The End

I will be re-vamping this blog soon since I am no longer in England (and hopefully will no longer be jobless in the not too distant future). For those of you that don't know, I could only legally stay in England for 6 months. I am now back in the states and Simon will come back in June when he finishes school. We are very sad to be apart, but I just remind myself of all the single moms and military wives out there and tell myself to get it together and be grateful it is only 3 months. Shout out to those moms and wives! I am staying with my parents in Boise for the time being. I have applied to jobs in Boise and in Utah and will go wherever I find work. I had some interviews last week in Utah and am just waiting to hear back. Wish me luck!

I will send out a new link for my re-vamped blog as soon as I get around to doing it. Thanks for reading about our travels and our life in England these past couple of months. I wish I had started the blog when we first arrived. I might do some belated posts from our trips around England and to Paris. We'll see.

Travel List: Best and Worst of Europe

Simon and I thought it would be fun to compose a list of the best and worst things we experienced while traveling Europe. In the 6 months we were both there, we were blessed to visit 8 different countries.

Country and City List

England- Liverpool, Preston, Colne, Wycoller, London, the Lake District, Birmingham, and Manchester
Wales- Snowdon and Conwy
France- Paris
Spain- Barcelona
Germany- Bremen
Italy- Rome
Denmark- Copenhagen
Scotland- Edinburgh

Travel List

Best Single Food Item: Potato pizza in Rome (Kelsey) and the croissants in Paris (Simon)
Worst: Pate in England (Kelsey) and the fried fish in Barcelona (Simon)

Best Dessert/Sweet: Schmalzkuchen in Bremen (Kelsey) and dark chocolate gelato in Rome (Simon)
Worst: Candies in general from Spain (Kelsey and Simon)

City With Most Things To Do: Paris
Least Things To Do: Bremen (in its defense, it was a small city)

Best Weather: Barcelona in November... 70's the whole time and no rain
Worst: Paris, it rained a few times while we were there

Cleanest City: Bremen
Dirtiest: Rome

Best Public Transportation: Copenhagen
Worst: Rome

Nicest Place We Stayed: Hotel U232 in Barcelona
Worst: Ibis in Bremen

Best Airport To Travel Through: Liverpool
Worst: Paris Beauvais

Most Helpful People: Rome... we had a bus driver leave his bus to walk us to where we needed to go- so nice!
Least Helpful: Most of the places we went people were wonderful, so no complaints on this

Most Scenic: Northern Wales
Least: Rome

Most Fashionable: The men in Germany
Least: Couldn't really think of one... they are all kind of the same

Country Wished Had More Time In: Italy (Kelsey) and Spain (Simon)

Best City To Do In A Day: Edinburgh, Scotland or Chester, England

Overall Favorite Place Visited: Germany (Kelsey- it was during Christmas time with all the Christmas markets so I feel I might be bias) and same for Simon

One Place We Wished We Could Have Visited: Poland and Brussels (Kelsey) and Austria (Simon)

We highly recommend buying a DK Top 10 Travel Guide if you ever plan on going somewhere. The books are great, small, and have maps in them. We bought one for every city we went to (that was available through them) and loved them. Also, I recommend going to VRBO.com to look at places to stay before going through hotels and hostels. I usually found good places that were pretty inexpensive through this. If you are traveling with 3+ people it is very ideal.

Happy Travels!

Copenhagen, Denmark

I have been putting off this post because I have been too lazy to up-load pictures. I take a thousand pictures on our trips and can never decide which ones I like the best! I can't even imagine what it will be like when I have kids... I just know their lives will be VERY well documented. Anyway, Simon and I went to Denmark 2 weeks before I headed back to the states. We both have ancestors from there (my great-great grandfather and someone great on his side), so we thought it would be fun to go. Plus, he really wanted to go somewhere in Scandinavia. We left on a Tuesday afternoon and arrived that evening. It is kind of expensive to stay there, but luckily I found this quaint little place online for a cheap price. When we got there the owner of the home was very nice and spoke English quite well. It was a decent sized room and we shared a bathroom with 3 Slovaks. Haha. I did not know I would be sharing a bathroom with 4 men on this trip, but it actually worked out fine.

Before I get to the pictures there are a few things you should know about Copenhagen (and probably Denmark in general). Almost everyone speaks English and speaks it well. The people ride their bikes everywhere... I mean even more so than in Germany. When they aren't riding their bikes they walk. I even saw a guy using dry skis on the sidewalk. Also, tons of them run! They are very fit because of this. They inspire me to not use my car so much.

