London Part 2

Day two of London. After I had flubbed and woke up at some crazy hour and kept Marianne up for hours we slept in, thus our day began a little late. We headed over to the Tower of London. I have to say that I think this was one of my favorite days. The tower is very old (1080s) and had tons of historical stuff. We joined a tour group and learned so much about the castle. We learned about all the different stages it was built, the moat story was interesting and disgusting!
Here are some pics.

Our tour guide

One of the seven ravens on the grounds. The story is that if there are not six on the grounds at all times the kingdom will fall. They keep seven with their wings clipped.

I got some neat video of the guards getting inspected.

The crown jewels are down to the right. This was one of my favorite things we did the whole time. The jewels were unbelievable, some of those diamonds were enormous! No pictures in there though.

You can still see the gate, look close!

Tower green where all the executions took place.

The mural on the White Tower.

Inside the white tower. There was tons of armour, swords, cannons, guns, and other neat stuff.

The smallest and largest suits.

Chapel of St. John

The book of parliament, I think.

The last beheading block and ax used.

Mar trying on the kiddo costumes!

The Coat of Arms

Tower Bridge

Night shot

We spent all day here and had so much fun. It was still so cold but since most of it was inside we were okay. I am too tired to think of anything else to say, so I will let the pictures do the talking. Hopefully, another post before the weekend.

2010 Review

I thought I would do the traditional year end highlights.

January: We played in the snow a ton, met Harriet, and swapped out our piano for a new older one with more potential.

February: We went to the dentist, ice skated, attended the dog derby (where Ash did the snow shoe races).

And the funniest video of Mar!

March: We rode bikes, went skiing, planted tomatoes, worked on the basement, turned 31, and celebrated 12 years of marriage.

April: We dyed eggs and celebrated Easter and Kami's 2nd birthday. We also worked on the basement some more, watched the plants grow, taught Kaite how to ride a two-wheeler, and went bowling.

May: We celebrated Mother's day, moved the girls into their new room, went swimming in Jackson, spent time with family, had a dance recital, saw Harriet again, watched the plants grow like crazy, and got out for summer break.

June: We finally planted the garden, celebrated Father's day and Ky turning ?!?, and went to Yellowstone with Harriet and George.

July: We went to the cabin, parades, saw fireworks, finished and stocked the storage room, Kaite caught her 1st fish, and had Sam vs. porcupine. We also moved into a big girl bed, had a baby shower, went to the carousel, saw the blue angels, had 4 weeks of swimming lessons, went to the lake, and made mermaid Ashley.

August: We spent school shopping, camping, fishing, made 2 trips to Yellowstone, made a trip to Utah for a surprise party, daisy got skunked, played at the sand dunes, went to another parade, went boating, helped host a block party, visited the dentist, and started school.

September: Brought us Ash's 8th birthday and baptism, a new cousin, a baby blessing, more boating, harvesting the garden, making tons of jam, the opening of Sammy's with the Mindy Gledhill concert, and a broken collar bone.

October: Found us painting the living room, tree climbing, making salsa, more harvesting, family pictures, pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, potty training/ed, ear piercing, a read-a-thon, a trip to Logan, and Kyle getting skunked!

And the funniest video of Kaite dancing!

November: We saw some snow, hung up Christmas lights, finished teaching Isaiah, hosted Thanksgiving, shopped the day after Thanksgiving, Harry Potter, cutting and stacking wood, monopoly deal, and Ash's infamous black eye.

December: Kaite turned 6, we had numerous parties, wrapped presents, put up the tree, saw Santa, had a gymnastics extravaganza, went to London, had a wedding, missed my girls terribly, made it home hours before Christmas, opened presents, and rang in the New Year.

I think that is our year in review. What a crazy fun year it was!

Back up and running!

Okay so I have been going crazy for the past four days, our internet went out! I had so much I needed to do and catch up on it was very frustrating! Since it was a holiday and a weekend there was no one to fix it until today, got to love that country life! Funny thing (not really), it turns out the system just needed to be rebooted! This happens so often it is so frustrating!

Anyway happy 2011! We had a nice quiet New Years eve. The best part was that I actually got to spend it with Kyle, first time in three years. He has had to chaperone the YM/YW dance in the past and last year he was the only leader to go, so this year he said nope it is someone elses turn. We rented some movies for the weekend, ate pizza, and played some games. We also watched the ball drop and The New Kids On The Block sing, how sad that I still remember their songs! We also made fun of them sing! Then Ky shocked me by saying "I can't believe you have really been there" when we saw London ring in the new year with a nice shot of Big Ben and the London Eye. I was so glad not to ring in the New Year by myself.
We spent the rest of the weekend staying warm in the below zero temps, and also playing in the new 10 inches of snow we got last week. We attempted to ride the sled but it was so cold my face froze! I am planning on doing a recap of 2010 and I am still working on day 2 of London, but those get put on hold until I finish some work I need to do. Also, this morning I discovered that my wash machine is frozen, I am currently working on that situation. Happy New Year!