2015 Year in Review

By far, hands down, no contest – this was our busiest year ever.  But also our best one to date!

January 

We kicked off the year in Nebraska at my oldest nephews wedding.  It was so nice to spend that special day with them and to watch them get married.  We also spent some nice quality time with family!  We brought Hannah along with us and she did great.

February

We got Abby in February.  It was a quick decision on our part, and while I don’t ever recommend making quick decisions ESPECIALLY when animals are involved, I do have to say that this one worked out great.  Abby is the most lovable, attentive, playful little dog that I’ve ever met.  We love her to pieces.

March

We held a garage sale in March at my mother-in-law’s house.  Not our biggest one yet, but it was still successful!

We also lost our old, sweet kitty Masami.  She was 19.

April

April marked our 5-year anniversary!  We had a great anniversary and a nice dinner at The Melting Pot. 

We also had our Circuit Assembly plus our Memorial.

May

May was filled with last minute plans for our trip, including a shopping trip to Santa Fe.

June

June was a blur, but a great blur!  We left for England, Belgium and France

July

We kicked off July still in Europe (Belgium) and attended the Special Convention there.  It was amazing!

When we got back we learned that we got a new host congregation for our French group.

August

August was a little calmer than the previous months, thank goodness!  Watson began his service dog training.  We also started losing weight!!

September 

Our annual Fantasy Football draft was held in September.  I decided not to play this year, but I helped out at the draft.

I also spent some time getting my house in order!

And….I had dental surgery which was no fun.  I’m glad it’s over!

And……husband started a new job.  He spent a week in Denver for training and we got him all moved into his office downtown.

October

October was great.  My mom and dad visited and we went to Balloon Fiesta.  The weather was PERFECT!  We had fun just spending time together, going to flea markets, and eating of course. 

We had our English Circuit Assembly.

At the end of October my mother-in-law and I took a trip to Los Angeles.  We played tourists for the first two days, and then attended the French Circuit Assembly.

November – My newest nephew Connor was born.  Hubby and I also went to San Diego again (including Disneyland and a football game!).  I also had another dental procedure done.  Ugh.  I am so over the dentist!

December – December was probably our calmest month out of the entire year.  It was nice! 

Here's a little summary:

New pets:  1 (Abby)

New family members: 2 (nephew - Connor & niece-in-law - Emily)

Travels:

Nebraska (Lincoln, Omaha)

Iowa (Council Bluffs)

California (Mira Loma, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Hollywood, San Diego, Pacific Beach, Del Mar, Coronado & Anaheim)

England (London)

France (Paris, Cormeilles, Versailles)

Belgium (Ghent, Brussels, Bruges, Flobecq, Loppem)

2016 should be a bit calmer as far as travel.  I plan to take a trip to Nebraska to visit my family and meet my newest nephew.  And we might go to South America to visit friends that moved there a couple of years ago.  But that’s it (so far, ha ha).

The Grosvenor

Hotels in London are expensive.  Especially in Central London.

When we first researched hotels for our trip, we knew that we wanted to stay close to the main ‘attractions’.  Since we were only going to be there for two days, we didn’t want to spend all of our time riding the tube into the city (because there ARE cheaper hotels outside of the city, but then you’re spending at least 45 – 60 minutes on the tube to get to Central London).

So we decided to splurge and stay at the Grosvenor hotel  (pronounced ‘Grow-vin-er’…the ‘s’ is silent)on Buckingham Palace Road, especially since we were only going to stay 2 nights.  It’s about a 2 minute walk from Victoria Station, which was incredibly convenient.

The hotel itself is beautiful and OLD (built in 1862).  The floors creaked when you walked down the hallways.  The lobby was breathtaking!  I just wanted to hang out in the lobby ha ha. 

Our room was lovely, nice and modern.  Here was our view (not the best, but that’s okay).  There was TONS of construction going on in London!  It seems like everywhere we went there was construction happening.

We had free wi-fi.  No free breakfast (this is very rare at most European hotels), but that’s okay.  There were plenty of places within walking distance.  And the breakfast room was gorgeous.

The concierges were all wonderful.  They gave us clear instructions about which tube to take to get to the Tower of London.  Their restaurant recommendations were always good.  And they were just very friendly.  They arranged a cab for us to take us to the train station when we left for Paris.

The whole experience at the hotel was wonderful.  I would definitely stay there again!

Day 2 - London

Ahhh, day 2.  We woke up refreshed!  We didn't get up and moving around until about 9:00.  We asked our hotel concierge where a good breakfast place was and walked to have breakfast (eggs, toast, omelets, etc.)  

After breakfast we made our way to the Tower of London.  This was the one thing that I wanted to see the most in London.  I love the Tudor era and learning about King Henry VIII and his wives including Anne Boleyn.  So I HAD to see the tower.

Here it is when we spotted it for the first time:

We picked up our tickets and went right in.

The first thing that we saw was the Traitors Gate.  This is where all of the traitors came in by boat to be imprisoned (including Anne Boleyn).

Here's the white tower, which sits in the middle of the tower walls:

It's had various uses throughout the years, but now it serves as the large museum in the complex.

Here is a Yemen Warden (or a 'Beefeater').  They are basically the tour guides of the Tower of London.  In order to be a tour guide, they have to have 22 years each of outstanding military service.  Their tours are funny, enlightening, and they are very nice!

They all have the privilege of living on the complex as well, and we caught one leaving his house and most likely getting ready to report for duty.

There's an excellent PBS documentary on Netflix all about the Tower of London.  I highly recommend it!

Then we saw the scaffold site where Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and many other notable people were executed within the Tower walls.  A monument now marks that place:

We then visited the rooms where people were tortured.  Yes, this was also one of the main things I wanted to see.  I am morbid.

The two main torture methods were the 'Rack' (basically a stretching machine):

And then just the opposite....basically a machine where they crushed you all together into a little ball:

It was delightfully creepy!  And when you're in the room they have sounds playing of the rack being stretched.  

After that bit of morbidness, we walked the outer walls.  There are some great views of the Tower Bridge from both inside and outside the Tower:

Then we saw the Crown Jewels and the guards guarding the building:

The main feature of the Crown Jewels is the robes and crown that Queen Elizabeth wore at her Coronation in 1953 (I think it was 1953....).  Beautiful stuff.  No pictures allowed in there though unfortunately.

We also went into the chapel there where Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard are buried, but no pictures were allowed in their either.

We headed out after that.  There was tons there obviously and we took hundreds of pictures, but those were a few of the highlights. 

After that we walked to London Bridge and took some more pictures.  We caught Tower Bridge rising to let a sailboat pass:

I had my husband take pictures of these on the street.  They are EVERYWHERE thank goodness.  At ever intersection it tells you which way to look for cars ha ha.  Our natural instinct as Americans is to look the wrong direction:

Very helpful!

We then found an Italian Place to eat dinner, then went to a local market to pick up some ice cream and headed back to our hotel to repack.  And that was Day 2!!

I think we've done London pretty well considering we only had 2 days.  We saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, had some decent beer and fish and chips, rode the tube multiple times, and accidentally walked into a protest. I mean, what more could we ask for?

Tomorrow we leave for Paris!