Fall in Utah 2014

 After returning home from Europe we had a lot of fun enjoying the beautiful fall weather in Utah.  We really lucked out this year with the amount of warm, sunny days there were.  I’m so glad we took advantage of it then because wow, it is cold now! 

William has been a lot of fun lately, talking more and seeming so old as a two-year-old!  We took him to a corn maze with our church group and he enjoyed the duck races more than the “train” ride and maze itself.  We hit up the local Provo food trucks one night.  Will loved the Art City Donuts.  

 Ben wanted to go on a fall hike, so we tried Stewart Falls for the first time together.  William loved 2/3 of it, but especially had fun at the waterfall and river at the end. The colors were gorgeous and we even ended up getting too hot toward the end.  

My baby bump started to appear a lot earlier than I remember with William!  William and I attended our fair share of dad’s intramural football games.  Both his soccer and flag football team this fall did well but didn’t make it to the championship like last year.  Don’t worry, he’ll keep trying.  Before our summer trips this year we decided to plant a small garden last minute.  I was very proud of our carrots that somehow grew despite our great neglect.  William loved finding them in our “garden”. 

 We had a lot of fun at a local pumpkin patch, Jakers, in Springville this year.  We went once with our friends and once with Ben.  Will really enjoyed the huge pipe slides and the tractor rides.  Thanks to family hook ups and babysitters we were able to continue to attend a few more BYU football games.  We also made time for a family stop to the “farm” to see the horses.  William is going to be just like his dad with his love for horses.  He had fun feeding them and going for a ride with Ben.  I had fun resting in the car J

My good friend from high school came for a visit, so we made a trip to Thanksgiving Point Farm Country.  William had a great time enjoying the animals until he found this inside play area that had a conveyor belt game for kids.  He did not want to leave or do anything else after that!  Often we have a very stubborn boy that does not like transitions. 

 I finally got a bike, so we went on a couple family bike rides with our new baby bike trailer as well.  William loved riding with dad and we’re excited to use it again once it’s warmer.  We’ve had a lot of fun raking and fall yard work activities as well.  

Looking back it seems like we did so much in such a short amount of time.  We really have been blessed with amazing weather and beautiful scenery close by as well as having me feel well with baby girl on the way.  It has been a wonderful fall and I can’t believe the next step is winter and growing to be a family of 4!

Halloween 2014

The weekend before Halloween we went to the Riverwoods Halloween event.  Our friends the Bednars had a booth set up for their son's rare disorder and we even were spotted in their news highlight here .  That night we also went to CJ and Taryn's Halloween costume contest party.  I decided to go with the pregnant theme and be a cow and Ben was the farmer.  William wore the lederhosen outfit my mom got in Germany many years ago. 

William had a great Halloween this year. Ben's work scheduled meetings at the U for Halloween morning so we spent the night in Salt Lake at my grandparents.  On Halloween morning we went to an elementary school parade with Papa to see all his little friends in costume.  He also did some golfing in their backyard. 

We made our way back to Provo for the late afternoon and went to the downtown Provo Center Street Halloween happenings.  William enjoyed some live music, free candy, cookie decorating and wanted to paint a free pumpkin.  (I wasn't too sure about that).  We'll definitely be attending it again next year, hopefully with Ben as well.  Then we went to the Orem mall to do some trick-or-treating with friends but we only lasted about 15 minutes.  William only wanted suckers and once he received one he put it right in his mouth.  I'm not sure how many Dum dums he ate throughout the day :)

Ben came home from his Salt Lake meetings in time to head out on the neighborhood.  Michael and Annika joined in on the fun and William loved having some extra family to make him laugh and have fun.  He wanted to go in to a few houses but other than that it was a pretty successful trick-or-treating adventure.  

PB Last of London 2014

We had a half day in London on Sunday afternoon/evening after our return from Italy. Our first stop was back to Portabello Market (on our bikes nonetheless).  

We made some great purchases and got another treat at Hummingbird Bakery of course. We then took our bikes all the way to Westminster Abbey just in time for the evensong concert.  We enjoyed a little rest and the beautiful organ music with the amazing architecture inside.  

Ben finally met Big Ben and we took some fun pictures around Parliament.  It was just before sunset and we walked across the bridge to get a classic picture of the Thames and Parliament Square in the background.

 Of course we picked up some more bikes and headed to Tower Bridge to get a picture.  It is such a different feel being south of the river.  The neighborhood is a little sketchier, especially alone at night.  I felt like a local at this point as we rode our bikes across town and made our way to Honest Burger for a late dinner.  I would rate it 8 out of 10.  It was a yummy burger and fries at a decent price, nothing extraordinary, but it hit the spot!  In the dark of night we rode our bikes back to the B&B and slept our last night in Europe. 

