Our Europe Trip!

I was trying to think of the best way to write out all of our Europe adventures, and I figured the best way would just be country by country. This is just the introduction with no pictures or anything interesting, just text. So if you are here for the pictures stay tuned for the Copenhagen post.

While in Hawaii my dad got a job to help with the scheduling for the Rome temple. I decided from then on that I was willing to splurge a little and go to Europe since I'd have the apartment paid for in Italy and most of the food, so I'd just have to pay for the plane ticket. Well, turns out that flying to Italy is expensive! So I started searching for budget airlines with really cheap tickets. I found out that once you get into Europe you can fly for almost NOTHING. As in $3-$20 !!!!!

The cheapest airline that flew to and from the United States though is Norwegian Airlines. Totally underrated in my opinion. Just praying that their rates don't climb too much. The cheapest flights out of the US are usually from JFK, Fort Lauderdale, Boston, or this itty-bitty one in New York that is super hard to get to probably (but now that I'm thinking about it, Allegiant might fly to it for only $50 so that might actually be the best one). The problem/nice thing about these airlines is that the basic price covers absolutely nothing. You can bring a carry on bag that has a pretty strict size and weight limit, and a little purse or bag. I think together they have to weigh less than 20 pounds. So in that picture, that is all the stuff we packed for 3 weeks in Europe. And honestly it was pretty refreshing! I even felt like I overpacked a little! And I was actually under the weight limit the whole time. Norwegian is an even better airline if you are willing to pay $500 a ticket one way (still a steal), because you will pretty much be flying 1st class. You can go to the specially place in the airport (lol can't remember the name. Pretty much like the concierge lounge or 1st class...room?), get seats that recline to almost laying down, get a 3 course meal or sometimes dinner and breakfast, have higher weight limits and I think you can bring more luggage. Idk, it just works out for everyone! 

Anyways, overall, we spent around $600 for tickets. We could have saved even more if we had booked earlier, but we waited till about 2 months before. This price included Boston to Copenhagen to London (Stanstead not Heathrow) to Barcelona (an exciting little surprise we got to take!!!) to Paris to Rome to Fort Lauderdale. Our flights from KC to Boston and Fort Laud. to KC were free with our Southwest miles. Some of our flights in between countries in Europe were as little as $17 because we used budget airlines. Specifically RyanAir and Vueling. Two VERY common and safe airlines that all Europeans use! They even have flights for $3 on their site often. You do have to know though, that often a lot of the cheapest flights are at AWFUL times as in leaving at 6 in the morning or 11 at night. So we did choose to spend the night in the Barcelona and Paris airports to catch 6 am flights and there were lots of other college aged to mid 40 people doing the same thing and it was pretty clean and okay (not nearly as bad as out experience sleeping in the Seattle airport on our way to Hawaii!!). Also when flying these airlines, sometimes the airports they fly to in BIG cities like Paris and London are the smaller ones further away where you might have to take a one hour train to get to the city. We had to take the Stanstead Express when we flew to London and round trip it was about $30 and took an hour each way, but it was super soothing and cool to see life outside of the city. Also it was clean, had outlets, and was cheaper than say an Uber.

So I guess we can start our journey and story? 

So May 16th (Tuesday) we started off in KC. Our flight was delayed a little, but we eventually got to Boston and then had a 5 hour layover. We had planned it out so that we would fly overnight from Boston to Copenhagen so that we could arrive there around 9 in the morning and have a good full day there. We were a little nervous flying on this relatively small airline flight and my mom was super scared we got scammed, but I was pretty confident it would be okay. The flight didn't show up on the screen in the Boston airport until exactly 2 hours before boarding so that was a little sketch. As in, no one could even CHECK IN until 2 hours before. So make sure you are first in line!! We were literally the first in line and they weighed all our stuff, and mine was fine, but my mom's was way over so she put on her 5 jackets (no joke, and it ended up being warm our whole trip...) and stuffed her pockets with stuff to get under the limit. The guy at the desk was SUPER nice and said he could put us almost anywhere we wanted on the plane. We were pretty hesitant and scared he was going to charge us extra, but he ended up just being super nice. I think most of the plane had just purchased the dirt cheap priced option so there were plenty of seats with extra room that were actually taken. So he gave us extra leg room and had us sit together on a row all to ourselves! 

