Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary

August 16th was our 35th wedding anniversary. We thought we'd be celebrating it in Hawaii, but as things turned out we didn't. So that morning we were wondering, just how are we going to celebrate. That's when Paige and the kids called and invited us to celebrate with them at the Davis County Fair. We couldn't think of a better way. So they picked us up and took us to the fair. It was fun to see the exhibits and was especially fun to see Aunt Cynthia's picture that got the Judges award. At the end we bought the kids cotton candy as our thanks for the anniversary gift they gave to us. We had a blast shooting the pictures of the eating process.

Dream or Vision?

A couple of times in my life I've had what I consider a glimpse into the future. Well, I had a dream the other night that was so vivid. I was holding a new little baby girl with lots of brown hair. Her name was Karry after my Grandmother Karen Andrea Reese. (I felt like my Grandma was there) I was so touched and teary. It was so tender. After I woke up, I just couldn't get this image out of my head. It's been over a week now and I can still see this image. So kids, only you can let me know if this is a dream or a vision!

Epiphany

I was thinking today... (I'd just finished "Breaking Dawn" ) and I thought... Stephanie Meyers wrote this after having a dream. J K Rowling's hit series "Harry Potter" was very similar in a that the idea came quickly. I believe that inspiration generally comes from God. It made me ponder...why would God inspire people to write about fantasy fictional characters that we love so much. Good versus evil. As I was thinking, I was hit with an epiphany that was very forceful. It is to make the mind pliable. We need to have a mind that is malleable enough that when the real fantastic things - things that will happen at the Second Coming - people will stop and think.... this may not be normal but I believe it is possible. I mentioned this to Brian and he said he thought I was right. He said, look at our whole Mormon history. Fourteen year old boy goes into a grove and prays, sees God the Father, His son, has the experience with the Holy Ghost and Satan, and we wonder why people look at us peculiarly. If I didn't know that it was true. I would seriously wonder what was up. I think that if my mind were open. I would be willing to find out for myself if it were true. I think that this will happen again. When it is time for the Savior to come again. I think that we need to be open to the fantastic things we will see come to pass.

The Burren and Galway Bay

Brian on the Burren glacial fields...

We went to Burren which is a glacial field. The rocks are covered with wild flowers. It was so incredibly cool. I loved taking pictures of the flowers. The climate down here is warmer than other areas. So it is good for grazing animals.
After leaving Galway Bay we headed back to Dublin. Our last day we went to Cork, then to Cobh - it is an interesting city. It is very cultural and into the arts. It is also the last port of call for the Lusitania and the Titanic. We also went to the Blarney Castle. In the time we were in England and Ireland it really didn't rain until we went to the Blarney Castle. It poured and poured. Luckily we had our ponchos. We looked a little bit like newspapers wrapped in orange plastic, but we were sure glad we had them. We climbed up to the top and tipped upside down over the 80 foot drop and yes, we kissed the Blarney Stone. It was fun! We loved seeing the castles. This one was so different than the Bunratty because it hadn't been restored and was in pretty poor condition. It was great to let the imagination run wild in how I would restore it.
the Blarney Castle.

Sally kissing the Blarney Stone
Brian kissing the Blarney Stone

Now we've been blessed with the gift of Blarney (Is that a good thing? :))

Ireland

After leaving our friends in England we flew RyanAir to Dublin. Whoaa what an experience RyanAir colors are shocking yellow and blue, and the selling they do on board would put QVC to shame. It was to laugh - but we arrived in Dublin safe and sound and met up with our nephew Kyle. Again we were so blessed to have such great host. We stayed at Kyle's place and he slept on the floor while we took over his room. He never complained and treated us so great. While we were there we took some train tours in Ireland. We went to Bunratty castle. It is a restored castle it was built around 1462 and I really loved it. I really felt like I could understand a little bit what it would have been like. I really didn't get the concept before now that these castles were for the protection of the rich. Everything about the design was around the safety of the household. I loved the murder hole where they poured down hot oil, and I found the circular stairways to be so much fun. They way the rooms were all spread out you couldn't help but wish you were a kid living here. As an adult it wouldn't be as much fun. (less running and hiding you know)

After leaving Bunratty we traveled over to the cliffs of Moher.

London

London was so incredible. I could never live in a large city but it was sure fun to visit. I took so many pictures of the House of Parliament, Every direction I turned it looked like a postcard view. I just kept snapping. It is a beautiful building. Our friends had a walking tour and we decided to view London by foot. We walked around H of P and then down the street to the Soldier stables, we walked down thru St. James park. (gorgeous)

We got to Buckingham Palace just after the changing of the guards. We could hear it as we were going through the park and could see marching soldiers but didn't actually see the changing.



The queen was at the palace and there were people lined up - women with fancy hats on waiting to have audience with the queen.



We then walked down to Trafalgar Square, then over the river to tour the other side. It was so cool. We rode the London Eye and then circled round to platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station before heading back to the hotel. We were exhausted.

England

I know that things should be posting in some kind of chronological order but I want to ramble... A bit like my brain rambles:)
Most everyone knows that I work at JetBlue doing reservations. Well they offered us a sweet deal when we partnered with Aer Lingus. We could go to Ireland for an awesome price so we jumped at the chance. On May 13th Brian and I took off for an adventure. We'd never flown international on standby before and I was nervous. Other than being an extremely long flight, our flight to Ireland was awesome. I really liked flying with Aer Lingus. We arrived into Dublin and caught a flight to England. We went to England because Brian had served his mission there 1971-1973. We flew into Doncaster. When Brian lived in Grimsby he rented from a young couple. We've stayed in contact with them through all the years. We actually met up with the sister of the young woman. (of course we're not young now) Julie was the one he rented from and we stayed with Kathy and her husband Dennis. They picked us up at the airport. Knowing how tired we were from the long flight they offered us some options. We choose to go see the Yorkshire Dales. It was sooo pretty.
We stopped at a little village called Pateley it was so what I envisioned rural England to me.

(Don't mind the date. My camera was off)
The street signs were so much fun. There was a bridge there that was so picturesque.

















We had tea time there, but my favorite was the sweet shop. (of course)



We stopped at a private residence that had turned into a hotel. It had the most beautiful grounds.




After this delightful tour we when back to their place.
They had made a lovely dinner and invited the family over. It was absolutely awesome.
Only one drawback... we were so tired. We didn't realize how tired we were until the next day when we realized we didn't talk to Julie and Pete or the family as much as we would have liked to and we didn't even think of taking pictures. That tells us that were really really tired. Little sleep in 48 hrs. However the next day we were ready to roll. Dennis and Kathy took us up to the North Sea and we had Fish and Chips with mushy peas. Then we headed down to London. Brian was having some serious culture shock. When he went there 30+ years ago it was like stepping back in time 30 years. This time however there was no difference. I needed a curling iron and we when to the English Walmart (ASDA) same roll back prices /smiley signs. Brian was used to the individual shop owners with butchers and bakers and such but now there were big box stores. It was kind of sad. I didn't get the experience of the daily shopping. I think the dales were the closest thing to it. We noticed that the countries are losing some of the distinctiveness with the EU involved. I guess that's progress for you.
Our hosts Kathy and Dennis treated us to a stay at the most awesome hotel, just outside London It was very old and some of the wood in the lobby was from the Spanish armada. You just wouldn't believe how pretty everything was. While we were there the weather was perfect too. Overcast and chilly but not rainy and not too cold. We caught the train to London. We went to Piccadilly station. We walked over to Kings Cross before we realized that the train we needed was in the other direction. (We didn't know that we were twenty feet from platform 9 and 3/4.)