rome, italy

rome! i was looking forward to going here from the very beginning. when we arrived here, we went straight to a different country. yup, we went to vatican city! a country within a country. we saw the sinstine chapel which was so cool. you can't take pictures in there, so just imagine an amazingly painted ceiling :)


we also went inside st. peters cathedral. one of the biggest churches in the world! with michelangelo's pieta on the inside.


another one of my favorite things was to see and go inside the colloseum! as corny as this sounds, i was thinking about the lizzie mcguire movie the entire time... haha it was such a cool building with so much history.

another famous landmark in the lizzie mcguire movie is the trevi fountain. besides the eiffel tower and the colloseum, the trevi fountain was also a favorite of mine. i got to throw some coins in and make a wish! its said to bring you back to rome someday.. so hopefully it comes true! the trevi fountain took 30 years to build. 1500 euros are collected from the fountain every day and given to charities. thats alot of tourists that go there, and alot of euros! 


          

florence, italy

we had to take a 12-hour night train to florence. taking a few pit stops here and there and stopping in switzerland.. it took forever! even though i probably got the most sleep i did the entire trip on the train, it definately wasn't my favorite thing to do.

we were only in florence for one day, but the entire day we mostly had free time! which was so relaxing.  italy, especially florence is known for leather, every shop and flee market we went too, thats what they sold. the shopping was amazing!

so our tour guide, decided to take us to a night club. and it was so much fun! it was the sickest dance i have ever been too. the dance floor was so cool, and the whole club was so sweet! definately a high light of my trip!

the next day, on our way to rome, we stopped at a little place called assisi. it was just this cute little town with a big church on top of a hill. and the gelato there was soooooo good. i could go for some gelato right about now!

paris, france

so we took an underwater train to paris. it took about 2 and a half hours and we were then in france! when we got there we took a little bus tour and then went to notre dame! what an amazing building.

and since its paris, of course you have to go see the eiffel tower! out of everything we saw, the eiffel tower was my favourite. pretty much everywhere you went, you could see it. and its so big! at night, it lights up and then it sparkles for 5 minutes straight every hour. it was so amazing, all you could do was just stare at it!

                        

next was the Louvre. so many cool things in there! we saw so many famous peices... including the mona lisa!

            

we then climbed up to the Sacre-Coeur church, and went inside. it was really interesting to see the service going on inside. with the nunns walking around, alot different then we were used too. but still a very beautiful place!



then after dinner one night, we decided to go climb the arch de triomphe. i had no idea you could climb it until we actually did!

   

versailles. where the king and queen resided. the gardens were huge. it seriously goes on and on forever. it was so green and amazing beautiful. and the palace was great itself! we saw the fmaous hall of mirrors and the king and queens bedroom. id like to live there!

well theres my adventure in paris, france. off to italy!

london, england

its been a crazy 2 weeks! the highlight of my spring break was that i went to europe! woot! it was so much fun. i got it spend it with people i love in one of the most beautiful places on earth. we were first in london, this is tanisha and i right after we got off the plane.

we were pretty excited even though we didnt show it! it must have been the 9 hour plane ride and the fact that we couldnt sleep the entire time. heres a picture of my friends and i in the famous red telephone booths!

from then on, we did some walking tours and bus tours of london. we even went on the metro a couple of times! one of my favorite things that we did in london was going to the london bridge. especially at night when it was lit up and beautiful!

the next day in london we went to buckingham palace! we didnt get to see the changing of the guards, nor was the queen home but it still was very cool!

next on the list was westminister abbey. we waited in line for about an hour and a half to go inside. it was really cool because william and kate were getting married there a week later! there was camera crews and chairs all being set up for the big day. unfortuanately, we are not allowed to take pictures inside, but seeing all the graves of past kings and queens was really something to remember!

now this next part is cool! i got to see big ben! as weird as it sounds, i thought it would be way bigger than it actually was! it was so beautiful and it sounded every 15 minutes!

the next thing we did was went in the london eye! the london eye is the biggest ferris-go-round in the world. it takes 30 mintues to go completely around. this is my friend shay and i at in the london eye. 

well thats london for ya! theres so much more that i could have seen. someday i hope to go back!

161.

thoughts and prayers go out to the pack family. what a wonderful mother and grandmother she was. she will be missed greatly <3

oh just some numbers

okay so, it has been a very long weekend for me. i just got back from edmonton for basketball provincials and we placed 5th! going into the tournament we were ranked 11th so we kinda proved them wrong :) also our boys ended up getting 5th as well.

and today is a special day might i add. my older brother is no longer considered a "teen." ya he turned twenty today. pretty crazy! happy birthday cody!

another significant number is 31. in exactly 31 days i will  be heading to europe. its crazy how this countdown has been running since 200 days and its already down to 31. i can't wait!

--jord

ZONES

probably my most favourite part of high school is zones week. everyone coming together to play this sport we love and the fans were crazy this year! take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV9FzQ_e2UY

haha how classy can you get right? anyways, overall zones went really well for all the cardston teams. with both jv boys and girls winning the championship. senior varsity girls got 3rd (last spot to go to provincals) and the varsity boys finished second, losing a tough one against raymond in the final. lets hope provincals goes well for us!