Me and Steph have been spending a lot of weekends together recently. It's been really nice to be able to spend more time with her. It's been weird the past few weeks when we haven't seen each other. When I was at BYU we weren't really that close, so it's fantastic that we have a great relationship now, how grateful I am to have a wonderful cousin.
At the beginning of February I flew out to Ireland for the weekend. I had such a great time visiting with Avril. It was quite an eventful weekend in the end. On the Friday we drove up to Northern Ireland and visited Giant's Causeway. It's a feature I've been looking forward to seeing since I first heard about it. Call me a Geography geek but I love how this landmark was created by lava and volcanic activity way back when. I was pretty excite to see it in real life. Una was meant to be flying back from Budapest on Friday night but ended up missing her flight, and Avril was meant to be flying to the UK on Saturday morning but she too missed her flight (I know . . . What plonkers!! :) ) so me and Avril spent Saturday chilling out in Dublin City Centre. It was great to be able to catch up and chat and wonder around the shops. It was so great to actually get away for a weekend, it felt like a mini holiday!!
For February half term, me and the family drove down to the house in France and went skiing. It was the first time I've managed to go in 5 years (despite living only 30 minutes from the slopes in Utah I never went . . . Stupid student lifestyle). I was pretty excited to get back out onto the slopes, and had the goal to get back on to a red slope. However, when I got onto the green I quickly realised that I had forgotten how to ski. It was so hard getting back into it, and I think I've become more of a scardy cat than I was the last time we skied. As we went up the chair lift for the last run on the first day, I fell as I was getting off the chair lift. One ski popped off causing the fall and for the other ski to come off to . . . I ended up bashing my knee pretty hard and it was so painful to ski back down and walk on that leg. Because of that I didn't ski on the second day, and then we spent a few days chilling at the house. On the Friday we went back to the resort, but since the weather was pretty cold and foggy we let the boys go off on the good slopes and the rest of us went sledging and then for hot chocolate... Yum!!
The last day of the holiday me, Dad, Josh and Jake went back up to the slopes where the weather was GORGEOUS. I was roasting after the first slope, seriously felt like sunbathing. We then had to go up a really steep drag lift. I hate drag lifts at the best of times without the added stress of holding on for dear life. Josh and Jake then took us on the hardest blue slope. It was really narrow, and there was a bend with sheet ice. I think I was literally stuck on this corner for ages, I hated it, I don't like skiing on ice. My legs were pretty sore for about a week after that slope.
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| Josh and Jake call me a pretty skier ... On the green!! |
In the middle of March, Avril, Una, Veronica, and Daniel came over from Ireland for the Cardiff UV dance and stayed at mine. We spent some time on the Saturday visiting Cheddar and Weston-Super-Mare, and then on Sunday we had a massive roast and visited Blaise castle. The weather held out pretty good, and the views and walks were beautiful. I loved having them come and visit!!
This is what I came down to the day before my birthday (since I spent my actual birthday at Mom and Dads). Don't I have fantastic housemates!! That night we went out to eat with a group of friends to Don Giovannis in Bristol which was pretty good. After that Grace, Rachel and Kevin made me a birthday cake, and then a few of us went up to Clifton to go rock sliding by the bridge. It was really good fun, I loved it!!
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| My pretty flowers now that they have started coming out. |
I love Easter, partly because it involves a lot of Chocolate. :) Here is my Easter haul this year.
Josh has received his mission call . . . He's going to be going to the Enlgand Manchester Mission on 9th August. It's pretty exciting news.
There is still so much to look forward to this month. At the end of the month the BYU singers are going to be coming to England, and singing in Bristol. I am way excited because my friend Nick is in the BYU singers and is therefore going to be coming to visit. IIt's been 2 years since I was last in the US so I am excited to see one of my American friends :)
The beginning of May is the Bristol 4 day convention. Excitement!!
In just 2 weeks it marks 3 whole years since I left BYU. Some days it seems just like yesterday since I left, and others it seems like a lifetime ago. I miss BYU so bad, I still get so homesick for Provo, the culture, and the American food and of course all my friends. It's really hard being so far away from everything I love out there, I definitely left part of my heart out in Provo. I can't believe I left 3 years ago . . . I can't believe I've been working for Ryanair for almost that long. I actually didn't think that I would still be there.
Sorry for the long update, next time I'll try and blog a bit more frequently.
