My life in Ruins

Monday, Nathan, Loren (future niece), and I went to Carmarthen to do some shopping. Loren needed new flip flops and Nathan was still in need of a wedding ring. We went to this store called Argos to get the ring. It's this big building that has only a small store front that is full of catalogs. You go in and look through these catalogs that show you everything they have in the back of the store. The back is huge and full of all these things you can buy. Oddly enough the only ring in Nathan's size wasn't in the gigantic back but in the display. Funny that.

After finding the ring, it began to rain. We tromped through the rain to a castle that was not too far from the shopping centre. Can I just say that I love the shopping here? Even in Wales where I have found mostly small villages, they still have sweet awesome shopping nearby. I like all the stores too, they are all really trendy and fun. I am yet to go into a store and leave without begging Nathan to buy something for me--- he has all the pounds (£). Actually not true, I have £1.70 in coins I carry around with me in case I get lost.

Anyway, back to the Carreg Cennen castle! We trudged up the hill to this castle ruin on the top. Loren's pet pig, 'Peppa Pig', aka- a pink fluff ball on the top of a pink colored pencil, was getting too cumbersome for her to hold so she trusted Nathan with the pig. --Maybe not the best choice. More on that later.--The view was absolutely amazing up at the top. This castle was really different than Warwick. Warwick was really touristy and dressed up like it is still functioning but the ruins were just quiet and beautiful.
 
 

We found the best way to explore the ruins would be to play hide and go seek with Loren. It was really fun to wander around looking for the others. I particularly liked the moment pictured below where I found Nathan and Loren hiding behind a wall. I managed to completely surprise Loren. She is really fun to have around.

Awesome action pic by Nath

There was a natural cave beneath the castle where they advise you to rent a torch (english word for flashlight). Seeing as how the place to rent them was all the way down the hill and because Nathan and I would never pay to rent something lame like a flashlight, we used the dim light off an iphone to explore the cave. Halfway through Loren said, “I think I am a little bit frightened.” So the rest of the way we sang church songs in the dark and ultra wet cave.

After walking out of the castle Loren asked for 'Peppa Pig'. Nath reached into his pocket to find...nothing. He ran around the entire castle looking for the beloved swine. He even went into the cave looking for it. Turns out he dropped it almost as soon as he got it because it was on the grass before the entrance to the castle.

Then we began the long walk back down the hill. Once at the bottom Loren and I took a restroom break and when we came out Nathan had a surprise for us for being such good girls today... ice cream! It was a really great day. I have really enjoyed my time in Wales... even if these roads are not only terrifying but nauseatingly curvaceous.

Pictures edited by Vince Jones (future brother-in-law)

Beached Wales

Today was great. We drove to Wales with Nathans brother, Adam in the morning. We got to Nathans sister Naomi's house around 10am. The house is really adorable and tucked away in a small little village here in Wales. We soon took Naomi's daughter, Loren, with us to the beach. The drive to the beach was our first adventure because it was Nathans first time in a long time driving on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, while driving a manual on the tiniest roads in existence.

Once we got to the beach Adam saw a friend who then offered to give us a ride on his boat. It was absolutely amazing! It was so breathtaking to be alongside such a beautiful coastline. I loved it! Wales is so beautiful. I am pretty well convinced I want to live here.

On the way to this beach Nathan told me about this amazing beach he wants to go to while we are here that you can only get to by boat or by doing some serious walking but he couldn't remember where it was. Well as luck would have it we found it while on the boat! We stopped on the beach and took some pictures of the beautiful bay. There was a wonderful waterfall we took lots of pictures by. 

While on our boat ride of 2 and 1/2 hours we saw a seal and dolphin up close! We chased down the dolphin for a while until we felt really bad for basically trapping the poor thing. We went back to the beach and ate a typical meal of chips and battered sausage. Yum!