The plane ended up being brand new, with inflight entertainment screens for everyone--but unfortunately we had to sleep instead of use them. I DEFINITELY should have brought melatonin and taken it in Boston because I could barely sleep at all. But we got to Denmark with no problems and it was such a smooth flight!

Back in KC

Hey y'all (mom).

Took a blogging hiatus to let the hate for me cool down and because I was just so dang busy packing up in Hawaii and moving back and going to Arizona and getting jobs!

But I'm back now.

And I'm playing catch up hard core.

So what's new???

Well I'm not in Hawaii anymore! I finished all my finals, got pretty good grades (except sculpture, screw you man....I got a B), and am finishing off a exercise class online at home so I can finally get my Associate's (officially) and transfer all my credits to BYU!

Oh yeah, I'm also going to be attending BYU in the Fall. PUMPED. It's been my dream school since forever. I'm kinda worried about making friends, but at this point I really don't need too many friends--I just can't find any who are like my type, you feel? But I am studying Marketing and Pre-Dental. I know I know I've changed my plan a MILLION times, but I am like 57% sure this time.

I signed up for (too)many classes for next Fall: cooking, ice skating, zumba....and econ, accounting, marketing, finance, and organic chemistry..... 

DON'T WORRY I'M GOING TO CHANGE THOSE.

Because there is NO WAY I'd make it out alive with that schedule.

But I was planning on going to BYU Jeru, but now that I'm waiting a year I have more time to stretch those classes out and ace them because I apply for the Marketing program and UMKC reserved admissions next summer.

I also got a job. Okay two. 

My first (and only important one) is at Christenson Orthodontics.

I LOVE IT.

Seriously. The girls there are the BEST. I'm going to miss them so much. They are such good friends ugh I would love to work here forever, but I gotta go to school and become a dentist or orthodontist myself yo.

Second job is a BK.....yeah not my fav. But they are SUPER flexible and that's what I really needed.

So Monday-Thursday I work 8 am - 5pm at the ortho, 6 pm - 11pm at BK...

Friday I shadow in the morning at other dental offices and then work at BK at night

And Saturday I work a mid-day shift

PARTAYYYY

am-i-right?????

I just gotta keep telling myself it will pay off.

I mean it helped me get to Europe, and fund my shopping binge for college supplies (pyrex containerssssssss---I'm seriously obsessed....it's not okay, but like is.)

So yeah. How am I doing? Well I mean my room is a disaster, and I don't exercise at all......but I HAVE been watching a ton of HGTV and am getting hecka inspired. Seriously I have a couple realtor apps on my phone. It's set. I'm gonna buy a house (but seriously why does the house market here have to be so dang good??? all my favs are getting snatched in a couple hours!!!! i know i know, that means that the economy here is doing great and why i'm able to get two jobs super easily....but dang)

hmmmmmmmm

anything else I'd like to leave you?

I will be opening up a gofundme for school clothes because all I have my bank account on LOCK DOWN. I have not bought any food. Hardly any clothes. Hardly anything besides gas. Help.

Thankssssss

*****photos from like my ONE free day where I hadn't started working yet. enjoy.

also yes i did schedule this bc i'm wayyyyy behind

ARIZONA

Oh hey.

Is it June and you are just now writing about this from four months ago?

YES

No judging. Don't worry it will be scheduled so it looks like I posted it on time.

(who knows if it will be in the right order....ILL TRY MY BEST THOUGH)


Lol jk don't have to try my best, because I just called Kell and he walked through it all with me because he has a much better memory than me when it comes to chronological order (I still have the memory for details though).

First of all the flight was SKETCH.

As in, getting to the airport in Hawaii (no friends with cars, tons of luggage, far away, can't take a bus HELP), and then getting through the HUGE American Airlines line with tons of asians who had no clue what they were supposed to do because there were no explanations for anything!! Like I didn't know I had to get a special tag to make sure there was no produce to I had to get out of line. Luckily, the people behind me were super nice, but like I'm even English speaking and I had no clue! 

Then it was a red eye flight and guess how much sleep I got. 

NONE.

YAYAYAYA

I left at like 11pm Hawaii time and then got there 8 am Arizona time (is that right??? idk)

When I first arrived, my phone was...no more. So we basically had to find each other without any messaging or calls--CRAZY RIGHT, what is this, 2002????

Anyways, he showed up 2 hours early "just incase" (he must love me right?) and we found each other really easily.

