Last Day in Sweden

Today was my last day in Sweden. This morning Taylor and I took a final trip to Stockholm. We did a lot of shopping for relatives and friends. When we got back from shopping I had my last dinner with the family. We grilled chicken and mushrooms to go along with salad and french fries. Ingrid made the really good sauce that she and I love! It was delicious last meal. After dinner the family surprised me with some going away presents. Vidar and Freja both drew me a picture saying goodbye. Vidar said he learned how to draw the hearts from the internet. They were adorable! They had bought me a really cute kitten made out of metal; his head was bouncy! Also, there was a teddy bear reflector to use when jogging or walking at night, a t-shirt, visor, cap, and bucket hat that all said "Sverige" on them. Lastly, they gave me heart shaped earrings and a matching necklace. They said they got me that to wear so I know that I will always be in their heart! I almost cried, it was so sweet.

After presents I went to get Taylor. I invited her over to play UNO with the family. We played for about 3 hours until Ingrid won.When the game was over it was time to say goodbye. I had to say goodbye to Taylor. She and I have become such close friends and I am so fortunate to have met her. We have shared such a wonderful experience together and it is something that I will never forget. I will miss her and everyone I have met here in Sweden, and I will take home with me a wonderful pile of memories of new friends and fun adventures.

Going Away Party

Today I woke up and helped Freja with her costume that she was going to wear to a birthday party. It was a celebrity party so all of the guests had to dress as a celebrity. Freja went as Hannah Montana. She had a Hannah Montana hair wrapping kit, so I helped her do that. I also made some small braids with beads inside the braids. She looked so cute!

After that I did a 30 minute freestyle plyo workout. Then I went over to Karin's house to help Taylor with the food preparation for our going away party. Taylor baked a tort and made some banana pudding. I made a huge thing of cole slaw. I found the recipe off of a country cooking website and then I added some pineapple, because that's what my grandma puts in cole slaw to make it extra delicious! Everyone really liked it. At the party we played some fun games. We were separated into 3 teams. One of the games included a pen that was attached to a string which you had to attach behind you on your belt loop. You had to run to a glass soda bottle and fit the pen inside the bottle without using your hands. It was pretty hilarious!

After dinner Taylor and I presented the projects we have been working on the past couple of days. We collected a notebook full of practice drills to give to Ingrid and the team. We typed them up and had them in sheet protectors. We also put together a slideshow of all the photos we had from the season. We put music to it and added a note at the end thanking them for everything they have done for us. Please take a look:

 At the end of the night they gave Taylor and me a dala horse with our names on it, and they all signed a softball with Swedish messages for us. It was so hard to say goodbye to the girls! They are all so sweet and so wonderful. It has been such a pleasure to play with each of them and see their progression throughout the summer. I will never forget the time I spent with them and can't wait until they all come to the states in two years. Oh yeah, my dad invited the team to play softball in Maine. They have decided to make the trip in 2 years! Ingrid told them at the party and they were all really excited! I told them all that we can only say "goodbye for now", because I will be seeing them in 2 years time! 

Science Fun!

This past weekend I went to the Tom Tit Experiment, which is a science museum in Stockholm. It's  a mix between the Portland Children's Museum and the Boston Museum of Science. There were tons of interactive displays and activities. I went with Ingrid, Freja, and Thea. We all had a lot of fun; we spent about 4 hours running to different displays. One of my favorites was a room full of Dance Dance Revolution mats on the floor and a big screen display. We all did a dance and I won! haha They also had a huge water display outside with tons of different activities for kids and adults! I wasn't able to take too many photos because my battery died after about an hour of being there. I'll post them as soon as I can, but right now I'm going over to Taylor's to make some lunch we found on the pinterest website!

We lost :(

We ended up losing our semi-final three game series. We won the first game 2-1; I pitched. Then we lost the second game 19-14 and the third game 9-7. It was a battle to the end, but we came up short. The girls fought really hard and they gave it their all. There was a photographer at the game who took some really good video as well as photos. Here is the link and the video is below. http://www.lokalsport.nu/baseboll/2911-al

Now I am fifteen days away from coming home. Till then I will be doing some school work and getting things organized for when I'm back home. Taylor and I will also be doing some individual lessons before we go. We are going to have a fun team practice tomorrow and then the next time we are all together again is when we are saying our goodbyes :(

