October Birthdays

I went to lunch with a girl from Church, Rosita. My ward is quite large and it's hard to get to know people there, but she is part of the ones that I actually see regularly. She has been hired recently in the Meetinghouse Facilities Department so I'll be seeing her around more often now.

I left work a little early so I could drive down to make it for the October family birthday party. I HATE the BYU 6:00 p.m. game traffic! When I got there, there were tables set out on the front lawn for dinner. Lisa and her family are in town and it was fun to see her and the kids again. Matthew looks like a Pack!

Choir Rehearsal

Dana is going to be singing in the Priesthood session of Conference. He was coming up to Salt Lake yesterday for rehearsals, so Deborah and the kids came too and hung out at my place while waiting.

Tonight I went out with a guy from my ward for dinner and then drove up the canyon to see the autumn colors. He's in the seventy, not the thirty. You'll have to ask me what that means in regards to the Monument Park 19th Ward.

Back. Again!

Somehow I pulled my back out. Again. I don't know what does it, but it hurts so bad that I can't move! I actually couldn't get out of bed and finally had to roll off, but then couldn't straighten up. Not a good time since all the Area Presidencys are in town and I was supposed to help set-up the rooms for the meetings. Remember my great co-worker who covered for me while I was out of town? Cue her entrance again. She took care of it for us. Fortunately it goes away quickly in about three days.

Still My Birthday

During the month of your birthday, if you're part of the Tucanos birthday club, you get to eat there for free. So...I got to celebrate my birthday again! Or is that still? Cody is in school now on Friday nights and Saturday mornings meaning Lori has some free time. She came with us to dinner as did mom, dad, and then Jodie got a free birthday meal too. Why yes they did make us stand up while they sang us a birthday song. A little embarassing, but we did get a free ice cream for it.



After, Lori and I headed to the Mall and I got my ears pierced. They were a little tender after...

Welcome Home!

So, I had a nice surprise my first day back at work. My great co-worker, who covered for me while I was traveling, also made 48 cards with 'Welcome Home' written in all different languages and colors and tucked them all around my work space, in my drawers, taped inside my directories, etc. It was pretty fun to see.

I did some interviews at work my first week home from England. A position still in the Temple Department, but a different division.

The End is Nigh

Kim, Karen, and Shauna left at 6 a.m. to catch their train so I was able to get ready by myself in our TINY hotel room before meeting up with Aaron Felix for a 'nice' breakfast. He was living briefly in London for work and is then being moved to Ireland. After walking around with him that morning, I remembered how it was to live in London again - not as hard as when people are visiting, good when you're there as a resident. Aaron was staying in Hammersmith only about a block from where I used to live, my old stomping grounds. I think I need to go back for an extended period of time again...

On my plane home from JFK to SLC, I was sitting next to a couple where the wife is from Pleasant Grove and went to school with Shauna. Her name is Tracy Hughes. Rather coincidental if you ask me!

Back to Bath!

I don't know why, but I've always loved Bath! Maybe it's the honey-colored limestone, or all the books I've read based in Bath, but the city is so beautiful. I listened to the buskers while the other three toured the Roman Baths. I recommended everyone try the water. Shauna refused, but Kim and Karen drained the glass. That is the first time I've ever had someone do that...  We also went to the Circus, the Royal Crescent, and in to the Assembly Rooms. I can't believe people used to go there to walk in circles around the room to see and be seen. So small!

Shauna wanted to see the Cotswold villages she's seen before in books of England. We drove around for a bit and then found a cute little village that once I was there, I remembered visiting back in 2004 with the Travel Study group. A very cute place, but I was not feeling very well and at my best to appreciate it. Then, it was back to London to turn in our car and stay in a hotel close to King's Cross to make it easy on the three to catch the Chunnel the next morning.

Week in Wales

We spent a week in southern Wales. We had the CUTEST cottage in the Pembrokeshire National Forest. It was in the middle of nowhere! Took awhile to find but definitely worth it. The roads were CrAzY!!! One lane roads with mounds of earth or hedges on either side, blind turns, and a 40 mph speed limit. We almost had three near-miss head-on collisions.

The majority of the week was spent doing research in the Parish Records Offices in different little villages. I helped look names up some and then would also go walk around nearby Castles or the town markets. They found 100's and 100's of names. Success!

Door to our cottage.

Karen looking at names in a cemetery.

 

Swansea and Cardiff

We visited the beach in Swansea which was beautiful. We shell hunted and I walked down to the water to touch the sea. There were strange little piles of sand that almost looked like worms. You couldn't walk without stepping on one there were so many.

The Morning Star is a home that has belonged in the Roberts family since 1510 (my dad's side of the family). It has been a pub, general store, and is now a refurbished family home. We went to it and knocked on the door, introducing ourselves to the couple who lives there (Nancy Davies - pronounced Davis, and her husband). They were very happy to meet us and Nancy called her two cousins who lived just up the road to pop by and meet the relatives from the States who were invading. Pretty cool to have family you never knew about!

