All Things Griffin

Hello everyone!  I know I have disappeared off the face of the planet.  It seems school, work and life in general took over my existence and refused to give it back until just recently.  I am excited to say that finally, after 10 years of changing majors and deciding what I want to do, I have finally finished my bachelor’s degree!  Suddenly I am finding myself with time to do all kinds of things.  And as evidenced by this post, it seems one of those things is finally updating the Griffin blog!  A lot has happened in the last year.  I will do my best to get pictures posted of Jonathan and my various adventures over the last year.  Just so you know what you can expect to appear on this site.  Jonathan and I bought a house, went to Salt Lake City for conference (and were able to see my little brother while on his mission…as luck would have it), went to Disneyland, and then I walked across the stage!  My parents also came into town a couple of times, but unfortunately we do not have any pictures of that, so there will not be a post reflecting this visit.  However, as always, it was awesome!  It was a great way to spend Christmas and New Years! 

Wow, so I have been looking through my pictures to see what other posts I needed to make, and unfortunately the next event was when we went to London just this last Spring.  I did take lots of pictures so I will be sure to add lots.  It will be almost like I posted 10 more posts.  We really had a great time, and this time we went with two of Jonathan’s sisters, my sister and our two nieces.  There is so much to see in London, and I already miss the steak and ale pie’s.  I ate many more than my fair share while I was there.

Here is the door to the flat where we stayed.  It was a really nice setup and made it so much easier for a group of our size to be comfortable.  I think my favorite thing about the flat was the big blue door.  Not only is that my favorite color, but how can you go wrong with a big blue door??

And this is my sister in a gift shop on one of the first days we were there.  Isn’t that hat great!  We like it enough to take a picture, but not enough to actually buy one.  We were trying to blend in a little with the locals, and unfortunately wearing one of those hats is not a very good way to do that.  I think by the end of the trip we really were starting to act like real Londoners, but I am sure all Americans say that. 

This is a picture of a pretty cool clock there in London.  I can’t remember what street it was on, but no biggie, I have a picture, so I don’t need to find it again in order to see it.

And this was the entrance into a restaurant that I really enjoyed.  And I enjoyed the entrance, I am not sure about the restaurant.  I didn’t actually go inside.  We weren’t yet hungry when we found this place.  I am sure that if the food is anywhere near as awesome as the entrance it is a fantastic place to eat.

And this has much the same story as the previous picture.  It was not yet time to eat, but that was probably one of the coolest signs to a business that I have ever seen.  Who doesn’t want to visit “Bag O’Nails, Quality Ales”

And this is one of the roads that leads to Buckingham Palace.  I just thought it was cool.  So why not take a picture.

And this is of course, Buckingham Palace!  There are always crowds of people there.  It is kind of neat though, tourists from all over the world end up standing around in this very spot.  It was fun to see the different cultures and to hear the different languages being spoken as we walked around.

And this was a statue sitting in front of the palace.  Bummer, I got some Italian kids shoulder.  Maybe I will photoshop that later.

I found this great picture at a park near the Palace.  It was too good to not get it on film a.k.a. a digital memory card.  We liked it so much, we had my sister take a picture of us walking happily down the way. 

And there we are.  Isn’t that special. 

And here is my token picture of a double decker bus.  We never actually rode in one on this trip, but they sure were all over the place.

And then, what is a token picture of a double decker bus, without a token picture of the tube.  I will admit, we all enjoyed the tube more than the bus.  I am sure if we lived there, we would like the bus just as well.  It just took a little more getting used to.

This is my niece Serenity.  She was a lot of fun and I thought this was a really good picture of her.

And there I am saving my husband’s life.  I recognize he is not actually in the water, but one can never be too safe.

And then, who doesn’t know what this is?  Big Ben of course, what else can I say. 

This was a small courtyard inside of Westminster Abbey.

And this was in a garden behind the Abbey.

Hey, look!  It is Catey taking pictures in the same garden.

And this is our other niece, Liberty.  She is a really good kid.  Very photogenic as well.

And I know you don’t think it is dangerous, but Harrod’s is in fact a highly dangerous place to shop.  Jonathan barely escaped a near death experience.  Death by hippopotamus is not a fun way to go.

And here is Jaimee, Serenity and Catey riding the tube.  Catey has a much sought after Ribena Black Currant Juice in her pocket.  I miss those.  I must find a way to get them here to the states!

And then we did what we went to London to do.  We sent Jonathan off to Hogwart’s.  We were so proud that he was one of the few Americans accepted to go this next school year.  I can’t wait til he is done and he is able to come home to teach me all of his wizarding ways!

And then lastly, we went to an indoor/outdoor shopping area that was supposed to have the entrance to the wizarding world, but we weren’t able to find it.  I am just glad my sister remembered her camera when we went there.  Me being the spaz that I am, left it at our flat.  She let me take a bunch of pictures of the shopping area.  I just thought it was so cool looking.

Anyway, that was our trip to London.  I took over 200 pictures, so obviously this is just a drop in the bucket, but you get the idea.  We had a blast!  I am so glad we were able to go!  I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did!