Sponge to the Rescue

It has been raining here for the past couple of days. It has been on and off, in mist and in down pours.  When we arrived to practice on Wednesday we found giant puddles throughout the entire field. We figured that it would dry up before our games tomorrow, but unfortunately it did not. Taylor, Ingrid, Emilie and I had to go down to the field to soak up all of the puddles. The maintenance crew was able to fix the infield but there were huge puddles in the outfield that they did not have time to take care of. With buckets and shovels in hand, along with the giant sponge the crew left for us to use, we spent about 3 hours soaking up as much water as we possibly could. It was hard work, but well worth it if we are able to play our semi-final games tomorrow. We play at 12 and 2 against Leksand. The games are best out of three and there is no mercy rule. The girls are really excited, as are the team moms! They put up signs around the town and they are planning to cook hotdogs and play music during the games. It should be a lot of fun! I'll let you all know how everything goes, but for now I must get some shut eye so I can be ready for tomorrow! Good night!

Filling my Time

The past couple of days have been a little dull. I have been spending most of my time online. Taylor sent me this awesome new site called Pinterest.com! My gosh, I'm on it non-stop! I have been finding awesome new recipes to try when I get home, some creative classroom layouts and activities, beautiful decorating ideas for my bedroom (but mostly for my future home), and some weekend craft ideas! I'm addicted!
Anyways, something new is that I started my online class today. I know what you are all thinking..."I thought you graduated". Well, I had a little bit of a misunderstanding with admissions and I have to take what SNHU calls a "global marker". I have plenty of credits to graduate, too many if you ask me, but I failed to take a "global marker" class. Somehow we scooted by it in my advisement meetings and I have yet to receive my diploma. I will be taking an 8 week online history course while I'm here. I guess I can't complain...I have something to keep my mind occupied for the remainder of my stay. This class plus going onto Pinterest will certainly fill my day! Hey that rhymed, sort of!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to keep track of how many days are left, but I can't help it today because the math is too easy. Only 20 more days till I'm home! Although I might be lying, Ingrid kind of told me yesterday that I could be flying out on the 27th...I guess when she had to cancel my flight going through Iceland she had to change my entire package. She's going to double check and get back to me, so stay tuned!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Fun Day!

Sorry that I haven't been blogging as often as I should be, but I hope this post makes up for my blogspot neglect! These past couple of days I have been hanging with Jen and Taylor. We went to IKEA and out to lunch a couple of times. I have also been preoccupied with softball practice. This week we chose to do team practice instead of individuals.

On Tuesday Jen was able to come to practice, so she worked with My, Amanda W, and Wilma on their pitching while Taylor and I did defensive drills and front toss. On Wednesday we welcomed a new player to the team! Her name is Julianne and she is from Northern France. She moved to Västerås to study at the University. She has been playing for 7 years on the French Junior National Team as a first baseman. She is a great player and I think she will be a great addition to the team! Right before practice there was a big thunder storm so we had to wait out the rain for a good 30 minutes. We ended up practicing in the rain for most of the practice.

Thursday was a pretty relaxing day Taylor and I went to lunch and then we biked down to the supermarket to pick up some food for Karin's house. With 6 children living under one roof they have to go grocery shopping constantly! Later that day we went down to the field to practice with Rebecca. She had initially wanted me to help her try pitching for the second time in her life but Ingrid had mentioned that she wanted to train another catcher - someone that was in My's class. Taylor and I suggested to Rebecca that she start thinking about catching instead of pitching. Typical Rebecca, she was just as eager to learn something about catching! We worked with her for about an hour and then I went back home to have dinner with the family, Jen, Emil and his kids. We ate crawfish since it was Jen's last night in Sweden. When she was here before, she never got to try them. Ingrid had asked me to make a pasta salad to go with the dinner since not everyone likes to eat crawfish. It was really good, if I do say so myself! In the salad were cucumber, fresh tomato, sundried tomato, and feta cheese. I seasoned it with some of the oil that was in the sundried tomato jar and some dried salad spices. Everyone really enjoyed it!

Yesterday Taylor and I did a lot of work in the kitchen! We decided, since it was just Taylor and My at the house last night, that I would come over and we would have Mexican food and watch movies. We prepared for dinner by making a layer dip, guacamole, and cheese dip. For dinner we also made chicken and beef tacos! It was so delicious! We ate until we were stuffed! We watched I Am Number Four and Just Go With It. We ended up staying up until 2am...great night! We were also busy in the kitchen making waffle cookies for the girls. They were super easy to make; it probably took us 15 minutes to mix and bake them all. Here is the recipe for anyone who is interested: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-waffle.aspx We had promised them a treat if they did good in the games this past weekend. We planned a really fun practice with games and relays and ended it with some cookies! It was a pretty great day!

