Happy Happy Happy October!

It is FINALLY October. I love October. It is one of my most favorite months. I love the changing leaves, the crisp rainy weather (that I will be SO tired of come April!), I love "Halloween" movies like Casper and Nightmare Before Christmas, I love pumpkin cookies, I love General Conference, I love wearing boots and sweaters... Oh the list goes on and on! Yay for October!

October 2010. I think I may need to do this pumpkin again this year. I loved it!

October 2009. Our first time carving pumpkins together, about a month before we got married :)

But this October I'm feeling especially giddy. We will be on vacation for over half the month. WHAT?! I've never been on a vacation this long before and I'm just plain ecstatic! We leave next Saturday to fly to London and we get home on Monday the 27th! Holy moly. I still don't really believe it. It can't be real.

I have spent months planning and researching for our 3 days in London. I actually think I went a little crazy with the planning. I loved it though! It was SO fun for me to read books and read a million discussion boards on trip advisor and look through hundreds of listings on airbnb to find the right place to stay. I actually think I would love to be a travel agent :)

Here is the cute little place where we will be staying. I'm actually obsessed with the fact that we will be staying in a REAL London flat and not just a hotel. We love using airbnb! We are really close to the train station (a two minute walk) and then about a 30 minute ride to downtown! It's perfect.

I took notes while reading about London and planned our days based on what things I HAD to see vs. what I wanted to see. There's definitely SO much to do and limited time, so I had to be pretty selective. After deciding what things where on our list of "must see" I starred all of the places on google maps so I could see where they are and plan our day accordingly.

Next, I researched each of the places and estimated how long we would need at each stop. Did you know there are a million free things to do in London?! A million. The only thing we are going to buy tickets and pay to see is the Tower of London. Other than that we will be walking past things like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, walking through parks, walking across the Tower Bridge, visiting Trafalgar Square, and of course checking out the free museums with things like the Rosetta Stone and mummies! So cool. I typed up our schedule (including directions for the "tube" stops) on a word doc and emailed it to myself so I can access it on my phone :) Here's a little peak at one of our mornings. I know, I'm kind of crazy! I just love a good plan ;)

8:30-9:00 Train to Tower Bridge 

Walk to St John’s Station L Loampit Hill, R St. John’s Vale. Board southeastern (NR) towards London Cannon Street. Take exit London Bridge

9:00-9:30 Walk across Tower Bridge & see HMS Belfast

9:30-10:00 Buy tickets for Tower of London!

10:00-12:30 Tour of Tower of London! 

Crown Jewels First, tour w/beefeaters, white tower armor display

12:30-12:45 Tube to St Paul’s

Tower Hill (Underground Entrance 2) Board District (U) or Circle (U) heading west. Exit Mansion House

Tower of LONDON! So much history and so much awesomeness :)

We decided we are going to dedicate two full days to London and our third day we will be renting a car and driving up north to do the Harry Potter Studio Tour! Landon and I are both huge fans of Harry Potter. It's basically our childhood and there's no way we could go to England and NOT see the studio and try some Butterbeer! We are SO dang excited. While we are up north we will check out a castle and then have dinner with "me mum's" (I wish I really talked like that...) family. I'm SO excited for this part of the trip! We will also be having dinner with my dad's sister on one of our London days. I can't believe I finally get to go back to the place that is literally where I'm FROM and spend time with family. I've met a few of my aunts, uncles, and cousins, but there are plenty of family members I haven't even met before! Dreams really do come true! :)

After two days of exploring London and a day exploring the HP studio, we will drive down south to Southampton and board our 12 night cruise! Oh my goodness. We only have one stop in Vigo, Spain and then it's just the open sea for 10 days! I was telling Landon last night that I might get a little anxious being in the middle of the ocean. I don't know many people who have been that far away from land on a boat. It kind of freaks me out but it's good practice because we might want to do it in a much smaller boat one day :)

I can't believe it's finally here and that it's really happening. I'm just giddy! I have no idea how I'm supposed to sleep on the plane because I'm just going to be BOUNCING with excitement. Landon's mom Suzette and her husband Jason are coming with us, so it's like a double dream come true! We fly to Dallas first, where they live, so that we can take the 9 hour plane ride together. It works out perfectly! YAY!

Landon joked that I was putting on the pounds ;) I'm basically obsessed with these cute pounds!!! I don't even want to spend them because I need to KEEP them.

Anyway, I'm sure you can't tell... but I'm pretty dang excited that October is finally here! ;) Stay tuned for probably a million posts about our trip...