https://youtu.be/1q3WULtoMJO This is a link to our YouTube video of Texas. We decided to change things up a bit and came to Texas for our last three weeks of our Abroad Experience. My sister lives in Texas and this was the perfect time to spend three weeks visiting her and her husband. We stayed in Bayou Vista in a beautiful house on the Ocean Canals. We enjoyed some cool weather for Texas, in the high 60's up to the 90's. Most of the time the humidity was relatively low too. It was perfect. We paddle boarded out from the backyard dock and the little girls enjoyed swimming in the ocean canal water. Zeke and Luke even got daring and jumped from the elevated deck into the water. Soon Sicily was jumping off with her brothers too. We paddle boarded, fished, played games and relaxed. Fishing We learned in Texas you can fish with an underwater light. This was Awesome! There was a light attached to the dock that went under the water and when it was on at night you could see the fish...

Here is a video of our week in London: https://youtu.be/sSbQFJqMu6A We had a wonderful time enjoying a week in London. Previously, in our abroad experience, we have been in London two other times, but the first was for a short day trip and the other was flying out of the London airport. This time we stayed in a beautiful row house in London. My London was so excited to finally be in London; we all were excited. We enjoyed seeing and riding the red double decker buses, seeing the Tower of London, and the Tower Bridge. We enjoyed riding the Tube and the Overground train, visiting the British Museum and the British Library. Also, we enjoyed the musicals Wicked and Phantom of the Opera, and a Royal Ballet dance performance. With London's expansive public transportation, a car was not necessary, and we soon learned that only the extremely wealthy drove cars in London. There is a Congestion fee each day a person drives there and parking is extremely expensive. We ended up parking our car...

https://youtu.be/ns0NDLPOY_4 Edinburgh Castle It was so fun and incredible to visit the Edinburgh Castle. Justin and I, 27 years earlier as newly weds, visited this castle. It has been a favorite of ours ever since. We enjoyed visiting the castle, which is build in 1103 AD atop the giant Castle Rock, which was formed as the result of a volcano erupting a million years previously. Because it was built on Castle Rock, it gives the Edinburgh Castle a majestic look when down in the valley. One side of the Edinburgh Castle has the Royal Mile, the other side has the grand view from the valley. The Royal Mile is a Scottish mile (longer that an English mile), with Edinburgh Castle at the start and the Palace of Holyroodhouse at the other end. This Royal Mile has been used as a procession area for the last 500 years. Saint Andrews Golf Links Justin and Zeke were so excited to visit Saint Andrews Golf Course. Justin compared this day trip for him and Zeke, to all the Jane Austen days we had...

Preston, England Temple Our family had a relaxing and enjoyable time back in England. We chose to go to Preston, England for a week, which is where the the second temple in England is built. We had a fun time attending the temple a few times this week. Preston, England is the first place outside of the USA that missionary were sent to in 1837, for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We visited the River Ribble, where the first English saints were baptized. This was special to us because, these saints are the beginnings of how a great part of both mine and Justin’s ancestors learned about the church and then immigrated to the USA.  I enjoyed a few hours of looking through family search.org and following my ancestors back to see what cities and countries some were from. I have figured out that I am about 3/4 English, 1/8 Welsh, 1/16 Danish and 1/16 German. That was very interesting to me. I definitely love the familysearch.org app. It is amazing seeing all...

What a wonderful and unique experience. We were able to visit, touch, and climb on pyramids that were over 4,500 years old! Please watch this video it shows a little clip of our time in Egypt. https://youtu.be/fp68uPXiJUo The first night when we arrived our driver took us to the grocery store. We walked around the store choosing items and filling our carts. Grocery items were about a third of the price, to what they cost in American.  In Egypt they use Egyptian Pounds and 100 Egyptian pounds equal about 33 cents. So you can imagine our $100 of groceries were over 3,300 Egyptian pounds. I took a picture of the check out screen, because it seemed so crazy to see such a large number. When we took our groceries out to our vehicle, there was a mother with a baby asking for money, I gave her some and then a little girl came up selling beads trinkets so we bought one and then another mother and baby came up needing money, soon we had all sorts of people around us and our driver had to hold...

