Just around the river bend!

We left Sainte Foy after a week and a half of chilling out. We headed 2 hours east to Souillac. The drive was great. The countryside of France is so charming. We drove in the evening and the little towns were lit up and looked gorgeous right along the Dordogne River. We drove to Souillac to begin our canoeing journey down the River. We arrived at night and couldn't find anywhere to check in to the campsite so we just set up camp anyway because we are rebels. :) It was super hard setting up a tent at night. Dislike. It was like spending lots of time building a wabbly home I didn't even want to sleep in. I do like saving money though so I was a bit torn. Anyway, it was fine of course. 

We woke up the next morning pumped to go conoeing...RAIN. It was rainy and cloudy but we were out there so we thought we would do it for one day instead of two because the rain was set to continue the next day. After a while of discussing we decided why not risk it and go for two days. For some reason this completely discusted the woman who we were renting the canoe from. Nathan said two days instead of one and she sighed and looked upset. We thought about saying, “No no, I think you misheard us, we didn't say we are going to kidnap your children and sell them as slaves... We said we just want to rent a canoe for two days!” Haha! We laughed about that joke all day. Good times. We took a bus to Meyronne and canoed all the way back down to Souillac. It took us about 4 hours. It was B-E-A-utiful. There were really neat cliffs and castles along the river.

We made it back to Souilliac and the canoe company has a waterpark and since we rented canoes we got into the park for freeeeee! Because it was cloudy we also ended up being the only ones there. One section of the park had inflatables and we jumped on them. Then we went to conquer the waterslides that were pouring ice water down them. It was really fun and Nathan managed to keep his body from freezing long enough to go on the slides a couple of times. We recored lots of videos of us at this park. It was cool to be the only ones there.

We woke up the next morning to lots of rain. We debated skipping out on canoeing but that's not our style. We canoed from Souillac to Carlux. The woman told us that our stop on the river was just before the 3^rd bridge. The trip was supposed to take 3 hours and we arrived at the 3^rd bridge after an hour and a half. There was also no campsite just before the bridge so we just figured we would carry on. We also came to many forks along the river. I was pretty convinced that all hope was lost along with us. On the bright side, the sun came out for the rest of the journey. After some time we stopped to munch on some apples. (To see Nath accomplish an amazing feat, see video below) During our break we relaized that our bus would be waiting for us at the campsite in 1 hour. Seeing as how we didn't know where on the river we were we paniced and hurried further down it. We saw lots of houses and became sure that a bridge was just around the bend. It wasn't. It was the bend after that one that had our campsite. Hooray! Overall it was another good day, minus the slight anxiety of possibly being lost. 

 

We made it back safe, sound, and hungry. We got a very nutritional dinner from the super market. Pie and cake. In our defense the store was closing and we had to make a quick decision. We enjoyed this food while watching scubs on the free wifi the campsite had. That night we both slept really bad. It was our 3^rd night in the tent and our bodies were already aching from the canoeing. It is time for a hotel again :)

We are now heading to Marseille, France. I'm thinking we should hit the beach :) Inabit!

Nothing...

 

We did nothing but enjoy ourselves.

This is the Dordogne River just by Fay's home, where we spent the next 10 days.

The McDonalds where we went to get internet and food! Once Nath tried to order a sprite in french and the worker gave him fries. Good times! :)

Finished Season 5!

We ate lots of cheese and crackers!

Dune de Pilat! The largest sand dune in Europe! We climbed all the way up and then back down sans towel, camera and footwear!

The Para Olympics was the background sound as we played scrabble

One of our fave games

THE favorite game! Played this way too much.

One of the shows we watched endlessly

We ate large amounts of fresh french bread purchased just down the street. One night we made french onion soup to go with it. It was delicious, and cheap!

We visited Nathans grandparents old house, Le Malpas, in Montazeau, France.

 We figured it would be easier to share what happened during our South of France time with pictures, most of which we were too lazy to take in real life. It was wonderful to hang out and do whatever we wanted, just Nath and I.

Next we get a closer look at the Dordogne river as we canoe it...

It begins in Paris

We left for Paris after a couple nights stay in London. We took the ferry from Dover to Calais. On the ferry ticket stub was a free voucher ticket to Disneyland Paris!! Well who can pass up an offer like that? Not us apparently. We bought the second ticket on board for 20% off! BARGIN!!!

Once we reached the hotel we were freakishly hungry and knew of no where to go so we stayed nearby checking out the restaurants.It was all in french so we just guessed and ended up eating at the most delicious japanese restaurant.

The next day was our first full day in Paris. We started off with the Eiffle Tower. I was so excited! I saw the Eiffle tower from the plane to England a month ago and had been dying to see it up close ever since. You know how some places just don't live up to your expectations? Like this thing you have been waiting to see is a lot less impressive and smaller than you thought it would be? Well, that is not the Eiffle tower at all! It is so much more detailed and incredibly larger than I thought it would be! It is absolutely amazing!

