How to Sum up Europe?

It's difficult to know how to go about the documentation of this epic trip!
The cast of characters are:

ME-off for the summer from that thrilling teaching job of mine
JESSICA - awesome friend (and current roommate) from working at Cali EFY sessions many summers.
JEN- great pal from the glory days. Glory Days = the 2 last magical years of my BYU career living in the Riviera apartments, where I pretty much met the best lifelong crew of college friends.
MELISSA- Jessica's best friend from back home in Sacramento.

Supporting characters, whom you will see in a few photos:

The GARDNER family of Ledbury, England...particularly Katie, Jessica's friend.
Jessica's AUNT VICKIE, Uncle and Cousin from America who are living in Saint Bee's, England right now for work.

So, we had a bit of a rough start on our journey in that our plans ending up changing due to Katie's schedule and after some serious jet lag and lack of sleep, we were informed that instead of 3 days in Paris we'd only be there for 24 hours. That 24 hours would occur after a ferry ride and 5 hour road trip in a tiny European car stuffed with 5 girls and luggage. We did get to stop in Brugge, Belgium for a couple hours though, and I loved it there! The jet lag and nerves and whatever else caused my stomach to whirlwind into a crazy episode that gave me danger of throwing up at any minute a need to live on the toilet all night in our Disney Paris hotel room. Thank goodness we ended up staying there, even though it was 500 bucks for one night. But bless that toilet! It was far better that we were there instead of at Katie's aunts house, where we did spend two nights. It looked like the Weasley's bungalow and we slept in the garage on couches with 2 German Shepards. My worst nightmare? Almost.

After those first few days, things got progressively better. We had a lovely time (still animal allergy filled for me) staying with Katie's parents in an adorable cottage on a farm near the border of Wales. And then we spent a few days in St. Bee's, England in Cumbria area in Northern England with Jessica's Aunt and Uncle and it was beautiful! We got to travel to Edinburough, Scotland and stay in a huge great flat for 3 nights and that was probably my favorite! We ended our trip in London for 4 days in a functional dorm room like hotel room :-) Here's some pictures!

This is Brugge, Belgium...I absolutely loved this place! We stopped here for a couple hours on our way down to Paris. Adorable, friendly town with waffles to die for of course! (Left to Right: Me, Jessica, Melissa, Katie, Jen)

The famous Eiffel Tower! We really did just run around this city...I'll have to go back someday. I did get to experience Disneyland Paris for a couple hours though and it was neat to see the differences!

Windsor Castle, a couple hours outside of London, was big and beautiful and we had a great fun day!

The first sight we saw when we got off the train in St. Bee's, England! An absolutely breathtaking area! I highly recommend Northern England and the Lake District. The next couple pictures are from that region.

Muncaster Castle

The Irish Sea off the coast of Western England with Jessica's cousin, Nathan

The Lake District... there are now words to describe how amazing this place was

Edinburough, Scotland!

Some Scottish food. To be more exact, Haggis (the insides and organs of lamb...uh, I had now idea what I was eating!) "Haggis is a dish containing sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours." Barf!!!

LONDON! Big Ben and Parliament- view from our ride on the London Eye!

Jen and I definitely went and watched Wicked in the front row! It was actually really fantastic and hilarious with their accents! It was Jen's first time!

London Tower Bride is not falling down :-) Did you know that it is actually not as old as the Brooklyn Bridge? Trivia for you. Well, that was a very quick summary of the fun and also the anguish. Europe is an expensive place man! And there are no drinking fountains, anywhere! People aren't as overweight there at all, which is interesting. The English are pretty snobby and for the most part don't enjoy the Americans on their turf, but the Scottish are way friendly and sweet and have the coolest accents ever! The French are just kinda mean. It was all an eye-opening experience and I loved it! But I also realized how much I appreciate the conveniences and friendliness of America!

I Love Summer...

It's the best!

Let me tell you why this summer is different. For five straight summers, during my time off from teaching, I worked for the EFY program. I absolutely loved that and looked forward to it as each school year would come to an end. I had priceless experiences working with those youth, made lifelong friends with fellow counselors, gained skills, worked hard, and made extra money all at the same time! Truth be told, I wish I could still be doing it. However, because I am not, my summers are no longer jam packed and scheduled for me. I am getting to feel what it is like to just be a kid again and live virtually stress free for two months. Nothing could be more fantastic! I only wish there were more people I could share it with!
I get up at around 8:00 every morning (sleeping in for 2 extra hours compared to my teaching regiment). I read scriptures, eat a little, change, exercise in some form (sometimes for a large portion of the day if it's like a bike ride or long run or something), and then either find some sort of water to swim in (I don't have a pool so that's tricky when I'm at home), or shower and start on my "T0-Do" list for the day. Night times are usually pretty chill when I'm home here in Utah...nothing too crazy. But I try to travel around and see my best pals that I love so much. And I'm usually in bed by midnight. Perfect.
Aside from those great days, I get to spend a lot of the time being in other places with people I love. Places I've been so far:

L.A., California
England
France
Belgium
Scotland
Orlando, Florida
Boise, Idaho

Places on the docket:
Moab, Utah
San Francisco, California
New York City, New York
Orange County, California (haven't planned that yet, but it's sure to happen in August!)