I am already really loving Wales. I am glad I get to spend the week here. The wedding is really coming up now. It's in two weeks. That's it! Time is going by really quickly. I spend the rest of the week in Wales then we are off to the family holiday in Devon until Wednesday the 22nd when we meet up with my family in LONDON. Exciting times!

Care for a turn about the castle?

I saw my very first castle today!!! It was amazing. This morning Nathan woke up and asked me if we wanted to go to Stratford, the birthplace of Shakespear. To which I replied, "Um... How about a castle instead?" I have been dying to see a castle, so for me, Stratford can wait another day.

My first dungeon visit

We went to THE castle here in England and it was only a 20 min train ride from where we are staying. It is called Warwick Castle. We walked in an my jaw just dropped. It was so big and cool and exciting! A castle! Nathan took me to his favorite spot first. The dungeon. We walked down a small staircase at the bottom of the castle and no one else was around. It was properly scary. (To use an English word I quite like) And of course, Nathan kept poking me to make me jump. As part of our ticket we could do a tour called, "The Castle Dungeon." It was at a different part of the castle than the small dungeon we looked at. The one we had just seen I guess was 'child's play' because the real tour was 40 minutes long and had live actors running around it. I was starting to get scared.

We didn't have much time before our tour so we played inside the towers for a bit then got into line for the dungeon tour. We made it through pretty unscathed, the actors seemed to pick on nathan and I alot. I was first picked to have my organs ripped out and then Nathan had to demonstrate the uses of torture weapons. It was pretty scary but mostly fun.

After the torture, we walked around the castle and I ran into King Henry the VIII. He told stories about all his wives and such. He was actually a pretty cool dude. Then we watched a jousting tournament. I found it funny because four countries were represented, England, Greece, Italy, and Spain. Then a Frenchman barged in and wanted to join and everyone booed. He was totally made out to be the villian of the show. Everyone was so obviously anti-French. It was pretty funny. After that we watched a trebuchet launch a fireball.

We did lots of just wandering about the castle. There were lots of shows and games going on. It was a really cool place. I liked it lots. There were some amazing views from on top of the towers. I love looking at England. It never gets old.

Off to Market

Yesterday I went to a farm. Super fun! It was great to spend more time with my future nieces and nefews. They are so so cute! They already call me 'Auntie Megan'. Mind you, they say it in an accent. It is so adorable I could die.

I was also given the opportunity to eat off a cheese tray. I liked the brie and some other not smelly cheese. I disliked anything with a super strong smell like blue cheese and camembert.

Today we went to Birmingham again. I love taking the train. It's really quick and doesn't make me sick because it goes in a straight line unlike many modes of transportation here. We went to look for fabric for the tables at our reception. There is a market that had fabric for cheap. We were instructed to find fabric in our colo(u)rs for one £ a meter. It was pretty tricky. We only found one place selling fabric we liked for that price and it didn't have enough so we only bought some. We are going to try and find more the next time the market is there.

So far I have really enjoyed England. It is so beautiful and green. I have seen so much that I thought looks like old England would. It is such a neat area that you know is full of interesting history. It is so fun to see everything. I am really excited we get to start off our marriage here... well, we will really only be here for two nights til we head to the rest of Europe. Hooray!

Food and shopping

The topic of food was a request from my mother so here goes...
I have been able to enjoy a good amount of different food whilst here. Friday night we ate fish and chips! So yummy! The chips were bought from a place called 'The Sea Spray'. They came all wrapped up in brown paper and had to be served with a spatula because they were all stuck together. (P.S.- There can be some confusion here so... (English) chips = (American) fries-kind of but not really, and (American) chips = (English) crisps, just so you know) I think fish and chips is my favorite meal I have had so far.

Nath and I took a train to Birmingham Friday night. It was my first train ride. Like! We walked around town and said "cheers" to a nice native. We then sat in front of this big screen they had set up in the middle of the city to watch the olympics opening ceremony. Everyone was cheering like mad at the start and I was even forced to stand during the singing of 'God Save the Queen.' It was really fun overall.

