4th of July

That's right, we even celebrated America's Independance Day in the country we beat!! haha. It was a pretty good day. We got together with friends and family and had a big bbq, followed by a great game of baseders (it was a combination of baseball and rounders). Bases were set up a little different, a bigger bouncy ball, and some rules adjusted but overall it was a good game of baseball. It rained a little and there was some slipping around- everyone had a good time. This will be one of the days I'll remember and it's days like these that we'll miss when we leave for Florida- not long left.

Camping

We decided to go camping up in the Lake District (Northwest England). After I realized that Rachel had a few days off, I booked the same time off and we decided to go camping where we've never been before. We went to Windermere lake in the south part of the Lake District. It was good. We got there, started to set up our tent and since it was dry all day we didn't worry about the rain clouds. Out of no where, as we took out our tent, the clouds decided to let it all out. We hurried as quickly as we could to put it up and eventually we did it :) Luckily for us after a couple hours it stopped, the sun came out and we could enjoy the rest of our trip. We went on two walks/hikes. One was to a castle that was close by our campsite and the other was up Loughrigg. We also took a ferry across the lake and relaxed by the tent. It was very pretty up there and seemed like we were somewhere else. Neither one of us have seen England look like that.

Summer days.....

We've had some good summer days recently- it's been sunny quite a few days in a row. We've tried to do things outside- shopping in stratford upon avon, playing games outside with friends, flying kites, going to the park, etc. We've loved it and we've been trying to get somewhat of a tan before going to Florida so we don't stand out completly :)

Fort Myers, Florida

We are very excited to let everyone know we're going to Ft. Myers in Florida. I'll be attending the Florida Gulf Coast University to become a teacher and Rachel's planning to attend Edison State College to get her RN qualification. We're leaving the end of the summer and can't wait!!

Golf Tour

These pics were taken on the same day......the weather sure can change! The end of April, 10 other guys and me, went on a golf tour in Cornwall (southwest coast). We went for 4 days, golfed 3 and played 90 holes of golf!! 18 in the morning and afternoon on both thurs and friday and then another 18 sat morning. We had different competitions going on. We were split in teams- England Vs the rest of the world (Globetrotters) I somehow made the England team, don't know how that worked. Points were awarded each day. We played best ball, team best ball, singles and doubles. We ended up loosing by a couple points and then on the singles competition, my friend Chris won. Such a great 4 days! I loved every minute and will return in future years to compete.

Easter Holidays

The week following Easter, Rachel’s family and us, all booked off a week and did something different everyday. We did quite a bit of traveling back and forth everyday to do the activities, but they were worth it- we had a lot fun. On Monday we took a boat ride on a river, going through a lock which was cool to see. Tuesday, we went to a big lake and biked around it, plus a peninsula, totaling 25 miles!! Wow, were our butts sore the next day from sitting on those seats. Wednesday, we went to the snow dome for tubing and ice skating. Thursday, we headed to the southwest coast and did boogie boarding. The water was about 42 deg!! It was freezing. My hands and feet were numb. Everyone gave up after a little bit of being in the sea (waves were a little slow coming in) but I stayed out and glad I did cuz I started catching more waves. My feet were so frozen though- we got some hot chocolates to warm everyone up afterwards. Friday we went to a place called GoApe. It’s pretty cool. You’re up in the trees (like an ape) about 50 feet or so and there are cables connecting them. To get from tree to tree you have to cross using different ways. Some are cables to walk across, tunnels to crawl through, zip lines, wood planks, hoops, etc. You clip and un-clip yourself to each cable. Finally on Saturday, we all went to see Monsters vs. Aliens 3D. It was pretty crap, but the rest of the week made up for it. This was a really good Easter break for us.

England V Ukraine

This was a fantastic time down in London at the new Wembley Stadium. My father-in-law, Rob, me and my friend, Chris, went down and saw England vs Ukraine. It was really good. It was cool hearing everyone singing the national anthem, 'God save the Queen.' It's the same tune as 'My country tis of thee'.....so I sing along but with the american verision! :) Hoping to go again in the summer.

Spring is here!!

I'm really trying to keep our blog updated with things we're doing. Spring has arrived. Here the weather has been good and bad. We had a nice week of warm weather where I was wearing shorts, then next week I was off work and it rained the whole time- what are the chances! It warmed back up and this past weekend, we got together with a few church friends and played some kickball and soccer/football. It was fun.

A Permanent Resident!!

Rach has finally become a permanent resident in the US of A. She had residency but it had conditions and was only valid for 2 years. Now, since recieving her permenant resident card, she has a visa to stay for 10 years with no more visa forms or issues, unless we leave the country more than 1 year. What a relief! This has been such a blessing to us.

3 Year Anniversary

Yesterday we celebrated our 3 year anniversary. We both had the day off. We went to Solihull to do some shopping and in the evening we went to a nice Indian Restaruant in Reddich (pictured above). We had a nice day together.

We're coming back.....

