Dublin, day 1

Daniel arrives in Edinburgh

Keukenhof

Amsterdam!

Happy early birthday

Since Kristen and I rescheduled our trip to Amsterdam on my mom's birthday we decided to celebrate a day early with millionaire shortbread and nasty ice cream that I picked out (never buy cornish ice cream). I also took my parents to the Scottish Parliament and can be seen standing behind Alex Salmond's sit, he's the first minister of Scotland.

Inverness Ward

Went to church with mom and dad and saw Elder Baumann, another elder who served in Edinburgh Ward.

Isle of Skye and Inverness

My parents stayed in their very first hostel and I think it was a good experience. Luckily we didn't have to stay with any other people, but it would have been nice to have a bathroom in our room. I guess you can't complain in a town full of 2,000 people.
When you get multiple Adams' together you are bound to find at least one camera per person. This trip was no exception. You'll notice that this photo captures three cameras.

We needed all the cameras because of the beautiful landscape. This is Kilt Rock, named because of the tartan pattern on the rocks.

And of course, no trip up north would be complete without a visit to Terry and Elna, our friends we met at the theatre in Edinburgh. They took us to an amazing Indian restaurant and didn't know quite what to do with this money.

My parents came to the UK for a three week visit and picked us up in Glasgow to drive up north. We drove over to Dumbarton to see our favourite missionary, Elder Brophy. I had promised him that I'd give him my red earmuffs at the end of April and even though they were falling apart I gave them up. It was a fun reunion, after which we drove through the countryside and saw things that Kristen and I would never get to see without a car. It was wonderful to see my parents again and share a country that we have come to love.

My office

This is my office space I used while at the parliament. It was nice not being stuck in a little cubby hole in a dark room. There were a few interns that would get kicked out of their office every once in a while, but I was lucky enough to have a chair everyday. This was also my last day on the job, now to find something to do with the rest of the time I'll be in Scotland!

From our flat

I wore outfits like this for over three months while working at the Scottish Parliament. At this point I only had about three days left. It was a great three months and I learned a lot about politics and how to avoid stepping on toes. The photo of me was taken just outside our flat and the photo of the sunset was from our bedroom window.

The Sun

This picture might not seem like a big deal, but looking out the window you might guess the time to be about 6 here in Scotland. Oh no, it was already eight. We like the sun, especially when it stays out all night. And happy birthday Natalie!

Defrosting

Today was finally warm enough to get things done. We haven't cleaned out the freezer since we arrived decided to defrost it. Kristen got the potato masher and scraped out the ice while I threw stuff away. Spending the entire day inside wasn't ideal though so for FHE we hiked up to Calton Hill and enjoyed the beginnings of spring.

Going Crazy

I think at this point we were ready to leave the country. We had visitors at our house and we wanted to be on vacation too.

The Flower of Scotland

For day three of the non-Amsterdam vacation we went to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh, since we were unable to see the flowers at Keukenhof. They were okay, although I don't think that the gardeners had finished up the spring cleaning yet. On our way to the gardens we walked through the square in front of the National Gallery and were blessed to hear some spiritual tunes.

Day 2 of the volcano adventure

As you can tell, all of Britain shut down after the volcano and most of Europe was grounded as well. This was happening during the election campaign for prime minister, so things spiced up a bit for the campaign along the way. That being said, Kristen and I decided to take matters into our own hands and have some fun. We took a night walk down to the beach, about 1.5 miles from the house, and gazed at the sunset and trying to find evidence of the ash cloud. We also found an arcade/casino and went inside to check it out. Usually I hate arcades because they are so noisy but this one was quiet and served ice cream. It was a nice day, but would have been more exciting had we ended up in Amsterdam.

The Volcano

This was the day that Kristen and I found out about the volcano in Iceland. We were suppose to fly to Amsterdam early the next morning but as the day continued and all flights were cancelled we realized that we would be going nowhere for the weekend. We made our usual pre-trip run to ASDA (Wal-Mart) for travel snacks but just couldn't find the motivation to buy anything, hence the sorrowful faces.

Preparing for Amsterdam

King of the blanket fort

Capturing the big, scary, nasty bumblebee

Catching the bus

Reflections of us

My white legs

IKEA