We had the opportunity to fly to the Holy Land of Jerusalem and have two of our older children join us, so nine of us total. We took a flight from London to Tel Aviv. From Tel Aviv we went by a taxi/shuttle bus to Jerusalem. Our rental apartment in Jerusalem was in the Jewish Area outside of the Jerusalem Gates. This week I worked to put a video together of what we saw in Jerusalem and have compiled it into a Youtube video, I hope you enjoy: http://youtu.be/rtleulHzqjc I have a testimony of my Savior and it was really special to visit some of the places he lived, walked and preformed miracles. The Garden Tomb The Garden Tomb was really nice. It is located in a small garden area near Skull Hill, which is the hill the Savior may have been crucified on. I learned the Roman's crucified people near busy road ways and 2000 years ago this area was a hill near a busy road with a rock cliff resembling a skull on it (Skull Hill). We happened to arrive and have a couple minutes to ourselves...

My Eliza turns 18! Eliza my middle child, turned eighteen! We now have five adult children!!! Eliza is a kind, thoughtful, helpful, and a beautiful and smart daughter. She was my easy child. I love her so much. We had a nice day having a Jane Austen photo shoot (1800's dress), eating Indian food, going on a walk and Caroline (our missionary) was able to call Eliza on her special day. The Birth Place of Shakespeare-Stratford at Avon We visited the birth home of William Shakespeare and saw his wife's, Anne Hathaway, home too. We enjoyed looking at the shops and seeing the boat locks.  Luke even got to help a man and lady open and close the locks to let their house boat through. It was so fun talking with this couple, hearing a bit about their life and watching them use and teach us to use the water locks. Here is a video of Luke helping with the locks: The lady said she and her husband lived in the house boat, which had a shower and washing  machine. She also said when she gets tired...

Our rental house called Wickham cottage Footpath Horses we visited on a footpath near our rental house The crazy horses! Pigmy goat that we saw on the footpath Zeke carrying London We are staying for a week in the cottage of Wickham in Biddestone, England. It is an adorable town. So many towns have cottages that are so close to the road, or tall hedges so you can’t see the yard of the home. This town is unique in that it has a small public area in the center and homes and farm’s surrounding it.  There are public walk areas just steps from our cottage.  My London loves the word, “cottage” and is happy to stay in a cottage. The public walks are incredible. The townships have public walk areas, which are labeled and go through people's private property. However, according to the law, the land owners have to allow people to walk through their land on these public foot paths. We talked to an owner of some adorable pigmy goats, and she explained that they have to allow others to...

We left the Island of Sicily and drove to Milan, where Justin was waiting for us. Aboard the ferry leaving Sicily, Italy I had to take a screen shot of the google map, because I don't think I will ever have this opportunity again. Our time visiting Sicily, Italy was wonderful. I was so happy to have been able to see such a beautiful part of Italy. We were all sad to say good-bye, but we were anxious to meet up with Justin in Milan, where we would then fly to England. We had a three day journey ahead of us, driving about 6-7 hours each day. It was really fun seeing the beautiful landscapes of Southern Italy. It is amazing to me how many tunnels we drove through. When the road comes to a hill or mountain, the Italians make a tunnel through it rather than drive over it. It is definitely easier on the driver. Some tunnels took us about five minutes to drive through. In total from Alcamo, Sicily to Milan, we probably went through 50 tunnels. Boarding the ferry was successful and a bit...

This blog is the second half of our time in Sicily, Italy. A total of 17 days! Palermo outdoor market Salt Pans of Marsala Valley of the Temples in Agrigento We stayed on the beautiful island of Sicily for 17 days. Spending over two weeks in the same place has been our longest stay in one place. We did this intentionally, because this was the time Justin returned to Utah for work and Brooklyn returned home to be with her dog. I have been asked over and over while here in Sicily (Sicilia in Italian), why I named my daughter Sicily. When I tell those asking that I loved the name and hoped to one day visit, they always smile and seem so pleased at my Sicily's name. This island of Sicily is definitely beautiful. We were fortunate to have rented a house on the beach coast of Alcamo. Alcamo, near the beach, is nearly closed down for the winter. Just as we arrived here, I was told, the weather started to get a bit colder around 54 degrees, and most people here consider this very cold. So...