It's About Time

Yesterday we said good-bye to our Pathfinder and said hello to our new mini-van! I'm so excited to finally have a van! Todd spoils me :) He got me what I wanted. Thanks hon!

We sold our Pathfinder at CarMax and before we backed out of the parking lot, the Nissan was gone, across the street, and on top of the trailer. They moved fast.

Our new van! I LOVE it! (Words I never thought I'd say.)

The Car

Kaitlyn was so wrapped up in her new books that she didn't realize that we brought the car out for her. Todd finally went over to take the books away and get her to look up. Abby was so excited to Kaitlyn the car and was anxiously waiting her turn to take it for a drive.

The Party

The Dora Cake

We had a nice little family party for Kaitlyn this past Sunday. She got lots of her favorites, Dora stuff, books, and a little coupe car. She was so excited about the car that when it came time to eat cake , and a Dora cake at that, she wasn't interested after she blew out the candles. This past week has been spent with Kaitlyn driving around the house in the car or reading her new books. It's been so nice.

This picture is so Kaitlyn with her dog in her mouth driving around. If you look closely behind her she has all her other gifts stacked in the little pocket of the car. She's a happy little girl!

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Our baby is 2 today! Where has all the time gone? We are so blessed to have Kaitlyn in our family. Just like her sister, she's a ball of energy and fun. I love watching her explore and try new things out. She is very independent but also likes to follow her older sister around. And, I absolutely love to hear her laugh. We love you Kaitlyn and are so blessed to have you in our family! I can't imagine life without you!

Kaitlyn at 1 week old

We celebrated her 1st b-day in Australia.

2 years old!

London- Part 2

Saturday morning started off with a fabulous tour through Buckingham Palace - over 200 bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. I wouldn't want to have to clean all of that! We saw many state rooms and the grand ballroom set up for a state dinner. The palace was absolutely beautiful and very ornate. We weren't allowed to take pictures but this is what it looked like in the ballroom:



We heard the Changing of the Guard was happening as soon as we were done so we hurried around to the front to watch what I'd say was more "Guard stretching his legs". He marched around a bit but that was it. We stood around for about 10 more minutes hoping something else would happen. The only thing that did was guards came through on horses but we didn't see them go in. A lot of hype for nothing.

The rest of the day was seeing Covent Gardens ("My Fair Lady" anyone?), the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, and then off to Shakespeare's Globe theatre for "Timon of Athens". Mike had the best line of the trip when he couldn't get a door open to go in: "I don't speak British!" We enjoyed the show and I'm glad we had seats and weren't standing in the "groundlings" section.

Sunday morning we rented a car from Hertz. As we were in the garage looking for the car, already late for church, Mike asked a guy in a Hertz shirt for help. The guy looked at him and said "I don't work here." and then proceeded to help us. Don't know if that was his attempt at British humor. We got the car- great driving Mike!- and headed to church and then Bath. Katie and I wished we had more time to explore but there were lots of things on our list to see. We did tour Baby Abbey and the Roman Baths.

After our Roman Bath tour we were getting samples of the warm spring water to drink. While the four of us are standing at a counter, a guy comes up to me and says:
N: "Hi, I'm Nigel."
Me: "Hi"
N: "Hi, I'm Nigel." (This guys wasn't giving up)
Me: "I'm Stephanie"
N: "Where are you from?"
Me: "Texas."
N: "HI, I'm Nigel." Then he gave me a sweaty, fish handshake. Our drinks arrived by then so I was able to turn away. As we were leaving we heard "Hi, I'm Nigel" as Nigel was approaching another couple.

After Bath we headed towards Stonehenge. By the time we got there, it was cold and rainy. Perfect English weather. It was interesting to see, it was on my must see list of things in my life. An hour is all you need to walk around and hear the audio tour.

On our last day, we toured the Tower of London. This was a prison for the traitors and a place where Anne Boleyn lost her head. There is a free tour given by the yeamen who live there. They are called "Beefeaters" and they still lock up and secure the tower every night at 10:00. The crown jewels are housed in one of the buildings and we were able to see the enormous diamonds, crowns, and other jewels.


Our last major event was a walking tour around Westminster Abbey. This is where they hold all the coronation and lots of famous dead people (Issac Newton, Darwin, queens, kings, the tomb of the unknown soldier) are buried. This was my favorite church to go into. The history there was just fascinating to me. Afterwards, Todd said he about 20 minutes left on his feet and we were all so exhausted we did a quick walk around Big Ben and the House of Parliament.


The Coronation chair. Look for it the next time they crown a king or queen. They all sit in it.

Our trip came to a close but we throughly enjoyed ourselves in London. We saw and did tons and just had fun.

London Slide Show

360 pictures trimmed down to about 60

London- Part 1

For our 6th anniversary we celebrated by going to London. Normally this wouldn't have happened but Todd had training over there and I wasn't going to let him go without me! Todd left on a Sunday and I flew over on Wed. with my good friend Katie (her husband Mike, works with Todd) and planned our itinerary for the week. Side note- Rick Steve's travel book was fantastic!! Highly recommend for any European vacation.

Katie and I arrived early Thursday morning and were picked up by our good friend Erin who recently moved over there with her family. After having breakfast and a 3 hour nap, we were ready to go out. Our first stop was Harrod's, a popular shopping place. We picked up a few souvenirs and off to Camden Market. I have never seen so many body piercing and tattoos within a 3 block radius. Lots of different hair colors and styles too- very Gothic. I think the 3 of us stood out a little. We did find the market and did some more souvenir shopping and people watching.

On the way back on the tube, Katie realized we were on the wrong train. Erin and I jumped out but Katie was in back and the door shut on her before she could leave. She had just said 2 minutes earlier that her worst fear was getting separated from her group on the tube. Lucky we all caught up with each other at the next stop and got on the correct train and then laughed about it.

The next day, Katie and I woke up early and headed to King's Cross Station to Platform 9 3/4 to take the Hogwart's Express! We then caught a train to Cambridge to meet up with the men. Cambridge is beautiful and bigger than I had imagined. We loved walking around and seeing a little bit of the country, the architecture, and toured through our first of many chapels/churches. The guys gave us a quick tour of the campus and we made our way back to London.

Our first London tour was St. Paul's Cathedral. Climbed the stairs to the top of the dome to get a 360 view of London and a great stair workout- 530 stairs to be exact. Afterwards we sat in the choir seats for Evensong which was a neat experience. Then, it was off to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone and other cool artifacts. By the time we were done we were ready for a good nights sleep.