Moms on the Loose in Europe...

Jeremy called me in January and asked if I would be able to  accompany Emily on a trip to visit her parents who were serving a mission in London. I was ecstatic when Scott agreed we could work it out. Jeremy surprised Emily on Valentines Day with the news and we started counting down the days! We were able to fly into Paris for a few days and then onto England. The most exciting part of the trip would be being able to finally see the Crawley Chapel. Having heard all of the miracle stories my entire life, I couldn't believe I would finally get to see it with my own eyes.

After a teary good-bye to our families, Scott dropped us off at the Salt Lake airport. Watch out Paris and London, the Real Housewives of Utah County are on their way!

Emily and I were used to our husbands taking the lead on vacations. Scott was worried about us being able to find our way around on our own. I'm happy to report that we did more than fine! I was especially proud of us because we were in a foreign country. Emily has had five years of French in school, but the reputation of the French people held true. When Emily would try and speak to them in French, they would often get this arrogant look on their face and reply, "In English, please!"

 After finding our hotel and dropping off our luggage, we found a darling street with shops and restaurants. While enjoying our first meal, we were discussing our plans of what to see when a French woman at the table next to us, told us in her thick accent and with a look of unbelievable annoyance, "Will you PLEASE be quiet?!?!" I did not know it was physically possible to roll your eyes in such a dramatic fashion. I think I would have crawled under the table and hid until she left if I hadn't read in a travel guide how different the culture of the French is to ours. It explained that if you walk down the street with a smile on your face, saying, "Good Morning!" to people, they will think you are odd and goofy. They keep to themselves, avoid eye contact, and do not greet strangers. They also are much more quiet and to themselves than Americans. Despite that knowledge, it made for a very awkward and tense finishing of our meal. We didn't even dare clink our utensils on the plates and we didn't utter another word to each other. I did relax a bit after she started shushing every table around her, it wasn't just us Loud Americans.

After dinner, we headed to the Eiffel Tower and walked the 1710 steps up. The stairs go to the second platform and then we took the "lift" to the top. It was at the top that we made a new friend who was quite eccentric and made us laugh. While we were talking, the guy asked us if we were from America. When we replied we were, he said, "I just LOVE your accents! You're like American Cowgirls!" He told us his name was Jonas and he was visiting from London. We told him that Americans just love British accents and he just couldn't believe anyone would like anything better than American accents.

The next day we went to the Palace of Versailles. It was unbelievable! Although overwhelming and gaudy, it was amazing to see just how royalty lived, especially considering so many of the people were starving to death.

This is the bedroom where Maria Antionette slept and the door she escaped from when the Palace was invaded during the French Revolution.

The Hall of Mirrors is where anyone coming to visit the Palace would enter. Again, just overwhelming gaudy.

The grounds of the Palace were just gorgeous! We made our way to Marie Antionette's village that she built. She liked to put on "working clothes" and go out and work on the farm. She was definitely unique in that was and was looked down on by other royals for doing so.

On the way back to the train from Versailles, we stopped at a bakery for the infamous macarons. These small cookies have been a staple in France, but are just catching on in the U.S. All French desserts were amazing.

That night in our hotel, I had a little blue nailpolish incident. I dropped my bottle of bright blue (you can see in the picture how bright it is on my fingernails) in the WHITE and GREY bathroom on the floor and shattered and flew EVERYWHERE! I was more than panicked. I was hoping nailpolish remover would take it off, but I had no idea where to even find it. In the little town around our hotel, there were a lot of tiny stores, but not any that looked like they might carry remover. Everything was closed by this time, so we'd have to go in the morning. We had to check out of our hotel the next morning, so it was a long sleepless night wondering if I would be able to find remover. Emily and I started wandering the streets as soon as the stores opened, anxiously looking for any place that might have what we needed. We saw a cosmetic store and excitedly ran up to it, but it was still closed and as we tried to scan all of the merchandise through the window, it didn't look like they had any remover. After we'd been looking for quite a while and I was feeling very stressed, thinking I would be charged some insane cleaning fee from the hotel, we looked at a little souvenier shop. It had a little bit of everything and I spotted a little case with nail polish and what looked like it could be remover. I grabbed the bottle and tried to ask the worker if this was remover since I couldn't read the French. He didn't speak English, so I started making this motion like I was wiping something off my fingernails. He nodded his head and Emily and I let out a jubilant cheer. I can only imagine what this man was thinking of these two crazy Americans who were that excited about finding nail polish remover. Now, to see if it would take the polish off of the bathroom....

Thankfully, it did. We used the entire bottle getting it all off, but it worked! In this picture we took later at a restaurant, you can see the evidence still on Emily's right hand. We went to this restaurant because it's the location for one of Emily's favorite movies, "Amelia." The menu was in French without any translation, so I wasn't very brave and when the waiter took my order, I said, "Just some French Fries." He replied, "You mean American fries?" I wasn't sure what he meant, do they not call them French Fries in France? I just smiled and nodded. The restaurant was near the infamous Moulin Rouge. We couldn't believe how long the line to get in Moulin Rouge was! It was all the way down the block. A lot of people interested in seeing a topless dancing show...

While walking to take our train to London, we stopped at Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame. Sainte Chapelle has all the stories of the Bible represented in the stained glass windows.

Behind Notre Dame runs the River Seine. Couples come and place their Love Lock on the bridge and then throw the key into the river to symbolize their eternal love. I couldn't wait to get back and place our Love Lock on the bridge with Scott.

We boarded the train and were London bound! The train we rode actually went under the ocean, but it all just looked black to us since it was through a tunnel. Emily was beyond thrilled to see her parents when they picked us up at the train station. I was so thrilled to have a tour guide and not have to try to figure out where everything was. Tim and Patcee were so kind and generous while we were there. The first stop on our list was the Crawley Chapel.

Even approaching the chapel, I was emotional. All my life I've heard the stories of the miracles that happened with the construction of the chapel and I was finally going to see it! Grandpa's presence was definitely felt there. It was obvious to see his "touches"- he loves color and added it wherever he could, like colored tiles in the restrooms. I loved the solid, heavy wooden doors in front of the baptismal font. Everything seemed to be standing the test of time really well- a testament to his insistence on excellence and only top quality work.

We found the elementary school that Mom went to. We were in the right neighborhood for the home they lived in, but we couldn't find the exact location.

After the chapel, we went to the London Temple. I've heard stories from time my Grandparents and Mom spent their, too. The grounds of the temple were gorgeous and the spring flowers in bloom.

Temple Patron Housing

 The Temple Gate House where the Temple President and his family live. Mom remembers playing with the President's children when they came to visit.

Tim and Patcee took us to see darling villages and chapels, Beachy Head, Big Ben, Tower of London and were generous enough to treat us to tickets to the play, "Wicked." While we were there, Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister passed away and her funeral was held.

The Church has a huge, "I'm A Mormon," campaign going on in London. It was amazing to see all of the tube (subway) billboards covered in I'm A Mormon posters.