SO MUCH NEWS!

Ohhhhh where to start?

Our trip to the UK was absolutely amazing!!! We saw so much and got so many pictures--definitely the best trip I've ever been on.

We saw London the first few days we were there. Stayed in an AMAZING hotel--the Mariott at Grosvenor's Square. Saw Kings of Leon at Hyde park with our friends Ollie and Sarah (who live in Scotland) that first day. We had a day of 7 straight hours of sight seeing, haha. It was great though. The two of us walked all over London and saw all the things we set out to see: Tower of London, The Eye, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the houses of parliament, The Globe Theatre, Tate Britain and so much more.

We took a train down south to Cornwall for a couple of days to see The Eden Project and go to the beach. Unfortunately the beach didn't work out becuase it was freezing down there, but having a day to just chill out was probably a good thing. The Eden Project was cool, I'm a nerd and really like seeing all different kinds of plants. The flowers they had were beautiful and then the rainforest and mediterranean biomes had plants native to those regions--lots of food that I didn't know grew in those places/had never seen how it grows.
We headed back up to London after that and caught a show at the Globe Theatre and saw Mumford and Sons at Hyde Park!!! I think the play at the Globe was actually my favorite thing we did. It was awesome to just sit on the same spot where they held plays in the 1600's. The play we saw was Dr. Faustus and it was awesome. Great music, great actors, and a great story.
Mumford and Sons the next day were so good live! I'm definitely anticipating their next album. They played a bunch of songs from it and they were all killer. Headed up to Shrewsbury next to stay with another friend, James. It was such a nice town. Beautiful buildings and plenty of stuff to do--plus I found a paper store ;) So I was in heaven. We stayed with his family and they were such wonderful hosts. We also had a lot of fun at a community beer festival. Lots of good ales and a cookout and music. Definitely a good time.

Then it was on to Scotland! :) We got into Edinburgh and found a hotel and then headed up to Edinburgh Castle with Ollie and Sarah. Ollie actually lives in the castle, hah--no joke (military). So he showed us his room and the view from there is amazing, looks out over the whole city pretty much. We went with Ollie and Sarah to "Taste of Edinburgh" --this food festival, basically where all the top restraunts in Edinburgh have booths set up to try their food. Delicious! And we found some awesome cider there...which is my favorite. Food and cider...what more could I ask for, right? ;) Later that night we met up with them again and went to a cool little bar called Ghillie Dhu. It's a Scottish themed bar but not cheesy and it was a lot of fun. Definitely good for Noah and Ollie to get to catch up and it was fun to hear all their stories from their time in Afghanistan together.

So then the next day in Edinburgh was the best day of the entire trip! :D We got up early and went to the Castle again to look around some more. We saw St. Giles Cathedral which was beautiful. Went up to Calton Hill where there's an old observatory and memorial shaped like the parthenon. And from there we decided to hike up Arthur's Seat.

So we got some food and put it in the pack and headed towards the mountain for a hike and a picnic. On the way up I was kind of grumpy because I was getting all hot and sweaty and it was a pretty steep hike, lol. So I was grumbling and Noah said "What if I had a surprise for you at the top?" To which I replied "Whatever" thinking he was just trying to get me to keep going but...little did I know there was indeed a surprise! :D
We got up to the top and my grumpiness went away when I saw the SPECTACULAR view! The entire city of Edinburgh spread out and then beautiful hills behind us. We sat down and ate lunch at that beautiful spot and when we were done, I was turned around looking at the view and a little blue box appeared over my shoulder and Noah said "You know how I said I had a surprise for you?" I figured it was just some kind of jewelry (something like the necklace he'd given me at Christmas, maybe) but no! I opened the blue box to find a ring box and Noah said "Open it!" and I did and there was the most beautiful diamond ring I've ever seen!!! Absolutely perfect. And he asked me if I'd marry him! And I couldn't do anythng but nod my head becuase I was smiling so big and finally was able to get out a "YES!" :)

The whole thing was so, so perfect.

We went back to the hotel to rest and talk about all kinds of stuff that he's been thinking about since he started planning the engagement! and then got some dinner and ended the night with a really fun ghost tour on and under the Royal Mile Rd.

We flew back to London the next day and then back to the U.S. early the next morning.
So yes, a perfect trip!
But that's not all of the news!!!

We decided to have a wedding ceremony in December when he's home on leave next and to go head and get married at the courthouse so I can get into the army system and be able to go with him when he reenlists and moves to a different duty station. So both sets of our parents went with us on the 8th and we got married!!! I am officially Mrs. Leah Lindquist now!!! We weren't going to announce it until the wedding ceremony but...we're just too excited not to! :)

It's hard to believe! Life is changing so quickly and so amazingly. I never thought I'd find my match, but he was right under my nose all along--for eleven years. We're so happy to be married and can't wait to really start our lives together. He'll have to leave on Wednesday and go back to Germany but I'll be going over there a couple of times before the wedding to visit and then we'll only have about a month after the wedding that we'll be apart. And then to Germany!!! I'm moving to GERMANY!!!

If I ever thought my life was boring--my how I was mistaken.

It's been kind of a whirl wind but it's good :) Really really good.