Bocket Petting Zoo

On the Train to Guildford to meet
Jeff's boss and his family

The Lama has a great smile too!!

Zack getting up close and personal with the goat milking
He cracks me up...he couldn't see so I told him go around
and sit in front of the people on the other side, but instead
he crouched down right where all the action
he's not embarrased to do anything

Watching a goat get milked

Zack and Jack

last one

I can't believe we only have one more month left. I have been expecting this month to come for the last 3 months, but never expected it to come this fast. This has been the fastest semester since we started this whole journey nearly 7 years ago. Wow have we been in school for that long!?! Now Jeff only has 3 more weeks. what a stud! He has done such a great job getting through all this schooling. He never complained about studying, or the tests he had to take or moving clear across the country and then clear across the world. He just did it. All while being a great husband and dad. I couldn't ask for a better man.

And now here we sit at the tail end of this adventure. We are so excited to be done...well almost done Jeff still has to take the Bar in July. Which means more studying...probably the most he has done his whole college career at one time.

But we are ready to get back to the states. Our time here has been fun and challenging. I have definatley been tested and have learned quite a bit about me and our little family. I'm glad we came, but at the same time it would have been so much easier to have just stayed in Utah. But if life was easy then what's the point...right...

I know zack is ready to get back...he is very active and it's been difficult for him to be in such tiny living spaces. He needs lots of room to run and be a kid. The kids did great with out their toys though. We really didn't bring very many. We were able to join the local library so we have new books every week. Which has been fantastic. They really have learned to enjoy books. When we first got here Reagan would have rather just tried to destroy them, but now she sits and listens to a story. And i've even caught zack "reading" to her. So cute!!

The things I miss the most are a washing machine and a dryer (we have one but it is a washer/dryer in one and is so small) i have to do laundry everyday to keep up with it.

I also miss driving my car to the store and being able to buy more than 3 days worth of groceries at one time. We have a very small fridge...the size they put in your hotel room...so we can't fit too much and by the time I have been in a grocery store the size of a 7-11, with tons of people, with a jogging stroller and two kids, and then I have to haul it all home (don't forget the kids have to come home too) and up 87 stairs, well you get the picture.

I'm not complaining, at all, it has been great fun to be here and for the most part people are nice. It's just when you know things can be done easier, faster and more efficient, it makes you ready to be home.

So the count down begins, we are almost done with the final chapter of law school, and we couldn't be more excited to start a new one. Sorry this post is so long, but it is just mainly so I don't forget some stuff.

yum-o

I'm not sure why, but when zack gets really bored and wants to do something I always think of what we can make, and it always centers around cooking.

So today we tried some pretty tastey pretzels. He really enjoyed rolling out the snakes...he thought it was kinda like play dough.

If your bored today and need something to do, try them they are great! (check my recipe list on the side)

The Hague

Last week I got a chance to go to The Hague and attend an oral proceeding at the European Patent Office. The opposition was as fun as patent law can get, but was very educational for me. However, the Hotel and more specifically the resturant in the hotel was fantastic. The resturant was obviously a five star resturant because once we had ordered our own starters and main dishes we were treated to three seperate apetizers. It was the kind of food that looks good as well as tastes fantastic. You know, the kind of food that comes in small portions and looks like it isn't fit for a snack. Since we had a lot of them though I was suprisingly full at the end of the meal.

Here are a few pictures from my trip:

This is me in front of the EPO.

Me doing my best to help in preparing for the oral proceedings.

A forbidden picture of the inside of the EPO. For some reason they don't want people taking photos of the foyer. It could hardly be for security reasons, because I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who would want to blow up a patent office let alone come all the way out here to the middle of nowhere to do it.


This has got to be the biggest picture of Sir Winston Churchill in the world!. The hotel was named in his honor: The Winston.

more photos

We went to another museum and it started out GREAT....

Then, I saw reagan doing this....

and then this....

and then they were both laying on the floor...

In silent protest that they are infact SICK of museums...

Our Trip to St. Paul's Cathedral

We decided to visit St. Paul's Cathedral today.

376 steps later we finally got to the Stone Gallery and got to look out over London. If you look close in the background you can see the London Eye. We couldn't go any higher than this because they closed the Golden Gallery which is another 30 meters higher at the top of the dome. The dome, I found out, is actually a dome within a dome and this is what the inside of the inner dome looks like.

The balcony in the oculus-type hole is the Golden Gallery and is closed because of renovations being made. To get there, you actually have to climb some steps in between the two domes. You can also see that they painted the inside of the outer dome to make it look like the dome is whole or continues.

St. Paul's also has a crypt in the lower level and down there is buried in this tomb Lord Nelson who was a vice-admiral in the Napoleonic Wars and was killed in the Battle of Trafalgar. I didn't get a picture of it, but the Duke of Wellington is also buried there. He was the Filed Marshal during the Battle of Waterloo.

This is the outside of St. Paul's.

Here as well.

Photo Time

for some reason it won't let me post any more pictures...I will try later....

London Zoo

The kids and I went to the zoo the other day. It was a lot of fun. It was hard to get good pictures though, I noticed a trend in the one's I did take. The kids were never looking at the same time except once.