Europe Trip Part 1 . . . . . London

Our good friends the Clark's moved to London almost a year ago. They invited us to go with them on a small vacation to France and Italy. Well Italy is on my "buck list" of places and things to see so we jumped at the chance. We went and toured for 2 weeks. As the time drew closure I started to get cold feet. The plan was to drop our sweet Rilynne off at my parents place in Salt Lake. I just didn't know if I could leave her. We waited so long to get her and now I was going on vacation without her?? I didn't know if I could do it. I actually called to see if our flights could be canceled without penalty. Our tickets were non-refundable and my parents/siblings were really looking forward to seeing Rilynne. I knew she would be in good hands, so off we went.

Some of my nieces with Rilynne.

We first went and spent a few day with Ty's sister Sharri and her husband Ryan in Washington DC. They were nice enough to host us for a few day and take us around to a few sits. Ty was born in DC so it was fun for him to go back to the old neighborhood were he grew up. I enjoyed the monuments, as I always do. We went to them at night, which I think is the best time to see them. Here are a few pics for your enjoyment :)

The Hollist crew in front of part of the Vietnam Monument. Pen served in Vietnam.



Next we flew to London to stay with Troy and Marielle and tour the city. London was a fun city and 2 days wasn't long enough to see everything. The highlights were the London Tower (which was the old palace back in the day), Westminster Abby, and the London Eye.

View of London from the bridge.

Picture of inside the London Tower. People still live here - with guards and everything!

Here is a pic for Big Ben and the Parliament building from our water taxi.

In front of Westminster Abby. Inside was amazing!! It was the first of many churches that we toured.

Ty with the Parliament building in the background.

Us in front of Buckingham Palace. It was such a let down. If you have limited time in London don't go to the palace unless you are sure they will let you in for a tour.

i ♥ fall

i love the change of seasons. the air is crisp, the leaves are changing, football season is here and christmas is coming! i am so excited for this fall and christmas because this will be rilynne's first holiday season. i have a lack of motivation to do anything. all i want to do is sit in my house and decorate and make lots of these . . .

happy fall everyone!

yummy . . . .

i snapped a few pics of rilynne last sunday while she was having dinner. she loves to eat! she is always so happy when we put her in her high chair. she loves her rice cereal with pune juice, sweet potatos, squash, bananas, apples, and peaches. i am trying to get her to love green beans and peas but no luck yet. she doesn't like the green stuff . . . yet.

Rugby

a few weekends ago ty played in a touch rugby tournament in portland. they did pretty well and they played teams from virgina, california, and even new zealand. ty got the mvp award for their team and it was the first time he ever played in a tournament. he had a play where he dove to "touch" a guy that was going to score. he ripped the whole side of his arm, stomach, and hip. it was a great play but after 3-4 weeks it is just barely starting to heal! it was really fun to watch ty play again. sometimes i miss his basketball days where i could watch him in action!

here is their team and some of the new zealand players

ty, nate, and rendell

ty in action!

rilynne did so well. she smiled the whole day! she cheered her dad on most of the day!

ahoy . . . .

our good friends don & tina invited us to go sailing with with on the willamette and columbia river. of course we jumped all over the offer. i have always wanted to go sailing and love to be on the water. don had been sailing for years and has is own sail boat and was able to teach/show us some really cool stuff. i thought at one point we might tip over when were were turning and a big gust of wind caught our sail. it was so beautiful to be out on the water and to see the portland area like i have never seen it before. i have been on ski boats on the river but there is just something about sailing and peacefulness of it. i have included a couple of pics of our adventure. thanks don and tina for taking us out. hopefully we can do it again soon :)

this was the scene just after we left the dock. isn't it beautiful. it was the perfect day to go out on the water!

here is ty & i enjoying the ride.

here is a fellow sailor. i just think sail boats are beautiful against the blue water.

here is a huge ship docked for cleaning in the fresh water. apparently the fresh water kills are the stuff that builds up on the bottom of ships while at sea - who knew.

lastly, we came rushing home to see our rilynne!!! we couldn't take rilynne with us on the boat so our good friends ty and cassidy watched her. sailing was fun but we sure missed her.

rilynne is 6 months old today!

rilynne is 6 months old today! i can't beleive my littel girl is getting so big. she is the happiest. most beautiful little girl i know. i have posted some pics that i have taken of her this week. i just love her! she is the best of everyday! love you rilynne.

memories . . . .

lately, i have been thinking about my childhood and simpler times. i remember when i would come home from school, playing with friends, or whatever feeling sad or upset. my mom would sit down have me lay my head on her lap and run her fingers through my hair. she would listen to me and then tell me everything will work out the way they should. at times i really miss my mom and wish i could still crawl up on her lap and have her run her fingers through my hair and tell me everything that is going badly in my life will work out. i hope i am that kind of mother to rilynne


ice cream, ice cream, who wants ice cream . . . . . one of my best memories is going to reams grocery store with my mom. i didn't love grocery shopping (i still don't) but my mom would always get my a hard scoop ice cream cone . . . . if i was a good girl. i would always get the pink bubble gum ice cream with a little cup to collect my bits of hard bubble gum. it was the highlight of my day.



camping on a rainy day. my mom would pull out all the blankets and books. she would helps us make huts in the living room and mazes throughout the main level of our house. we would play house or read books all day or even take naps. it was always so much fun, although clean up was a mess.

for my dad, a lot of my memories are around sports, food, and camping. that's probably why they are still my 2 favorite things to this day. my dad was always my biggest fan. he was at every basketball game i ever had and was my jr. jazz coach. i remember playing pig or horse in our driveway with him and he would always let me win. he would always try to make these crazy shots and when he would make it he would run around the driveway saying "did you see that cass? I can't believe i made it" (cass meaning me - that is my nickname with my day). then he would try to distract me while i tried to make the same shot. if i made it i would run around the driveway yelling the same thing. it was so fun.

my dad is a huge byu fan. huge may be an understatement. i remember going to a lot of byu basketball games and later to football games with my dad. the best part was when the refs would make a bad call. my dad's hat yank off his hat and throw it to the ground. then he would complain about how bad the call was. he would say over and over again "i just can't believe it. that could cost us the game. horrible call". if we would win he'd say "i knew it all a long". win or loss we would always list to the post game show on the way home. my dad would get just as mad at the bad call as he did when he watched it live - even when we won the game. i love my dad and i love that he took me to so many games. i am sure that is where i get my passion for sports.

thanks mom & dad for being fabulous parents and always putting us first. i have tons of fabulous childhood memories and sometime i still wish i could relive them. love you!