I also read a lot, but that's not new at all...I just thought I'd document books so far this summer.
Books:
Princess Academy
Jane Austen Ruined My Life
The Higher Power of Lucky
Elaine's Circle
The Graveyard Book

I hope you're having a great summer! And if I haven't seen you yet, remind me to come hang out! I will do it!

I Guess They're Cute Sometimes

Yes, that little kid in the orange shirt trying to record right in his sister's face is being yoinked back by me ;-p

SOME Differences between teaching 4th and 6th graders

The number of times a week I:
leave the room for a mere 2 minutes and come back to a circus of chaos,
fix a stapler jam,
de-clog the pencil sharpener,
make multiple students stop and clean out their desk to find something,
have a student cry,
have a student have to call home because of "illness" or because of forgetting something,
have to take left jackets and lunch boxes to the lost and found,
have to wipe nasty finger prints off the group table,
have to give reminders about looking at the missing assignment lists

The number of times a day I have to:
hear, "I can't find my pencil",
sharpen a pencil for someone,
say, "sit down, please"/"have a seat"/"stay in your seat"/"don't get up right now",
watch a kid fall out of their chair,
hear, "I'm out of bathroom passes, but can I go to the bathroom?",
stand and wait for long amounts of seconds for everyone to be quiet and pay attention,
hear, "Miss Young...",
be interrupted in the 5 minutes I sit at my desk to accomplish something by at least 3 students forming a line,
say "Go ask someone who was listening",
give reminders about raising hands and not calling out (that's about once a minute),
look out into the sea of kids who should be listening to me or to another student/speaker and instead see:
staring into space
chairs being used as jungle gyms
legs up on the desk
chewing on pencils
picking at skin or clothes
putting arms inside of shirts
pencils being simulated as guns
erasers being eaten
erasers being crumbled into little pieces
licking desks
rulers down the pants (honestly)

Of course I am constantly combating these things (and sometimes trying not to laugh out loud)...I don't just let them happen. But, it's exhausting! 11 more days, 66 more hours...but who's counting

Heavenly Spring Break

And boy do I wish it was still happening! I've only been back at work for like 2 and a half weeks since then and for some reason it's killing me. Seriously, have I mentioned that I totally have an entire gray streak/chunk of hair right in the front of my head? I think six years of classrooms full of children is causing some premature aging. Whatever. One month left.
Anyhow, Spring Break started with a lovely weekend of General Conference and some Easter festivities. Honey and fam were up here from California for Andrea's baptism and Leslie's new baby, Braxton's blessing. I have no pictures from any of these events, which is highly uncharacteristic of me. However, I do have great photos from the trip I later took that week with my roommate Jessica to my homeland. We stopped in Vegas to see Natalie and her cute family. Carson has the best cheeks in America:

We spent some time at Newport Beach with Carrie and her little guys

All of Carrie's children eat sand, it's a family tradition.

The next couple of outings were to an Angel game where we ate delicious garlic fries and changed seats a lot of times and then to Disneyland where we tried to avoid the mass crowds by doing random things:

Like the Shooting Gallery

and the Monte Cristo sandwich at the Blue Bayou

...walking through Chip and Dale's tree house

and taking a quick nap...

But the best event of the weekend was the MS walk at UC Irvine to support Mike, Adriane's husband. He's the bomb and we had a great time on our march! The H.S. crew was there with their kids and I love any chance to see them all!

Adriane and Jude (she has make up on, I do not, lol)

The Fisher

Glen and Mike gearing up

Walkin' it out with Holly

Dallin and Aubrie racing to the finish

Oh and then we met up with Jess's friend, Melissa, and went to Olvera St. in L.A. for some taquitos and to beautiful Hermosa Beach to see Ryan and Kim perform in their a cappella group, Soundstage. They won the competition of course! (We may have stopped at Disney Studios in Burbank to try and sneak in...yes, it was my idea)

Ryan and Kimmy. Their group is amazing! I'm so proud of them!

Some Fam Dam in Town

Took a couple days off work in March, right after Ally's wedding, because my Bro and his great family that I miss so much came into town from Oregon for their Spring Break. We had fun eating and playing games and skiing in a blizzard, and playing lots of pool!

Played with Mamo

Nice day outside, it felt sooo good to throw a softball! I miss it so much!

Uhm, Mathew has a permit, and he drove my car. Weird.

Powder Mountain, freezing!

Ha! Don't mind the sun in our eyes. My brother and I have some classic faces happening...

He was excited, it had been a while for him!

Ally-Baba the Asian Beauty tied the knot!

One of my very best friends, Ally, got married on March 19th to a very tall basketball playing man named Jared. Their wedding was beautiful and unique and perfect blend of basketball at a Hawaiian Luau :-) I was able to be at their sealing in the Bountiful Temple and it was a priceless experience- I love her so much! The overachieving Ally is in the middle of her doctorate in nursing and Jared is a professional basketball player for a team in Mexico (right now it's the off season)...so, we'll see how they work it out, ha ha! But they are happy and a great couple! Jamie, Lisa, Aja, and I got to spend a lot of time together at the various events being unofficial bridesmaids and it was loads of fun!