Paris Day 1: Arc de Triomphe

We woke up around 4 am so we could take a taxi over to the train station and took the Chunnel over to Paris.  I don't even know how long the ride was since I totally slept the whole way there.  Jet lag and waking up early super early just put me over the edge.  We got into Paris around 8 or 9 am and took a taxi over to our hotel, dropped our bags with the concierge and went off to site see.  We decided that we would do everything on foot that day so we got out our map and figured out all the places we wanted to see.  Our hotel was near the Arc de Triomphe so we walked over there first.

Paris has this great pass that you can get for 2, 4, or 6 days and it basically lets you get into just about every museum or tourist attraction (except the Eiffel Tower) for the cost of the pass so we picked up a 2 day pass for each of us when we got to the Arc. There were a bunch of stairs that we had to climb to get to the top and when we got there the view was beautiful!  This pictures is overlooking the Champs-Elysee where all the great shopping and specialty stores are at. As you can tell there was a little bit of fog that the sun was trying to burn off. It was a beautiful day in Paris that day. It was sunny and about 75 degrees with a hint of crisp in the air. Perfection!



 

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This is looking at the opposite side of the Champs-Elysee towards downtown. 

This is just looking up side the arc.  The detail is gorgeous.  After the Arc we made our way over to the Eiffel Tower.  We decided not to go at night since we were so close and we were anticipating our exhaustion to be quite bad by the time it got dark so we did a day time stroll.

Day 5: Making our Way Back to London

Day 5 was Tuesday and our final day in Harrogate with the Smith's.  Colin served us up a true English breakfast and Beryl packed us up her famous cookies for our trip back to London.  We got one last look at their beautiful garden and I was seriously jealous of the apple and pear trees!  Oh the things I could make!

Here's Colin pulling out some carrots for me to eat for my snack in the car. They were so good!

And here we are with Beryl, the hostess with the mostess!
We had a little tearful good bye and it was mostly me doing all the crying. I got a little attached to the Smith's and to Harrogate, I was really sad to leave. We had to though so we headed out to the city to do a little shopping to get some souvenirs. On our way back to London we stopped in Leeds so I could meet Bernard.

It was fun to hear the memories that they shared from Ry's mission. I think he was a little shocked to not see him in a suit as you can tell in the picture.

We got into London around 6 and had to turn in our rental car. I let out a huge sigh of relief when we gave back that car. I was so worried about getting in an accident while we were over there so it was nice to have everything turn out fine. We had to take the Tube in to downtown London to get to our hotel. We stayed at a really nice Marriott in Grovsner Square so we could be close to the train station that next morning. We ordered room service and got to bed early since we had to wake up super early for our next adventure.

The Trip Continues: Day 4

Day 4 started off with a beautiful English breakfast at Betty's.  My friend, Liz, highly recommended it so we met her there and had a wonderful time!  After that we went off to go sight see and travel around Ry's mission. We headed off to the York Minster that morning.

The city of York is surrounded by this very, very old city wall and I thought it was just so cool! Plus, I love this picture because it gives you a good feel for what it feels like to drive on the other side of the road.

After York we decided to go check out Leed's Market.  Not quite what I was expecting, but we did find Ethan a shirt for $1.  We walked up towards some of the departments stores and I found this one place that had the CUTEST accessories ever! Plus they were pretty cheap so I was in heaven! Part of me wished that I bought more now that I look back, oh well. That night we headed over to the Turner's for dinner.  This was a miracle because Ry wrote down their address, but left it back at the Smith's house.  Ry's cell was back at Liz's being charged since we didn't have plug in converter thingys to convert the voltage and all that.  So no phone, no address, just sheer memory.  Well, all these years that Ry has proclaimed that he can't remember things were totally proven wrong.  He drove us right to their house (well we did have to take a few detours)!  The Turner's took us over to meet Jean and that was so fun to meet her!  Ry has such great memories of Jean and her conversion story so I couldn't wait to meet her and she sure didn't disappoint!  After dinner we went out for Indian food and it was DELICOUS!  Oh my! 

It was so fun to hang out with the Turner's! I even learned a few things about being politically correct in British culture that surprised me, but that's a whole other story. Anyway...we stayed up way late talking and the great thing was that I didn't have to wake up early! Gosh, I love vacation!