AND LET ME TELL YOU

seeing him for the first time was the weirdest thing i've ever experienced in my life. 

you know how people find each other online and don't even really facetime or call, just text? yeah well we had met in person and hung out for three months and then facetimed for 4 months, and it was still the biggest shock ever. it was like we didn't know each other. most awkward hug EVER. he was WAY taller than i remembered, and he thought i was way shorter than in Hawaii, and there was like a sliver of worry because i didn't know if i should go home with this STRANGER

Well I did, and we clicked really fast again and it all worked out lol.

But seriously.....it was so weird. Like I can't even stress how much!!!!!

well the first thing we did was go to the zoo

and guess what.

it was COLD

WHAT THE HECK ARIZONA?!

Arizona is like never cold right?????

Well it was, and I had no warm clothes since I had just come from Hawaii....

Despite the cold (and HAIL) we had a great time!

Had a first kiss all over again (it sucked, sorry my bad lol)

And Kell got to share all his knowledge about cacti with me--he's a keeper for sure lol (he really does know like way too much though....all I remember was the jumping cacti and how if you throw rocks at it it will like swing and break off and could hit you. DOPE RIGHT. let's all move to AZ)

Then we hiked up to....idk what it's called.

Hole in the rock????????

Seems legit.

I mean it's a hole that shows all of Phoenix.

It wasn't as much of a hike as a short walk with a steep incline at the end ahaha, but it was fun to do something outdoorsy! And holy heck, AZ is so dry. Like so insanely dry. Drier than Utah. 

I mean I'm not like super surprised, but it was also kinda strange coming from Hawaii and from Missouri.

After, I made a whole LIST of places that I was craving super super bad from not being able to go to them in Hawaii:

BK

Chick-fil-a

Olive Garden

Cafe Rio AND Chipotle (because they are both very different and both good and don't you dare compare them or their atmosphere's or say you don't like one or the other because I will get very defensive and go OFF on you. btw get the sweet pork quesadillas at Cafe Rio and Sofritas (tofu) at Chipotle ALWAYS with guac, you will thank me later)

Well since I had sent this list to Kell before hand, we decided to hit a couple of these places when I got back to the mainland. We started at Chick-fil-a (so so sorry Chris ((Kell's mom)), I know you had prepared dinner but I hadn't eaten since like 5 pm in Hawaii the previous day). And let me tell you.....CHICK-FIL-A, WHY DO YOU NOT SERVE THE BISCUIT CHICKEN SANDWICH ALL DAY. 

Ugh so frustrating.

I promise I don't go out to eat all the time.

There's just a few places I'm just so passionate about.

And Chick-fil-a seriously needs to step up their game and serve the biscuit chicken sandwiches all day. Like seriously. If you go for breakfast, get that with Polynesian sauce to dip it in. Like I said, you'll thank me later. And always get the waffle fries with Chick-fil-a sauce. I think my love for their waffle fries stemmed from my gymnastics days where we would occasionally stop and get fries on the way back from practice...it's the little things you guys. 

(seriously don't try to convince me that any other place has better fries, I'll fight you)

ANYWAYS, after, we finally went back to his house and he showed me around. The room I stayed in was decorated so cute, with the cutest camel sheets ever! His mom is like me hahahah aka obsessed with the Target dollar section with all the party and decoration stuff (swoon i love you target), and TJ Maxx haha. Seriously I can't tell you how much I loved those sheets........

I got to meet his mom and sister and we had dinner together, and then we played games which was super fun! We ended up going over to his grandparents too so I could meet them. 

Truthfully I'm pretty sure we were all being pretty fake haha. I want to go back again because we were all kind of nervous and acting too polite. Kell didn't even finish his food he was so nervous. And I ate hardly any--which if you know me, I eat a LOT. Anyways, it was a pretty typical first meeting where it went well, but we all were super reserved hahahaha.

When we got back, we started watching a TV show that we had been watching together. I had started Breaking Bad because it was his favorite, and I watched all like 6 seasons in 2 months while in Hawaii....... It's basically about a guy who has cancer so starts cooking meth to leave his family money hahahaha. It's actually so genius and I really did like it. 

The next day, we headed out to SEDONA.

I had like no expectations what-so-ever, but let me tell you....it is so worth it.

So pretty.

Ugh. 