We drove on to Cardiff from there to spend the night with Mitch and Niall. Mitch is pregnant again! She has a hard time during her pregnancies and had to go to bed early, but I stayed up and chatted w/Niall for awhile. The next morning I went for a walk with Mitch to the store to pick up some breakfast items and we walked past the old Cardiff cathedral which had a monument marker in the cemetery for all the graves destroyed by a bomb during WWII. It was so nice to see them again!

Shauna, Tammy, Pat, Karen, Nancy, Bill, and Kim
(All from the Roberts family!)

Mr. Davies. What a character!

The New Morning Star

Piles of sand on the beach in Swansea, Wales

National Library of Wales

We spent several days in Aberystwyth, Wales at the National Library of Wales doing research. This fell on my birthday as well and my cousins took me out to dinner at a little Italian restaurant. Also during this time, I was pulled over by a police officer and breathalized. He said I failed to yield. I say I looked, saw the car there, and determined I had enough time to pull out quickly and hit the gas. Oh well! No ticket, and the officer was extremely good looking. Karen didn't notice because she was too scared to look at him. The officer said he'd been to Utah before, so when he asked me if I'd been drinking the night before, I had to say - 'you must not have been in Utah for very long if you can ask me that!' Turns out he was nine at the time of his travel. So funny!

Shauna's dinner of Faggots, Mushy Peas, and Chips



Gretna Green to Preston

Karen wanted to see all the places that she used to read about in her romance novels. That meant we stopped at Gretna Green on the border of England and Scotland. That is where all the young couples would go to elope when their families wouldn't let them marry. The blacksmith would have them hold hands over the anvil and then would marry them. I may have had to get a picture there...

In Preston we went on a tour of the Church history sites. Brother Graham Dunn, recorder at the temple gave us the tour. Fred Edwards and Dawn Sorokine were in town from work while I was there so they joined us on the tour. Then our car went on to Lyme Park to see the home Pemberley from the A&E movie Pride and Prejudice. Oh Mr. Darcy! (See my earlier remarks on Gretna Green...)



Scotland!

We took the train to Scotland. Kim and Karen accepted some 'cider' from a guy on the train. I was so sleepy and tired, that I didn't tell them it was beer. Fortunately they figured it out on their own.

Edinburgh Castle is always fun to tour. I happened to witness a wedding at the chapel in the Castle. I also happened across the wedding toast outside the Castle, and then the wedding dinner at a pub down the Royal Mile. Even though I was at all the places first, I started to feel like a kilt stalker! Very worth it! :-)

We did a haunted ghost tour at night and went into the underground vaults and on Sunday went to fast and testimony meeting. It was so fun to hear all the ward members bear their testimonies with the Scottish accent!

From Wicked to the Temple

Lots more tourist sites - Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Hard Rock Cafe, Westminster Abbey, etc. We also toured the Houses of Parliament - which I love! That building is so beautiful. The day was topped off by sitting on the first row for Wicked. I knew it was a success when during one point in the play, I looked down the row at my three cousins and they were all crying. Success! During subsequent days, they said it was the highlight of their trip. Now that's what I like to hear! I also think this was my 14th day seeing the play...

The next day we took the train down to the Lingfield Station, then took a taxi to the temple. Karen's eye was bothering her so I we tried asking the Recorder for a blessing, but the Temple President offered to do it instead. President Lowry was so humble and nice! We chatted with him for awhile in his office before he gave Karen the blessing and mentioned in it that her ancestors would be surrounding her during this trip and would guide her in finding the names she needed. Lots of tears!

 

Black cab ride.

In the Houses of Parliament.

London Baby!

We made it to London! Since we arrived at 7:30 a.m., I made Kim, Karen, and Shauna stay up all day to adjust to the time difference. We headed immediately to Buckingham Palace, took the double-decker buses around London, and then toured the Tower of London. We made it an early night and they were in bed by 8 p.m.

Kim and I were going to meet at 7 a.m. to go stand in line for Wicked tickets. She came and knocked on the door and said it was time to go. I told her my alarm didn't go off so I was going to have to throw on some clothes and come out. She said she'd wait for me down in the lobby. It REALLY didn't feel like 7 a.m., but my watch had stopped so I couldn't confirm. My alarm clock said midnight though, so I went down to the lobby and asked Kim, 'are you sure it's 7? because I think it's midnight!' Sure enough, there was a clock on the wall confirming it was only midnight. We got to go back to sleep again! The funniest part about this is that when Kim woke up in her room, she and Shauna discussed how they'd just had the best sleep of their lives and felt so refreshed. After Kim left the room, Shauna had started getting up and dressed ready for the day too!

The back of Buckingham Palace.