After that we saw the Arc de Triomphe. It was pretty large and impressive too. As we took pictures some guy came up to Nathan who had found a ring on the ground. It was too big for him so he gave it to Nath and began to walk away, then came back asking for money probably thinking his act of kindness deserved payment. Well we told him we didn't have any money and so he took the ring back. A week later Peter, Nathan's bother, sent us an e-mail warning us of scams that may happen on our trip, including the ring one! Apparently it had happened to him as well. When the guy gives you the ring he is marking you as a pick-pocket target for his cahoots. Good thing we didn't keep the ring!

Inside Arch de Triomphe

Last thing we did was travel across town to this giant shopping, Galleries La Fayette. Then we realized we were heading the wrong way and just decided to carry on home. We needed our rest for tomorrow: Disneyland day.

We took a train the next morning to Disneyland!!! It took us a while to get going on the rides because our first choice, Space Mountain: Mission 2, broke down just as we were about to get on. Fine, no matter, they gave us a fast pass for any ride at any time. Bargin. So we went to our next choice, My favorite ride ever! Tower of Terror!(Always reminds me of Kati Fischer, she loves this ride too) The lines for everything had been so long that we used our fast pass right away just to get on a ride. Well, fast pass fail. It still took about a half hour to get on the ride. After dropping from a massive hight, we were energized and took off to ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indian Jones, Haunted Mansion and so on. We did finally get on Space Mountain and it was amazing! It was a real coaster, with a loop and corkscrews, in a scarily realistic representation of space. Loved it. All and all, you can just never go wrong with Disney.

The next day we recovered from walking and running and standing massive amounts at Disneyland. We took it easy all day and spent the evening at the Eiffel Tower. At the start of every hour after 7pm the tower lights up in a speckatular show for 5 minutes. We just sat on a blanket, drank fancy sholer, and played cards while waiting for the lights to begin. Once they did we just watched in awe and listened to Owl City.

Outside the Louvre,  I was tired

 

Inside the Louvre glass triangle

Statues

Our last day, the morning was spent at the Louvre. We saw aphrodite (the sculpture missing the arms), along with thousands of other pictures that were nice but lets be honest, we don't know art so it wasn't thrilling by any means. It was still enjoyable though. We saved the best for last.. the Mona Lisa! There were lots of other people around it and you had to stay back about 5 feet, but it was really cool to see in real life. After the Louvre we went to Notre Dame. It was neat just to say we saw it. It honestly looked a lot like the many amazing churches around France. We have seen lots of churches. :)

We were just really worn out by the time we left Paris so we were excited to get to the South of France to spend a week just hanging out. It has been so long since we have been able to do absolutely nothing. So on to the next Adventure!

Wedding Day!

I woke up that morning feeling really calm. Everyone kept asking me how I was doing and if I was nervous. Getting married didn't actually seem real, even though it was just hours away. I had been waiting for this day for so long that I never felt like it would really happen I guess. I got ready with the help of my bridesmaids, then Aaron came to pick me up and from then it was just fun. I also remember traffic on the way to the church! I was so anxious to get there and it is like 2 minutes from the house I was staying at but it felt like it took forever. I may have to check with Aaron about the actual length of the car ride.

It was all good and fun until I was waiting to go into the chapel by my dad. Then it was all so real! It was finally happening!!! I held back tears as Ruth began to play “Maestro,” the song I had chosen to walk into. It was so beautiful. She did a fabulous job. I walked in with my dad and I think Naomi may have mouthed for me to slow down. I was so excited to see Nathan around the corner I didn't even really wait for her to adjust my train around the turn. I saw Nathan meet my eyes and he seemed to have the breath knocked out of him. I was very pleased by that reaction. :) I am sure I had a similar one because he looked so perfectly handsome.

The ceremony went really well. Abby and Hanna were wonderful flower girls, well, I'm assuming because they walked in before I did. Same with my bridesmaids, Melissa, Mary and Becca. Rocky gave a great speech and managed to keep the embarrassment minimal considering I have lived with his lovely wife and kids for a long time, ensuring that he knows interesting things about me... :) Nathan had Paul Wilkinson speak. He did well too. I won't forget the acronym he taught us, LCC. Love, communication, and something else. :)

We wed after the speeches. “I do” and all that good stuff. The rings were tough to get on! We were both quite nervous and therefore had puffy fingers. We then signed the register. While we were doing so Nathan and MY nieces and nephews sang “Families can be together forever.” It was so cute! I loved it and I love them! I really do absolutely adore my new nieces and nephews. After their number Melissa and Matt sang “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds. It was brilliant! They are so talented. I love when they perform. The Bishop gave some further words of wisdom and then we walked out of the chapel to another beautiful piece by Ruth. This one was an original written by her.

