So Long, Summer

It seems like such a cliche, overused statement but I really can't believe Summer is over!  I was so excited for our trip to Europe but knew that Summer would be coming to an end as soon as we got home so it's weird to think we're here.  We soaked up our last couple weekends as much as possible and had tons of fun along the way!  Logan hadn't been to the fair in years and I had never been so we made our inaugural trip to the fair together and had a blast!  Our good friends, the Andersens, met us there and we had such a good time together!  There were so many choices for dinner and we all ended up loving what we had.  It had been ages since I'd had fry bread so I went with that and Logan had a monster turkey leg.  Neither of us felt too great the next morning so I blamed the turkey leg, which Logan tried to refute. 

Logan, Tyler, and Halli also rode the big slide!  Don't mind the blurry photo--my phone clearly doesn't take action shots.

Thanks for such a fun night, Annie, Tyler, Halli, and Hayden!  Until next year!

The following night, a Saturday, we hung out in Park City with some of our great friends, the Neffs and Bjorklunds.  They are the best people to be around!  Anytime we hang out with these four there is constant laughing and some of the best storytelling and discussions.  Before heading to PC we ate dinner at Pei Wei, which is always delicious.  Logan and I were pretty fond of our fortunes as well!

 

Logan was pretty darn excited when he opened his, which is on the bottom!  Haha.

For some dumb reason I don't have another picture for the entire night but it consisted of yummy Cold Stone ice cream, card games, and laughing!  Good times for sure!

Our last big event of the summer was spent in Midway with our high school friends at one of their family's cabins.  I must have had a great time because I didn't take a single picture.  Logan and I left a night before everyone else so we could make it back to our ward on Sunday morning so we tried to get a group shot then but it never happened.  I've posted plenty of pictures of this group in the past so just imagine us in your mind's eye! We always have such a good time with these friends!  Conversation comes easy when many of you have been friends since Kindergarten and the others joined the group in Jr. High or High School.  It can sometimes be hard to make new memories rather than just reminisce on our old ones from 10-15+ years ago.

We drove up to Midway on Friday evening and ate dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant right in town. Everyone seemed to really love what they got and the salsa bar kept us occupied for quite some time.  We came back from dinner and played a big game of Scum for awhile before finally going to bed.  A lot of the group had signed up for the Dirty Dash on Saturday so they took off earlier in the morning for their race and the spectators (me and Logan included) made our way to Soldier Hollow a little later to see them at the finish line. It looked like they had a great time!  Following the Dirty Dash we went back to the cabin for lunch and then hung out in the yard chatting, playing basketball, and throwing the football.  The weather was perfect so we loved just relaxing and enjoying the great company!  Later in the evening we finally made our way back inside to start dinner and then found ourselves outside again playing one of my favorite games--Church Ball.  We played Church Ball (similar to Dodge Ball) nearly every day in the Summer when we were younger on the Andersen's tramp so it was a lot of fun playing again for the first time in years.  *Side Note: I woke up SO sore from jumping on and off the tramp so much.  Pretty pathetic, I know!* After a yummy BBQ for dinner we all gathered around the campfire for s'mores and stories.  I could do that nearly every night and never get sick of it!  By this time it was getting late so Logan and I bid farewell to the group and drove back to Salt Lake. Although the weekend was short and went way too fast, we loved it!  Thanks for such a great time, everyone!

While it's always sad to say goodbye to the warm weather, I absolutely love Fall!  If I had to choose, I would definitely say it's my favorite season.  The cooler weather, pretty colors, and of course holidays are so much fun and put such a happy spirit in the air.  I got our fall decorations out of storage and can't wait to put them up.  I'm trying to hold out for a couple more weeks but it's testing my patience for sure!

So long, Summer!

Meet Pharrell!

No, not Pharrell Williams, whose song 'Happy' became the most played song I remember in a long time.  We're talking about someone(thing) much more exciting!  Say hello to the newest addition to our family: 

Why Pharrell?  It's super lame, I know.  Some of our good friends were recently telling us that they name their cars after the first artist they hear on the radio after they buy the car.  We test drove this car and a Brad Paisley song came on but Logan didn't like Brad or Paisley and said he should get to wait until we actually bought the car.  I'm pretty sure he wishes he wouldn't have waited!  As soon as he heard "Happy" on the radio he was like: "Are you kidding me?!"  Haha...gotta love it!

