Catching up on September...and Big News

So, I guess we'll do a few month-to-month posts to catch up to the HERE-and-NOW... and THEN I'll keep my weekly post goal that I just made - this week :)

We've had a great time living in Highland with family - seriously, a wonderful 100 days. The five of us enjoyed the State Fair, and we had a great Lloyd vacation down to Fish Lake - now we have a bunch of trout in our freezer I keep telling myself we will eat someday.

Dustin and his Lego's...

Gotta love the State Fair :)


Do we look cool, or do we look COOL!?!


And I guess everybody else caught a few as well.

And, finally, it's officially on our blog - too bad for most of you this is old news. We've got a BABY
on the way in May! We found out the day before the State Fair - perhaps that was why we were smiling so big.

And yes, that means I did our massive King's Peak hike as a preggo mama-to-be!!

Back in the States; Still Determined to Have Fun

And we have done quite a good job at that (the having fun part), I believe. We returned the night of Aug. 30th, and this is how we spent our first weekend:

We hiked King's Peak. In a day.

For those of you who don't know, King's Peak is a tall mountain. Very tall. As in 13,500 feet. Plus a little.


Dustin and I spent the last two months at 0 feet of altitude - England is an island, and it is very near sea level. That was a lot of height all at once.

We drove there (after Dustin's second out-of-state speeding ticket of the year - whoops) and put our sleeping bags on a patch of grass by the van. Those present: Dad Fuller, Jared (brother), Kyle (best friend and best man), Dustin, and I. Great view of the stars, ice on our sleeping bags.

And then we started hiking. And hiking. And HIKING. This is a 30 mile deal - well over a marathon.
But we had fun. And, even better, WE MADE IT TO THE TOP!
but then we had to start back down...........and that was where it got kind of rough....

But, we persevered, and, lots of blisters, "call-of-the-wild"s, and beef jerky later, conquered the mountain. Drove home exhausted and reached our beds around 2:30 in the morning.
WHAT A WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no Queen of England!

Here is our final England post - at least until we are caught up with everything else in our lives. The entire time we were in England we were on a search - a search for the Queen.

She was not here, at her Scottish Palace Holyrood in Edinburgh, although we circled the entire grounds hoping for a glimpse.

Nor was she in Queen Mary's bathhouse - which actually relieved us, since it looked more fitting for Hagrid and Fang.

We also failed to find her in the Queen's Gallery...

And even at Buckingham we missed our chance - they even canceled the changing of the guards on our day there :(

We checked Westminster (where royalty is christened and married and buried) and Big Ben - all to no avail.

And so, at the end of our long search, we must agree that Hal (from Megamind) is correct, there is no Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy, and (*sigh*) "There is no Queen of England."

York

York: one of our many stops in England, and one of the most picturesque towns I have been to. The houses are right out of a Dickens or Austen novel - one of our favorite Sundays in England.

YorkMinster - it cost a bunch to get in, so we could only take pictures from the ticket booth - but it was beautiful!

We stopped at the Railroad museum and wished our nephew Matthew was with us.

When you take your trip to England, give York a good chunk of time - we wished we'd had more.

Among the British Saints

We really loved our ward in Cambridge - we spent most of our time as Primary chorister, but loved each of the members we were able to acquaint. Here are shots of our day at the London Temple (and its beautiful grounds), the York chapel (see following post), and our wonderful England missionaries Aunt Barbara and Uncle Mel (we love you two!!!!!).

York:

The place Dad was baptized (except the church burned down about a decade ago and they completely rebuilt it - so right place but different font).

Living in the Secret Garden

A few more photos to describe where we lived while we were in Cambridge:

Included croquet on the green - our resident doctorate student (formerly from BYU) managed a spectacular comeback and gave all of us "colonists" a bit of humble pie - but we weren't too bad for beginners :)

The Hidden "O" Staircase where our rooms were tucked away.

The white tents which replaced our dining hall while it was under construction - very nice for summer weather - but I'm glad they didn't replace it during the winter!!

The organ in our private chapel (shared by about 300 students and faculty. We loved visiting at night.

Above: Chapel. Below: Library.

Sorry to just give you a peek of the incredible-ness that is Cambridge!