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

So I Forgot To Mention...I'm in the UK!

I was going to post all about my plans before I left, but I was so busy getting ready that I completely forgot! I am in the UK!! I was given a wonderful opportunity to come to the UK by my mom's best friend! She lives in Wales with her husband and she invited Taylor and I to stay in London and Cardiff, Wales. We flew in on Tuesday and stayed in London for the night. We walked all around the city that night seeing the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Yesterday we started our day off my going to Madame Tousauds wax museum, but the wait was 2 hours so we decided to save that for the end of our trip when we visit London again. Instead we went to St. Paul's Cathedral and took some pictures. After that we walked the Millenium bridge and saw the Globe Theater. We had lunch at The Swan, a cute restaurant right next to the Globe, then we walked over to Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey to take some day photos. We ended up touring the Westminster Abbey; there were audio guides that took you around the cathedral, but there was no picture taking. I really enjoyed Westminster Abbey; it was so much more than I had imagined! After we toured around we took the train to find a the Hummingbird Bakery, a cupcake bakery that we had heard a lot about. Unfortunately we got there and it was closed, so it will be somewhere we'll have to stop on our second trip. We then took the train to Cardiff, Wales where we will stay the rest of the week. It was a great day and we took tons of photos, but I will have to wait to upload them until I get back, or when I get the time.
Today we started our day in Cardiff by renting some bikes and going up to the Castle Coch. Before we went to the castle we went to a local pub and had fish and chips with a pint. When our bellys were full of yummy fish we went up to the castle. The castle was originally built in the 15th century but reconstructed in the 1800's. The drawing room was very unique because the walls were painted with scenes from Aesops Fables; it was very beautiful. Our way back to the castle we came upon one of the most bizar things that has ever happend to me. We were taking cover under some trees on the bike path because it was raining pretty heavily. We stopped for about 5 minutes. All of a sudden Taylor says, "I just saw a naked man run across the path". I wasn't looking at the time so I missed it; I was a little dissappointed, but it wasn't long untill he came darting around the corning and down the path we were on. With nothing but socks and sneakers on this man was running in the pouring rain! As soon as he ran past us we broke into hysterical laughter. I managed to take a quick photo of him on the path, but you will have to wait for me to upload it later. It was so funny!!
Tomorrow we will go tour the city of Cardiff a little bit more and see where the day takes us! I will try to post pictures and more as soon as I can!

2 More Great WINS!

Yesterday we drove four hours to play Sundsvall again. We played AWESOME! We won 9-2 the first game and 4-1 the second game. It was a whole team effort and everyone had so much fun. The first game had a little bit of drama, to say the least! When we were on offense, Emelie ran into the catcher that was about 5 feet in front of the plate. The catcher fell down and hit her head; when she got herself up she stared down Emelie and started screaming at us. The entire team rushed over to her and she looked as if she was going to come into our dugout and take action! The umpire didn't call anything because the catcher had no right to be standing where she was. She was so mad that she kicked our bat down the line and got into the umpires face about the play. We were all surprised that he didn't kick her out of the game then and there. After that play had occured I was up to the plate. The catcher tried to pick My off at first and the first baseman caught the ball and slammed her glove into My's stomach. Another time during the game they tried to pick My off again and the player slammed her glove on Mys head. I have never seen such blatent aggression towards other players in my life; they both should have been ejected!...So it was an intense couple of innings. The second game was calmer and they didn't stand a chance to our defense. Emelie had some really great hits, depite being shaken up at the beginning of the day! It was a great win, especially because Ingrid struck out the catcher as the last out of the game!

Here are the rankings so far:
1st place: Skövde
2nd place: Enköping
3rd place: Leksand
4th place: Sundsvall

Our last regular season games we play Leksand... on August 21st (it's a really weird schedule!). If we win both we should be able to keep second place spot. The second and third place team play each other; second place gets home field advantage. Th best out of 3 games will play the winner of the 1st and 4th place teams.

We Won!

We won our games today against Söder! We run-ruled them both games; our defense was awesome and it seemed like everyone was hitting! I pitched the first game and only allowed one hit.  Throughout the two games we had some really nice plays and some big hits. Our third baseman, Amanda W, made a really nice diving play to get a short blooper. She also grounded a ball across the diamond. Taylor was playing short stop and made a jumping catch that was across her body. Also, our center fielder, Michaela, made a really nice running catch. There were some really great singles by Rebecca and Emelie. Also, some triples from Ingrid, Taylor, Jonna, and me. We ended the day with only one error! By beating this team we have clenched a spot for the finals. If we win tomorrow we could move up to the number 2 or 3 spot. We leave tomorrow at 5:30am for a 4 hour drive. Needless to say we will be getting to bed early tonight!! Here are some pictures from our home games last week (just in case you were wondering, they were not taken with my camera):

Top Left: Gabriella, Jonna, Michaela, Wilma, Taylor, Karin, Me, Rebecca, My, Amanda H.
Bottom Left: Amanda R, Ingrid, Linnea, Emilia, Amanda W, Josefina, Marie, Emelie 

My at bat.

Amanda getting a hit.

Taylor leading off third.

Emelie throwing it into second.

Michaela, Taylor, and Amanda down and ready.

Me pitching.

Ingrid hitting.

Jonna hitting.

Rebecca throwing it into second.

Gröna Lund

Yesterday was a wonderfully fun and exhausting day! After my 3 mile run (which was supposed to be 2.5 miles, but I got lost and had to run more), all 8 of us, which included me, Micke, Assar, Vidar, Freja, Thea, Freja's friend Cornelia, and Cornelia's brother Benjamin who is Assar's age, biked down to the train station, took the train the the subway, took the subway to a boat, and took a boat to Gröna Lund! Gröna Lund is a big amusement park in Stockholm! It was so much fun going on rides with the kids. I also went on the bigger rides with Benjamin because everyone else was too scared!

Girls on the boat!

This was the scariest ride I've ever been on!!

It brought us all the way to the top, tilted our seats forward, and dropped us 80 meters! 

This ride was on a dock.

We had so much fun at the park! Something that was a little less than fun was when I got lost on our way back home. When our subway came I was the first one to step on...I was also the only one to step on! The doors shut and I waved goodbye to everyone! I met up with them only 5 minutes later, but the girls were very concerned and hugged me when I found them again!