a stable, a talent show, easter dinner, and snow!

this past weekend was jam-packed with adventure and good times! friday morning, we were picked up by marion and andrew by a minibus, shoved it full of our backpacks, and began our three hour journey to stourhead. this estate is a 18th-century landscape garden and palladian mansion (modelled after one in venice). while there, we stayed the entire weekend in the grounds stableyard - which thankfully has been converted into a guest house. the girls all bunked in a huge room and it also provided us with a kitchen and common room. it felt like we were at camp! so much fun!

after unpacking when we arrived friday afternoon, we all went out to explore the grounds. this place is utterly gorgeous!! "Stourhead is one of the finest landscape gardens in the world. Designed by Henry Hoare II as a place to entertain, the garden was laid out between 1741 and 1780. The magnificent lake is central to this iconic garden of classical temples and follies. Its lakeside paths and backdrop of colourful, rare and exotic trees reveal many beautifully contrived vistas, capturing the imagination of visitors for over two centuries" - definately took this info off the internet...but yep this is what the grounds were. i dont even know how to describe how beautiful the walk we took was.

gorgeous!

our very first stop on our tour, was to the temple of apollo. although we had some difficulties locating it (somehow our map failed us and we were forced to climp an old stone bridge where laura ended up getting hurt by stinging nettles). our exasperations vanished as soon as we all approaced it - this is the place where they filmed the 'almost' kiss of lizzie and mr.darcy from pride and prejudice!!!!! after a few enactments and photos, we continued on our tour to discover many more awesome sights!

this is the river god's cave seen from the grotto. the grotto is a large manmade cave that is absolutely stunning inside. you'll notice in the picture that the statue's hand is outstretched - apparently this is to directs visitors out of the grotto and on towards the pantheon.

posing to capture another of our cool discoveries. for some unknown reason, perhaps inspired by the sheep we had seen, mark posed as a old shepherd!

like kids, we had a blast climbing all the trees!! thankfully, there was only one casualty (tim - but he's okay!). im a little baffled at this pciture...whose hand is in the back behind alisha and laura? all our arms are accounted for...creepy!

on saturday morning, we piled back into the bus and drove out to stonehenge!

here is stonehenge...were our audio guide informed as that they do not actually know a)how the stones got there b)when the stones got there and c)why the stones were put there. hm, oh well, the myths are fun and the stones do look incredibly amazing

that night, after dinner, we ate the easter cookie that my mom had bought for everyone! they were so happy and wanted me to say "thank so much mrs. heuving, you are the best!" yep, she is the best for sure!

getting into the mindset of camp, we held an inpromtu talent night that evening. beth, jodi, and i began with a rendition of avril's "hot" by painting eyes on our chins and mouthing the words with our heads upsidedown...cmon, you know what im talking about! then we had a cheer from beth, jodi, and megan, a hilarious cooking show, improv 'freeze', a round of big booty, and zipzapzop. who knew it could be that fun!!!

sunday we woke up anticipating attendance at a church in the nearby town. when we poked our heads out the door we were greeted with SNOW!!this is our first (and probably only) snowfall here in england! it stayed for a little while before melting - but it was so pretty! although, i can say that i do not wish i was back at home waist deep in snow...but a little is nice!!

that afternoon/evening, laura and gabby (helped by megan and heather) prepared the most amazing easter dinner ever! we had ham, potatoes, salad, veggies, and a delicious apple pie (laura, you will have to make me one of those soon okay?). it was honestly delicious.

today (monday) was awesome! marion had bought chocolate eggs for us which some of us went out in the morning to hide in the courtyard. then, we had a massive easter egg hunt (with megan as victor)! it was hilarious to watch everyone frantically running around and knocking into each other in an attempt to find the eggs! we really are just a bunch of little kids!!!

then, marion and andrew prepared us an amazing brunch to fill us up before we hit the road. on our way back to charlbury, we stopped at bath to see the roman baths...which we actually didnt see because it was too expensive. oh well. bath is awesome anyways!

while in bath, a few of us checked out the jane austen museum (there are some people who are very obsessed with pride and prejudice!). in this pic the girls are posing with an austen replica...but i think laura might be getting a little too friendly with the display. yikes!

this is the royal crescent...its a crescent of buildings which form an entire circle. neat to see - it definately looks cool!

overall, we had such an amazing weekend! im beginning to learn more and more what an incredible group this is! its so awesome that we have all become so close within such a short period of time. they are all such wonderful people and such a blast!