Primary Shout-out!

I was blessed with the opportunity to attend church at the Catford Ward of the Wandsworth Stake in Blackheath, England while I was in London. I was hesitant at first to attend a ward where I knew absolutely no one and had to take a 20 minute overground train ride to get there- I was intimidated. To my surprise, I fell in love with everyone in Catford. I especially fell in love with the children in Primary. I was called into the Primary before I even attended the ward and was asked to play the piano and do singing time. This was hard at first but I eventually got into the swing of things and fell in love with that too! It was so fulfilling to hear the kids sing songs that I had taught them. I just loved them! It was espeicially fun for me to take my family to church and to have them meet all of the members there whho I have come to know and love. I was blessed to have associations with wonderful children, failthful people and an espeically wonderful bishop and his wife Nicole. I won't lie, church was one of my favorite parts of London!

A little collage of the Priamary kids!

The Catford crew on the way home from chruch.

The BYU girls with Jenny's mom, President Pemberton and Br. Chittock

The Priamary organization of the Catford Ward. Nicole (far right) is the President and we were there to do whatever she needed us to do.

Two of my favorite kids- Malachi (left) and Amaddi (right). I just love them!

The silly group shot. Don't let this picture fool you, it was taken on Easter and there were a lot more kids at church than normal.

A little less silly group picture...

Me and Esther... so cute!

MALACHI!!!!

Bishop Newton-Williams and his wife Nicole and their new baby Nannette Louella! I could not have asked for a more supportive bishop and wife to work with- I just love them!!!

Family Lovin' in England

I got to share my last week in London with my parents and my little sister! I have come to love this city so much and was so happy with the opportunity that I had to share all the things I love with some people that I love very much! Of course, with dad in London we now have some pretty sweet pictures so I thought I would share some Pickett Family London pictures with all of you!

Emily looking a little seductive almost in the phone booth...Sweet shot Dad took of London from the London Eye!

All the Pickett girls in Holland Park (well the ones whose last names are still Pickett.)

Me and Em on the escalator riding down to the tube!

St. Paul's at night from the Millennium Bridge!

Hever... In Pictures

My desire to type a lot about Hever and Chartwell and Knoll is not very intense so I think I will just share the pictures that we took at Hever because that is really all I have got!




This picture describes exactly how I felt at the end of our trip on Wednesday and am still feeling... I don't get enough sleep here, there is just too much to do all the time! It was a good trip though, really it was!

The Last of Paris... I Promise!!!

So by the last day in Paris we were all pretty dead... Maddie likes to say that Paris killed us but we died happy- it is so true! With this being the case, we took it a little easier our last day in the city of lights. First we went to a big cemetery where a number of famous people are buried. Next we went to the Orangerie and after our group split up and my group went to try and climb the tower at Notre Dame but the line was too long so we went to the Luxembourg Gardens to soak up a little bit more Parisian sun before we headed back to London.This is Maddie at Chopin's grave

Me checking out Monet's Water Lilies at the Orangerie- they took my breathe away, it is so cool to see paintings in person that you have seen in books all you life.Au Revior Paris!

Take 3!

So day three was a little more chill than days one and two. We went to Versailles for the first half of the day and then hit up the Rodin museum upon getting back to the city. After the museum we found a cute side walk cafe to have dinner at that was in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and after dinner we camped out in front of the tower and talked and laughed until the light show and after the lights we headed back to the Ibis Hotel to fall into bed.Me and Maddie outside the PalaceThe Hall of Mirrors where the treaty of Versailles was signed that ended the First World WarA group of us outside the back of the Palace as we were making our way into the gardensBoats were 11 Euro a boat and split between four people that was not bad at all. The sun came out as we were rowing, it was perfect although, I am not a very good rower- Just ask Melissa or Maddie, they made fun of me the whole time!We discovered I was better at sleeping in the back of the boat than rowing so I stuck to my guns in this situation...

This is the thinker...We wanted to think too...This is what the Rodin looks like... cool museum huh?

This is a check on Maddie's life dream list- she wanted to drink hot chocolate at a side walk cafe in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in view- CHECK!

Me and Maddie just checking out the Eiffel Tower. This was right after I sat in bird poop, just thought I would throw that out there.Oh la la!

Paris Part 2!

Day two in Paris started early. I got up so I could go running and then be ready for breakfast by 7:30 so, for those of you who might have thought this was a vacation- not quite :) Our second day was occupied by climbing the Eiffel Tower, seeing the Catacombs, sitting in Luxembourg Gardens, visiting the Pantheon, meeting Mona Lisa, walking through the Tuillerie Gardens and down the Champs Elysee and ended with the light show at the Eiffel Tower. It was jam packed and a little bit tiring but so fun!!!

A look at Paris from above 1000 feet!

Melissa and me at the top of the tower- getting to the top was a little rough for me, the elevator made me a little nervous but once we got up there I was fine!This was taken down in the Catacombs- might be the creepiest place I have ever been but I just loved it! I am such an anatomy nerd!! I loved seeing all the different bones and telling the girls I was with which bones were which bones and what the different parts were called- I had a blast. Over one million Parisians have their bones in the Catacombs due to the fact that the cemeteries were all cleared out to make way for development in Paris while the city was still... developing...

So we were a little bit tuckered out and on our way to the Pantheon we saw these beautiful gardens and decided it would be a good idea to take a little break. After a half an hour nap in the sun we were all ready to go again!!!!

