Check One Off of the Bucket List!

I've wanted to go to England since I was very young.  We had an ancient set of encyclopedias in our basement that I used to sit and read the "E" for England and the "S" for Scotland books, dreaming of the day I'd visit.  Well, out of the blue, I got to cross the "E" for England off of my personal Bucket List.  Dennis had to work in England Monday through Wednesday on two consecutive weeks so his boss gave him the option of flying home on Thursday and returning to England on Sunday or having the company pay for his hotel and food while he just stayed put for the weekend.  Well, it's obvious which option we chose, All I needed was a plane ticket to London.  Wahoooo!   It was a chance of a lifetime and we had four fabulous, sight-seeing packed days.  A big thank you to Grandma Nance for dropping everything on short notice and coming to stay with the kids.  We are VERY appreciative! xoxoxo

 Do I need to label it?!

 A Beef Eater at the tower of London

 One of the guards at the Tower of London

 The Tower Green where Anne Boleyn and others lost their heads

 "Early each day on the steps of St. Paul's the little old bird woman comes." We have a Disney TAPE that we've been listening to this song from Mary Poppins since Chi was tiny!  Alas, there was no bird woman at St. Paul's--just birds.

 Dennis was in his element at the Imperial War Museum

Westminster Abbey.  Soon to be the place of marriage for William and Kate!

 I really liked this plaque on the outside of Westminster Abbey.  No photos were allowed inside, darn it.  It was probably my favorite.

 In the courtyard at Westminster

 I loved this quote on the wall at the Churchill War Rooms but my flash made it a rotten photo.

 This is my official Bucket List photo

 We ate dinner in the crypt of the St. Martin in the Fields church.  Kind of creepy but fun!

 I loved the key hole on the church

 If you liked the letter format of the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society..., you'll like the book 84 Charing Cross Road!

Hampton Court Palace.  This was one of Henry the VIII's many palaces, which later also became the palace of William and Mary

 The gardens at Hampton Court Palace.  Ahhh.  The smell of the hyacinths was amazing!

 I had a moment of silence in the Egyptian wing of the British Museum for the many years I taught ancient Egypt!  The Rosetta Stone! It was the real Rosetta Stone, for crying out loud!

 The Magical Seeing Eyes on a sarcophagus.  Wow!

 I liked this monument to all of the firefighters who died during The Blitz

 We even went to Hyde Park!  It wasn't home but it was still great.  I could almost see President Hinckley teaching on one of the corners of the park.

Buckingham Palace

 This one's for Chiara.  Surprisingly, there was no Harry Potter mania in London. This is the only Harry Potter souvenir we could find--a quick photo of the sign for King's Cross Station!

 I feel truly blessed to have been able to go on this trip.  It really was a dream come true. Now it's back to the daily grind of life, but as President Hinckley has said,

"Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

Four days in London truly was a beautiful vista with a thrilling burst of speed!

More

Other than Cardon now has a mouth full of braces for the second time, nothing exciting is going on at the Elwoods.  I love looking at our vacation photos so I'm posting a few more!

T

Something New!

Hey, believe it or not, this post will not be about snow, although we still have plenty of it!  O.K, so it's pretty much not a secret to anyone that the Elwoods do not enjoy February Break--a week off from school in February.  February!--a month of cold and snow--translate this to a great time to be in school!  June is a lovely month of long days, warmth and rhododendrons in bloom---translate this to a great time to be out of school! This year, however, we took the "If you can't lick 'em, join 'em" approach and decided it was time for a February family vacation.  We flew down to Miami last week and embarked on a five day cruise on Carnival, and what fun we had!  It really was a dream vacation, and it was everything I hoped it would be.  Hmmm?  Maybe all this time the school districts of the Northeast have been on to something?! ;)

Mini golfing on the ship in Miami.

The first of our nightly towel animals.

Formal night

Our first stop was Grand Turk.  We took a shore excursion out on a snorkel boat to the reefs surrounding the island. It was amazing.  We saw all kinds of tropical fish, a sea turtle, a barracuda, and a sleeping nurse shark!

This is where we ate lunch.  You can't beat the view at Jack's Shack!

Having lots of fun is tiring!

Our second stop was at Half Moon Cay, Carnival's private island.  It was another slice of paradise.

Em spent the day playing in the water and sand.

Early in the day, Cardon and I went to snorkel with sting rays and feed them squid. (Sadly, no photos!).  Later in the afternoon, Chiara and Dennis went parasailing.

The family shadow photo. 

Much of our cruise revolved around food!

We were lucky in the fact that Carnival has some cabins that hold five people.  We were cozy, which was fine because we didn't spend much time in the room.  Dennis and I had a queen bed right next to these 3 peas in a pod!

Our last stop was Nassau, Bahamas.  On good advice from our friends the Tautkuses and Sanvilles, we decided to spend the day at Atlantis.  We had so darn much fun.  It's a beautiful resort--inside and out--murals, fountains, indoor and outdoor aquariums--it was spectacular. Then there were the waters slides.  They were crazy!

This is the Leap of Faith, which is correctly named.  It's a gut wrenching 5 seconds down the slide, followed by a quick blast through a tube surrounded by swimming sharks.  I was so happy to come out alive at the bottom!

Cardon

Chiara

Mom!

This is our farewell shot.  It was time to get on the ship and head for home.

This sandcastle was built by some kids next to us on Half Moon Cay.  Their words on the castle are a perfect summary for our vacation---FUN!

More of the Same

What?  Another post concerning snow?!  Who knew?  Snow seems to be center stage in our lives right now so there's really not anything else to write about. We have now received a whopping 82.6 inches of snow, and very little of it has melted! The kids have missed more days of school than I can even count, and we've even resorted to making our front yard into ice cream!  (Thanks, Cara!)  In case you're interested, 1 gallon snow, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups milk, and 1 Tbs. vanilla make a delicious treat!

I'll start with the good.  It truly is a winter wonderland at our house, and the scene outside our front window is beautiful!

Cardon is at the bottom of our front steps. You can barely see the top of the bush that sits along the landing.

Em's playhouse

Em and Bud in front of one of our various snow piles!

What's left of our mail and paper boxes

Cardon dug a sweet tunnel to sled through.

Dennis had to dig a trail out to our propane tank so our propane company would deliver.  This is not a snow bank.  This is how much snow is sitting in our yard!

This is where the beautiful turns ugly.  On Sunday, January 30th, we started having water leak into our front bay window.  This is Dennis getting "the ox out of the mire" to help stop the leaks. We didn't have any more troubles until Saturday, when to our dismay, we had wet stains in numerous rooms in the house.  

ceiling stains :(

broken rain gutters :(

wet carpets :(

This is where the ugly returns to beautiful.  We had a whole crew of fabulous men from our ward come and help us clear the roof and break channels into the ice dams.  

This is Elder Ficklin doing a flip from the roof onto the snow on the deck!  Shhh!  Don't tell the mission president!

Here's the crew cleaning the driveway of the snow that came off the roof!

What can I say?  It's been a crazy, beautiful, frustrating and gratitude-filled winter so far!