We left our house today to begin our trip within a trip! We're heading into the English countryside for a few days, but we will be back in London on August 1st.

This morning we drove to Blenheim Palace where Winston Churchill was born and raised. The estate is now home to the Duke of Marlborough, but we were able to tour parts of it. The palace grounds are beautiful and we had a great time walking around the spectacular gardens. We had fun racing through the hedge maze, playing giant chess, taking pictures in the rose garden, and walking through the butterfly tent. We also got to see where Churchill proposed to his wife! Pretty neat!

Dad had planned to have a picnic out on the grounds, but it started raining pretty hard so we ended up having an indoor picnic! We tried a bunch of strange British foods, but our favorite was the clotted cream biscuit with jam!

After exploring the palace we got back in the car and drove through the Cotswolds. We saw tons of sheep and beautiful hill sides. Yellow and purple wildflowers grow along the side of the road everywhere here! It's beautiful! We stopped at an old mill to take pictures and walk by the stream and old church before continuing on to Stradford-upon-Avon.

When we made it to Shakespeare's birth place we walked over to the Trinity Church where he is buried. Unfortunately it was closed so we didn't get to see his actual grave, but we got to see where he grew up and lived. We ate dinner in Stradford-upon-Avon at a yummy place called Wildwood. My calzone was delicious and Zach enjoyed his chicken pasta.

Finally we drove to our hotel in Coventry where we will be staying for the next two nights. We got settled in and headed to bed!

The boys were all excited to go to church today so they could wear their fancy new ties! The London ward is really different in the fact that most of the congregation are visitors. There are only 3 local girls in the 14-18 year-old Sunday School class that Zach and I went to and the rest were visitors!

After church we walked next door to the Victoria and Albert museum where admission is free. We looked at the old furniture, dishes, and clothing on display. It was all really ornate. My favorite part was when we saw the Raphael paintings and tapestries. They all depicted scenes of Christ and the Apostles. It was super neat!

After exploring the museum we went to the Tube station where we ran into the missionaries! We talked with them for a bit before catching our train. Once we got home we made lunch and ate.

We left to the London Temple. It took about an hour and a half to get there because Dad and Mom were having a rough time navigating. Once we got there we went into the Visitor Center. It is so cool how they have it set up. They have little touch screen displays that you can do different things on. Dad and Zach got into the Temple Geography Quiz! We walked around the temple grounds and took many photos. The temple and grounds are so pretty! It was really fun!

We headed home and started preparing for our trip inside a trip tomorrow!

We rented a car today! Driving was pretty insane. The whole driving on the left side of the road thing is pretty hard to get used to! Dad did a great job maneuvering our black little stick shift car to Hampton Court Palace and we were all pleased to arrive safe and sound!

We had a great time exploring the palace where King Henry VIII lived. We learned all about his six wives and their unfortunate fates.


The palace is huge and we had a fun time looking at the old tapestries, stain glass windows, and paintings. There were people dressed up pretending to be members of the king's court and King Henry VIII himself. It was fun to watch their performances.

Later we walked around the palace gardens. They are incredible! They had tons of beautiful flowers, cacti, lemon and orange trees, and magnificent fountains! They even had a legit hedge maze that we raced to the middle of. Of course Zach and I won! We also saw the biggest grape vine in the world! While we were walking around outside it started to rain a bit so we made our way back to the car.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food for tomorrow. We ordered pizza and had a nice fun night together at home.

Today we took the Tube to Westminster Abbey! It is beautiful! We marveled at the building's  intricate details and I loved seeing where Will and Kate were married! We took a bunch of pictures out in front, but unfortunately they don't allow photography inside.

The Abbey is an interesting place. It functions as a Christian place of worship as well as a place for royal weddings, coronations, and funerals. We took a tour of the Abbey which turned out to be really fun and informative! We got to see the coronation chair and many spectacular stone memorials. Our tour guide explained the history of the Kings and Queens of England that have been buried here. We got to see many of their elaborate memorials and crypts.We also go to see where Charles Darwin, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens,  and Isaac Newton are buried!

The Abbey is completely full of memorials and crypts! They don't bury many people there anymore because there simply isn't anymore room! As you walk across the floor you step over countless graves and tile memorials. However, there was one part of the floor that you couldn't walk on. They had it roped off and surrounded with red flowers. It's called the memorial of the unknown soldier. Our guide told us that an unknown soldier who died during WW2 was buried there and now his grave serves as a memorial to all the people who have died defending their countries during international wars. The inscription was made of what looked like gold, but was actually melted down bullet pieces that had been used in WW2. It was a really nice memorial and so cool to learn the history behind it.

After visiting the Abbey we headed to get some lunch. We stopped at a shop that had a bunch of ties on sale in their window. The ties came in little boxes with cuff links and a pocket square. The men of the family were all really excited about it and we left with 6 different ties!

We ate lunch at a fun little European chain restaurant called Giraffe! Then we walked over to Hyde Park. We went on the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial walk and saw her memorial play ground and fountain. We also saw the Albert Memorial that Queen Victoria had built after his death. She must have really loved and missed him because his memorial was insane! It was huge and super ornate! We kept walking and saw the Peter Pan statue and the Italian Gardens! The Italian Gardens were built by Albert as a gift to his love Victoria. Like Victoria's memorial to Albert, this gift from Albert to Victoria is fantastic! We all got some ice cream and sat admiring the beautiful fountains. I tried a Dairy Milk ice cream covered in Cadbury chocolate and Zach had some really good mint chocolate chip ice cream.