Day 2 Addition and Day 3: Harrogate

I totally forgot to put in the pub that we visited on our way to Leeds/Harrogate! Ryan's mission president took him there once and the meal he had there really stood out to him since they rarely/never went to pubs there. So we hit up the Bracken Fox and Ry ordered the same exact thing he ordered 10 years ago. We had a few totally "American" moments while we were there. We stood there in the lobby to wait for someone to seat us, but then we realized that we just had to seat ourselves. So we looked over the menu and waited for the waiter to come over and take our orders. We seriously waited for 10-15 minutes and then Ry noticed that you had to go to waiter and order. Finally we learned to go to them to pay the check too. I'm sure they just rolled their eyes and thought, "typical Americans" and laughed.

Day 3: Sunday
We headed over to Harrogate ward for church and I was able to meet a lot of people that Ry new or worked with while on his mission. The best part though was seeing my friend Liz! This is seriously too good to be true! So Liz and I went to nursing school together at BYU and you have to understand that BYU nursing students are a breed all their own. It's hard to explain, but seeing her was like being with someone that truly understands me. We just think a lot the same. Anyway...Liz lives in the same exact ward that Ry served in and the same ward of the Smiths! How crazy is that! So not only did I go to learn more and Ry's mission, but I got to see my friend too! How lucky!

So after church Ry got a lesson in how to make Yorkshire puddings. I have to admit that it was pretty fun to watch my husband try to cook, not his usual domain. Sister Smith totally out did herself and did a beautiful spread. I seriously felt like I was having Thanksgiving dinner when I was there. The weather was just like Thanksgiving time plus all the food and all the family it was wonderful! We got to meet Colin and Beryl's daughter, Ruth and her 4 kids. So cute! This little one was my buddy for the day. She's Ethan's age and just so precious!

After dinner we went out for a walk out my Old Mother Shipton's Cave. There's a beautiful bridge out there and the remnants of an old castle that dates back to 1215!

After our little walk, I went back to the Smiths to go take a Sunday afternoon nap (which I rarely ever get at home) and Ry went out to drive around and see a few people. I had to pretty much drag myself out of bed after awhile so I would actually be able to sleep that night. When I got done I snuggled up next to the fire and read a book. I sat there eating some shortbread cookies and thought I had ended up in heaven! It was truly a picturesque moment! Too bad I didn't have my camera!

Day 2: Drive North/Warwick Castle

Our second day I woke up with a jet lag headache. It was so hard to wake up! We got everything packed up and ready and enjoyed a great English breakfast at the hotel and then hopped on the bus over to the rental car place. This time it was only a 5 minute bus ride, haha. We got our car and paid a little extra for GPS, but it was totally worth it! GPS seriously saved our trip! I get really car sick so for me to try to read a map and try to direct Ry in a place that I have no idea on top of driving on the other side of the road and with all those roundabouts...thank you GPS!!! This was the view from my seat.

I have to be honest and tell you that I was super nervous about Ry driving, but I should have known better that it all came back to him after a few roundabouts. He actually knew how to drive around England really well. I was quite impressed. Our kids love Shaun the Sheep on Disney so I had to take a picture and tell them we saw him on our trip.
On our way north we stopped at Warwick Castle. It is one of the few preserved castles in England so we had to check it out. The weather was perfect, sweater weather with the sun shining. Ahhhh, love it!

We toured the castle and checked out all the sights and I think Ry is touching the fire place that is specifically roped off...oops.
We climbed the towers and got to see some pretty spectacular views of the city of Warwick and the surrounding areas. Again, those skies are so blue and beautiful!
We decided to take a tour of the dugeon areas and they do this whole presentation about how horrific it was there. Well, in doing this they call people out to make things interesting. I ended up getting called to the court to be tried as a witch so on the way out of the castle that day I put myself in the stocks and had Ry give me a good BOOOOOOOO!

After the castle, we took a walk into the town of Warwick and had lunch outside and took in the sites. Then we started back on our drive to Harrogate. Of course we had to stop at a rest stop and buy all the different types of English candy to try. I found a few favorites that I really liked and Ry reminisced with all his favorites from his mission. We got to Harrogate that evening and Ry drove me around to wear he lived and to some of the places he remembered. It is such a beautiful place! We stayed with a family that Ryan was close to while on his mission, the Smith's. I think Ry felt like he walked through a time warp when he walked into their home. It felt like no time had passed even though it had been 10 years since he had been there. We enjoyed catching up and having true English scones while we visited. I was seriously spoiled rotten the whole time we stayed there. You will hear a lot more about the Smiths as our story unfolds. More to come...