Saturday we woke up about 11:30, because we stayed up so late Friday. After breakfast we left for Solihull town center and walked about. We ate at Greggs and had sausage rolls and a chicken bake. I liked the chicken bake better, it tasted like chicken roll up. Sausage rolls are a sausage in a pasty or pastry.

I found my wedding shoes at the mall! For £8. That's like $12! They are cute and flat and purple. I also found a belt at the same store (H&M) for £3. Bargain! We went and walked around a park that was so beautiful. I love the landscape here. It is so green and gorgeous. very unlike anywhere I have lived. We ate curry that night. It's a big thing over here, I guess. I ate the more tame sauce they made for the children. I am just not a huge fan of curry. Too bad, I know.

And so it begins

Today is our first full day in England. I am writing this at 1:27pm England time and 6:27am America time. That's right. SEVEN hours time difference. That's not all that is different. Ever since I got off the plane I have been counting all the things that are different. I got to 14 by the airport parking lot and gave up because it became too overwhelming.

I met a copious amount of future family yesterday. They were all so kind, they didn't even tease me about being American very much. My favorite part was listening to the little girls accents. They sound so precious.

We (Nathan, his sister-Rachel, her boys-Logan and Jacob, Ashley-the baby, and I) left the SLC airport at about 5pm a.t. (America time) we flew until about 3am a.t. all the way to Paris. Of which we slept none of the way. I loved looking out the window as we flew into Paris. There were lots of rivers and bridges. There were little towns randomly with lots of curvy roads, so different from the perfect grid system of Salt Lake. The best part: I could see the Eiffle Tower from the window!!!! It was so amazing to see it all in real life. It was surreal. I can't wait to go back to France for the honeymoon and see it all up close!

We left Paris at about 5:00am a.t. for Birmingham and landed about 7:00am a.t. so it was about 2pm e.t. My goodness, what a long day and we slept for none of it! After we arrived we were kept awake against our will until a decent time for sleeping here in England to get rid of the jet lag as soon as possible. We stayed up until about 8pm here. Success! I was out cold all night but the others were not so lucky. Nathan had a very restless sleep, where he dreamed about making things all night. Rachel's boys were up from 12am-3am wondering why Auntie Marie was depriving them of breakfast until they fell asleep again, and Ashely was up all night meaning so was Rachel.

This morning Nath woke up not feeling so well. Finally I had someone on my side telling him to go to the doctor... his MUM! She made him an appointment for the low, low price of nothing! Something about a National Health System... Anyway, he should be fine. We think he is suffering from malnutrition and lack of sleep.

We went for a walk around his sisters neighborhood. The houses are all brick and fabulous. They look just like I thought classic England would. It is still pretty overwhelming because everywhere I look there is something very English looking back at me. The houses, roads, cars, people, and even the wall sockets. I look at these people and think, they should talk like me... but they don't.

Though the differences are many, the similarities out weigh. In the end, everyone is just living life and doing the best they can. I find it best to keep an eternal perspective.We are all connected through our Heavenly Father. There are families who love, talk, and EAT. (Fish and chips tonight!) Life is good, fun, and full of twist, turns, and surprises that we all just have to roll with. Same as anywhere on this place we call Earth.

Everything is about to change...

I am Megan. A girl from a small town in Texas, not so small that everyone knows each others names but small enough. In 2008 I got accepted to BYU-Idaho so I left my small town for an even smaller town, Rexburg, that's in Idaho. I lived a normal life up there until December of 2010, when I met the love of my life. It was love at first sight. He asked me out right on the spot and then 3 blissful weeks later we were happily engaged and planning a wedding in February... FALSE! Well I was telling the truth until "December of 2010, when I met the love of my life." That really is when I met him but our story is not that simple. Before you freak out Nathan(future fiance, that's right, we are not even really engaged yet!), I am not going to spill all the gory details... just a few.