Tournament

This weekend the team was at a tournament in Örebro. We drove almost 2 hours to play 3 games. Ingrid was attending a wedding this weekend so she was unable to coach. That meant that Taylor and I were given the coaching duties. We also had some help from Jen, which was really great.  She had worked with some girls from other teams from previous visits, so she was able to see some of them and give some pitching help to the girls that wanted it.

For this weekend Taylor and I tried to play as little as possible. We really wanted to give the younger girls some more playing experience so they started every game and we rotated the regular starters on the bench. Each game, except for the finals, were only 55 minutes long. Also, we had to finish 3 innings and only 9 batters were allowed to hit each half inning. We ended up losing the first game, winning the second game, and losing the last game. It was the longest day of softball they had probably ever played and they did really well. There were some really great defensive plays and some nice at bats. Everyone contributed and we all had a ton of fun. It was Gabby's birthday yesterday so we had some sparklers and some fika. After the games we all went to Pizza Hut for a team dinner. There were a lot of laughs throughout dinner; it was great fun!

Today we went back the play the last game; every team was guaranteed 4 games. Unfortunately, we were in the losers bracket, so we only played one game. We played against the team we beat yesterday. Wilma made her pitching debut and did really well. She had a solid first inning and the last two innings went ok. We ended up winning 12-11 in the third inning.
All in all I think we had a good weekend. Everyone got more experience on the field and it seemed like we all enjoyed the time together!

Planning Practice

The last couple of days I have been relaxing and planning practice. I was pretty sore from our wins this weekend. For this week we have scheduled individual practice for all of the girls. We set up time slots for two 1 hour sessions on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Each 1 hour session we see 3 girls. On Thursday we will have a team practice where we will set up a scrimmage. Monday was rained out but we did have practice yesterday;  I think it went really well. We were able to give the girls a lot of reps and really focus on their needs. Today we will have the younger girls; Taylor and I plan on doing some relays since My might be late to practice. Without her, we only have body language to communicate with the girls, which is really hard!

After practice I'm going back to the house where we are having a BBQ for Jen. She got in at 1:00pm today. Tomorrow we are driving to Uppsala to spend the day and this weekend she might come to the tournament.

New Hair and More Wins

Yesterday Taylor and I went to the grocery store and bought ourselves a hair coloring kit! I have never done anything to my hair before so I was a little nervous about doing it. We stood in front of the shelf of boxes realizing that none of them had any english translations. The only thing we could understand was the name of the color. I picked out a dye called Golden Honey, which you would probably assume to be in the blond range, but it's actually brown. Taylor's hair now looks like it should be called Golden Honey, and she concluded that mine looks more like Caramel Honey or Cinnamon Honey :) It came out really nice, and I'm glad I did it!

Today we had our last regular season games. We played home against Leksand and we won them both. We won the first 10-4 and the second 7-5. Everyone played really well, but I think the MVP's of the games were My and Amanda Howe. My's bat was on fire and they both played great defense; it was so great to see their hard work pay off! Now that we have won we will be hosting the semi finals against Leksand. After we win 2 out of the 3 games we will advance to the finals! Unfortunately they are three weeks away. Next week we play in a tournament, the week after that is free, and then the next weekend is game day!! It's good to get in more practice, but I'd really like to play sooner.

This week is exciting because Jen Williams will be here! Jen played for my dad when she was in high school. She also helped coach my high school team and my college team. About 4 years ago she came over to Sweden and did what I am doing now. She stayed with Ingrid and played softball for the summer. She'll be here for a little over a week; the girls and I can't wait to see her!

Pulling Weeds

Today Taylor and I went down to the softball field to pull some weeds! We were told by the town maintenance that if we did work on our field then they would give us money for it. They don't have enough workers or time to pull the weeds off of our field so Taylor and I agreed to do the work. Yesterday and today we have been cutting and pulling all of the weeds off of the field. Our field looked as if it had a green beard, but now it is clean shaven!! haha

Feeling Sick

Yesterday I was feeling a bit sick. I went to Freja's football games in the morning and I had to ride my bike back to the house to lay down. I slept a little and that made me feel better. Later we had BBQ chicken for dinner and then Ingrid and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. When we got back home we decided to have family game night. We played UNO, one of my favorite games! We played different rules to what I was used to and we ended up playing for about 3 hours. It was a good time!