England Trip Day 1: London

We left Thursday afternoon from Texas and landed in London at 8 am. We tried as much as we could to sleep on the plane, but you know how that goes. We ended up waiting in customs forever since we got in a line that was letting all the people with children go in front of everyone. For a split second I wish I had my kids there to get us in front of the massive line, but then I realized that I could stand in line in complete silence and I was okay with that. We stayed at a Marriott near the airport so we could pick up our rental car that next day so we just headed over there to drop our stuff off and then took the underground into London. Our first stop was the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels. It's just so crazy to see so much history with a modern city in the background. It is truly unreal! I know I look really happy in this picture, haha, I didn't know when Ry was taking it.

After doing some exploring around there, we had to go some true English Fish n Chips! It was so good! Oh, and ketchup in England does not taste the same as it does in the states, fyi.
So we ate our fish and chips overlooking this...So beautiful, look at those skies!


So after some refreshment we took the Tube over to see Big Ben and the Westminster Abbey. Well, we got up to sidewalk to find tons of police and barricades. Come to find out the Pope was in town and was making his way over to the Abbey in a few hours. We didn't stay to see him, but it was kind of crazy to see people camping out to see him.


Westminster Abbey was closed so we didn't get to go inside, but at least we go to see it. I also found a typical English phone booth and had to take my picture inside acting like a Japanese tourist.
We walked around a little bit, but decided to get back on the Tube and go to Harrods. This place was incredible! So much to see and so expensive, but so cool!
We got a few things at the food shops in Harrods to try out, but got them to go so we could head back to our hotel. By this time it was around 6:30 pm and we were so tired (we had been up since 6am the day before). So we got on the Tube back to the bus station and hopped on a bus to go back to our hotel. Well, we didn't realize that our stop was the 1st or 2nd stop so we missed our stop, but we thought that the bus route was a short one and would loop back around to our hotel. Ummmm...nooooo! We ended up on a double decker bus in the middle of London for 3 hours! The whole time I'm singing the theme song to Gilligan's Island..."a three hour tour...a three hour tour". The bus driver was really nice and helped us get to where we need to go and it really helped us stay awake a little more so we could flip our clocks that night. Thankfully we had bought food at Harrods because we ended up eating on the bus. Needless to say, we had a full adventure our first day in England. That's the only way to do it, right?

England or Bust!

Ry and I just got back a few days ago from a trip of a lifetime! We had so much fun and I can't wait to post some pictures for our friends and family. Many of you know that Ryan travels a lot with his work and while it's hard to have a husband gone...there are some perks to it. We have been saving our flight miles and Marriott points for awhile now and decided to make a trip to England to see Ry's mission and to see the sights. While we were making our plans we also decided to head over to Paris since we were so close and it's pretty easy and cheap to go there. Our wonderful mothers traded off having the boys for the time that we were gone so I didn't worry about them one bit. It was really a stress free time for both of us. So here are a bunch of posts about our trip so skim through if you don't want to hear the travel log.

Girls Trip 2010

I just got back in town late last night after many flight delays, but I'm home and quickly back into Mom Mode. Ry ended up getting bumped from a flight a few months ago and he was kind enough to give me the voucher so I could go for a visit to Utah! I headed up there on Thursday and got to spend some time with my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Kay and my cousins. So good to see them! I had the best time! Then I headed down to Salt Lake with some of my friends from Cali and had a little weekend with them. You can read all about it on Carly's blog. I had a blast! Miss you guys!

A Child's Prayer

Ethan said the prayer tonight and this is what he prayed for...

"Father, bless us with good water on this land." and
"Father, bless us with food that we won't eat candy."

I guess no more Twizzlers for dinner. Darn! Out of the mouth of babes!

Mom, We Love To Drive You Crazy!

This was the title and picture on the front of my Mother's Day card this year. Sums it up quite nicely I think, haha. We headed out to Cabela's one night to pick up some camping gear for a family camp out. Yes, that's right, camping gear.

!!News flash!!

Ryan bought camping gear! I know, I had to pick my jaw up off the ground too! I think he's finally come to terms that father/son campouts will be happening and that his sons might not find sleeping in the van as fun as he does. I'm soooo not a camper either so this will all be new to me. I just hate waking up all sweaty and gross and having bugs all over the place. I guess it's something I'm just going to have to learn to love, right? Welcome to life with boys!

