Who is that kid?

Do you ever have those moments as a parent where you look at your child and wonder if he's the child you raised? I look at Ryan and he looks like Ryan, but there are moments that he totally blows me away and I have to wonder if it is him. Last night we were invited to the High Council meeting where Ryan gave his mission report. I just kept looking at him in awe as to how awesome he has grown to be. I know we raised him, he has always been good at giving talks on spur of the moment and active in church and had a strong testimony. But, to listen to him speak in front of all of those great spiritual men I was in awe. I guess that's when I realized we weren't the only ones that raised him. He's had great teachers, friends, leaders, mission companions and president and many others to help him along the way. And now we have this return missionary with a great testimony and understanding of the Gospel. You listen to him and just feel like you are in the presence of a future teacher, bishop, stake president, mission leader, maybe even higher, apostle, who knows maybe a prophet. We are very blessed to have Ryan home and with our family again, and he has grown so much on his mission.

Misc. about England

Hotels we stayed at
Wychnor Park Country Club
Recommend this one highly. It was lovely.
Notting Hill Gate Hotel
Was not thrilled with this one. Very small, neighbors were smokers and you could hear everything from their rooms.


Grateful for
The Mace Family
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2144768&id=585300796
An awesome family who went above and beyond to make our trip more enjoyable. Thank you Mace Family!
Tomtom (GPS)
the curbs that tell you which way to look when crossing the street.
Wychnor Hotel for making sure we were fed on Christmas day

England Day 8

Well, today we had to leave. First, we had to skip breakfast because the hotel's breakfast was late due to the New Year. So, we couldn't wait and had to leave for the tube with intentions of grabbing something at the airport. Well, there were a few delays on the train due to some problems with the signals at terminal 5. Caused problems further down the track. So, we got to the airport where the lines were super long. Our flight was due to close in the next 10 minutes and we still hadn't checked in. They finally called our flight to a different line to check in for this reason. After we finally got checked in we practically had to run to the gate. But we made it. The flight was long, but an hour shorter than scheduled. Thank goodness. I was starting to panic about that though because we had asked people to meet us at the airport to welcome Ryan home since that was what he was missing by us going to London. Luckily we have good friends that were checking on our flights and notified those that were going to be going. As soon as we landed I turned on my cell phone and there was a text from Andrea saying they had just seen our plane and were on their way and would be there shortly. I was instantly relieved, especially when she told me that everyone had been notified. She and I kept in contact letting her know where in the process of customs we were, which was pretty quick. And she let me know when everyone was there. As we were walking out we let Ryan walk out first. He was surprised when all of these people started yelling for him. He really did appreciate it though. Thanks to all who came. We appreciated it too. The Kunz family had driven our car to the airport so we could drive straight to the Stake Center where Ryan was released. I know he had mixed feelings about being released. We stopped at Arby's to pick up dinner. This is what he wanted, he really missed it. As soon as we got home he actually wanted to change, That's when I knew things would be normal. We had visitors that night and he ended up going to their house where they played Guitar Hero World Tour. I think he just watched though. But, he did go out yesterday with someone all day. Life is back to normal.

England Day 7 part 2

Prior to going to England, Ryan had recommended I contact a couple of his contacts so he could hopefully see them one more time. Well I had originally had difficulties getting hold of them. But, about a week before we were leaving I finally got a hold of them by email. We had arranged to meet both of them in London at Trafalgar Square at 1. We spent most of the rest of the day with them. Talk about crazy, trying to see London in a day. Ha. It was freezing cold. Thank goodness for long underwear and coats and gloves. After meeting up with Chris and Lisa (they had never met before this) we walked to The London Eye. Where they had just sold out, so we didn't get to go on it. Oh well, next time I guess. We then walked to Buckingham Palace. It's pretty spectacular. All of the gold filigree everywhere. Watched the guards stand there. We decided that would be a boring job. Could you imagine just standing there forever with people constantly watching you? We then got ont he tube to The London Bridge, which looks at the Memorial Bridge which was much prettier. Then we walked over to the London Tower. Pretty expensive to get into and we only had 1 hour before it closed so we decided not to go in. But, the outside was pretty. After that, we got back on the tube to go to Oxford St. for some shopping. It was packed with people. Guess it was rush hour on New Years eve. We stayed there a while. Lisa had to leave us at that point. Chris came with us to dinner at Garfunkel's. We had the slowest service there. But, the food was good. After this we got back on the tube to head back to the hotel. This is where Chris left us to head to a YSA dance at Hyde Park. We did a little souvenir shopping before heading to the hotel. We decided we were too tired to go out to watch the fireworks for New Years. Which would have been exciting. We stayed in and had a lot of fun playing Apples to Apples. Good thing we didn't go anywhere because it was hard enough getting up the next morning for the plane. Anyway, we had a great time getting to know Chris and Lisa. They are both active in the Church and have great testimonies. Chris is about to receive his patriarchal blessing and looking forward to the temple. They were so awesome.

Dr. Who Day 7 Part 1

I'm breaking day 7 into 2 parts. During the time we were deciding on things that we wanted to do while in England I had googled Dr. Who, one of my families favorite shows. Especially the male species in the family. Anyway, when I googled it I found they were having an exhibit in London while we were going to be there. So, when it was mentioned my son got so excited that was the main attraction for him. Are we a nerdy family or what?? Here is our experience there. And so you know, Ryan felt really awkward here. He doesn't know anything about the show and hasn't watched any TV for 2 years and wouldn't let us watch TV when he was with us.