Today I'm feeling much better! Ingrid and I are going to drive to Amanda Howe's town to practice with her. She lives about 50 minutes away so it is hard for her to get to our weekly practices. The catcher we have now is going back to school in California this week, and Amanda will be filling in. We need to practice throwing to her so that she can get used to catching our pitches. She's a great player; I'm sure she will get back into the groove of things fairly quickly.

Practice

Today was a pretty normal day at the house. I did some chores for Ingrid and I tried to finish my book (both are not complete). We also had a practice this afternoon. Ingrid and I got to the field early so that she could do some pitching; she has really improved since this May. The ball is coming in quick and it's very consistent. It has been great working with her and I really think that we have the best Swedish pitcher in the league! It will be a great advantage for us when we get into playoffs because I'm only allowed to pitch the first game of the 3 game series. For practice we split the girls up into two teams and we had a 7 inning scrimmage. I threw and Taylor caught for both teams. It went really well. Some of the girls were able to try out new positions in game like situations and everyone got about 20 at bats. They all worked really hard and it also gave light to things that we still need to improve on. It seems like there is improvement everyday, and the girls really make it easy to coach - today after practice 4 girls stayed late to do extra hitting! :)

Applying for an Extension

Yesterday Ingrid, the kids, and I drove to Västerås, about a 30 minute ride from the house. We went to get my visa extended over the allotted 3 months. We left around 12:10 so that we could get there around 12:30 (it's open from 12:30-3:00). We ended up getting there around 1:00 and the place was pretty full. There were people from all nationalities and races; it was interesting to see how many different people come to live in Sweden. We ended up waiting for a little less than 2 hours - we got out of there with about 5 minutes to spare. The lady that worked there gave us props for having all of our paperwork organized and ready. She checked my passport, took my picture, scanned my fingers, and then took a copy of my signature. We were out of there pretty fast. After that we went home, I watched some TV and took a nap, and then we had dinner.

Taylor is back from Rome! She has been traveling throughout Rome with her boyfriend for the past week and they arrived back in Sweden last night. Later today we are planning another practice for the team. We have a week and a half to get ready for our games. I can't wait to start playing again!

Rainy Day

Yesterday was a very rainy day so we stayed inside and watched TV and movies. We watched George of the Jungle, which I haven't seen since I was kid! I was also able to read some more from my book. I've been reading Wuthering Heights, a book that I started a couple of years ago but never got through the first chapter. It's a really good book! Today is a much nicer day so I plan on going into town and exchanging the British pounds I still have from my vacation. We also have practice today so I'll be planning practice and doing some pitching instruction with Amanda before practice.

 On another note: Time has been flying by; there's exactly 7 more weeks that I'm here and I hope to experience as much as I can from the time I have left. I have had a great time so far and I'm excited for all that is ahead!

Crayfish Party

Yesterday I was invited to go with Ingrid and Micke to a crayfish party. It is a Swedish tradition to have crayfish parties in August to celebrate the end of summer. All of Micke's baseball friends were there. The baseball team ended in the late 90's but a lot of the players stayed in contact with each other. Every year they get together with their families and catch up. The party started off with drinks and trivia. There were questions set up around the neighborhood that we answered...we ended up being in last with only 6 right answers out of 12. After that we had dinner which included pasta salad, bread and butter, and crayfish that everyone brought for themselves. It was a long dinner because you had to open every crayfish individually, and once it was open you only got a shimp sized amount of meat. Throughout the dinner there were drinking songs and snaps...after they took their snaps they tried to translate the songs for me; it was really funny!

After dinner we had a music trivia game. The guys are really into music and some of them are in a band together. We had three teams of 8 or 9. There were about 10 questions you answered that had to do with music, or not. Also there were about 8 songs that they translated from English into Swedish that you had to try and identify the song. After that they had about 13 songs that we had to listen to the intro of the song (about 10 seconds) and then we had to write down the name of the song, the artist, and the decade that it was created. It was a lot of fun, and I was able to answer about 3 of the questions! After the game we had a little dessert with coffee and tea and then we talked for the rest of the night. Everyone was really nice and welcoming; I had a really nice time!