Hi, I'm Brittany...I Used To Blog...

Has it really been 3 months since I've posted something on this blog? Does anyone still read this? If you don't, I don't blame you. I have been a very busy mom around here the past few months and haven't really put my blog on the list of priorities. I may be able to catch up on a few things this week so hopefully there will be a few posts in the making to get all caught up. Not promising much, but maybe there will be a few pictures. Just to give you an idea of why I don't blog, I have a little friend (Max) that grabs my hand off the keyboard or mouse every single time I get on the computer. I'm seriously never on here anymore, it's not worth the whining. We're working on the whining, seriously working hard.

I've started the anti-whining campaign at our house. No more whining. Even the adults in the house are included in this campaign so I'm also not whining anymore. So if you come around here, no whining, or there will be some serious consequences. We're trying to stay positive over here so throw positive vibes this way.

How to Recognize a Coupon Girl

This video made me laugh so I had to share...

"My Thing"

This is an "I'm looking for advice" post. So please leave me some advice. I'm trying to look for "my thing." You know, that little extra something that you love to do. Something that enriches your life, helps your family, brings you joy. Something that you look forward to doing, but doesn't take away too much from what you're supposed to be doing.

Here's the deal...I'm the type of person that does lots of "things" and each of those "things" have a special time in my life, but I move on or they just become a natural part of my life and are not things anymore.

Here are a few examples...School was one of my "things" growing up. I was good at it, I excelled, it enriched my life and brought me joy. Eventually I graduated from nursing school, got a real job and became an L&D nurse. And Nursing became my new "thing". Having a real job brought in great money, I helped people, I loved my co workers, I loved my job.

Then I had E, we moved to Texas, and got settled into our house. Right now in my life I can't go back to nursing because of Ry's crazy schedule and I don't want to put my kids in daycare...yada, yada, yada.

Fast Forward to now and recently I've had a few fun "things" that I've been into lately. The past year I've done couponing and that's been a fun "thing" to do. It saves my family tons of money, I love doing it, it keeps my mind quick, and it teaches my children about the importance of saving and not getting everything you want right now.

Well, now couponing has naturally just been added to my everyday life. I don't really consider it a "thing" anymore, it's just part of the normal routine. So then I tried doing the whole half marathon thing. I had my daily running/exercise routine and enjoyed seeing all the progress. I accomplished my goal and then joined a local gym after the race to keep up the great exercise.

I'll have to be honest, I have been at all this week since Max WILL NOT GO to the play place so the jury is still out about that. Anyway...exercise just seems like part of the normal, everyday life. It just doesn't feel like my "thing" anymore.

Moving on, I'm also part of a book club. I love to read and I have a little bit of time when I'm waiting in the car to pick up E to read a few pages or I'll read a little bit before bed, but I don't really consider it worthy of being called "my thing".
Obviously motherhood is my main "thing" right now, but I'm just looking for that little extra something that adds a little bit of color to ordinary life. I don't want something that takes away from my family or is super time consuming. I just want something that I look forward to doing and do well at it. What are some of your "things"? Any advice?

Sad Boy

Max has been such a sad boy today! He has started throwing tantrums and it's not pretty! I found him like this the other day in E's dresser drawer. He was totally stuck in the drawer and couldn't get out. It was kind of funny to see him try to get out, but he just couldn't do it. He didn't get too upset since blankey was nearby, thank goodness for that!

Hard Work!

This post should have happened awhile back, but I'm just now loading the pictures to the computer so it had to wait. About a month ago we really started working on E getting a handle on having a few "jobs" around the house. We had him decorate a special box for his money and he picked something that he wanted to work towards. He chose going to Build-A-Bear to make his own bear. Let me tell you, he worked really hard. He kept his room clean, made his bed, cleaned his toy room even when his brother messed it up, did laundry, cleaned toilets, and he was even hired out by Nanny to do a few jobs for her. Well, after a few weeks he earned enough money to pay his tithing and head off to Build-A-Bear!
He couldn't exactly get any bear he wanted since he was on a budget and only had a certain amount of to spend. He picked out the perfect bear in his budget and started off the bear making process. He got to stuff him and put a little wishing heart inside and gave him a special air bath.The worker was asking E questions about what accessories he wanted to buy for his bear and E told him he only had a certain amount of money to spend and the worker was nice enough to give him a $5 coupon! Now, E, truly knows the value of a coupon and understands that when you shop with coupons you can get a lot more with your money so he was totally excited. Instead of just getting a bear, he was able to get a bear AND a cool basketball outfit! E ended up naming the bear Ethan...whatever. The sweetest thing happened the next day, E gave Max his old bear to play with so they could both have their own bears. What a great brother!

