Europe Trip: London

We are back and had an amazing trip to Europe (thank you Mom!). I tried to do one blog of the whole trip and it took me forever to load all the pictures....and then somehow I deleted the entire thing!! It was very frustrating. So, I am going to be posting pictures each day starting in London, instead of trying to make one enormous post.

The Trip Begins...
Tyler and I had to wait in the airport for about 8 hours, because Jessica's flight left at 3pm and she had to be at the airport at 1 pm and our flight left at 8:45 pm. We had to arrive at the same time because we had to go up to D.C. to fly out (which is 3hrs from BV). This is a picture of us about 1/2 way through the wait.

Finally in London!!!
Tyler looking positively dashing here or very cute whatever suits you. Tyler and I with the London Eye behind us (biggest Ferris Wheel in the world). Mom, Tyler, me and Jessica with the Parliment buildings behind us.

A nice shot of the London Eye by Tyler.


Big Ben and a double decker bus.

Tyler and I

Erik standing outside of Westminster Abbey.
Mom in Westminster Abbey (well, more like an outdoor corridor-as you cannot take pictures inside Westminster)

Me standing in front of the Royal Ballet School--- I would love to take classes here!!We saw Oliver! in London and it was sooooo good! Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) played Fagin and he was hilarious. Buckingham Palace


Erik, the Photographer

A walk through Hyde Park Tyler and I sunbathing in Hyde Park Jessica and I walking along the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Tyler and I at Piccadilly Circus (London's equivalent to Times Square)

Tyler pushing his luggage Trolley through the wall at Kings Cross Station to get to Platform 9 3/4....if only.... Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

St. Paul's Cathedral

London is my favorite city. There is so much to see and do. If you have not been there, take the time to go because it is one of the places that you should see before you die.

Thanks again Mom for taking us on this trip!

There will be more posts to follow, next up will be Bath and Canterbury!

Thats all for today, unless I feel like doing another post later this evening.

Dad Comes to Virginia!!

Dad had to go to D.C. to speak at a conference and so he drove down for the weekend. It was really great to see my dad and to spend Easter morning with him!

SVU put up a new 9 hole disc golf course on campus. So, we took my dad disc golfing Saturday morning.

We also took a little walk to Panther Falls and had a picnic.

Dad, Jessica and Tyler

Tyler and Jessica on the trail

We also went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and took a little drive.

This is the view on the Parkway of the little town of Buena Vista below.

We had a pretty good weekend and it was great to be around family. Thanks for coming Dad!!

So, I updated the blog a bit, found a free background (unfortunately with that little 'cutestblogontheblock.com' thing to the left), and added some pictures from our wedding and honeymoon. I think it looks pretty good...

Anywho... Tyler and I have been doing really pretty good. We have a month left of school (3 papers to write, a few more tests and finals), we are leaving for Europe on May 5th (thanks to my wonderful mum), and we do have jobs. We are working at Tuscany Italian restaurant-which I actually really like, but our hours are not what we hoped and minimum wage in Virginia is pretty pathetic. They keep telling us that it will get busier soon. Hopefully!!

So, about Europe... I am so excited! We (my Mum, Erik, Jessica, Tyler and I) are going to England, France, Italy and Germany (in that order). I am really excited because I get to see my friend Laura, who is from Germany and I have not seen in 2 years.

London, England
Paris, France

Vernazza, Italy (we are also going to Venice) Luneburg, Germany (where Laura lives!)

I just thought I would let people know where we are going and I will of course blog about it when we get back. Until next time....

Another D.C Trip

We went up to Washington D.C. on Tuesday to go up to the temple. We were able to use one of SVU's huge vans to haul Candace, Cisco, Christian, Heidi, Tyler and I up to D.C. We left around 7 AM and got to the temple at about 10. After we did a session and ate lunch, we drove into downdown D.C. We parked along way away because we did not know we could park closer and the van is so huge and difficult to park. So, we had a nice long walk to the D.C. Mall (museum area between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building) Along the walk we got some pictures of the Jefferson Memorial.

The Natural History Museum

Dinosaurs

Tyler was so excited to see real dinosaur bones. Here he is standing next to the T-Rex.

Another of the T-Rex

This is the triceratops and its head was huge! This picture does not really do it justice....

More dinosaurs...with Christian and Heidi in the background.

This is a baby duckbill dinosaur
Tyler thought this was the scariest dinosaur.

Pre-Historic Mammals
There used to be tiny little horses!

This is a giant sloth.... at least 15 ft high or taller!

Me standing next to a Wooly Mammoth

Ocean Animals

A dead giant squid---about 36 feet long (Tyler thought it was really cool)
There was also a really cool mammal exhibit, but we did not take any pictures.

The Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden actually costs about $6, but it is free on Tuesdays, so we got lucky!

A huge butterfly!


The Hope Diamond
There was also a really cool rock and gem exhibit, but we only got a picture of the Hope Diamond.


Walking Back to the Van

We decided to stop at the Jefferson Memorial and we also had a really nice walk around the water.

Thomas Jefferson

It says, "I have sworn upon the alter of God."

We look tiny....

The view from the bridge.

After leaving D.C. we went to Ikea, had a great time and headed back to BV. It was a really fun trip!

I am sorry that it has been so long... I have taken a few pictures over the last few weeks. The first set of pictures were taken about 2 weeks ago when we had a very nice little bit of snow with sunshine to follow. The second group were taken last weekend when Cisco, Candace, Tyler and I all went up to the D.C. Temple. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to snap any photos of Ricky and Jessica, but I shall try...

Our new Institute building on a beautiful day with just a dusting of snow.

Chandler Hall (brick) and Main Hall (red)

Durham Hall (where most of my classes are)

At the D.C. Temple

Beautiful Temple on a beautiful day

The spires looked amazing in the sunlight

Cisco, Candace, me, and Tyler

Tyler and I really enjoyed going up to the temple and we want to go back again, as our car permits, but hopefully we can carpool again!

Sorry again, about taking so long to put these pictures up. As I said, I will get some pics of Jess and Ricky up here soon!!--Or--I will take some and she can put them on her facebook... Whatever she wants...

I will blog again soon!