la marseillaise. {france national anthem.}

happy bastille day.
{kinda like 4th of july. but for france.}
well today we expected pure craziness.
and well to a point it was.
we started the day out with the bastille parade.
when you are 5'2" and you get to the parade a little late.
plan on not seeing any of it.
literally i didn't see a thing go by. its fine.
supposedly it was cool. i wouldn't know.

planes to open the parade.

after we went to the luve museum.

umm loved it.

my favorite included.

the original mona lisa.

the armless naked statue. {120 b.c.}

and much much more.

it seriously was all breath taking.

mona. she was behind SOOO much glass. so she wouldn't get stolen.

famous naked one armed lady. to think she was looking just like this in 120 b.c. amazing.

since paris is famous for the pastries. that was our lunch. along with crepes.

pastries at pauls. {good thing we ran into the missionaries. they told us where to get the best.}

we had:

brownie. peach tart. pain aux chocolat. sugar bread.

my favorite was either the peach tart or the sugar bread.

we then stopped for crepes on our walk to the notre dame.

we had:

ham and cheese crepes. jelly crepes. sugar crepes.

jelly was by far the best.

oh and the guy helping us couldn't say ham.

therefore he yelled at us.

after lunch we went to notre dame.

umm hello quasimodo. 

we didn't get to go to the top because it closed early for bastille day.

but it was still so amazing to go inside.

love it!

since it was bastille day all the sites closed early.

so we decided to go shopping on the streets.
i got the cutest floral print pants.
and a cute salmon colored romper.
i love the styles in france.

dinner was a different story.

we attempted to go to a nice place. but they wouldn't seat us.

so then we decided to go somewhere else.

i got this cheesey tomato bread thing.

not the best. definitely not worth the calories.

funny thing about bastille day.

no one dresses up.

for the 4th everyone is decked out in red. white. and blue.

you would think that would be the same for france.

think again. 9 americans all decked out in france colors.

the only 9 people in all of france decked out in their colors.

call us tourists.

the luve.

angel statue in the luve. no we were not suppose to take this picture and we got in trouble right before this was taken.

brothers with dum dum.

notre dame stained glass window.

what i go to school for. {jonas brothers.}

school.

14 credits. not a lot. i know.

research methods and statistics. motor learning. biology. biology lab. nutrition in the life cycle.

wish me luck. 

especially with number one.

i love paris. {frank sinatra.}

our adventure in london was about to end.

but our adventure in paris was just beginning.

let me tell you it was an adventure to say the least.

after we left london on the lovely bullet train 3 hours later we arrived in the city of love.

picture paris in your mind.

let me guess.

gorgeous. fashion. high class. amazing. brilliant. 

umm ok back to reality.

let me smash your dream.

paris is disgusting.

let me explain.

we get off the bullet train and walk down to the metro.

all of the sudden we get "attacked"

by dumb "deaf" girls who want us to sign and give them money.

how many times do i have to say no for them to get the idea.

ok ok i know its not that bad. let me continue.

while our parents are getting our metro passes. we sit and wait.

we get this whiff of nasty.

we look left. and then right. and then to the floor.

human feces. yep that is right. HUMAN feces smeared on the floor.

obviously from people walking through it.

yes you can take a break from reading and throw up now.

remember how i said paris was disgusting. well now you know it is a true statement.

finally we got our passes and avoided the human feces on the ground.

we walked down the chancelysse. 

it is a HUGE walking street full of brand named clothes and shops.

although we didn't stop it was still so much fun to see.

this lead us to the arc de triamph.

this was amazing.

it is a huge arc that is in the heart of paris. 

we climbed to the top. (duh.)

which was again over 500 stairs.

we took many pics. and then climbed down.

it really was so neat.

never ending stairs.

top of the arc. with the eiffel tower.

for lunch we had simple sandwiches.

well think again of paris.

now instead of romance and blah blah blah that i smashed.

you think of the eiffel tower.

let me tell you. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

umm yes i finally felt like i was in paris. 

it was just so huge. like the biggest thing ever.

i loved it.

base of the tower.

we decided to wait until another day to go to the top.

so we left for dinner.

we went to a italian place.

it was so good. and they were so fast.

9 people. it was done in 10 min.

pretty sure the chef cooked each meal in like 1 min.

i am impressed.

sorry about crushing your paris dreams.

but the eiffel tower was amazing.

i recommend going there. 

but i don't recommend going to paris.

let me know how that goes for you.

family at the arc.

stairway to heaven. {led zeppelin.}

so obviously i am having a hard time wanting to blog.
its been 2 weeks. that is a problem.
granted i went to girls camp for 1 week and then i moved out.
but still there shouldn't be any excuses.

well i am going to continue on with my europe trip that feels like 100 years ago.

and then i will start blogging about school. and hopefully much much more.

but i am going to whip out like 8 europe posts. be prepared.

so tuesday in london started out with a lovely breakfast that included:

scrambled eggs with bacon and mozz. cheese panini style. aka "a wrap."

pretty sure i ordered the best thing. sorry i don't have a pic.

we then made our way to the british museum. 

we saw the rosetta stone and old jewelry and mummies. 

besides that it wasn't too exciting.

after we went to st. pauls cathedral.
this was way sweet.
we started our climb to the top.
500+ stairs. straight up.
talk about an awesome workout.
we stopped on the whispering floor.
this was sweet. if you sat across the room from each other and whispered into the wall. you could hear each other.
kinda creepy because you could hear lots of whisperings from everywhere.

we then continued up through the B.O. stairwell.

seriously nasty.

and we made it to the top.

it was amazing to look over all of london and see everything.

we took pictures and climbed back down.

it was awesome.

top of the cathedral.

lunch we decided to stop for a burger.

not my fav. but whatever.

i had a bbq burger with tomatoes and "salad" 

we then went harrods.

aka. largest store of my life.