I can't remember the names of all of the places we went to, but we did see the famous Little Mermaid statue in honor of Hans Christian Andersen. We also saw the original Christus statute that the LDS church has replicated in many of their temple visitor's centers. That was probably one of my favorite things. The church it is housed in is very simple by European standards, but so powerful. When you walk in the 12 apostles line both sides of the walls (6 on each side) leading to the Christ at the front of the church's altar. We enjoyed spending some thoughtful and meditative time there.

We also saw the LDS temple there. We got lost trying to locate it so we stopped these 3 people to see if they could point us in the right direction. They looked to be in their late 20's and it turns out they were LDS! What a small world. And to make the world even smaller, one of them had served their mission in the Manchester England Mission (the mission Simon and I were currently living in). Of all the people we could have stopped.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the trip:

This is one of my favorites

Changing of the guard at the palace

Hans Christian Andersen

A palace that is now used as a military training center

One of my favorite pieces of art at a museum we went to, the colors are amazing

Simon was depicting this man... he said it is what men feel like when they go shopping with a girl

They even had a free art room at the museum where you could sketch and such

Danish Kronor- their currency

Some of the apostle statues at the church

Christ

Cool rings at a museum

I didn't know narwhal's really existed! Simon had to inform me they did when I saw this at the museum. I thought it was made-up, like fairies and unicorns.

Me and Hans

Simon eating a hot dog from a stand

Danish candies... their version of Peanut M&Ms is way better

Our room

Outside the house we stayed at

Denmark has the best public transport, at each bus stop is a timer for when the next bus will be  there

LDS Temple

Me in front of the LDS temple sign

Simon

A beautiful park we walked through

A man-made ice rink we saw

A delicious danish pastry

Best cinnamon roll ever

My Adopted Grandparents

I wanted to post about a couple who I have really grown to love while living in England. Ann and Alan Bradley were the first people to really reach out to Simon and I when we moved here. They have invited us over to their home every Monday night for Family Home Evening since we got here. They have also had us over for dinner and for a movie night (we watched 17 Miracles). They are amazing people and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to meet and get to know them. Last night was my last FHE with them because I am heading back to the states next week and they made me a goodbye cake... it was so sweet. Anyway, here are a few pictures:

The cake and note in it

Alan wanted to look good for the picture, love it

Simon, Me, Alan, and Ann

Funky Cow and Pound Bakery

I have a list of things that I am trying to do before I head back to the states. Saturday Simon and I went on an afternoon date to get a chicken bake pasty at the Pound Bakery and to get milkshakes at Funky Cow (2 of the things on my list, don't judge me most of them involve food). Simon had given me gift certificates at Christmas for the milkshake place, but we just hadn't gone yet. Both were scrumptious and it was the first milkshake I have had in over 6 months! This may not seem that crazy to some of you, but milkshakes and donuts are probably my favorite treats. Anyway, here are a few pictures from that afternoon.

Chicken Bake Pasty- just imagine chicken pot pie goodness housed in a flaky crust

Simon outside the milkshake "bar"

Mint and Vanilla for Simon and Vanilla and Reese's for me

Missionaries Coming and Going

It has been a while since I have done an up-date on the missionaries that have left us. Elder Paheroo left us a transfer ago. He was the one from Tahiti that I wrote about in an earlier post. Also, fun fact about him- he has won an Olympic gold medal! Crazy I know. It was for some type of rowing (can't remember the exact event). He said when he gets home he plans to train for the next Olympics. I told him we would be cheering him on. Here is a picture with an old companion (he is on the left):

In December we also lost Sister Crookston. She got here the same week we did back in September. She finished her mission though so she headed back home to Utah. She was also awesome and we were very sad to see her leave. She is probably one of the nicest and sweetest people I have ever met. Here are some pictures before she left (we had just gotten back from teaching a lesson):

Sister Crookston and I back in December

Sister Snarr and Sister Crookston

Me, Sister Snarr, and Sister Crookston

Elder Leiva is leaving is this week. He has only been here for 2 transfers and is a great missionary. He is a really good teacher and we have enjoyed being in lessons with him. He is from Chile and is leaving to become a Zone Leader in another area. Here is a picture after a lesson with John:

Elder Gourrat (also from Tahiti, this is his second transfer out on the mission), John, Elder Leiva, and Simon

Lastly, our dear Sister Snarr is leaving this week as well. She also arrived in Chester the same week that we did in September. She has been here the whole time I have and leaves about 2 weeks before I do... we always joked about who would leave first and she beat me to it. She has been such a good friend to me while I have been here. Here is a picture of her:

Sister D (can't spell her last name), Me, and Sister Snarr