Minor Crisis

What an afternoon! Oh Boy! Where to begin? Well, I had a fun day with friends at an easter egg hunt for the kids, went to the library and to the grocery store. I came home and Max was already asleep so I brought in all the groceries, put him in his crib, and then started to unload. Well, I was starting to put the frozen stuff in my 2nd freezer when I realized that nothing in there was frozen!!! I was puzzled for a minute and then realized that the controls for the freezer are in the fridge and guess who likes to play in there...MAX!!! He turned off the freezer!!! My 2nd freezer is where I keep all my meat so I had all this meat that I couldn't refreeze. Everything was still cold so I had to end up cooking it all. I was seriously in a panic! There was chicken juice all in the bottom of the freezer and I was neck deep in meat. What do you do? I fired up my grilled, called up my friend, and we went to town. (Seriously, shout out to Chesney!) We ended up cooking 5 lbs of chicken, 2 lbs, of turkey, 1 lb of bacon, 3 lbs of sausage, and cleaning up a huge mess. I also have a 7lb turkey that I will be cooking tomorrow for dinner. I told my friend that she just got a crash course in freezer meal preparation. Thank goodness I knew what to do! So who wants to come for dinner?

Cowtown Half Marathon

So I've been waiting for quite a long time to blog about this half marathon. I didn't want to blog about it and then end up not being able to go through with the race. So I waited up until the day of the marathon to let out my fun news. I've been training for this since the beginning of December and I just followed the training schedule that they published on the Cowtown Website so if you're ever interested in doing one you can check it out. I worked out at boot camp on my cross train days, ran on Tues/Thursday, and then had my long runs on Saturdays. Thankfully Ry got us a treadmill last year so I've been able to run while Max was napping and E got some "quiet time".

So the Cowtwon takes place in downtown Fort Worth and goes around the downtown area and then into some of the beautiful neighborhoods and parks. The weather was a little chilly in the beginning, but it ended up getting to be around 60 when I crossed the finish line. I seriously had a little sunburn on my face after that.

This year they had a record number of runners, 21,000! You could definitely tell because the festivities were buzzing! My dad drove me down there and we had to park out at a baseball field and then take a bus to the starting line. It was seriously a madhouse down there and I basically had to hop the barricade wherever I could find space so I could get in before they let people go.
So I started on my way. The first 1-3 miles are always the hardest for me and I have no idea why. I guess it just takes my mind that long to kind of relax, quiet down, and enjoy what I'm doing. I knew I'd see my dad or the boys around mile 5 or 6 so that really got me motivated and excited to see them. My mom made up a poster before they left and they were all waiting for me at mile 6. E totally had the sign upside down when I saw him and it totally made me laugh and a few other runners around me.

My dad was waiting for me at mile 8 and he jogged with me for a while. It was so hilarious because my dad was running, holding the camera, and then trying to direct my mom on his cell all at the same time. He's such a good sport about it though.

I saw the boys one last time and then they were headed to the finish line to wait for the me there. Ry told me later that when they were in the van they drove past some cheerleaders that were at one of the water stations cheering on the runners. Well, I guess Ethan was in his car seat looking at the window and blowing kisses at the cheerleaders! Later he told us he did it because he thought they were cute! Seriously guys, I'm in trouble!

Mile 9 was the worst since it was running on cobblestone/brick and it was so rough on your body. I swear I was going nowhere on that stuff! Once I hit 11 I knew I was home free and things were pretty good from there, but I was definitely getting tired.
I made it through and it was so awesome! I seriously got a little teary at the end. I think I just got a little overwhelmed with all the people and the cheering and the fact that I had finished something that I had worked so hard to accomplish. I just want to thank my family for being so supportive and cheering me on that day. It really meant a lot to me and it was such a great experience. I also have to thank all my friends for all the texts, phone calls, and hugs that I got the next day! I couldn't ask for better people in my life!

I Just Ran My First Half Marathon!

I've been training for the past 12 weeks to run my first half marathon and today was the day! I ran the Cowtown Half Marathon and it was the most amazing experience! This is before...

This is after I crossed the finish line and came to see my family...

More details and pictures to come. I need to take a nap!