Christmas Day

Christmas - the best day of the year. Today we got up early for once and found that Santa had found us - twice. Very interesting morning, eight stockings, and presents of course. We spent the rest of the day just playing games and resting for the most part. We played a scrabble like game called "Upwords" the one we bought from Harrods for my mother. Along with a card game called Set, aaaand of course Axis and Allies. While so doing we watched another version of the Christmas carol and some Christmas episodes of old sitcoms - thank you "Santa". Then my parents went out on a walk, and really that's about it, just a slow restful day.

'Twas the Day Before Christmas

Oh what a day! Sorry this post was late, but the past two days have been quite busy. So without further ado - yesterday we finished up our shopping and even swung by Harrods (the biggest mall here in London) though eveything was so expensive it is no wonder we didn't get much (just a $15ish present for my mom, just to say we shopped there - well and because we) didn't have a present for her. OH! so in the electrics section they had about 18 TVs all playing High School Musical, it's weird seeing your school being shown all over the place in the biggest mall in one of the largest urban centers on earth (if any of you have never had that experience). Then we went to our finallie play - Les Miserables. WOW it was amazing! I fully believe that it was the best play I've ever seen. Everything about it was just amazing! It was sooo well done. Anyway I'll stop raving, but it was really good. Then we tried to make it to the London Eye, but it was closed... so we came back and set up some sparce decorations, watched a Christmas carrol, and then had a family Christmas devotional thing.

Not London

So today (as might have been seen bye the - not so - clever title) we went and did some things out side of the real city of London. We rented a car in the morning then drove out to Stonehenge around twelve thirty ans we got there ... oooooh around three thirty. It was quite the traffic jam actually I think it had to do with a lot of people wanting to get out of the city. Anyway it was really cool, it was almost dark and pretty cloudy and humid, so it seemed fairly foreboding-like anyway the rocks were really cool, I need to see if my mom got any good shots of it on the USBing camera that reminds me I need to load yesterdays pictures onto the older posts. So everybody you should check those. As it turned out Stonehenge was closing early (at four) for the Christmas Break like time. That bearing in mind we hurried on our way around the area (There is a round walkway around Stonehenge so one can see it from all angles). Then we started our trying journey to the temple. We left Stonehenge at four tenish and were aiming to get to the temple at around six thirty seven, but due to traffic jamage we got there at eight twenty. London traffic is bad to begin with, but combine that with a closed part of the Freeway... yes it was troublesome... anyway we arrived at the temple about an hour and a half after our reserved time. There were worries among us that we wouldn't be able to do it at all, but they didn't want to let us down after traveling for more than 4 hours. Thus we were able to do baptisms. It was soooo cool. then we got some pictures of the temple (we tried to get one of the new Moroni on top, but it was pretty much covered in scaffolding. Sorry). Then we came back and I wrote this post :).

PS if you sign the comments then I think I could more accurately answer questions etc.

London

okay soooo today was our first full day out and about in the City (of London). After breakfast we all we came out to this bus tour place and went on a two hour tour of the big main sights to see, but only in passing because we never actually got off of the bus to see them more in depth. yeah so after that we got off on the last stop and went to a wax museum (Madam Traussads - or something near to this) yeah it was really cool and we got some really cool pictures on a camera that we can plug straight into to computer (oh the wonders of USB ports!) so expect an update soon (eventually) with those. Alright after the museums we went and finally started getting our Christmas shopping done, which was nice to finally do because it is "hard" *wink* to get stuff here without the others knowing. Then we finished up the day by going to Subway for dinner (haha it was really funny to me - sorry if no one shares my sense of humor, but - that everything was still in feet and inches rather than in the metric system, which is what they use in UK) then we split up to attend our second play, my dad and Deborah went to Wicked and my mom and I to Joseph and the Amazing Technocolo(u)r dream coat. I can't speak for the others - and as they never seem to use this blog I doubt they'll speak for themselves - but I really Loved Joseph, I thought it was one of if not the best play I've seen in a long time (if ever). Now Mom and I are "home" and waiting for the others. Until tomorrow, MikeR PS I'm proud of all who got the "(u)" joke



This is us on the tour bus in front of big Ben and Parliament note the earphones - these were how we heard the prerecorded comentary about the sights(Jane Ricks)

Here we have St. Paul's cathedral (Mike Ricks)

My two favorite wax museum photos. Dan and Tiger Woods, and Deb and Daniel Radcliffe (Mike Ricks)

A Day of Rest

Alright after my posting yesterday we went out to dinner and then went to the Lion King! It was soooo cool. The costumes were amazing! andandand, yeah so apparently West End is the British equivalent of Broadway (just cheaper). Yeah and the environment was really different too, much more casual here too. Very good play, but I was just a little disappointed, because the English accents didn't quite fit the characters (except for ZaZu, and I guess Pumba) haha yeah well that is enough reviewing, but do know it was indeed amazing, and it really is too bad photographing them is illegal (and we still don't have a cord - hopefully when we go shopping tomorrow). Then we came back at 10:00ish
So Today being Sunday was a nice quiet day. We all slept in (through church even! :( ) until about one. Then after Lunch we went to a park and around to many sights of family significance (our old house, the park, the school where my dad went etc.). We spent about an hour at the park, just walking around while my parents reminisced about our spending so much time there. The college of tropical medicine was really a cool building, instead of having figureheads and gargoyles they had disease transmitting animals (ticks, fleas, rats, mosquitoes, cobras, and more) on the sides of the buildings ans on the window rails. Now we're back and planning the rest of the week.
Also if you want to know the London times for the posts just add 7 hours to it, and subtract the 7 from London time to know it for Utah.

MikeR


This is Deb in a tree at the park we spent some time in (Jane Ricks)

Then this is my Dad in front of his old school - literally (Jane Ricks... or possibly Mike Ricks, we are not sure