We were hoping we wouldn't be in the market for a new car for another year or so but Logan's trusty 2001 Kia Optima started spitting flames out the tailpipe and the cost of repairs was going to be more than the car was worth so we decided to give in and replace it.  Our good friends over at Murdock Hyundai took great care of us and we ended up getting a sweet deal on this 2011 Chevy Cruze.  Our biggest concern was the amount of miles on whichever car we got because we knew we'd want to drive it as long as possible and this one only had 42,000.  The interior and exterior look brand new, the windows are tinted, and Logan's favorite part: It's a stick.  The stick will be great because Logan will love it and it will get better gas mileage but I have no clue how to drive it so I guess we need to take care of that!  I don't have much of a desire to learn but it seems real dumb to own a car that I can't even drive.  Logan tried teaching me in high school but I killed it a million times before giving up.  Hopefully I have better luck this time around!

Logan has never owned a car this nice that he drove and is always telling me to take the nicer things when there's an option so I couldn't be happier he's so in love!  Enjoy your new man crush, babe!

Final European Thoughts

8 Countries + 13 Cities + 17 Days = 1 Amazing Vacation!
 
It's hard to believe the trip we planned and anticipated for so long has come and gone!  I remember when Logan came home from his mission we talked about traveling back to where he served and seeing other parts of Europe and I swore it would never happen.  Happen it did and boy did we have an incredible time!  I'm so glad I updated my blog every night because I'm sure I would have forgotten a ton of details by now and I don't think I would have the motivation to go back and blog about 17 days' worth of traveling.  As a way to tie the whole thing up, I've made a list of some things I loved and didn't love now that I can look back on the past 2+ weeks.

Things I will NOT miss:
-Paying to use public restrooms!  Seriously??  I couldn't believe how common that was!
-Tolls.  Wretched tolls.  I swear we paid just as much money in tolls as we did in gas.
-European breakfasts.  If I had to eat meat and cheese for breakfast one more time I was going to die! 
-Cigarette smoke!  My goodness.  I felt like we were walking through clouds of smoke at every corner.
-Seeing so many people in the nude at public beaches.

Things I WILL miss:
-Waking up in a new city/country nearly every day.
-Spending 24/7 with Logan and not having to worry about school or work.
-Trying the food I heard Logan talk about for years.  I have to say it definitely lived up to its hype!
-Gorgeous views of mountains, beaches, and cities every single day.
-Interacting with church members from other countries.  I love that no matter where you go, the church stays the same (even if it's in a language I can't understand).
-Gaining a greater and greater appreciation for nature and just the world in general by spending a short time outside of my little box.
-Hearing Logan reminisce about his mission as we walked through the same streets he walked through nearly 5 years ago.

Favorite City or Country:
There's no way I could choose a favorite.  By far the most beautiful countries were Austria and Switzerland but London had the most to do and see.  Barcelona and France were amazing because, let's be honest, who doesn't love the beach?  I would love to go back to each city one day and see even more!

Biggest Accomplishment:
Staying healthy!  We were in a group of six and the other four were all pretty sick at one point or another.  Pink Eye, sinus infections, and stomach issues all ran through the group and least once and Logan and I somehow avoided it the entire time.  Thank goodness!  I felt so bad when one of our friends got sick and couldn't fully enjoy everything we were doing.
 
A lot of people were surprised when they heard how many cities we were visiting in just over two weeks but I'm so glad we did it that way rather than only visiting a few places for a longer amount of time.  Going through Europe so fast allowed us to get a little taste of more places so that one day we can go back to our favorites.  If we have the opportunity to do that again, I would definitely want to see a number of other countries we didn't make it to in about that amount of time.

If you're on a budget like we were, staying in hostels is definitely the way to go.  Sleeping in a bunk bed every night and staying in the same room as 15+ other people isn't necessarily ideal but we saved a ton of money by doing that most of the time rather than trying to stay somewhere nicer. 