5 floors of pure amazingness.

woman's, mens, children's, sporting, food, and everything in between.

i didn't buy anything but that is ok with me.

not to mention when we walked out there was...

1 blue lamborgini. 1 hot pink bentley driving past. 1 black porsche. 1 black ferrari. and multiple london cars.

umm hello top notch area. you make me feel weird.

im jealous.

after even though it was so windy and cold we went to the london eye.
largest "ferris wheel" ever. it looks over all of london.
somehow we didn't have to wait in the 3 hour long line. we walked right on.
ha. the city was amazing. big ben was amazing. everything is just amazing.
i loved it.

london eye.

view from london eye. with big ben.

after we went shopping.

i got the cutest i love london sweatshirt. 

i almost got a ring that looks like kate middletons ring. but i didn't.

but i am determined to find one online. no fear.

for dinner no one was super hungry so we went to a near by grocery shop and got snacks.

meg told me i HAD to try hula hoops. (they are chips. kinda.)

umm ps they were nasty. don't try them.

i still love you meg :)

we then walked out to the tower bridge. 

since it was night it was so neat.

it was a huge tower that split went over the road.

hence the name tower bridge.

it was so much fun to walk the streets of london at night.

i loved it.

tower bridge.

benny and the jets. {elton john.}

we hit the ground running.
we ate breakfast in a little cafe.
scrambled eggs and toast is what i ate.

we then made our way to big ben.

i loved it. literally it was so neat.

and i finally felt like i was in london.

in front of big ben.

we then went to westminster abbey.

it was so cool.

there is so much history there.

i loved being able to see where kate and prince william got married.

it really made the royal wedding come to life.

westminster abbey in all its glory.

linds and i waiting in line for tickets to the abbey.

after we went to an art museum.

6 words.

naked. statues. 7. year. old. brother.

well to say the least i have not had a good laugh and felt embarrassed in a long time.

we saw the original van gogh sunflower painting.

wow. it was incredible. so neat to see it for reals.

i loved it.

olympic count down in front of the museum.

outside the museum.

then off to buckingham palace.
umm hello. l.o.v.e.
it was so awesome. i was so star struck. with a building.
we couldn't go in. but the outside was enough for me.
we went into the shop and all the girls got matching crown t. shirts.

at the front gate!

loved it!

the beloved guards.

dinner i had a ham and salad baguette.

probably the best thing i ate the entire trip.

i don't know why but it was so good.

well why we were in london my mom wanted us to go to a theatre.

picking a show was a different story.

we thought wicked. but too many had seen it already.

we ended with shrek. the musical.

ya ya i know this could quite possibly be a mock of musicals.

but think twice. it was funny. entertaining. and overall a good laugh.

i thought it was a fun show and definitely ok for all ages.

the dragon was a.m.a.z.i.n.g. seriously she could sing.

outside the theatre.

shrek.

that ended our first "real" day in london.

let me say one more time.

i love this city.

i'm leaving on a jet plane. {peter. paul. and mary.}

so lets face it. no internet has put me quite behind on the blog posts.
don't worry i have enough stuff to post about to last a life time.
i want to have a different post for each day in europe.
therefore there will be 10 new updates in the span of 3 days.
get ready. its a blog-a-thon for me.

ok lets talk about the fly over to london. talk about a long trip.

it started by meeting ash and chad in slc. 

on the plane i sat next to ty and dad. 

ash. chad and linds behind.

chad was too cool to be in the pic :)

and mom. and the munchkins to the right.

now a little background info on the padre and flying.
he always falls asleep... with his mouth wide open.
this of course leads to harmless teasing.
see for yourself.

yum yum!

what can i say the flight was a long one.

we had a quick layover in detroit.

we then continued on to london.

this time i sat just by tyler.

we "slept" the entire way.

lets just say when it comes to sleeping on a plane i have tried every position.

head on tray. head on ty. ty's head on me. sideways on chair with my head against the back.

you get the idea.

i slept in 45 min. increments. but eventually we made it. 

and all i have to say about that is we were slapped in the face with the hustle and bustle of london.

we got off the plane and headed for the tube.

the kids waited while the parents got our tube tickets for the week.

it was a long wait.

we finally got our tickets and boom we were off into the tube.

now there are 9 americans. no idea where we are going.

we walk slow. its fine.

but not in london.

people were cutting us off because we were going to slow.

but we eventually made it to our stop and to our hotel.

after we freshened up we went to dinner.

we ate at bella italia. it was sooo good.

lindsay queen of being allergic of course had an allergic reaction.

after she took medicine she was fine.

we then made our way to hyde park.

its like central park. kinda.

they had a speakers corner. grass. random statues. memorials. and a lake.

we paddleboated on the lake. it was quite enjoyable. 

after the boat thats when it hit.

one second lindsay was standing by me and then...BOOM.

she ran to a tree and noodles everywhere.

london we have arrived.

after we walked around the park and enjoyed being together as a family.

we then walked back to our hotel and hit the sack.

i already was in love with london.

outside our hotel.

bella italia. 

horse head statue.

gummy bear statue.

paddleboating.

princess diana's memorial.

peter pan statue.

faith. {primary song}

sometimes doing what should be "right or good" is hard.
sometimes you lose.
lose friends.
lose fun.
lose opportunities.
just lose.

i don't like to lose.
sometimes you have lose to win.

but sometimes you have to have faith.
faith that everything will work out.
faith that by losing you will maybe end up winning.
faith that maybe you won't lose the good friends.
faith that heavenly father will help this be ok.
faith that semester fall '11 will end up right.