London, and Michaels, and rings...Oh my!

We flew from Charles DeGalle into London Luton airport and took a train into town. Our hostel right next to russel square wasn't all that great but it worked. The first night we got stuck in an "under construction" room but the rest of the nights we had decent sleeping rooms. We found this restaurant that we really liked called Giraffe, and ate there 2 of the nights we were in London. After dinner we went to see the London Eye and walked along the river over to where Parliament and Westminster Abbey are. It was so fun to see these things that we had heard about, but to see them in person was so much more fun. Everything was lit up and reflected off the water, which was cool and we determined that even after being there just a couple of hours we already loved this city.

The day after we got there I got really excited, because unbeknownst to Emily or any of our friends, Michael was planning to fly out to London and surprise emily. So I had us get all dressed up in our cute dresses and we planned to have afternoon tea in the park. It was the perfect plan. We left the hotel and went to see the London Tower, the Tower Bridge, and Buckingham Palace. We sat in Green Park for a while and enjoyed everyone louging in the grass on lunch breaks from work. We then went to Harods which was such a cool store, with everything you could ever want. Big designer clothes, interesting furniture, and yummy pastries kept us entertained for a long time as we explored the 5 levels of the giant store. We got some pastries for our tea time, then went over to starbucks and got our favorite kinds of tea. I was supposed to have Emily in the park at the Joy of life fountain at 5:30 where Michael would meet us so we headed over to the park. I asked if we could find the fountain because "i really wanted to see it." We asked and asked people but no one knew where it was, we also found a map and couldn't find it on the map. I was getting really worried that we wouldn't find it! We finally found where it was and had to walk all the way across the park to get there. Emily was so sweet to fulfill my desire to sit by the fountain, even though it seemed a little silly. So we set up our stuff when we got there and enjoyed a wonderful tea party in the park. When 5:30 came around I kept glancing around hoping to see Michael at any minute but he never showed up. By 6 and 6:15 it was hard to justify staying in that spot because our food was all gone and we were getting cold. I was worried his plane may have been delayed or thought he might have gotten lost on his way to the park. So we went back to the hostel to get jackets and chill for a while. I checked at the front desk and they said he hadn't checked in yet so i sent him an email asking where he was. About a 1/2 an hour later he emailed me back and said "Oh no! i thought you knew i was coming tomorrow!!" Oh, I felt so stupid! I got the days mixed up. It was a good thing i didn't say anything to Emily about the mishap, and spoil the surprise. The rest of the night we found some fun places to look at down the street and got some pizza for dinner. Tomorrow would be the day Michael comes.

Since we had gotten all dressed up yesterday, we just wore normal clothes to sightsee around today. We went to see Shakespear's Globe theater, and St. Paul's Cathedral, then took the tube over to Piccadilly Circus which was a crazy part of town! Then we relaxed in Kensington Gardens for a while because it was such a beautiful sunny day. We searched for a while to find the Peter Pan statue, and finally did, then after that I suggested we go sit by the london eye and "watch it go round." The Jubilee Gardens next to the london eye was the new meeting place michael suggested because I had blown the first one. So we arrived and walked a round a little bit then settled down in the middle of the grass. I was looking around hoping so much to see Michael. After a couple of minutes he appeared behind us and surprised Emily as she was taking pictures of the clouds rolling by. He talked for a little while and pulled out a ring and proposed. It was so sweet, and Emily was entirely shocked. She couldn't believe he was there, in london, half way across the world. I was relieved that everything went so well. Having Michael there with us the rest of the time was so much fun. We went to dinner at Giraffe to celebrate that night, and Emily called her family to tell them the big news. It was a fun day.

Our last couple of days in London we saw the rest of the sights, got to watch the London marathon, and got a tour of the city from Michael's cousin. After the tour we went over to his cousin's friend's house and had desert and champagne to celebrate their engagement. Our last day got a little overcast and rainy but that didn't stop us from having fun. We went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards, but they weren't having the ceremony that day, so we headed toward Harods because Emily wanted to take Michael to see it. I let them have the rest of the day to themsleves and went to cafe Nero, a little coffee shop, to catch up on some journalling. After that I shopped at H&M for a while, then stopped in at the National Gallery. I didn't even pay attention to most of the rooms, i just found the 3 impressionist rooms and settled there, enjoying the artwork. There were some really fun paintings by Monet and Pissarro that I admired for a long while. After the Gallery I met Emily and Michael back at the hostel and we got ready for dinner and WICKED. Dinner at this little italian place was good, and Wicked was soooo fun. It was the perfect ending to our trip.

Flying home, the three of us left around the same time, Michael going straight back to LAX and Emily and I flying to Chicago. When we got to Chicago we had a couple of hours before the two of us split and she went to San Antonio and I went to Orange County. It was a great time to process and journal and really reflect on our trip. Being at the airport, it felt like we had just gotten to Europe, but then looking back on all we had done, i realized how much we really got to experience. Travelling is tiring and we were excited to return home to our eager families and friends. Seeing so much of Europe was exciting, but sharing stories and pictures with everyone made us anxious to return as well. This was the most wonderful trip and I am so thankful we got to do it together. We were amazingly blessed with good weather, good health, safe travel and so much more.

If you made it this far, I'm so glad, because I had a great time writing these blogs. I hope you were able to experience Europe with me, and I can't wait to share more with everyone. Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement!