Jared, Alice, etc.: November 2006

London for Thanksgiving

My Mother and I headed to London for Thanksgiving to visit my Cousins who have been living there for the past 6 months. It was fun to have a buddy to run around the city with, hopping on the tube to see every Museum with good art we could manage to visit while catching glimpses of famous sights while on the way.

The look of the street we stayed on in Notting Hill.

Buckingham Palace.

A crown on top of some thing in front of the Palace.

The London Eye.

They don't have exits, they have "way outs."

Big Ben.

My mum and I went to the Cabinet War Rooms where Winston Churchill strategized WWII.

St. Paul's Cathedral

The Thames River.

The Tate Modern Museum had a huge exhibit by Carsten Höller.

He made these slides that were really tall. I went down the 5 story high slide. It was so fun and fast it took my stomach.

Cars in London

Burough Market

A market in London to get very fresh things. Like right off the farm or right from the country.

It was a bit nippy there.

My mom walking around looking for something yummy to eat.

Squid.

Squid eating a shark.

Fresh Boar, and rabbits among other things.

This mannequin really enjoys her bed.

Alice in Wonderland display. I thought these photos were appropriate for this blog.

Southpark

My mom looks like Kenny from South Park in her big coat.

Colors in a grey city

My Cousins in London

These are the cousins who I lived with for a year and a half during part of my years at BYU. It was fun to reminisce about those days. I loved being around them again. They are a very close family and get along extremely well. I didn't witness one fight during my stay in London for 8 days. They were very generous to share their tight quarters.

Me, Paige and Eliza walking around Portabello St. shopping for various random clothes and accessories.

This family gets along really well. Notice how they all pile on George while he's trying to sleep and he doesn't even get mad.

Darling Camilla in her new socks.

Paige is quite but is a firecracker on the soccer field. (That means she's fast and fearless.)

Sam, is a character. He keeps us all entertained with his precocious thoughts. Here he is reading poetry from his William Wordsworth book.

Saturday Night

Saturday night Jared and I headed up to the city for a rooftop party.

Too many people loaded onto the elevator. Right after someone said, "I hope we don't have too many people," a kind woman's voice said, "overload, please step off." So two people kindly did and waited for the next elevator and then the voice said, "thank you for you patience." I thought that was hilarious.

Surprisingly it was wasn't too cold on top. We had a beautiful view of the bay and city.

These photos are a bit blurry because there was an earthquake, (y'know being San Francisco and all) and it shook my arm while I took them.

Sharing info

Mine and Jared's computers are buddies.

My Mother

My mama came over to PA for two days in a row. We hung out and started making plans for our trip to London next week. It's going to be super fun. I can't wait.

I LOVE THE SOUTH

Last weekend I headed to North Carolina and Tennessee. It was my first experience with "the south." It was soooooo much fun. Some things that observed about the south:
1. The houses are far apart.
2. Everyone is super nice.
3. The people sometimes think you might be a movie star if you're from California.
4. When you're in the left lane and want to go fast, the slow person in front of you get out of your way more often than not.
5. Grits are...well...ok.
To start off with my experience, check out a beautiful sunrise after the redeye with the oversized snorer behind us. Here's Jared and I happy to be in this beautiful country. Notice Jared's "jolly green giant"pose.

Road to Tennessee.

DOLLYWOOD

After landing in North Carolina Jared and I headed to Dollywood in Tennessee. It sure was an experience. Lots of white people. If you don't know what Dollywood is, it's an amusement park based on Dolly Parton.

They had two-seater swings.

Jared got us in trouble because he kept kicking our swings.

Here's Chase, Jenny and Noah on the scrambler.

I took a photo of the gas price because I can't remember the last time I've seen it below $2.

Fun people from South Carolina

Here's Krista, Jared's sister. She is a knockout and will have all the boys after he when she's older. She has no problem keeping up with her wild brothers.

Here's Chase who talks in his sleep and makes me laugh. He's a lot funnier than he realizes. A very cool 12/13 yr old.

Josh is a gymnast and is always bouncing all around...literally...I'm really not exaggerating
.

One genuine smile.

Doesn't Jared look like a nordic man with this red cap on?

Wink*

We're excited to go horseback riding.

Noah, Jared's nephew sang to his horse to make it go faster.

Jared bonded with Oreo.

The Great Smoky Mountains.

The Gang

Here we are getting ready for our hike to the reservation.

These kids love each other.

Horsing around

HA HA...

Like I said, Josh is always bouncing/jumping/hopping/flipping around.

Jenny, doing Yoga on a log across a ranging river below.

Dwarf tossing across the river.

The second we met up with Jared's family they treated him like a jungle gym.

The little pyros.

Jared, boxing with his father.

Monkeys

The Jacobs are half monkey. Jared is actually about 3/4 monkey. They love to climb...EVERYTHING. Well, I joined in the fun. Here's Krista in front of the waterfall which Jared and I climbed almost to the top of.