Let the good times roll

Love family gatherings at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Jackie's attempt at hiding from my photo clearly backfired on her. Sorry Jacksters.

Loved seeing my Grandma after being gone for so long! She loved the little dessert only cook book I was able to get her in England!

I attempted to have a sister brother bonding day. I took Chase and Davis to the classiest joint in town, Sunsplash of course. It was quite the toss up between Sunsplash and Fiesta Mall, fortunately for the Sunsplash though they had a coupon to get in if you purchased tickets online, I was sold, always have been a sucker for good deals. Advice: If you are ever feeling a little chubby all you need to do is take one stroll around the water park. It doesn't take long before you are feeling like the cat's meow.

My brother sister day wasn't as successful as I had planned. Chase ran off with the ladies before I could even snap a photo of the three of us together. Davis and I did all we could to get kicked out of the lazy river. We tried to brake all the rules but for some reason the fish just weren't biting. We were let down when the most trouble we got in was the life guards scolding us a few times for sitting the wrong way on the tube.

Extra large 'blue flavored' icee's make any dehydrated body feel better. Who doesn't love frozen sugar infused with blue dye number 163? We bought a Little Caesar $5 hot n' ready on the way, I had to make sure the kids had a really nutritional balanced meal. I also needed something that would make me fee extra skinny in my swimsuit. Continuing with the classiness of the day we ate the pizza in the jeep and finished it before we even got to the park...

We don't have a picture to prove it but, my mom did show up a little bit later and hang out with us. She even went down a few slides. Impressive. I was a little worried she wasn't going to fit in with the caliber of people there, I was glad to see she was able to rise to the occasion though.

Attempting yet again to be fun sister I took Davis and his cute friend Noah to one of my favorite spots, Bahama Bucks. They didn't know it but I sort of forgot where it was. I drove around for a while, making it seem like it was really far away which added to the cool factor of it. After taking quite some time to decide what we all wanted I ordered and then oops.. no wallet. For some unknown reason my mom had taken her wallet out of her purse, but left the purse in the car. Clearly giving me a false impression. A few phone calls and a half hour later my mom rescued us with the wallet. During this time the highly educated snow cone nazi's kept the kids magically delicious treats inside the freezer. I am sure it was just a precaution they had to take though incase I decided to run off with the 10 dollars worth of ice. I do look like the kind of girl who would steel ice.

Davis and Noah were so patient as we awkwardly waited for the wallet to arrive. They played tic-tac-toe and the connect the dot game on the napkin as I turned down gracious offers from women who said they would be willing to cover our bill.

Don't think the fun stopped at tic-tac-toe though. It had barely began. We bought 24 already made snowballs from Bahama Bucks. A man ordering asked me what the kids were going to do with all of them. When I told them I was going to let them throw them at cars on the way home he thought I was joking. I wasn't. It was one of the funniest, greatest joys to watch these little boys chuck snowballs at cars, and people. We drove through sonic and hurled them at people in the drive thru, people on the road, people in parking lots and we even knocked on peoples doors and threw them at them then ran away. They were so scared they were going to get caught and go to 'juvi' for a long time. They were also afraid people were going to write our 'plates' down and call the cops on us.

Davis's Baseball game! 4:30 heat isn't exactly my favorite thing. Luckily we have QT to cool us off and keep us hydrated.

What a cute couple. My dad was the Army Sergeant for the ward youth conference. He drove straight from there to Davis's game! Take note at how tough he looks with that mean beard.

Great candid shot. Davis pitched this game and it was so intense. He is a great pitcher, at times I thought he was trying to kill the guys with the look on his face. It was such a fun game to watch. They run ruled the other team in the fifth inning (I do believe that is the correct terminology).

Julie and I went and swam with some old friends of ours! Before we knew it the time was 4:00 AM. I didn't mind though because I do love a good late night out every now and then.

Such a talented driver. I hope you all are impressed I have my swimsuit on and not my underwear. Don't judge that I drove home in my suit though. Besides putting on a wet swim suit when you are dry, putting on dry clothes when you are wet is the worst thing.

Davis and I went to Sauce for lunch together. We chit chatted for a long time. It was lovely. We talked about all sorts of things and by the end of lunch we had decided that we were going to throw a party, a party to celebrate life we were going to have it today, in an hour from lunch.

