room. It worked pretty well, and now we're using it regularly!
We had our friends, Joyce and Beth, over for Sunday afternoon. Here's Joyce and her Samantha, and me and our Sam. Joyce's husband, Charles, was out of town, and we missed him. But it was fun to hang with the girls... and Brian.
By Sunday night, we were about out of steam for listening/watching. I resorted to searching for houses (have I mentioned we're looking to move?) while I watched. And Brian put a blanket on his head. Why? No clue.

More Visitors

I know it probably seems like all I ever write about is us going somewhere or people coming to visit us. I guess those are the main happenings around here worth reporting. So... yet again, I write about our latest guests. My mission companion, Tiffney Smith, was here last weekend with two of her sisters. They're doing a little Ireland tour to celebrate her 30th birthday. Fun! Also, they were in and around London for a few days, staying with us, and will be in Paris as well for a couple days before they go home. Talk about big travelers!
Samantha and I joined them for a day in Brighton. It was worth all the waiting in traffic, once we finally got there. The weather was gorgeous and the water looked spectacular. We walked along the beach and out on the pier. For those who have been to Santa Monica Pier in L.A., this is similar, only English and colder.
Sam enjoyed the Bob the Builder toy tractor. At first she wanted to eat Bob's nose and cheeks, which I did not allow. Then she wanted to eat his steering wheel, which was also off limits. So then she smiled politely for the picture and was removed from the vehicle until she can learn to keep her mouth to herself.
Sam, Tiff and I rode the carousel together. Sam liked it, but mainly wanted to get down, and crawl around, which is against the rules. I tried to tell her they'd kick us off if she didn't sit still, but she didn't listen too well. Cutie.
 

Lovely Barcelona!

Brian and I got to take a fun trip to Barcelona two weeks ago. Brian had a work conference there for the weekend, and I tagged along for the ride. We bravely decided to leave Samantha at home with a friend -- which turned out to be a fun time for us and her!
While Brian was in workshops on Friday and Saturday, I hung out at the hotel reading Jane Eyre (a new favorite!) and shopping at the nearby mall. Nice relaxation time! The first evening, we went for a bus ride and a walk along the beach. We were just leaving, when we lucked into a nice 20-minute fireworks display over the ocean! Gorgeous.


It turns out they were having a big "Fiesta Mayor" for the weekend, celebrating some time in the middle ages when the Virgin Mary saved the whole city from the plague. So, they were partying all weekend and we got to be a part of it.

When Brian was done working early Saturday afternoon, we took a bus tour of the city, even though it was POURING rain. When we first boarded the bus, the guide asked, "you actually want to buy tickets?? For today?!" We went up on the open top and claimed our seats (which were very wet, but still fun). It cleared off soon enough and we were glad to have the view from the top!


In Barcelona, they really like the architecture work of Gaudi -- early 1900s. He has some cool, famous houses and a cathedral, "La Sagrada Familia" that we got to see. An interesting detail we learned is that Gaudi died young, when he was hit by a train in 1926. What a loss.



At the end of our bus tour, we got off to see the Olympic Park stadium area, from when Barcelona hosted in 1992. It looked pretty cool, though I'm not sure what they can use all that space for now.
The best was the Olympic swimming pool, built into the side of a hill, with amazing views of the city! Some kids were using the diving boards while we were there, so we got our own little show.


Saturday night, we could hear loud drumming and see smoke and lights up a street so we followed the crowd to catch the commotion. We were just in time to see something called the parade of diablitos -- little devils. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen.

There were drummers of all ages, and hundreds of little boys, probably between 6-12 years old, all dressed in different matching devil costumes. They were lining up for a parade in which they waved long sticks around with loud, dangerous fireworks attached to the end. An adult "fire-holder" would light up their sticks with a blow torch and they'd go off waving something like a huge sparkler. In sane!


They also had huge dragon figures, with fireworks attached to them. We could only stay so long, because the smoke was about to smother us. We got some great videos!

On Sunday, we made it to church (which was quite difficult to find), and then visited some palace gardens and a big market place with all kinds of shops and crafts. We wanted to ride the cable car that would take us back down over the harbor, but instead just took pictures from the top, since we were running low on time and money.

Brian thought this "no smoking" sign in the metro was pretty funny. If you don't have a ticket to ride, the fine is 40 euros. If you're caught smoking the fine is 30 euros and 5 cents! Better have that five cents, mister, or you're in trouble!!

When we got back on the metro, we popped up in the middle of town for a few minutes only to find ourselves in the middle of another big parade. They were playing fun Spanish music and were dancing in the streets. There were huge giant manaquins of knights and fair maidens dressed in costumes from the middle ages -- I guess symbolizing the people who were saved from the plague? It was fun to see everyone celebrating. We really enjoyed ourselves!