So many thanks to Tom, Chelsie, Russ, and Ellen for making this trip so enjoyable!  We had such a good time with them and loved sharing our experiences with such fun people.  Can't wait until next time!

Day 17: Traveling Home! (Sunday, August 24th)

On the road yesterday and in the air today! Our morning began around 4:45 which came way too fast because of how late we got to bed last night. I guess the one advantage of being exhausted is it's much easier to sleep on the planes. Here's what our day looked like:

Flight #1: Barcelona to London | 2 Hours

Logan and I were both able to sleep for most of this flight. 

Flight #2: London to Iceland | 3 Hours

After a three hour layover, we boarded our next flight from London to Iceland, which was three hours. Logan slept most of this flight again and I slept off and on for probably half of it. 

Flight #3: Iceland to Denver | 8 Hours

We then had a layover in Iceland for just over two hours before our looong flight from Iceland to Denver. I was worried about not being able to sleep on this flight because I had already slept quite a bit on the others. Thank goodness for movies! I ended up watching two movies, attempted to sleep here and there, and messed around on the monitor in front of me. It was definitely a long flight but not the end of the world. 

Flight #4: Denver to Salt Lake | 1.5 Hours

Finally, a short flight! We had a two and a half hour layover before finally boarding our flight to Utah. I was so excited! I didn't care whether I slept or stared out the window the whole time, I just wanted to be home. I was glad our last flight was the shortest one because I was so ready to be done with traveling and finally be in my own bed. Logan and I both slept the entire flight and my cute parents picked us up and took us home. Thanks, mom and dad! 

I can't believe our trip is over! We truly had the time of our lives and I couldn't have wished for anything better. At the same time, I'm thrilled to be home and can't wait to have a regular routine again!

Tomorrow: Back to work. Back to school. Back to Life.

Day 16: Driving, Driving, Driving (Saturday, August 23rd)

Our journey home has begun! We all made it out the door and on the road just after 9 o'clock and our GPS told us our drive to Barcelona would be a few minutes less than 9.5 hours, putting us to our hotel around 6:30 this evening. My hope was to pull in around 8 o'clock after all of our stops. We will have an early morning and long day tomorrow with all of our flights so I was hoping to get to bed at a decent time. Our drive was quite uneventful which is probably a good thing. This is pretty much as good as it got! 

Unfortunately about mid-way through our drive we hit some bad traffic that put us back an hour and a half and not too long after that we got stuck in a huge toll line for another hour and 15 minutes before finally moving again. Not too much later we hit some more traffic which put us even further behind. We were unhappy to say the least!

We ended up pulling in around 11:30. So much for our 8 o'clock arrival! Our hostel for the night is really close to the airport, which is great, but it seems to be in a pretty sketchy area. Good thing we'll only be here for a few hours! Here are our sleeping quarters. They're actually really nice!

We have to be up in just a few hours to make it to the airport so I better call it a night! Buenas Noches!

Weather Today:

We had great driving weather today and didn't get hit with anything wet until it lightly rained towards the end so that's definitely a plus!

Tomorrow: Flying, flying, and more flying!

Day 15: Adelboden, Switzerland (Friday, August 22nd)

Today we had our laziest morning yet and I loved it! We have been going non-stop this entire trip so I definitely welcomed a morning of taking it easy. Russ and Ellen woke up early to go paragliding but no one else wanted to drop the money so we all hung out in our cozy little house and planned the next couple days. One thing I have not loved on this trip is the breakfast food so yesterday at the store we grabbed some cereal and milk and I was in heaven this morning! I like meat and cheese but not so much for breakfast. Around lunchtime we ran to the only store we could find in the town and picked up a few things to cook back at the house and then it was off on our adventure for the day!

Meet the Scooter Gang!

For not very much money we were able to take a tram up the mountain and ride these heavy duty scooters back down. Oh boy, we had so much fun! We bought all-day passes so we were able to take all sorts of different trails and the scenery was gorgeous! 

Parts of the trail were pretty steep so we got going really fast but apparently that wasn't good enough for the guys so naturally they had to try a few new tricks. 