Ben really wanted to try this restaurant called Jack's that was highly rated for dinner Sunday night.  It ended up being closed, so he decided we should go there for breakfast instead.  It was fun going out for breakfast on our last day in London/Europe.  Ben ordered an omelet which ended up being eggs with all the typical "innards" on the outside.  I had an egg sandwich on a hoagie.  We took our last journey between destinations on a classic double decker bus all the way over to the National Gallery.  It was fun driving through the city as we sat on the top of the bus and made our way toward Trafalgar Square.  There were a few exhibits, Sunflowers, that were closed that morning but we saw all the highlights fairly quickly.  

 Ben wanted to ride the Cycle Hire one last time so we rode back home to grab Ben's bags and go to South Kensington to catch the tube to the airport.  It just so happened that Ben's Cookies was right outside the station, so we had one last treat before we said goodbye and parted our ways.  Ben and I had different flights going home, so he had to leave a few hours before I did. 

Then I had a few hours in London to myself.  I felt like I lived there again, like I did in 2007 on study abroad.  The moment Ben left for the airport it started raining, so the bikes were out of the question.  I stuck to my roots and took the tube like I did daily with my friends in 2007.  Good thing I left the shopping until the end because I don't think Ben would have enjoyed spending an hour at Primark and Marks &Spencer.  It was fun shopping in London again, remembering the fun times we had years ago.  When I was done shopping I headed on the tube at Marble Arch and wanted to go back towards South Kensington.  Of course there was a derailing of a subway so everything was delayed with unknown fixes.  This is when I wanted a smart phone access again, but I used my expertise from living there and finally made my way back to the B&B on different lines.  The rain had nearly stopped and I made my way back to South Kensington with a huge bag and backpack in tow.  It just so happened that there is a Hummingbird Bakery right by S. Kensington as well so I used the rest of my pounds and cashed in on some goodies for the journey home.  At one point the subway I was on went the "wrong way" so I had to get off, go up the stairs, and back around to the other side to go backwards to the last stop, get off and get back on the tube going to Heathrow Terminal 3.  That was fun with a 50 pound bag and baby girl in my belly!  Luckily there were a few nice men.  By the time I arrived at the airport I was sweating and ready for a nap!  I made it in plenty of time and only had a small backpack for the flight home.  I didn't sleep much on the first flight to JFK but it went fairly quickly with movies and free food on Virgin Atlantic.  

My flight left around 8:00 pm from London with a layover in JFK from 11:30 pm-8:30 a.m. the next day, then arriving in Phoenix to pick up William at 11:00 a.m.  Ben, on the other hand, flew home at 3:00 p.m. and got home to Utah around 9:00 p.m. that "same night."  This is what I got for using flight miles to book my flight to Europe.  It was worth it nonetheless. 

When I arrived at JFK it was a big relief to be back in the United States and able to use my phone.  However, there was no free wifi at the airport and my family's data plan had gone over so I was out of luck again!  At least I could text and call.  My plan was to go to the Delta Sky Room for the overnight and rest in their nice lounge/beds.  The plan was foiled when they made me pick up my bag and leave customs because I was on an international flight.  At this point it was midnight and there was no one to check my bag back in to Delta or let me go through security until 4:30 a.m.  HUGE BUMMER.  I looked into taking a subway into town but by the time I stored my bag for $20, got a ticket, made my way there and back to the airport in a few hours it wouldn't be worth it. I found a "quiet" spot upstairs by an exit where I layed down some newspaper and pretended I had a bed.  There were a few other people in situations like mine spread out on the hard tile floor.  It was sketchy to say the least, but I saved a few bucks!?! Around 5:00 a.m. I was able to check in my bag and go through security just to be told I had to wait another couple hours to take the shuttle to my terminal.  I found a darker carpeted area where I curled into a ball and tried listening to Taylor Swift.  Finally around 6-7:00 I made my way to the other terminal, had some Wendys and waited to board my next five hour flight to Phoenix.  Somehow we had the oldest airplane around with no t.vs or movies playing the entire time.  Luckily we landed right on time and I couldn't wait to see my baby and family!  William's greeting was a little less enthusiastic than one would think as he saw me, smiled, and went back to eating his Goldfish crackers.  

We had an incredible journey and couldn't have been luckier to have two wonderful moms and families that helped make it possible!
Until next time, Europe!