London

To say our summer has been a busy one would be an understatement!!! Since June 4th we have been home for a total of 24 days this summer. We have been home for the last 2 weeks straight and that is the longest this summer! Even with the craziness it has been so fun and exciting. Two days after school got out of school, we headed to Europe. We visited London for a couple days.

We were there right at the end of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. It was amazing. At first we were going to stay away from downtown and avoid the crowds, but we really wanted to see the Royals. I ended up being able to see all the royals except the Queen. It was so cool! We visited all the amazing places in downtown London and some of the famous places a little further out. I would love to go back again and visit more the countryside. But it was definately a fabulous adventure.

Our first stop off the plane was the Chelsea Stadium, with our bags and all. It sure was fun (not!) carrying our bags up all the stadium stairs. But, we had to wait until we could check into the hotel.

 

After a stop at the hotel, we were off to Downtown London...

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace as they are taking down he stage from the Queen's Concert.

We traveled to Hogwarts.

We tried to find Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in Notting Hill.

Throughout our whole stay we heard the recording

on the "tube" remind us to MIND THE GAP. Tyler and I

got really good at saying it with a British accent.

The view of London from the Eye.

Piccadilly Square

sidenote: the whole time we were there and the rest of the day I had One Republic's "The Good Life" song stuck in my head, you know the one...Woke up in London yesterday, Found myself in the city near Piccadilly.

We went to the free section of Ripley's,

since it was almost 30 pounds EACH, to go in!

The Beatles made out of stamps.

Me standing next to the tallest man in the world.

I'm the same height as his cane, now that's just sad!

Searching for Royals!

The crowds were huge, but british people are hilarious. Maybe it's the accent. I loved seeing and hearing the little girls' reaction to the Royals. Especially when the Dutchess came around. Tyler had to put me on his shoulders so I could see the happenings on the street. Such a nice guy, that Tyler.

I took a video of the precession, however, I was so super excited to see a real life princess that I forgot I was recording, and it didn't turn out too good. But it is forever burned in my mind. If that helps any of you. :)

The home of the Royal Wedding.

Westminster Abbey.

One of the greatest places we've ever visited.

The side where Kate entered for the wedding.

This truly saved our lives in more than one occasion!

They are so accommodating to us foreigners.

St. Paul's Cathedral.

The home of the original Royal Wedding,

Princess Diana and Prince Charles.

While in London we went and saw my FAVORITE broadway musical.

 I had actually never seen it before but was dying to see it.

It just happened to be playing in London while we were there.

Let's just say the stars were aligned.

Tyler and the Tower Bridge, during our river cruise.

(Now for the Olympics they have the rings hanging from the top)

Tyler trying to fit in around London.

I leave you with the best picture we took in London.

I just wish Peter Pan was flying in the picture. :)

Tyler's Birthday!

It's the big 2-6!!!! Wow, times flys when your having fun!
(Now don't mind that his birthday was a week ago, better late than never, right?!)

For the big 2-6 I surprised Tyler with a night on the town on Saturday, okay more like an afternoon around Layton with my parents and brother. But believe me there was never a dull moment. Especially when Moroni is around talking about who know what.

We had lunch at Chili's Tyler's new favorite. Then we went on a shopping spree. Tyler wanted to get some new shoes for his birthday. This kid has only one solid good pair of shoes at one time our whole marriage. So I broke him into the shoe world by getting 3! One brown, one black, and one white. Now hopefully we won't have any brown-black combo again!

Tyler's haul after shopping!

WSU posters from Kyle

In the mist of all the shopping we had to stop at home and check out the Chelsea game. It actually turned out to be one of the most exciting games I've ever watched. I thought Tyler was going to have a heart attack.

On Tyler's actual birthday (Monday) we met my parents and brother again at Tucano's, aka HEAVEN, according to Tyler's brother. We can't stop at the Gateway without stopping at Aeropostale! That would be blasphemy! So we both got shirts for our trip!

Tucano's!

In other news...4 days of school until our 1st year completed! I will have to move my classroom out to a portable, so that will make for a busy summer. On top of that we have trips and activities planned up the wazoo! London/Portugal (9 days!), Disneyland/Universal/Sea World in July, and the USA women's soccer game! This summer will bring many a blog posts so stay tuned!

