London, England

To celebrate the last day of school, Bailee's birthday and Father's day we decided to go to London with some friends. I absolutely LOVED London. I don't know if it was because I could understand the language, could read the menu, see familiar food in the grocery store, or just because we had 4 days with Jon and no work!

We decided to drive vs fly. We drove to Calais, France and took a ferry across the North Sea. The kids were so excited on the ferry because there was a tv playing Tom and Jerry. Both Bailee and Chase said "IT'S IN ENGLISH!!!!" Jon and I started laughing because Tom and Jerry don't talk.

Driving in England was quite the adventure. I was so nervous with Jon behind the wheel. He has a hard enough time paying attention when the roads are normal so I just hoped we would make it to our hotel safely. Once inside London he only made two left turns down the wrong side of the road and ended up backing up so he did really good.

Our first day we headed to Buckingham Palace. It was so awesome seeing the guards. They really don't smile. We were hoping to see Prince Charles and the boys but no such luck.

From Buckingham Palace we took a walk through Hyde Park. Hyde Park is a huge park and its also the place where different religions come together and preach at a place called Preachers Square. This is where the early missionaries of our church would do most of their missionary work so we wanted to see what it was like. I was totally amazed! So many people were gathered and men and women were standing on tall ladders preaching (it sounded like yelling). There were also others preaching (or yelling) back at them.

London has a new feature called the London Eye. It is a HUGE ferris wheel with pods that hold up to 25 people in each pod. It was awesome seeing London from a birds eye. I didn't realize it was such a HUGE city.

Some of the other stops we made were to the Parliment Building so we could see the famous clock, Big Ben. Took a boat ride down the river Thames. Saw the London Tower, Tower Bridge, St Pauls Cathedral, a very old wall called the London Wall, ate some Crispy Creme Donuts (which you cannot get in the Netherlands!).

On our way home we decided to stop by the London Temple. The traffic in London was horrible. According to the GPS system it should only take 30 minutes to get to the temple. Due to traffic it took 1 hour 30 minutes! It was well worth it. The temple is beautiful! We also found out the Visitor's Center is the only Visitors Center in Europe. I also didn't know that Angel Moroni wasn't on the top of the London Temple until just a couple of months ago. The missionary told us the pictures we took will be some of the first pictures with the Angel Moroni.

Over all it was a fantastic trip! I would love to go back to London or at least to England and see some of the country side. What we did see was beautiful. I would like to go north in to Manchester where my brother served his mission and up in to Scotland.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TALYNN!!!

Yesterday was Talynn's 3rd birthday. When I asked her what she wanted to do she said eat at McDonald's and go swimming. Since the kids were still out of school on holiday we jumped on our bikes and took off to McDonalds for lunch and then the swimming pool. When Jon got home from work Tally opened her gifts. She was so funny. Didn't matter what she opened as soon as she saw it she would say "Oh, my favorite!" She kept thanking me after each gift. She was so cute!

Some things about Talynn:

1. She is ALL girl! She loves makeup, her hair fixed, princess dresses or her "spinny" dress from Spain. She reminds me everyday that while she was staying with Holly (when I was here house hunting) that she could wear makeup. Thanks Holly!!!

2. New word is Dank u Wel. Translation is Thank You in Dutch. She tells me she can speak dutch just like Dora (here Dora speaks dutch and english). Anytime I give her something or even tell her something she looks at me and says "Dank u Wel". She really cracks me up!

3. Talynn is FINALLY potty trained. She was scared to death to go in the toilet. Not quite sure but once we got over the fear we haven't had an accident.

4. Talynn loves Bailee and Chase. She misses them so much while they are at school. She can't wait until she gets to go to school with them in the Fall.

5. Talynn loves all her friends. She tells me everyday the names of all her friends and that she loves them. Her two newest friends are Ashley and Rachel. Of course, Holly is still top dog. I really think she just misses Holly's purse with all the fun lotion and lipsticks.

6. Talynn's favorite song is Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. We sing it everywhere we go including rush hour on the tram! We get some pretty weird looks.

7. Talynn's favorite game is I spy. She is so cute when she says "I spy with my little eye sum ting pink."

8. Talynn has been wearing a bathing suit everyday since last September. For her birthday she got a leotard. We're hoping it will replace the bathing suit.

We love Talynn and are so glad she came to our home! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TALLY!!!!

Belgium

Since we were on holiday once again we decided to head out and go visit Belgium. We spent the first night in Brussels. Brussels is just a big city. We walked through a park of miniature buildings you see throughout Europe.

There is also a monument of an atom. Not really sure the story behind it but it was neat to go inside and look out.

We also saw the famous statue of a little boy peeing. It was quite hilarious. I thought it was going to be this HUGE statue but it turned out to be really little. While looking at the statue there was a place selling escargot. It smelled so good. Now, for those of you who know me, I WILL NOT EAT ANYTHING THAT COMES FROM THE FISH FAMILY! The family we were with dared Jon to eat some escargot. So he bought ten. Jon ate one and said it tasted like CHICKEN! Doesn't everything taste like chicken? Jon then dared me to eat one. It took all I had in me but I ended up putting one of those slimy creatures in my mouth and started chewing. Guess what? It did taste like CHICKEN! Granted, I didn't eat a second one. Jon tried to get the kids to eat one. Bailee and Chase refused but Tally was all for it. She ended up eating four and wanted more. She kept rubbing her belly saying "yummy".

Our second day we headed for Brugge. LOVED BRUGGE!!! It is such a cute and quaint little town. While there we walked the streets and took LOTS of pictures. We also toured the town by horse a buggy.

Belgium is also known for its chocolate. I LOVE CHOCOLATE! Supposedly Belgium chocolate is the best chocolate in the world. You can take my word for it, it's pretty darn good! We will definitely be taking another trip to Brugge!

We had a great holiday! The sad part is no more holidays until Christmas! I guess it's time to start using up those vacation days!