We went to Walmart (I only know how to do classy things...) and bought some super fun stuff. Since I always shop on a budget we bought chalk to make our own welcome sing and thee off brand of Dr. Pepper and Sprite.

We had to greet and thank our guest for coming and of course make it look cute too!

Davis struggled a little with the water balloons

Luckily Grandma Davis was there to help save the day. She tied all the balloons as Davis filled them up.

This neon filled styrofoam box would soon be the death of me. I had no idea water balloons could be so deadly when lobed at by an 11 year old.

Shaving cream, squirt guns, silly string. We had all the summer party essentials. Davis blew up the boogies so we could slide even faster down the slip n' slide while mom made us yummy cookies!!

All prepared and waiting for our guest!

The party gang finally arrived!

Good times, good times.

The older, mature party guest played an intelligent game of Scrabble. Congratulations to Joey for the big win!

Outside minglers! What a fun party!!

The creativity was flowin, they had all sorts of crazy, twisty ways to slide down.

Even mom joined in on the slip n' slide action. She's been a real funster lately!!

I documented the day quite well.

Party was a hit!! Davis and I had so much fun planning, setting up, partying and even cleaning up! We loved everyone for coming and sure did miss some cousins who couldn't make it as well as Brittany, Shelley and Brady!

Welcome back to the glamourous USA!

Leaving London was much like eating a sour gummy worm. Though, I feel I manipulated my time in "the square mile" fantastically. It was the perfect length of time to become apart of the city, become a little more of a responsible adult and have exuberance in everyday.

My flight from Heathrow to Detroit left at 9:15 in the morning (or 45 to the 10th hour of the day if I wish to be English). Which entailed I would make tracks with the road at 6. If I weren't crazy I would have gotten up at 5:59, but I am so I got up at 4:15 (at least that is when I think the alarm was set too... we all know that math and alarm clocks aren't exactly my forte). I felt like I needed to look somewhat adorable when I saw my sister for the first time. I wish my brain would have processed that it is in close proximity of impossible for anyone to look cute after traveling for lengthy amounts of time.

I am always hoping for the best and expecting the worst when it comes to airport travels. Especially internationally where they question you like you are the one who is stealing the cookies out of the cookie jar. After being deeply questioned about who packed my many large bags by multiple 'authoritative personnel' and frisked by woman who I believe are on a power trip and just want to take my expensive lotion away we were able to get through the various security checkpoints without a hitch. Of course we were already boarded the plane when they announced their would be a two hour delay. This made for a mind-numbing long flight.

I watched all of "Alice In Wonderland" and took a nap all before we truly began our journey west. As we flew across the pond I was served breakfast, lunch and multiple snacks. This so called breakfast was the strangest thing I have ever willingly put into my body. What was said to be a cheese omelette was more comparable to a grilled onion sponge. Strangely enough it was quite delish. Lunch was more normal and was served with the ice-cream I remember eating at friends when I was a wee child. You know the kind that comes in the plastic cup and has chocolate swirled into it and is packaged with a mini wooden spoon? It was that, and so soft and delicious. I wanted to eat the vegan girls next to me I loved it so much. I hated seeing her milk made heaven thrown into the trash untouched.

(yes these pictures are random, but who wants a bunch of words with no pictures to chop it up)

Okay, so I am fairly sure I stand alone in this next issue. As I watched the raved about movie Dear John on the mini screen that was less than five inches away from my face I became fantastically upset. I was surprised at how much the movie affected me in a negative way. The beginning of the movie was adorable, precious and all things lovely but once the middle was reached their was steam coming out of my ears. I was so irate at the ending. I won't say exactly what the final punch is because heaven forbid I ruin the ending to this awful movie. Ah, it made me so frustrated, I could seriously go on and on about it. I had to write a hate poem and then quickly turn on the beloved Valentines Day. I knew that was sure to fill my void of cheesy romantic movies and cure my bitter mood.

I wanted to worship the ocean below me every time I peeped out the window. Seeing the clear, glistening water dazzle in the golden rays of the burning sun gave me a strong desire to punch out the window jump into what appeared to be a whole new world. Lucky for you all I was raised better than that and knew that the whole new world I wished the jump would bring me to wasn't the one it would in fact take me to.