Nathan and I waited by the doors of the chapel as everyone walked by to congratulate us. Everyone was so friendly! Even though they didn't know me, everyone hugged me and quite a few kissed me! I felt very welcomed and in the end I feel like I had already met most of those who attended our wedding. That was one great blessing of coming to England a month early, I recognized a lot of people.

Everyone walked outside and made a line on both sides of us preparing to throw lavender at us. Nathan and I waited at the start of the line as everyone got into throwing positions. It was actually pretty scary. You should have seen little Jonas's face as he held that handful of lavender. The photographer gave us the thumbs up and we began to walk through. We got hammered by lavender. Some of the little ones even threw the cones that the lavender was in at us. All and all, very funny and I am sure we got some great pictures from it!

We began taking endless pictures while everyone else headed inside for the reception. The hall was awesome--- literally! Nathan's sisters are beyond amazing. They really understood how I wanted it to look in the hall and it turned out better than I could have ever expected. I am completely indebted to them! Best of all---- they found me Peonies!!!

The food was great and the speeches were perfect. My dad has never had to give a speech at a reception before but he did a fabulous job. Peter, the best man, gave a speech as well that was so funny and yet really did help me understand Nath a little bit better. Nathan's speech, of course, was my favourite. I was happy to hear that I have made the knot in the back of his head go away. That has been my goal since I first met him and he told me about it. I am so glad that he is so happy to be with me. Life is so so so good.

After the reception we were off to the temple. We got into Aaron's car and there was a bottle of Shloer and champagne glasses. Nice. It was a quick drive to the London Temple. We got there and realized my temple dress was in my parents car so we had to wait for them but after that we were on track. It was a wonderful sealing ceremony. I am so glad to be with Nathan not just in this life but for all eternity. I am so happy the temple allows families to be together forever.

I am now a part of the Mulligan family. Like! I speak for Nathan as well as myself when I say how grateful we are for all their love, help, and support throughout this journey. Everything has turned out better than we could have ever thought.

I am also very grateful to our Heavenly Father and all that He did to help everything work out. There were many times we fasted and prayed to ask for help over one thing or another and never once did we feel alone or hopeless. There were times when we were not sure things would work out the way we wanted but with a bit of faith, they always did. 

To learn more about how families can be together forever visit www.mormon.org

Yours, Mine, and Ours

My turn! Here's a little entry written by Nathan. :)

So I get to write a bit about out time at a big family reunion of mine in Somerset. We headed off from Wales with Naomi, Vince, and little Loren for Knowle Manor, which is a massive 20-something bedroom house which was going to be filled exclusively with my family. I'd done my best to prepare Megan. 

What with traffic it ended up being quite a long journey, made slightly longer because we had to make sure that we approached Knowle Manor from the correct direction to maximise the effect.

Worth it I'm sure.

It was early evening when we arrived, which meant that as soon as we turned up Megan was introduced to at least 20 members of my extended family, not too mention more than a dozen nieces and nephews running up and grabbing her legs. Despite this overwhelming situation, Megan did absolutely great and before long she was gathered round the piano with some other girls, singing 'Wicked' loud enough to fill the house.

The days were all pretty relaxed, everyone doing all sorts of different activities. By Sunday pretty much the whole family were there, making about 50 people in total I think. So during the day, the gardens had people playing everything from badminton to boules, the swimming pool was full of people with inflatables, each of the lounges were occupied, one with video games, one with movies and one with a pool table and ping pong table, and the kitchen always had someone running in or out with a snack. Even the dining room had people playing board games and completing puzzles. Megan and I would wander our way round taking a turn at each of these activities. I'm pretty sure Megan's favourite was playing football with lots of the guys and plenty of the nieces and nephews.

After dinner the house did quieten down a little bit in that all of the 18 children were steadily put to bed. The general idea when that happened was that all of the adults would gather in the largest of the lounges to play games until you couldn't take it any longer and gave up and went to bed. The most common game was one called Werewolf. In this game each person is given a character, with two or three people being assigned as a werewolf. The point is for the rest of the people to try and work together and to figure out who the werewolves are and to eliminate them, but without anybody knowing who is who. Hours and hours later.. the game ends. That and a game called sign took up most of our evenings. Mostly it was just great to be around everybody hanging out and having a good time.

On Wednesday morning it was time to switch families, so Megan and I set off first thing to head off to London.

Back to my turn! We left the family holiday a little early to meet my family along with Rocky Fischer and Abby in London. We went to the London Bridge Experience. It was a walk through thing that explained about the history of the London bridge with sets and interactive actors. It was cool and informing. The second half of this walk-through was just meant to be scary. I will have you know that my family is a bunch of scardy-cats. It was really funny and okay, I was scared too. I can tell you who wasn't... Abigail! She is a beast! :)

We did all the classics after that... Big Ben, Westminster Abby, Houses of parliament, London tower... It was all very good. I had such a great time showing my family (Rocky and Abby included in the use of the word family) the cool things I have learned about England. I am so very grateful they came to England for our wedding. It was amazing having them around!