Easter in Copenhagen!

We flew out to Copenhagen early Sunday morning because Jared had some training to do there on Tuesday. This time I got to come along so we decided to go out a day earlier than he would have gone on his own, so I could see the city. Unfortunately the weather was really cold and really wet so it was more R&R for me than site-seeing.

Aside from missing our families for the Easter holiday, we really enjoyed being in Denmark for Easter Sunday! We found the ward and chapel there without any problems and luckily they had headsets, so we were able to understand the speakers. They had such a nice spirit in their meeting - we were really glad that we made it!

After the meeting the Temple president took us down the road to the Copenhagen Temple. It is one of the mini temples, but still very beautiful. Unfortunately, we weren't able to attend because of Jared's crazy work schedule and the limited hours of operation, but we were so glad that we were able to see it!

Jared also prepared an Easter devotional for us that evening, so we really had a nice day!

:)

I was able to steal Jared away for a very short time on Monday. We went and saw Den Lil Havrue aka The Little Mermaid statue, walked through the nearby Kastellet - A Copenhagen Fortress, and went to Vor Frue Kirke - a church which houses the original Christus statue.

This picture was taken at the Kastellet! It was nice to have a little bit of time with Jared!

The rest of our time in Copenhagen was TONS of working for Jared and some city walks, exercising, and relaxing time for me.

I liked the view from out hotel - this is a picture from the bridge near the hotel. I'm amazed at all the water in other areas of the world! I guess that's what you get when you come from a desert, right?

Well, that's about it for Copenhagen - Not too exciting, I know - but that's what you get when you travel for business purposes instead of for play, right?

The next one will be more exciting! ;)

Our last England weekend!

Well, we're officially on the home-stretch now. This last week has been a great one! We took the chance to go and see Mary Poppins in theatre on Tuesday, April 3rd. We absolutely loved the show and left there on cloud nine!

One word says it all, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

This last weekend was our last Saturday in England - We can't believe how fast the time has passed! Amazingly, we couldn't think of anything we'd rather do than hang around Staines and it's surrounding areas to soak in just a little more of all that we've loved out here.

We started the day out with a walk/jog down the Thames river. We've loved the tranquility of the river and it's so nice now that the weather has been getting warmer, the trees are leafing out, and the flowers are blooming!

We are always so amazed at how comfortable the birds are around people. These swans weren't even phased that Jared & I were coming up to them and hanging around for a while. (...and we didn't even have any bread or anything to feed them.)
We've also been very interested in the Locks out here, but have never seen one in use. We were thrilled (I know that sounds silly) when we got to see it used twice on Saturday while we were walking up and down the river. It must be that the weather is warming up and the boats are being taken out more now. Either that or we've always had really bad timing! j/k
After heading home and cleaning up, we headed over to the Hampton Court area (about a 10-15 minute drive). We didn't go inside this time, but enjoyed walking around the grounds, visiting a shop or two, and just relaxing again by the river Thames.
One of the most random parts of the day occured on our way home that afternoon. We were driving past Kempton Park Race Course when we saw that they had free parking. So we drove in and watched a race from the parking lot. (Of course we didn't see who won, but it was pretty cool to see how incredibly fast the horses and jockies could run a mile.)
We really enjoyed taking it easy and just enjoying the beauty that's been around us for these last few months! Our time out here really has been "lovely!"

Biking the Isle of Wight

We can hardly believe that another week has come and gone. Three more weeks and counting! But don't think that we are getting trunky, there is still a lot of "work" to be done before we come home. This weekend Allyson and I headed South to a place called the Isle of Wight (just off the southern coast of England).

Saturday morning we woke up around 6:00 and drove about 1.5 hours to Lymington. From there we took a 30-minute ferry ride to Yarmouth and quickly found a shop where we could hire two bikes for the day and started off on our journey. We biked along a beautiful coastal trail that wove between the ocean and farm land. Here's Allyson carrying her bike up a long stair case from the ocean to the upper trail. I tried to get her to carry mine too but she said I had to work off my gut!
Our destination was a placed called "The Needles" which is a series of rock formations on the tip of the island. It was kind of hazy, but it turned out to be a really nice day.
The trail eventually lead us into a small town where we saw this old thatched-roof church. We also found an authentic beer fest--crazy music and all--but decided to push on.

My favorite part was meeting my life-long hero, Cookie Monster. He and I shared a few rounds of "C is for Cookie".
On the ferry ride back the wind was pretty strong so we saw a bunch of sail boats that looked like they were going to tip over.

Question: Where else in the world can you start with 190 pounds, burn 28 on a bike, burn another 20 on a meal and end up with 195?
Answer: Two words, Ask Norm.

Cheers!