twenty four.

cougar week has come and gone, and mr erickson and i are now twenty four. i asked my nephews if i looked older... and they said yes. so there's that.

for my birthday we went down to london with no plans. the weather was perfect. we just walked and shopped and ate lots of fatty things. just what i wanted.

twenty three was pretty great, and i'm excited for what twenty four has to offer. 

a visit from the kirchhoefers.

one of our very favorite families in the whole world came for a holiday. we used to take over the kirchhoefers house in the springs while the mister was at the academy. so when they asked to come stay at our house for a few days i couldn't say no. although seven people in our two bedroom-one shower house was a little crazy. 

we got to show them around bury and introduce them to the market. then we made our way to cambridge.

 it was all of our first time punting. so much fun! 

 the day before they arrived wendi received devastating news that she has stage two breast cancer. they weren't going to be able to do surgery for a few weeks so they decided to make the trip anyway. i got to take these photos of wendi while i was doing some senior pictures for jenna. if you know wendi, she is beautiful inside and out. you know how positive and full of life she is. if anyone can beat cancer it's her. 

i definitely catered to her while she was here, if she wanted to eat pizza that's what she got-i also let her cut it with scissors. whatever. 

side note- she has now had a successful surgery and will be starting chemo. please keep her in your prayers.

we took it pretty easy, watched general conference and took a walk on sunday. nice and easy. 

they wanted to see something english. so we headed up to see oxburgh hall. guys. it has a moat.

 on their last day we headed down to london. first stop? platform 9 and 3/4 at kings cross. i'm reading harry potter for the first time ever right now, so it was fun to go see it. we didn't make it through the wall, though. my magic didn't work that day.

we love you, kirchhoefer family. we were missing kayli and derek, buuuut maybe next time.

karma. or something like it.

tuesday was a day from hell. 

to not get too deep into the pity party i was throwing for myself, i will tell you that i hit the bush backing out of my driveway, i also hit a car pulling into the car park at the market, (the bush did damage, the other car was completely fine). i drove into the wrong queue to get on base and i'm pretty sure my fly was open the whole time i was out and about. hell, guys.

mr erickson is back in the states for the since saturday and won't be home until sunday. i think he will ground me from the car when he gets home and i will be happy to let him!

but then i woke up and it was wednesday. my cousin was in london for a few days and had a full free day to play. i drove an hour to the underground to find that the car park was completely full. i quickly googled a different car park that was farther away, but that one didn't work out either- knowing it was a lost cause, i drove back down to the station anyways, it was still full. duh.

i drove through a neighborhood, and being the helpless woman that i am- rolled down my window and asked a man if there was anywhere to park. he didn't even hesitate to tell me he had an extra permit for his apartment and let me borrow it. giving me an envelope and telling me to just pop it in his box when i got back. i gave simon a peck on the cheek (it's england) and was off.

we had a fabulous day in london which could have started out terrible. i hope karma is good to simon and that little act of kindness and mercy he showed me.

lexi and i walked through piccadilly circus, found a cute market. enjoyed the incredible wicked, ate amazing cupcakes, delicious food and laughed all day. 

if i can have a day like that after every bad day, that'd be fine by me.

a weekend in london.

we took far too long to finally get down to london and see the sites. jared had another three day weekend, i'm playing catchup if you can't tell, so we took advantage and caught the train to london.

we signed up for a two day big bus tour where you can get on a off the bus as much as you want, it is definitely the best way to see a lot of london in a short amount of time.

we are lucky to live close enough to be able to go back and spend more time in different places.  

i could [and did] stare at big ben and parliament all day. most gorgeous building.

we went to changing of the guards on sunday morning. it wasn't any more exciting than a military parade. but buckingham palace is pretty great.

hyde park and kensington palace/park are definitely places i want to go back and spend more time. in the winter, the sun goes down by four in the afternoon- we started walking through the park at three and by five it's pitch dark. (and by seven you want to go to sleep).

the tower of london was really interesting. i was hoping for more torture devices, but ya win some ya lose some.

our last stop before heading home was to see the boy who never grew up. 

you could spend a year in london and [maybe] see everything. can't wait to return again and hit up some shows and shopping.