Week in Öland

I just got back from a really nice vacation in Öland, Sweden!

We drove about 6 hours to get there and we stayed 5 days and 4 nights. We got amazing weather; every day was beautiful, so we were able to enjoy all the beaches and watering holes. We left around 8am on Monday morning and stopped once for lunch. On our way we played some car games. One of the games we played was sort of like I-spy. We made a list of 10 things that we had to spot and if you were the first one to say the item you got a point. Whoever got the most points won. Assar won, but I think he had an advantage because he sat in the front seat...I'm not bitter! One of the items was to find a yellow car, so the entire trip we were noticing all the yellow cars and we would shout out "yellow car" whenever we found one. We got a good laugh out of it every time!

This bridge was 1 kilometer long

Anyways, when we arrived at the house Maria, Emil, Agnes, and Eliot were already there. They had stayed there the week before. It was a very cute summer cottage that included a guest house that we stayed in.

After we settled in we headed to the beach! We stayed there for an hour or so. Since it was late in the day the wind was a little cold, so Maria, Ingrid and I kept warm in the sun while the kids and Emil went for a dip.

Emil and Agnes

Just a little cold!

 After the beach we stopped to see some of the windmills that were on the side of the road. Öland is famous for their windmills; anywhere you travelled throughout the island there were windmills to be seen.

 We then went to get some icecream by the water. It was so pretty!

Vidar and Freja

 On the second day of our vacation I got up early and ran two and a half miles. Around lunch time Maria and Ingrid's softball friend Johanna came with her husband and their daughter. We had lunch with them before we went to the beach. We ate spaghetti with meat sauce and salad. I made some tomato sauce for myself. They don't really sell jarred tomato sauce here like we have at home, but fortunately I have an Italian grandmother who taught me how to make my own homemade tomato sauce. I sauteed some garlic and onion and some olive oil then added some crushed tomato. I added some fresh basil and some salt. It wasn't as good as my grandmother's sauce but it sure made me feel like I was home for a moment! After lunch we went to a watering hole. Though there were a lot of people there it was really neat because it was right next to the kilometer long bridge. After swimming and sun bathing we went back to the house for some BBQ and apple pie! It was delicious!

The third day we went to another part of the island where there was a lot of shopping and places to eat. We had a really nice lunch; I ate pasta salad with tuna. We also had some ice cream while we were there!

On our way back from the shopping and ice cream we went to see some castle ruins. Unfortunately there was a charge to get in so we decided to just look at it from the outside and take some fun pictures. Before we went back to the house the girls went to a fish store and picked up some salmon to grill and some smoked shrimp for an appetizer. The shrimp were smoked shell in all so we had to take apart them ourselves. It was the first time I took apart my own shrimps; it was messy but they were so good!! The salmon was really good too! Especially, because Maria made a sauce to go with it. It was sour cream, red onion, feta cheese, dill, and salt and pepper... yum! 

 On our last full day we drove about 2 hours to the northern part of the island. Along the shore was a lot of coastal weathering. The rocks were worn away by the water and there were tons of small rocks that had fossils from plants and fish. We ate lunch there and then we found a small beach area to sun bathe and take a dip in the water. We found a private area on the shore that was quiet and peaceful. It was so relaxing! That night we feasted on all of our leftovers and then we roasted marshmallows on the grill. It was a wonderful vacation and everyone had a lot of fun! It was so nice for Maria and Emil to invite us there. It took me back to my camping days with my family and I know they would have loved it too!

Resting Up for Another Vacation :)

Today was a nice and relaxing day! Taylor and I went for a run in the morning, and by that I mean I ran with Taylor for a good mile and then ran back. She did 4 miles and I did 2. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to run with her the entire time, but for now I need to work my way up. She is an avid runner so I'm thinking that I'll run with her at her pace for half of the distance and then run back at my own pace. After our run we laid out in the sun. It was such a nice day; I was glad that the forecast was wrong! It had predicted rain showers all day and into the evening, but there wasn't a grey cloud in sight.