Landing in America was a stellar feeling. I couldn't help but sing "I am Proud to be an American". I sang until my eyes adjusted to what I was seeing. Americans, though not all of you, a vast majority of you disappoint me. Although it never really phased me while I was in Europe what great stye everyone really does have it hit me as I walked onto the gliding staircase that they, Europeans, do have great style while we, Americans, simply don't. The second I stepped foot onto American soil I became aware of why the world things our nation is fat. Way to many large booties bounced and jiggled all around me. I did notice in London especially but all throughout my trip that there were no obese people over there. If we happen to see and obese person we would automatically categorize them into the "dang-fat-Americans" group.

Brit Picked me up from the airport and I suppose my rising early to get semi dolled up somewhat payed off for she did compliment me."You look so cuuuute", I am pretty sure it is just what you do when you see someone you haven't seen in a long time. I believe she would have complimented me even if I had had the face of a werewolf painted on me. We went to Cafe Rio that night and it was as amazing as mana blessing the tribes of Noah.

Lesson I learned while galavanting the world: GO GREEN. Londonites might be the rudest people on the planet but I bet they at least won the first place award for 'greatest nation to recycle'. Every little nook and cranny I was complimented by recycling bins being filled by people who care about future generations. It is serious business over there, they don't mess around with those blue bins (which happen to be made of non recyclable material). So, with the help of the local London community I will now be implanting more "Go Green" ways in my American life.

Aubrey and I went to a super cute place for sushi while I was in Utah for a week. I was able to meet her old high school flame Sky. Sushi was great, we ate outside on the patio. There are rooms at the restaurant where you sit criss-cross applesauce on pillows. All of our time in London we tried to find a place to eat where we could do this. You better bet your bottom dollar that I will be booking a pillow room the day I get back to Utah.

I was in Utah for a week to help Shelley to move into her cute new apartment! I flew home with my Mom and am able to spend a few days down in the valley of the sun before heading out to California for my favorite week of the year. The week of Carlsbad California. We are there every year for the Fourth of July. The entire side of my mom's family comes to the beach and basks in the sun and does nothing more.

Last night was such a riot. A few of my girlfriends from high school plus Kelsey my London bff got together for some good clean fun.

Julie's dad owns a restaurant, he has a few catering vans. He was kind enough to lend us the classic white, no window, rapist looking van for the night. There aren't even seats in the back so the three of us girls just sat on the floor and laughed as we rolled around.

Lindsey had one of her classic masks in the car so we drove down to Mill Avenue and put it to good use. We drove along the bridge and stopped at people who were walking/sitting along the side. We just rolled the window down and barked at them and made noises as Julie drove slowly away. We got such a kick out of scaring people, I think they thought we were the crazy ones.

After barking at anyone and everyone we could find we decided to stop and walk the little strip of bars. We left the masks in the car but decided to play a game of who could get the most high fives from strangers. People again thought we were crazy, I am starting to believe them. Some people wouldn't give us high-fives and others would let our hands go. People are so interesting. A creepy, drugged up guy came up to Lindsey and gave her a hug. He held on a little to long and was resistant to letting go of her. When the freakishly tall man in the photo came up to him and pushed him and told him to get away he started yelling and throwing a fit. The cops then came and arrested him. One of the funniest, greatest moments. Love strangers who care about strangers. Also, love cops who don't mess around!

Love my life.

xo

em

Oh man, it's light out side....

I love late nights that turn into early mornings! They always make the best of stories. This past week we made a grand effort to stay out late every night and fulfill this love of mine.

On Thursday night we had one of most memorable nights of the trip! Linds, Kels and I all bought handmade, face mask with fresh ingredients from Lush (I thought Lush was only in my Scottsdale mall... turns out it is actually a really posh skin care line from the UK, I knew I was cooler than I thought, check out their website http://www.lush.co.uk/, it is pretty fun!)

We all bought little british booty-shorts from Top Shop (topshop.com). We danced to none other than the classic English girl band, Spice Girls. We rocked out all night.

We took kelseys lap top and put it on her shoulder like a boom box and danced into the kitchen/living area with hard core rap playing. The rest of our flat mates were hanging out in there and were stoked to see us. Before we knew it we had the majority of them dancing with us in their trousers. Funny how they call their panties trousers and pants knickers...

I don't think Matthew minded taking the millions of photos for us! (Even though he is gay I think he still enjoyed him self)

Signing the famous Abbey Road wall! They repaint it every 3 months to make room for new signers! People said some really touching things, really cliche things and some really stupid things. One guy had put a phrase to a Pink Floyd song... REALLY?? I am almost positive he was American...