They handled their scooters pretty well until our last run when the mountain got the better of Tom. 

I so wish we had video of his fall! We seriously couldn't stop laughing! Anybody else's face would have looked like his hands but those of you that know Tom know that he's pretty acrobatic so he was able to bail himself out pretty well. 

By the time we got back to the house Russ and Ellen were there and we were all ready for dinner. Considering we're basically in the middle of nowhere we had to make a short drive into a small town. We ended up settling on a restaurant called Time Out Pub that had decent food but the atmosphere was the best! We sat outside in this little square where they had an orchestra, band, and singers providing live music. Such a fun way to spend our last real night of vacation!

After dinner we went back to our place and hung out/played card games. Russ and Ellen are taking off in another direction tomorrow but we all have a bit of driving ahead so I'm sure we'll want an early start. It's hard to believe our trip is basically over! I've loved every minute of it but I'm also excited to get back to my own bed and regular routine.

Goodnight from Adelboden! 

Weather Today:

Once again, we lucked out with nice weather! 64 isn't super warm but considering we expected snow we were very happy!

Tomorrow: The trek back to Barcelona begins! 

We were able to save a lot of money by dropping our car off where we picked it up so we have 9.5 hour drive back to Barcelona tomorrow. We're hoping to make some fun stops along the way to ensure the drive is somewhat enjoyable.

Day 14: Interlaken, Switzerland (Thursday, August 21st)

So remember at the end of yesterday's post when I mentioned that we had an hour left until we made it to our destination? Yeah, well that hour ended up being kinda crazy. We knew we were in trouble when our GPS said: "In 500 meters, board the ferry." Umm excuse me? We drove a bit further and kept hitting dead ends so we made a phone call and learned that it isn't possible to drive to Gimmelwald and that we'd have to leave our car and take the last tram that would be leaving in 20 minutes and we were still 15 minutes away from it. Long story short: We made it to the station just in time to park our car, grab our bags, and board the tram to our hotel. It was too dark last night to see any sort of view but when we woke up this morning we were able to see what we paid for. 

Our hotel was high in the alps so it was pretty cold when we woke up but the views were amazing! We took as much time as possible deciding what our plans were so we could sit and enjoy the scenery. 

So long, Pension Gimmelwald!

Tom, Chelsie, Russ, and Ellen wanted to do an intense hike up in Mürren but Logan and I weren't up for it so we drove down to Interlaken and had such a good time being alone and exploring the city. Our tram ride down wasn't half bad either!

We woke up too late for breakfast so our first stop was a cute restaurant for lunch called Mercato. 

After lunch we walked around and into all the cute shops. I could have spent so much money but fortunately our bags can't hold anything else otherwise I would have! I loved the small streets and the river that ran right through the city. 

This massive Toblerone was 139 francs! 

As we were walking we came across this beauty and had to stop for some pictures. The water is so pretty!

After seeing the river we decided we wanted to find the lake nearby and I'm so glad we did! It was gorgeous and peaceful as we sat right by the water talking, laughing and napping. 

Later in the late afternoon we met the others at a Coop and ate dinner. We didn't have plans for the evening so we all went back to the lake Logan and I had visited earlier and had a nice walk around it. We saw some of the cutest homes on the best property right by the lake. One day... :)

The place we're staying the next two nights is someone's house so we have a full kitchen but no food is provided and it's a ways away from any stores so we ran to the grocery store to stalk up for the next couple days. It's a cute little place but it's far away from the city so we'll have to see how that works out tomorrow.

We got into our place this evening earlier than we have this whole trip so we decided to stay in and relax a bit by playing cards and chatting. We don't have to be up early either so I'm really looking forward to getting a decent sleep tonight! Our living quarters are equipped with a family room, kitchen, bathroom, and three bedrooms. 

Family Room:

Kitchen:

On another note...we just heard that a volcano is going to erupt any day in Iceland which could really make it difficult to get home since we connect in Iceland. Fingers crossed it holds off until Monday!

Weather Today:

The weather was actually much warmer than we expected but we still needed our jackets most of the day. Fingers crossed we avoid the snow the next 2 days!

Tomorrow: More Switzerland!