Canal boat!

The next few days of our Europe trip, we spend on a canal boat roaming through the English countryside. It was gorgeous and low key.

Here we are headed out for a walk.
Just a pretty tunnel we were headed through. This is about halfway through our journey when we were about to turn around and head back.
Brandon and Hazel hanging out while we are waiting for the locks. We were in a "queue" (in england it is not ever a line, it is a queue) for a few hours to go through the locks, so we wandered a bit. The locks were a 4 person job, one person driving, another on Hazel duty, and the other two cranking the locks open and closed. It was such a cool experience.
Here you can see a few of the boats mooring on the side.
The first day it rained quite a lot, but we still explored equipped with our rain jackets.

Here you can see Hazel entertaining herself inside. At some point in the trip she found a pair of each person's shoes and tried them on for size. You can see a bit of the interior here too, she is in the kitchen/tv area. Past this area there were three other rooms, 2 toilets, and a ity bity shower.
On our third day on the boats, the sun finally graced us with it's presence and I threw on my swimsuit and read on the roof. Brandon sweetly hung out with Hazel and put her down for a nap then came and joined me. Seriously, best husband ever!

Daryth, being, well, Daryth. I'm sure she'll love this pic. She forgot a rain jacket, so this glorious neon creation is only on loan, she didn't get to keep it, what a shame.

Hazel LOVED to be outside. This feels like a very Titanic moment.

Hazel is going to be a big sis!

On our third day in England we discovered that we're having another baby! Hazel is totally thrilled, and we couldn't be more excited. The next baby davey is due mid April. Luckily I didn't have too many signs of morning sickness on the trip aside from a few headaches. Since we've gotten home I only feel a little queezy here and there, but feel lucky to keep food down and have pretty normal energy.

This is Hazel in the courtyard of the Louvre in Paris, shortly before or after chasing pidgeons!

Europe Day 1-2

We started out trip with a grueling flight that started right around Hazel's bed time, yet somehow she managed to make it through the next 6 hours completely awake. Just when we were getting worried it wasn't the best choice to take a toddler on a trip like this she slept for the next 4 hours. That's right, straight through our next connection flight, picking up luggage, through customs, onto the tube into London, and still totally passed out. She didn't wake up until we met up with Mary Martha in downtown London.

We dropped off our stuff at her place, changed and were on our way. We ended up going shopping at Camden Market, checked out Harrods, wandered through Hyde Park, had the most amazing crepes (mine was buffalo chicken with rocket, that's what the Brittish call Arugala, I love it), delicious Portugese food for dinner, and had gelato at their favorite place not once, but twice. Hey, it's vacation.
Hazel chillin at the crepe place, still salivating just thinking about it
us on the metro, I think I look a little spacy
coolest seats ever! This was the seating at the food court area of Camden Market

state bbq championships

when we saw signs for the state bbq championship,
i think we expected something a little different

either way, we saw a few signs, followed them
and found a fun festival with like 20 bbq options
we had a little picnic and ran around in the grass
it was a great family date night!

Boston Harbor Islands, part 2

so, part of the reason i wanted to check out the islands before
was so i could finish planning a trip with the young women in our ward
i'm the ward camp director and decided to have a pre camp gathering
it's totally amazing!
You take a ferry onto the islands and only share the island with a small number of people
we had a whole beach to ourselves where we did a nice campfire that night
perfect views of boston too
i would totally do it again!

sweet camping set up

we've been out camping a handful of times this summer
and who wouldn't with the sweet set up we get with nemo
brandon's company makes those lovely green tents you see below
i guess i grew up with a whole other level of camping gear
when we were trapped inside for an hour during a bit of a rain storm
i was so pleasantly surprised that there was not a single leak
i think brandon's response was something to the effect of "duh" but in nicer words


these pics are from lake pawtuckaway just about 45 minutes from our house
headed out camping with our ward tomorrow right new to the Joseph Smith birthplace memorial
should be pretty awesome!

Flag Day

back in June we went to the Boston Harbor Islands with some friends
we meaning Hazel and I went with my friend Amanda and her 3 cute kids
there was a free ferry in honor of Flag Day,
so we decided it would be the perfect day trip
the kids loved out mini hike, but most of all enjoyed playing in the water
we parked close to the aquarium so we popped in there for a bit to check it out too
it was such a beautiful day!
total blast, we'll have to find more excuses to go on day trips in the future!