Hey don't you know that we're off to see the world?

“Life is like a windshield, it ain’t no rearview mirror, the only way to get where you’re goin’ is to find that higher gear… life’s gonna run you over if you don’t get goin’!” –Garth Brooks

Because there are so many different pictures I want to put on this I decided that I'd do it in segments. The first is our trip to England...the first stop on the European adventure.




While in England we stopped in the Globe Theater to watch a Shakespearean play. Midsummer's Night Dream... Although this is not the authentic building, it is an exact replica of it and is built in the exact same place as the old one! It was so neat to get to see the performers act on such a small stage so well. The musicians that accompanied used the same type of instruments as back then, and there was even a man that had an amazing falsetto voice. There were all the different types of seating. On the floor of the building there was the standing room. It looked like it would've been fun to stand down there for maybe 10 min...we were happy we snagged some sitting seats on the second floor. But the people down on the floor were fun to watch... :)
Good job Globe!


The actors would walk around on the floor around the people standing as well...pretty cool. None of them wore microphones, you could hear them all very well without.




This Globe was floating in the center of the theater...fitting, eh?



Our first experience of Fish-n-Chips in a Pub. SOOOOOOOOOO yummy! I ate mine in half the time of the others...


The guards didn't like us that much...I know because one told me he'd beat me up if I got any closer....it's a long story but when when they say "mind the arches" that means, don't come any closer to the arches they are walking by!

Everyone drives on the wrong side of the road! I almost got hit a couple times looking in the wrong direction while trying to cross the street. The worst was when I went jogging out on my own and I didn’t have a sister (Julia most of the time) to grab my shoulder and scold me for not being cautious enough while crossing these treacherous roads. Luckily there are reminders for which way to look when crossing the bigger streets.

Nellie and Julia can't read English...poor little things, good thing I was there!



My first Tube experience! I think I fell asleep every time I sat down on there. For some reason the phrase, "Mind the gap" is on repeat in my head...


Big Ben! I tried syncing my watch to His time...


I found myself trying to mimic the accents of the particular country I was in. My English accent isn’t quite so good. Some phrases that seem to be engrained into my head are: “Mind the gap”, “I can’t be bothered”, “Rubbish”, and a couple other silly ones. It seems as if whenever I tried to blend in with the locals, Julia, Nellie, and Mary would disappear or pretend to not know me...





We tended to like to sit in front of the major rivers in the cities we visited to rest for periods of time. That was time for photo-ops, random games, and cool conversations. Good times girls!





Every time we'd go to a palace these three would start fantasizing how they'd decorate THEIR castle, what THEIR gardens would look like, and which prince they'd have to marry to get in on this...






We were kind of crazy on our first day after being couped up in the airplane for SO long! So yes, we did some silly things....





Overall feelings of England: It was a little cold AND rainy, but that made us appreciate the museums that much more :). The modern Museum of Art was fabulous, we also stepped in the Portrait Gallery...also very very cool. The castles were awesome and the parks- amazing! I went out in the morning to go for a long run from our friend's house outside of the city a little bit and found myself in this HUGE park/forest trail. It was amazing! Miles of trees, hills and dales :), knolls, rabbits...tons of rabbits... England is a beautiful country. The park I was in had a couple horse barns outside where I imagine they'd go riding around in the area I was jogging in. I missed my Daisy-Mae then, it would have been so much fun to go riding in there, OR jumping! next time!

Julia's big day!

Julia Rosa Jones is now officially a Graduate from Brigham Young University! Yay! She decided to last minute steal a cap and gown from a friend and walk in her graduation ceremony for her class on Friday afternoon. Me being the ONLY relative around got the job of going and taking pictures/sleeping during the lovely speeches. Luckily I had my friend Chad come along to keep me company and stab me every time I started to snooze...



Mammy made sure I took her out for a celebratory lunch. There were SO many people EVERYWHERE we improvised. Einstein Bagels lunch with Guru's sweet potato fries! Delicious! We ate our food while ordered (via phone) the fries to go that were just next door. We were very pleased with our decision. Janelle was able to make it for the food.



It was such a nice day they decided to take pictures while outside. The tree had pretty flowers but I HATE the smell of those white flowers. GAG! But whatev, it was all for the picture I guess. As Joe joe would say, Cheese girls!!!

My 1/2 Ironman training...

So I've been putting in the miles quite a bit lately... Last week I think Crystelle figured we ran 30 miles? I biked I think 85 miles? And probably swam a couple miles...swimming seems to be my least favorite part of the training stuff. Probably because I suck the most at it! Biking is becoming so much fun that it's becoming one of my favorite ones hence me adding some pics of me and Semaj (my bike).



So I'm leaving for 10 days to go to Europe, this is going to put a little damper on my training schedule, I hope the Europeans are ok with me running around their little streets in the morning! I'm still trying to figure out how to get my mace across the ocean so I can keep pappy J happy while I'm out there.

Some people might think I'm kind of crazy for PAYING to swim 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles, and then running 13.1 all in the same day...but really this is something that I want to prove to myself I CAN do. I decided that since I'm in a situation in life right now where I CAN afford to take the time to train for these things I might as well take advantage of it!

Fast Cars and Freedom

I like motorcycles!






Especially when I get to ride them with buds out to the lake and watching the sunset with best buds.

Just some random ramblings...

“It is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.”--Black Elk. (from one of my favorite books, Leadership and Self-Deception) Eyes unfortunately can expose your thoughts to those that look into them. They can serve as the medium in which to communicate when no words can seem to be found. Now this could be a good or bad thing... Saying one thing when inside your heart wants to say something else can prove to be more difficult than it seems. I've noticed that when in love you can find yourself learning a lot from the other person's eyes. It is in THEIR eyes where the past and future become unimportant to you, the present life only matters when with them and how to make them happy. My advice, wear sunglasses... :)

If chipmunks can have adventures, so can I!

Last weekend Julia and I were out at Walmart trying to find a tv to replace our currently dying placed in our living room when we happened to run across The Chipmunk Adventure dvd!!!! Ok, happened isn't the right word, we were searching the piles of cheap old dvds that sell for $4.99 desperately trying to find this gem of a movie. And yes, I've been to the store a couple other times only to return unsuccessful so you'll have to imagine the excitement Julia and I experienced that beautiful night!

I don't know how many of you have actually experienced this brilliant show of wit and humor displayed in this 1987 cartoon where Alvin, Simon, and Theodore compete against their rivals, the Chippettes, in a race around the world. Both groups set off on their adventure on hot air balloons and race to all corners of the earth dropping off character dolls of themselves, which in fact were filled with diamonds and $$ (unbeknown to our young adventurers), to various pit stops along their way. The clever tricks they play on their babysitter (my personal favorite character in the whole movie, Miss Miller), songs they sing, stunts they perform, and places they visit all add up to one heck of a movie!

My dream in life is to have an adventure like theirs! Travel the world, RACING! Two things I'd have to say that I love doing! Put a competition or a dare at the end of anything and I'll probably be sure to be game to do whatever...

Learn from the past, prepare for the future, live in the present!

I just read this article, Treasure of Eternal Value, from President Monson and it made such an impact on me I thought I'd share it in the blog. Hey, this is my blog and I can put whatever it is I want on it! Everyone should read this, whether or not you're LDS, it has some good advice anyone can take advantage of.