While walking through the park we passed Kensington Palace where Will, Kate, and the baby prince of Cambridge live! Although the actual palace wasn't very impressive,  the gardens out in front were spectacular!

After checking out the palace we headed home.

We got to sleep in today! After going and going all week it was nice to relax a bit this morning. We did some laundry, cleaned up a bit, and went to the grocery store.

We ended up taking the Tube into the city around two and went to Oxford Street to do some shopping! Dad took the boys to the Apple store and Nike Town while Mom and I went to some of the department stores here! It started out a bit rough, but ended up being really good! It was fun to see the London styles and try on cute hipster outfits! Although some of the department stores were a bit out of my price range, I did buy a cute shirt, some headbands, and a sweet bag! The boys enjoyed shopping in one of the suit stores and Zach bought a classy tie clip.

We enjoyed a real English dinner of fish and chips before finishing up the shopping and heading back home!

Happy Pioneer Day! I'm so grateful for the early saints who sacrificed everything to heed the prophet's voice and head to Zion. Many of the early members of the church came from England so it's neat to be here and remember them today.

We took the Tube into London this morning where we finally got to see Big Ben! The clock tower is huge and the surrounding/connecting building is so intricate! It's incredible! We took a walking tour called "This is London" where we basically just got introduced to the city. It was really neat! We got to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The Queen was in the Palace today!

After our walking tour we ate lunch at a fun chain store called Pret A Manger. They had all kinds of sandwiches, salads, and fruits to choose from! Then we sat in the park for a bit before going to Hamleys. Hamley's is a 7 story toy store that the little boys loved! They found some neat remote control cars that can race on the ceiling so they were pretty excited about that!

When we finally left Hamleys we took a double decker bus over to the London Eye! There was a huge line, but since Dad had bought tickets online we got to bypass most of the crowd and basically walked right on! We rode to the top and were able to see out across the whole area around.  It was amazing!

Afterwards we ate outside by the harbor at a Dim Sum place called Ping Pong! It was fun to try lots of different dishes and share them up.

Then we went over to the Tower of London for the Ceremony of the Keys! The ceremony of the keys is when they lock up the tower and the exact same ceremony has been happening every night for 700 years! They've never missed a night and were only late once, when London was being bombed during WW2. It was really fun to be at the tower at night and see the white tower all lite up! The tower bridge and many of the iconic landmarks have been lite up in blue to celebrate Will and Kate's baby boy!

Then we took the Tube home and headed to bed!

We woke up early today and got ready for church. The bus we were planning to take was delayed, but we managed to get to church right on time. The London ward was awesome and we got to talk with the sister missionaries which was way fun! They had a special Sunday School class for visitors so Dad, Mom, Zach, and I all went to it while the younger boys went to primary. We all had a great time!

After church we walked over to a nearby park to eat the sack lunches we'd packed. Then we went to the Science and Natural History museums since admission is free. The Science museum had an awesome hands on physics floor which the boys loved! Some of the highlights include the rocket launch, dry ice pool, and the reflection watch. Next we walked over to the Natural History museum. The building itself was probably my favorite part! It was built in 1881 by a very spiritual man who believed in the creation. The building looks a lot like an old church equip with high arches and stain glass windows. The stone was intricately carved with plants and animals. It was super cool! We saw tons of old dinosaur bones, a kola bear, a life sized blue whale replica, minerals, and precious gems!

We were getting pretty tired after that so we headed home via the tube and the buses. When we got home we relaxed, played games, ate dinner, and got ready for our trip to Paris tomorrow!

From the Borough Market we walked over to the Tate Modern, London's modern art museum. It was amazing to see a real Picasso up close! After looking through the museum we walked across the Millennium Bridge and enjoyed the beautiful view of the Thames and the surrounding area. We were also able to see the top of St. Paul's Cathedreal. Then we hopped on the Tube and headed home!

This morning we had to stop by Victoria Station to get Oyster Cards for everyone. Oyster cards are used to pay for public transit. Then we headed to the Tower of London, which was built in 1078.The tower was once home to the royal family. We got to see all the royal crowns, jewels, and scepters in the Crown Jewels collection, but unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures inside the vault! They were amazing! 

Next we went on a tour given by a Yeoman Warder (Beefeater). The tour was a lot of fun as we got to explore the tower and learn about the royalty who'd lived, loved, and died there. We got to go inside of the old cathedral which was really neat.

We went through the White Tower and had a good time looking at the old armor and weapons. We walked through some other cool buildings including the Coins and Kings royal mint! It was fun to see all the old British money! I hadn't realized Isaac Newton had been in charge of the Mint during his life!

After exploring the tower we walked out to the Tower Bridge and crossed the RIver Thames. The Tower Bridge is intricately decorated and we had a great time taking pictures while walking across. Then we went to the Borough Market which was just like a huge farmers market. It was so crowded we could hardly move around! It ended up being really fun, and we tried some homemade potstickers, english sausages, turkish delight, tropical smoothies, and granola! 

Later we took a boat ride down the canal over to Little Venice. The ride was fun and took us through some of London's back streets and past the US Ambassador's house!

We walked to a nice little area that was full of small restaurants. We ate our dinner outside in the big open area which was nice.