Sorry if it seems like we never update this. Rach used to take care of it all but since we moved here, it's been up to me and I don't do it very often. The last little bit we've made the decision to come back to the US and live on the east coast. School for me hasn't worked out like we planned- the costs and lack of money made it impossible to go to university. I'm doing a distance learning degree right now, but with the way things are going, it would take me about 6 years to complete. We figured if we came back it would take us only 2 years, I'd go through the summer and finish as soon as I could. The plan would be to come back to the UK after I'd finished where I could start teaching in primary schools. I've applied to 5 different schools. One in Florida, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia. If we came back to Utah we'd have to pay out-of-state tuition fees, plus we want to see a different part of the US, so we chose the east coast. We hope we can come see our friends soon.

Rach's 21st Birthday

Finally I stop looking so perverted when people find out our ages!! I tried to make this day special for Rachel, since her 18th wasn't that good. She had 21 presents to open and could only open one per hour, starting from midnight the night before. So when she wakes up at 9, she has 9 presents to open. Not all were big, some were small like a candy bar or a can of pepsi, and others cost more. After waking up, we went for a walk around the lake close by, and then we went to see the film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We came home, where Rachel got a hour massage and then at night we went to a Greek restaurant with her family. We ordered several mesas and got to try all different sorts of greek dishes. It was lots of fun. Durning the dinner she recieved her last presents of spending the next two days down in London, where we'd going to the Zoo then that night we'd go to see the Lion King on the front row in a Theatre and the next day do a little bit of shopping and come home. The Lion King was fantastic. The atmosphere, dancing, costumes, way the people moved like animals, and singing was so cool to see. I can't describe how awesome it was. I'd recommend going to see it if you could.

Chad's 25th Birthday!

I can't believe that I've turned a quarter of a century old!! Rachel made the day special for me. I got presents I wanted, had breakfast made for me, we went out for lunch, I watched football in the afternoon and had a good meal with family and friends that night.

Man U

My father-in-law, Rob, for my birthday took me to a Manchester United football match! It was sweet. We took a coach up to the stadium with other supporters. We got there and realized were on the 3rd row, right where all the players come in and out of the pitch! I saw famous Enland footballers Ferdinand and Rooney and also Roanldo from Portugal. Even though they won 3-0 to Fulham, it was an amazing experience. I'd go back anytime to see them play again.

Snow.....

This is the first snow of the year and the worst. This much snow shut businesses and schools down for several days, but Rach and I still had to get to work...how annoying! It's the worst it's been in the UK for about 15 years. Usually it happens on one day and maybe an inch, so it melts by noon. It snowed a lot more in other places, but nothing near what you'd get in ares, like Utah.

New Year's in London

We spent New Years Eve down in London with Julia and Kezia-Rachel's sisters. It was sweet. We went to a chineese restaurant and traveled throughout london on the underground trains. We stood on a bridge to watch the fireworks. It was freezing. We had to get there early because they closed it off once it reached a 180,000 so we had to make sure we got a spot. The fireworks we awesome but our toes were frozen! Getting back was hetic as there were thousands of people all trying to get on the trains. Took us nearly 3 hours to get back to our hotel. What a night. New Years we headed towards Milton Keynes, close to Birmingham, and while the girls went shopping I went snowboarding in an indoor snow dome. It was good, but not like the snow back in Utah.

Christmas Day!!

This is us on Christmas Day. We spent some of the morning in bed.....until about 830, where rach woke me up telling me that 'Santa had come.' We went over to her parents later to have a big christmas day feast followed by presents. They got a Wii, so as you can imagine, we played on that for as long as we could. We also spent christmas over at some friends in the ward playing Disney and ABBA Singstar and mariokart on the Wii.

I've shaved my goatee....

It was time for a change. I'm not sure if I'll grow it back.

Time for a poll. Let me know if you think it looks better with or without.

Day out in London

Rachel and I went to visit her grandparents in Eastbourne, just south of London. We decided on the way back to go into London for a day and visit some of the sights we haven't seen before. When we were dating we saw all the major things like Big Ben, London Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. We went to the Tower of London. The Crown Jewels are stored here- if only we could take one of the jewels from there, man we'd be rich!! We also saw them change the guards there, which was cool!

Up the stairs in one of the towers

Changing of the guard

Guy Fawkes Day

Guy Fawkes Day is on November 5th and it's to celebrate catching a person by the name of Guy Fawkes from blowing up parliment. It's a day of fireworks and bon fires. Some people make a dummy in remembrance of him and throw it on the fire. We went to the local city carnival. The carnival carried on throughout the night and after watching the fireworks we went on one of the rides. It was fun.

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween over two days. We had a halloween party with the ward here with food, games, quizzes and those who wanted to could decorate their trunk and we had 'trunk or treat.' Here, a trunk is called a 'boot' but it doesn't sound right to say 'boot or treat' :) We didn't dress up since we were poor and would've been the only adults dressed as something- looking completely out of place!

We also celebrated it with friends doing pumpkin carving and games. Rachel did bobbing for apples and took part in the mummy wrapping race.