The wall goes on for what seems like forever on both sides! There was only 3 of us and traffic was quite busy so unfortunately we were only able to get single shots walking across the famous zebra stripes. Mine is pretty stupid though so I don't want to put it up!

Gavin went home early to see his sister who was having a baby! I know he says he doesn't miss us but that is a big fat lie! We miss you Gav! See you so soon!

Friday night we had our last grand hurrah. We got all dressed up and went and did what we girls do best. Dancing. Okay, fine I can't dance to save my life, but still, I had a fun time!!

We stayed out untill 4:30 in the morning! We walked out of the club and it was light out side. We would have walked the twenty minute walk home but it was freezing so we decided to split a cab. We watched the sunrise from our cab ride home!

We had an intense plan of getting up at 8:00 AM and going shopping all day despite coming home so late, or so early in the morning depending on how technical you would like to get with it. Fortunately my phone is able to still use the alarm function while it is off which is nice. The only minor problem is that my phone is stuck on May 18, New York time. And not even accurate New York time the hours and minutes are both off. So, whenever I set my little gem I have to figure out the amount of hours and minutes that need to pass before it goes off since it isn't . Make sense? Somehow we just decided to set it for four hours from whenever we got home. Remember it was 5:00 in the morning. Whatever we did made sense at the time. Kelsey was supposed to meet Rick at 10:00 and unfortunately we woke up in a frenzy freaking out that it was noon. We had slept in, and missed out on our entire day! After sending a quick apologetic e-mail to Rick and heading out the door looking like a semi truck hit us we started our strenuous shopping day. After hours and hours and h-o-u-r-s of shopping we needed to check the time to make sure we were on schedule. Let me just go off on a short tangent right now and tell you all one thing; people in London do not know how to tell the time. I will ask ever so politely what time it is and they, no joke, will say something like 23 minutes to the hour of 16... With out fail I just nod my head say thank you and look for the nearest digital clock. Who wants to do all that math? 23 minutes to the hour of 16 would actually be something like 3:37. Anyways, we ask what time it is and they say something totally pathetic like that. We decide we need to hurry and get to the tube station. It was there where I saw the glow of the digital clock reading 1:14. How was this possible? It didn't add up. At all! We had been shopping for hours! We turned to some indie boys next to us and had them confirm the time. "What happened this morning?!?" simultaneously came blasting through both our mouths. As we back tracked we figured out we actually had gotten up at 8:00 and left our flat at 9:30. We felt so stupid. Rick was probably wondering what the heck we were talking about in the e-mail stating that something super urgent came up and we weren't able to make our 10:00 meeting when we sent the e-mail before 9:30 in the morning. We laughed about it all day. We then felt so proud of ourselves for having such a productive day!

Not going to lie, I was pretty tired by the time the night rolled around. I took a quick nap and was ready to hit the town again though! We went and watched the England VS America world cup game in a pub. Talk about one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed. This country is nuts. It is full of a bunch of drunk-crack-head-football-loving-crazies. We loved it! Kelsey is a huge, huuuuuge football fan so she helped us all understand what was going on!

Although we were pretty tired Kelsey and I forced our selves to go out again that night. We went to a place called Arc Angel. It was super chill and a well balanced relaxing/upbeat time. We ate some of the best dessert and nachos! Met lots of fun people and danced to some straight up 80's music. A guy we met told us that the new up and coming word was pow pow. We were confused with pow pow and meow meow, a popular drug the teens take here in London. It is most likely the dumbest drug I have ever read of. It is plant food mixed with rat poison. These young girls take it in the form of a pill or snort it and then do the dumbest stuff! I have plenty of articles on it if any of you are interested in reading more!

Just taking a minute to look back on the past weeks. Seems like forever ago that I was laying in a Scotland field.

One of the first days we were here! Looks like Disney Land.

Although the best of times were had here I don't think I will miss this makeshift bed!! I cant sit up all the way from my bottom bunk making it really annoying every time I wake up!

I loved this road from the start. Still love it.

Love all the elephant statues. I think there are around 1,000 of them placed around the city. They had some really fun ones! My favorite had crystals all over it!!

Even the rainy days were a blast! So much fun, loved every second of every day. I will miss South Kensington and all of my favorite little places in London!!