There was a protest on the street leading up to the Pantheon- kind of different, kind of exciting.The Pantheon was really cool! We got to see a lot of famous people who are buried in the crypt like Victor Hugo, Louis Braille and Marie Curie- just to name a few.

We headed off to the Louvre after the Catacombs and I have never been to a larger museum in my life!! We were inside the museum for multiple hours and I think I saw about 1/32 of the collection that is housed there. We saw the Mona Lisa, of course, and this statue is the Venus de Milo- pretty cool!I just had to put this picture up because it is so CooL! I also have to give a shout-out to my friend Kiely who was the expert photographer!!

We walked through the gardens in front of the Louvre en route to...THIS! The Arc de Triumph via the Champs Elysee!

This day ended with crepes and the Eiffel Tower light show... again! It was a crazy day but so good!

Big Ben's Dark Night

So with the G 20 Summit that just happened here in London there were a lot of groups wanting to get their messages out there for the people to hear or in this case, for the people to see. Earth hour happened last Saturday and the lights in 3,200 cities landmarks went out in order to conserve energy and fight against global warming. A couple of girls and I thought it would be cool to be there to watch as they turned off Big Ben- we were right, it was cool. The funniest thing was when this guy walking by us asked if we would like him to take a picture. We said yes and he said to us as he was taking the picture- "Sorry, it really is prettier when the lights are on." We just laughed with each other since we were there to see it with the lights off...Lights on...Lights off and in black and white...Us in front of dark Big Ben... Sepia Style!

Displaying Our Talents

I bet you didn't know that there are girls here at the London Centre who can play the harp, rap, make dance routines, rewrite lyrics to songs and do many other incredible things. Truthfully, I did not know these things either until we had our talent show last week. It was fun to get together and show each other what we do best!Abbey and I signed a couple of songs for everyone- it was fun!!

Paris... Part 1

I made the executive decision to blog about Paris in parts because it would just be too much if I tried to tackle it all at once and since I am the executive of this blog I feel entitled to that decision :) I have to start off by saying that Paris was a blast! I do not think I could call it my favorite city but... It is Paris and that is reason enough to have a good time there.

We left super early Wednesday morning and took the Eurostar under the Channel and in a couple of hours we were in Paris. We took a little bit of time to get to our hotel and get settled in but after that it was into the city for the girls of the London Centre and we took Paris by storm.

Wednesday was jam packed for me and the group that I was with. Our first stop was the Musee d' Orsay. This museum was converted from a train station into a museum so the building was really cool. The art in the building was pretty cool too. I discovered in Paris that I love impressionism. There was a whole room in this museum was nothing but van Gogh in it and I love van Gogh. I also really enjoy Monet and there was an entire room dedicated to him as well so I was as happy as a kid in a candy shop, before coming to London and Paris I was not aware that art could make me that happy- thanks Europe for teaching me that important fact about myself!This is what a museum in a train station looks like, it was pretty cool.This was my favorite Monet painting.This was my favorite van Gogh painting... I love van Gogh!

Ok! After the museum we decided to walk in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower. It was a good walk, we saw some of Paris and eventually made it to the tower. We took some pictures there and then headed of to Saint Chappele. Here are a couple Eiffel Tower pictures. What did you expect, we were American tourists in Paris, of course we needed pictures with the Eiffel Tower!Capturing one of the earliest sightings.Me and the Eiffel Tower!

From the Eiffel Tower we headed to the Saint Chappele. This is hands down, the most beautiful church I have ever seen. The windows were stained glass from bottom to top and I gave an audible gasp upon entering the room where the windows were- I could hardly comprehend what was in front of my eyes. Me talking about it does it know justice so I will put of the pictures and you can look for yourselves. Keep in mind though that pictures that I take, don't do things the justice that they deserve.I let out an audible "wow" when I saw this at the top of the stairs...Me and Melissa in one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

After having my breathe taken away by Saint Chappelle we headed across the street to Notre Dame. Notre Dame was pretty amazing to see. I mean, it's not like I haven't seen it before in the Hunchback movie but it was even better in person :) I didn't get to see Quasimodo though unfortunately...It was pretty amazing to see this live and in the fleshI thought this kind of looked like a post card picture minus the lady in it...

Yea we just kept going after this stop. The next thing we did was hike up the hill to the Socre Cruer which is a big church on top of a big hill. The church was cool but the view from the top was cooler, here it is!

After the Socre Cruer someone in our group decided that it would be fun to go and see the Moulin Rouge... this was not the best decision because it was pretty sketchy but we got our pictures and got out of though so it all worked out.Hiliary and I are trying to show our disapproval...

So after walking down Sketch Street we decided it would be a good idea to watch the sun set from the top of the Arch de Triumph. This idea proved to be much better than the last one- it was beautiful. The sprint up the stairs to make sure we didn't miss the sun set was a bit of a challenge but nothing we couldn't handle! I loved the views and the sunset and the fact that I was in Paris!!!A Parisian Sunset!This is me and the Eiffel Tower... no big deal :)

We ended this day the best way we knew how. Crepes and the Eiffel Tower light show. There is a light show at the Eiffel Tower ever night on the hour every hour until 1 am- it is the most beautiful and captivating thing I have ever seen. I could watch this show every night for the rest of my life and not get sick of it, I loved it!!!!Not quite as good in the pictures but... it is BEAUTIFUL in real life, I promise!