A Day at Kew Garden

We had a beautiful sunny day at Kew and there was a special exibit of Henry Moore statues there. The whole student group went together, but we hung with the Bartons and Santiagos mostly. We criss crossed paths with Dave, Kris, Maren & Gaven.

This is Eliza and Emma in the Mediterranian Gardens.

We had a lovely picnic. It was our typical picnic, baguette, boursin, fruit, crisps, and chocolate of course.

We toured through Kew palace for the first time. It just opened in 2006. It was the summer home of crazy King George the 3rd. He had 15 children!! It was very beautiful, but also very homey for a King's home.

Ringer & Barton Kids Run Amok in London

Hansen, Eliza, Mitchell, Elizabeth & Emma are having a great time running wild in London. There's usually a soccer game after dinner, walks to the nearest store to find the best candy and treats, finding every fountain or pond to wade or run in, and on the way a few museums and sights.

This is the first stop in the many of the adventures.

A stop at the British Museum.

A ramble through Hampstead Heath.

Cooling down in the fountains by Liverpool train station and the Broadgate Venus statue. They were kicked out a moment after the photo.

Hanging out in the cemetary in Haworth by the Bronte sister's house. Cemetaries are great for a little hide and seek.
We hope they keep enjoying all their adventures and that we don't lose them along the way.

Dorm Life

The boys in our ward (The Stover Studs) cleaned our rooms before room cleaning checks to be nice. This is Beau and Sam cleaning my room.



This is at the pep rally on Friday night before the big homecoming game. Front Row: Shauna, Millie, and Mindy. Back Row: Emily, Sam, and Tori.



Front Row: Me, Mindy, Tori. Back Row: Emily, Millie, and Shauna. This was after the pep rally on Friday night.



This is Allie, Lauren, and me at the BYU homecoming game against Air Force. It was quite a blast and we wasted them. You can't see but I am wearing a cute BYU jersey that I bought in the kids section of the Bookstore.



Check out my hair and eye shadow. It really was amazing. As you can see I went to the BYU homecoming 80's dance. It was really a blast and I got to show of my wonderful fashion sense.



So I just thought I would give you the full view so you could see my amazing leg warmers. I think I might have been born the wrong decade because I pull off the 80's very well.

1st Day Trip; Bodiam, Battle, & Rye

The first stop was Bodiam Castle. We had never been there before and loved it. We climbed to the top of every tower, wandered through the rooms and watched the film.



The next stop was the sight of the Battle of Hastings. We got our first sprinkles of rain there, but it was still great. We wandered the battlefield then explored the ruined Abbey.



Of course one of the favorite parts of these sights is always the gift shop and Hansen found his favorite gift shop toy. I'm sure we sill wonder why we made this purchase.



Our first visitors, the Santiagos arrived on Tuesday and came on the day trip with us. We think that they had fun, but are not sure about how they feel about the bunkbeds that they get to sleep on in our flat.



This picture is from the St. Mary's bell tower. It's a great view down to the red roof tops of Rye.

4th Day on the North Trip and Home

We spent the entire day in the lake district. We started off at Hill Top house, the home of Beatrix Potter. We then hiked down and ferried across to Bowness and then took another ferry to Ambleside. All of this on lake Windermere. We had a delicious lunch in Ambleside wandered the town and then went on a lovely ramble on some public footpaths over stiles and through the fields. It was "ridiculously" beautiful to quote the cheese man in Whitby.
This is the view from our first YHA on Lake Windermere. We spent the 2nd night in Hawkshead on the Esthwait. Both were great.

Pictures from our ramble.

On Lake Windermere by the Ambleside YHA.

A quick visit to the Preston temple. (sorry I don't know how to turn this)


The last day we stopped at some church history sites, preston, the river Ribble, and .Then we had a long haul home. It was a ridiculously good trip.

Update on Kelsey

Just another night in Taylor Hall... by the way, to avoid worry I will just let you know that we are drinking Martinelli's.



Well this is just some of the girls in my hall, and our unofficial hall mascot... The giant Michaelangelo. Oh we have fun.



This is my side of the room. It isn't that much, but I like it anyways. I probably don't spend very much time actually asleep in that bed, but when I do I sure like it.

Day Three of the North Trip

We took a beautiful walk from our YHA, Boggle Hole, to Robin Hood's Bay along the beach. It was amazing that we got the tide just right. If the tide is high there isn't even any beach. We also got another sunny day. I hate to even say this after all the rain Tom and family got in Wales this summer, but we've had no rain so far.



The whole group at the bottom of Robin Hood's Bay.



The lovely Taylors in front of the ruins of Whitby Abbey.



The faculty above Whitby, the Bartons, Taylors and Ringers.



Hansen in Whitby right after we hwd a delicious fish and chips lunch.

Day Two Of The NorthTrip

We've spent quite a bit of time on the coach, but it hadn't gotten too bad at this point on the trip. We were happy to get on and go to our next fantastic destinstion



Fountains Abbey was gorgeous, and then there was a hike where you got great views back to the abbey.





We love York. We toured the Minster, wandered through the shambles, but my favorite thing of all is walking on the city walls.



That night we spent the night at Boggle Hole. We had discovered this YHA 3 years ago when our family was hiking around Robin Hood's Bay. It's a great spot right down on the beach, but we did have to hike to it a little ways. The YHA workers also told us that there had been a ghost sighting just two days earlier, so that led to some good pranks by the boys in the group.

1st Day Of The North Trip

Our first stop on the trip was Chatsworth. We have never been there before and loved it, especially the gardens.

It's been so fun to be here with the Dickies, and Maren and Gaven have been here for the past week. Finnigan is a funny little man, we love watching him

This cascading water is in Chatsworth gardens and yes it is legal to wade in it.



This picture was taken in the little town of Haworth, just after we had visited the Bronte sisters house. We had also just visited the local bakery and stuffed ourselves with delicious breads, custard pie, adn other treats.



The first night we stayed at a YHA in Haworth. That evening we hiked up into the moors and most of the guys plus kellie stayed to play soccer. This is a picture of the hiking group.



These are most of the guys who stayed to play soccer.



It was a great first day!

2nd Week In London

At a Stop at the Imperial War Museum we saw a piece of the Berlin wall.



Our first week at our new ward, Wandsworth Common, south of the Thames. It's a great international ward.



Wandering through the Inns of court, law offices.



These cars,the g-wiz, are actually smaller than Smart cars. They're electric, but they're not as cool looking as Smart cars.

Wandering the streets of London never gets old.

Kelsey Moves Into The Dorms

Kelsey had her 18th birthday the day after she moved into the dorms and the day before we left for England. She became a legal adult right before we abandoned her.

We tried to get her mostly moved in before we left, but I'm sure that she has made a lot of finishing touches to the room, 3212 Taylor Hall-Helaman Halls.



This is Kelsey at her first BYU game as a BYU student. She had seats on the 7th row!!

We hear that she is having a great time and keeping very busy.