Happy Easter

After a non-stop spring break, it was nice to have a peaceful Easter Sunday. Listening to the primary sing in sacrament always gets to me. They are so cute and pure when they sing. After church, Tyler and I hid each others easter baskets. This was the first year that we have really done any Easter type activities it was fun.

 

Even with all the fun and cute Easter activities, this season makes me contemplate about the greatest sacrifice and yet the ultimate demonstation of love. When our brother, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for each of us, and rose, to show us that we can return to Him and to our Heaven Father.

Elder Holland said it perfectly in the April 2009 Conference when he said...

"With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ's mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone.

But Jesus held on. He pressed on. The goodness in Him allowed faith to triumph even in a state of complete anguish. The trust He lived by told Him in spite of His feelings that divine compassion is never absent, that God is always faithful, that He never flees nor fails us...

Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so...Truly the Redeemer of us all said: 'I will not leave you comfortless: [My Father and] I will come to you [and abide with you].' "

I am grateful for that great and solemn sacrifice that Christ made for not only me, but for all of us. I will eternally be grateful to Him.

New Additions

My new goal is to have the blog be more of a priority. It is a great way to journal and share our family life experiences. Everyday I think about getting on the blog and updating and everyday I never get around to it. I hear about from many people...mainly family...which are the only ones that really read this--rephrase that...the only ones that really care. :) Either way, ever since my birthday, 6 months ago, I keep thinking about the greatness of what this blog can be. Tyler got me a book of our blog for the last 2 years of marriage and I just keep thinking, I need to do a whole lot better so that we can have many books to come. So starting now, I am going to pencil in time in my schedule to blog. With all that said let's continue...

For the last couple months we have had many additions come in and out of the Hoch residence. Some have stayed. Some, sadly, have left us.

We added a cute little table to our living room, to make it a little more complete. I LOVE IT! Tyler says I better it took us about 6 months of shopping around, stores and online, to finally find a nice man in South Jordan that agreed to build one for me. :) He did a wonderful job, if I don't say so myself.

We finally have a little area that I can decorate and have fun with...

...and a place to old our candy jar!

Next, about a month ago I was having horrible mouth and tooth aches. Mainly my front teeth. Some days it was tolerable, some days I was in horrific pain that would make me cry. After a week of that, I made an appointment with the dentist. He had a lot of bad news, and a little of good news. I had a cyst growing on the root of one of my front teeth. It was so big that it had killed my tooth. I needed to have a root canal done right away. It would be a 2 hour process and I would need to take work off for a day. The good news you ask?! It was the tooth that I hated the most. :) My front tooth that has had a dark stain on it since it grew in when I was 7! I finally had a chance to get rid of it and insurance would help cover it, since it isn't cosmetic! So the long process began...I went in for the appointment, after the dentist started the root canal, he realized that it was worst than he thought...YES, WORSE. He had to cut into my gum and cut off part of the root of my tooth, and remove the cyst that was larger than he thought. I ended up getting 6 stitches. It ended up being a FOUR HOUR process. After all was done, I visited the dentist 4 times in 4 weeks. The initial appointment, root canal, removal of stitches, and final crown placement. I am completely dentisted out. I told him that I don't want to see him until my next cleaning in 6 months. He agreed. :)

Before

Right After

Notice how I can't really smile. :)

Final Look

Finally, the last additions we have had here in the Hoch Residence is FAMILY! The greatest addition! Amber and TJ came down for a weekend a couple weeks ago, and Tyler's parents and brother just lest a couple days ago. It's always nice to see the family around to give you the excuse to go out and have fun and do things you haven't done in a while.

With Amber and TJ we went to City Creek, Opening Weekend...big mistake! But it was fun, and then we went and saw the Utah Blaze...actually pretty entertaining.

Tyler's family came down for a couple days making the rounds to all the children during their Spring Break, it turned out to be our Spring Break too! We golfed, went to Fat Cats, Temple Square, City Creek, Tucano's and a Jazz game!

Jordan's Heaven on Earth

Oh and one more...Tattiana and Chris had a cute little boy the end of March! Three nephews! The boys are taking over!

Little Nash

Now, I need to get back to my regular sleeping schedule and get back into my daily routine for next week. Having this week off just makes me more excited for our summer adventures!