England Day 2

We went to Warwick Castle. It was pretty much the only thing open on Boxing Day, except for shopping. The castle was so beautiful and huge. There were tons of stairs (my legs were sore for 3 days afterwards) We only got to spend 2 hours there because of parking. We ran into another LDS family there. We figured it out because they were wearing BYU sweatshirts. We stopped them to talk to them. Part of the family is living there, since he is in the military, but the oldest son had served in Ryan's mission about 5 years ago. The funny part is, they were stopping in Gainesville on the way home because they have a brother there. What a small world it is in the church. We then went to Pizza Hut for dinner, how original. This day we were glad we had insurance, but Chris doesn't want me to say anything. (We didn't end up needing it in the end though).

England Day 1

I finally have access to a computer here in England, so will try to catch up on our days in England.
First, on our long, hot flight we watched movies, tv, ate an airplane version of a traditional english Christmas dinner. We finally arrived and got our rental car. We had reserved a mini-van, but have discovered their version of a mini-van is nothing like ours. Much smaller than we expected. I will post pictures of this later. It was also a manual, when I had reserved automatic. Chris kept trying to start in 3rd gear at first, then trying to drive down the motorway he kept veering to the left. He must have looked like a drunk. It didn't help that he kept trying to talk like a Brit, which sounded more like an australian. Then he was imitating sheep. One thing we noticed on the motorways was there weren't any SUV's or pickup trucks, or billboards.
The scenerey was pretty much as I had imagined, a lot of green rolling hills and farms with lots of sheep. A lot of old buildings and churches with their spires raising high above trees.
Our hotel was very quaint. You have to take a narrow windy road to get to it. The views were beautiful. When we arrived, we asked about restaurants, and they informed us that the restaurants in the area would be full because it was Christmas day. But, they went out of their way to squeeze us in before everyone else was due to arrive. So, we had the real Christmas Dinner. It was very nice and formal and amazing.
We got to talk to Ryan that afternoon. He said it was so weird knowing we were so close. He was still nervous about going home.
The TV here is a lot like ours, pretty much the same shows. We did get to see a first run Dr. Who Christmas show, that was pretty awesome.

Loads of fun!!

These are the latest changes to my house. Thanks to Delilas Corbett in my ward for helping me with these. She first cut them for me and then she even came over and helped my put them on the wall. She did most of the work. I wasn't having much luck getting them off the paper. I love them. They are so fun in my laundry room. Maybe this will help me want to be in there more. Or...... maybe not.

Surprise!!!

This morning as I was getting ready for work I got dressed, went downstairs made breakfast, put on my boots which felt a little funny. I took the boot off, adjusted the inside sole and put it back on. I was walking to the car and realized it still felt funny, but I was running late and figured I would readjust it at work. I've been known to put the gel soles in my boots in the past. Thinking I had done this and it had probably scooted to the toe didn't think much of it. However, I came into work and couldn't take it anymore. So, I took off my boot and reached in to readjust things again. Things felt really weird in there. I couldn't figure out what it was. As I'm pulling it out it felt furry. I look down and see I had started to pull out a MOUSE. I quickly threw my boot and mouse away from me. Needless to say I was freaking out. I ran to the bathroom to scrub my hand and my coworker was kind enough to dump the contents of my boot into the trashcan. Moral of this story is CHECK YOUR SHOES BEFORE PUTTING THEM ON. I'm still freaking out just thinking about it!!!

The magic of Christmas

I love the lights, the decorations, the traditions, and the feeling they bring to my home at Christmas. I think this is why I'm always in a rush to get them up right after Thanksgiving. Everything always seems so magical. I love sitting in the living room in the dark staring at the tree. It's so peaceful. My favorite time of year. I love to entertain, and to be with my friends at this time of year too. There's just magic in the air.

Thanksgiving 2008

Blogging isn't as easy as some people make it look. Most people have a lot more exciting things going on, or just know how to make the mundane look exciting. I always feel like anything happening here is boring and no one would care. We had a great Thanksgiving here. My nieces came and the Olson's came. All my friends usually post lists of things on their blogs too. So, in honor of them I will list 10 things I am grateful for, I came up with the number since we had 10 people at my house that day, and no I am not going to list them individually.
1. My husband- he has stuck by me through a lot.
2. My kids- They really are great kids.
3. Being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
4. Ryan serving a mission and his love for what he's doing.
5. My extended family- both sides
6. My friends- They are really a great support for me, and they have no idea how much they have helped me.
7. The atonement- What a great blessing!
8. My testimony
9. Ryan is being release from his mission in 27 days!!!
10.My family and My friends- Oh wait, I already said them. But, they really are my rock, I just can't give them enough gratitude.

There are many other things I'm thankful for, but my blog would get too boring.

PS- After seeing that last picture I have decided I am never eating again! But, I wanted you to see everyone else.

Moab Mountain Bike Trip

Well, It has been a long time since I have posted so I figure it is way over due. So, I thought I would get around to posting some stuff about my Moab trip with Mike B. and Gary H. All-in-all it was a really good trip. We all arrived in SLC on Wednesday the 8th of October and put our bikes together. I had been working on building Ryan's bike up nicer than it had ever been and decided to take it to give a test ride and break in the wheels (yes, I had Ryan's permission). In the morning on Thursday Gary's brother Dave and his son Chris arrived with another friend and their Jeeps in tow to take us down to Moab. The trip went well and pretty quick. After arriving we tried to find a part for Gary's Fork that had broken but nobody carried it. We even tried going down the the manufacturer's tent at the 24 hors of Moab endurance race that was taking place but no luck. So we just headed out for the first ride of the trip. we went up to Porcupine Rim and had a good ride down. The winds were pretty high due to a storm that was supposed to be moving in but it was not too bad. I refused to do the big 5 ft drop though due to high wind, low experience, and a lot of nerves. I also developed some shifting problems in the latter part of the ride and by the end I could not shift at all. Turns out my shifter cable had slipped. That made the end of my ride not so fun. Gary helped me fix the shifting problem before we hit the jacuzzi. We grabbed a traditional Moab Melt at the Moab Diner and called it a night. The next morning we headed back out for Porcupine Rim. Mike and Gary do have an obsession with this route. This ride was once again pretty windy but with my shifting problems fixed and one run for experience I was swayed into doing the 5 foot drop. It went great and Mike got a nice picture of me in mid flight riding over Gary's head. The ride from this point continued well and I began to see why they are obsessed with it. After lunch we returned for another trip done Porcupine Rim. Yes at this point we had decided to make this trip and "all porcupine" trip. Once again this ride started out great. once we started to approach the big drop I started to experience some slight shifting issues and could not keep up. When I came to the jump I was unable to get sufficient speed for a good jump. I landed it okay though a bit too much front wheel first. Instantly on landing I felt something was wrong. Upon inspection it turned out I broke the rear Triangle on Ryan's frame and it pushed into the frame itself also. Needless to say my ride ended there. I had to begin a five mile hike down the mountain carrying the broken bike. Bike shoes are not meant for walking. by the time I made it down the mountain it was dark and my right knee and hip joints were killing me. Oh well! The frame was old and I am not a heavy rider so I guess it was just time for it to pass away. I ended up going down the next morning, while Mike and Gary made a final ride, to talk to the Ellsworth folks at the race about getting a replacement frame. Well that is pretty much the end of it from my perspective. I was not the only casualty along the way though. Dave broke the frame on his jeep twice and Gary ended up breaking his thumb on the last ride of the trip. We came close to a clean get away but once again some of us took some lumps.