Gene and Deb's awesome European Vacation!

Gene and I had a fantastic time in Frankfurt and London. We were there 10 days and had a blast exploring these amazing cities. There were a few days that Gene needed to work, but for the most part we traveled by taxi, bus, train and foot to as many places as we could. The weather was perfect and our hotels were very, very nice. While in London we enjoyed two shows: Les Miserables and Wicked. Both were incredible! Here are a few pics from our trip, starting with London~

Princess Diana memorial fountain in Hyde Park. (our hotel was across from Hyde Park... HUGE park, puts Central Park to shame!) (like I've been to Central Park! that's what Gene said!)

Wicked! Bad photo, awesome musical, hilarious, too! Les Mis was amazing, as well. London has more theaters than any city in the world, so there Broadway! Can you see the dragon at the very top of this pic?

Westminster Abby. Crazy old, beautiful and kinda looks like a sandcastle.

The Tower of London! We spent hours and hours here. The Tower of London was an entire community. Like with castles, it's an entire city within the walls. Built in 1040 or somewhere around that time. The next picture is my all time favorite:

Inside the Tower of London, well, one of the towers anyway, there are inscriptions left behind by the different prisoners...(graffiti from the 1500's) there are hundreds of them all over the walls. If you look hard enough, you will see that this one is from 1567. These poor guys were all executed by beheading just up the street from here. Ann Bolin, Henry the VIII's wife was beheaded here, I saw her grave site in the old church on these grounds, there are thousands of bodies buried in that church. After they beheaded the poor person, they stuck his head on a spear and placed the spear upon the London Bridge to warn people who were entering London. The head-less bodies were buried in that church that I walked through.

Germany pictures now:

The happy couple at the castle in Heidelberg.

Look at all the scary heads staring down at you! CREEEEEPY!

Heidelberg

Walking distance from our hotel. Reminds me of Disneyland... kinda, sorta.

Right by our hotel. Lovely Frankfurt.

Chloe's future car. A Smart Car! :)

Once again, Heidelberg Castle. I can't remember when it was built.... 10-something??
It's kinda falling apart here and there... this place was amazing. Acres and acres of land surrounding this beautiful castle along with other fantastic buildings. The castle grounds were beautiful. There were a bride and groom getting their wedding pictures done on the grounds.

Roman ruins dating back to 75 AD. Crazy old. There were old Roman ruins at the Tower of London as well. It was hard for me to wrap my brain around something so ancient.

Family Fun Magazine FHE

Tonight for FHE the girls made these milk carton jack-o-lantern type guys! Kinda cool, even cooler from far away! Oh well, something fun to do as a family.....

Harrison Family came for a visit

Sally Ann and Nathan Harrison came by for a quick visit Sunday morning. Of course they brought along their two adorable babes: Annie and Carter. Our girls had a blast playing with their baby cousins, and we all had a nice time watching Sunday morning conference together.
They currently live in Idaho, by Boise. They had come down to attend Sally's dad's missionary reunion. We were glad they came by! It was a fun visit. :)

Chloe the tennis pro...

Nice toss, Chloe!

She had a fun season, but now it's over. She was #3 on the team this year and improved her game big time! Now she can focus more on her studies, grades and oh my goodness! Studying the DMV booklet and passing the test to get her learner's permit..... no way.... can this be true??? I'm afraid so... but only if she maintains all A's. (mean mom)

:)

Halloween Pumpkins!

These are the largest of our pumpkins from our crazy pumpkin patch in our backyard. Right now that huge one is sitting in the wheel barrow in front of our porch, that's all I can do for now. I'll have to wait for Gene to get home to help me place it on our porch! We have several other pumpkins growing, but the other day we had snow and the frost pretty much killed the pumpkin plant, so we'll end up with around 4-5 pumpkins. It's been fun watching this plant grow and grow and watching the baby pumpkins grow into monster ones!