This afternoon I did some pitching instruction with My and then we had practice. Taylor and I have been running the practices lately. We have a tournament at the end of the month and Taylor and I will not be playing. Instead, will be doing the coaching. The girls are going to try out some new positions and gain some more experience on the field. Today we had the girls do some front toss with a live defense. We had them all rotate positions when someone new came to the plate. Also, I tossed the batters inside and outside pitches so that they could start to notice when and where to hit different pitches. It also gave the defense a lot of variety. At the end we finished with my dad's "bunt the ball into the bucket" game. I didn't have any money or ice cream certificates to give them but they still enjoyed the challenge!

After practice I showered and watched the movie Madagascar with Freja. We watched it in Swedish but I put on the English subtitles. I had forgotten how much I love that movie! After the movie I packed up for our trip to Öland tomorrow! It's an island off the coast of Sweden that's about 6 hours away. We are staying with Ingrid’s friends Maria and Emil. It's just me, Ingrid and the kids this week because Micke is working. I'm excited for relaxing on the beach and finishing a book or two. We are there for 5 days and we leave early tomorrow morning! I better get off to bed so that it will come sooner! Good night!

My UK Holiday!

I had so much fun on my vacation!!! On our second day in Cardiff Jeanne walked us around the city. The city of Cardiff is wonderful. It's big enough so that there are many places to eat and shop (there is so much shopping!!), but small enough so that you can get where ever you need by foot. Where we were situated in the city we could easily walk to the train station, the grocery store, and the park. We did a lot of walking that day because we went over to the bay area. There is so much to do there and we went on a really nice day. By the time we got over to the other side of the bay, the sun was shining and the water glistened!
 

A shopping arcade. Anything you want, you can probably find here.

The Royal Arcade.

Street view of Cardiff. If you look to the end you can see the Cardiff Castle.

Colorful fruit stand :)



We walked to the other side of the bay where we could see the entire waterfront.

View from the apartment.

On our third day in Cardiff we went to Saint Fagan's National History Museum. It is one of Europe's leading open-air museums and Wale's most popular heritage attraction. It was very interesting learn more about their history. I especially liked the gardens in front of the St. Fagan's "Castle", which looked more like a large house to me.

St Fagan's Castle

After walking around for a bit we went and
 had tea and scones with jam and cream

One of the historic houses.

 On our fourth day in Cardiff we took a train to Salisbury, England. There we had lunch at a place called The Mill and then Taylor and I went on the Stonehenge tour bus! There were so many people at Stonehenge! We were given audio guides that we could listen to; it told us all about the history and the theories to why it was built. Here are some pictures of our time there.

Our fifth day in Cardiff was pretty relaxing. We did some shopping in the city. We also picked up food from the grocery store to make Jeanne and John some dinner. We made a Swedish dish called Flying Jacob! It is a mixture of cream, chili sauce, bananas, chicken, mushroom, and peanuts all served on top of rice. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. We did have some minor technical difficulties on the way (had to start over on the rice and add milk and gravy to even out the heat from the chili sauce), but they both really liked it...at least they said they did, haha. After dinner we fancied ourselves up to go see Grease at the Millennium Theatre. It was opening night and the theater was packed! It was a great show!

 The next day we boarded a train back to London. We ate a really great lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe then we headed over to the London Dungeon. Taylor and I got discount tickets to see the London Dungeon and Madame Tousauds Wax Museum. The London Dungeon is a 90 minute guide through the scary history of London. There were rides and live shows. Some were better than others but it was all pretty frightening because you didn't know what to expect around the dark corners you were passing through. The last ride was by far the most memorable! You were strapped into some seats that brought you straight up in the air to where your sentence is read at the gallows. It dropped you straight down so that you were airborne for a split second and they took your picture. It was so funny that we had to buy it!

We then went over to the wax museum where I got to take pictures with the President, Prince William, the pope, Beyonce, Audrey Hepburn, and more!

On our last day in London we went to the Natural History Museum for an hour. We saw a giant blue whale and many different mammals. There were hundreds to see. We went into a bug exhibit, an ecology exhibit, and an exhibit that showed the evolution of humans. I could have stayed there for the entire day; there was so much to see. Unfortunately, we only had time for about half of the museum, but it gives me something to look forward to on my next visit! :)

I had a wonderful time in London and Cardiff! It's a trip that I will never forget and I am so thankful for everything that Jeanne and John did for Taylor and me. We saw so much while we were there and I can't wait to go back and see some more!

I had promised a picture of the streaker from our first day in Cardiff. Here it is! We tried to enhance it as best we could, but it was raining and he was running so it turned out a bit blurry. He is definitely naked even though you can't really tell! haha