I had been looking up tons of stuff to do in AZ because I was way excited and found a hike called Devil's Bridge. So we left at like 7 AM, got some McDonald's (thank you Kell for introducing me to McGriddles....), and freaking SPED to Sedona. Like geez Kell, how do you not have any speeding tickets??? Like seriously.....

Anyways, here are some pics.

Also no I didn't ask him to take a million pictures of me.

I was just tired of holding the camera...lol my camera haha

Just proves that he's a great IG boyfriend am-i-right

yooooo

so my computer deleted everything past this point

so all those hours i spent on my day off writing this?

yeah

GONE

well i mean i'm writing this to remember though, so i gotta try my best! so here's me rewrite. 

round two

just letting you know incase it gets really crappy from this point on.

So this was the real reason we first came up here: Devil's Bridge.

I found it while googling cool things to do in Arizona haha

A lady actually died from falling off a few years ago which was kind of scary, but I also like knowing that we are a little in danger--it makes things more fun.

(also sorry for looking so awkward and formal???? yeah don't worry i'll be back in a few years--just to get a new picture.)

One the way back, we stopped at Montezuma's Castle. We had both studied Art History, and American ruins were covered in some of our lessons which was pretty cool. I really want to see the Snake Mounds in Ohio and the Geoglyphs in Peru too!!

cool or creepy????? yeah still trying to decide too

On the way home we got stuck in the WORST traffic. UGh. Thank goodness Kell was driving because I do not do well in traffic. Especially once I find the reason that there was traffic (it is like 78% of the time for a completely stupid reason)

It didn't help that we were pretty hungry from not eating since like 8 that morning haha. So we stopped at Cane's. For the past 4 months if Kell was with friends, it was usually totally predictable. It was with Tanner, Tucker, Keaton, or Rylee & Kamryn. And it would be at a movie, Cane's, or Sodalicious lol (it's still kinda like that....)

So after all this hype, we kinda had to go right??

Cane's is like the In-N-Out of chicken.

It's super super simple, but like pretty good, and super trendy for no apparent reason lol

But it was good! I didn't initially love the "secret" Cane's sauce, but I went a second time and I liked it way better then.

Also Kell and I thought it was only an Arizona thing, but then I saw one in Missouri! Haha and turns out it was invented in Georgia or something!

When we got home, I think we talked to Kell's mom for a little bit. We were mostly just tired though, and knew we'd have to get up early the next day, so we went to sleep pretty early.

The next morning we got up at 4 AM and drove SIX HOURS. Ugh ugh ugh.

Worth it though, because.....

DISNEYLAND

yayayayayayayayaya!!!!!!

I seriously haven't been in so long, so it was nice to make some new memories there with Kell!

We rode a lot of the rides a few times, we were lucky enough to have lines only 20 min long on a few rides (!!!), had yummy food while watching the Star Wars show, and got that cute picture! 

((not pictured, Kell mad at me for making him leave the 4 HOUR Space Mountain line for that pictures, me complaining in every line that was over 30 min, or me also stating that I will never ever bring my kids here unless I rent out the whole park for myself lol))

We really did have an amazing time though!

The ride back??

lol not so much

I could not keep my eyes open.

I felt so bad...honestly it's amazing we are both still alive haha. I didn't think Kell would be able to make it. Next time I definitely want to stay a couple of nights and explore downtown L.A. and then camp in Joshua Tree forest another night.

At one point we pulled over and took a 45 minute power nap, and I legit had 3 nightmares about different semi truck drivers dying because we made a wrong turn, or them killing us/banging on our car window, etc idk. But when we woke up, there were like 4 semi trucks all around us!! So I was like way freaked out at that point and woke up Kell and he was kinda freaked out too so we left haha.

And guess what, we made it back safe!

Yay! Got back at like 4:24 AM and fell asleep immediately.

Never have I ever slept better.

.....until Kell woke me up at SEVEN IN THE MORNING.

(with some "i can't sleep crap")

How were we functioning with so little sleep? idk.

Anyways, we got all ready for the day and then went to see La La Land at 8 haha. Stellar movie, highly suggest. My mom doesn't like it, but you know what, you watch it and tell me what you think.

Then we walked around the mall for a bit---FOUND A PUPPY PLACE--and then went to Olive Garden for lunch.

(ugh that makes me so hungry thinking about it)

After, we came home. Both of us were pretty tired (no thanks to you Kell), so we watched the finale of Breaking Bad and then talked with his mom for a few hours.

After, we met up with some of his friends and went to Top Golf.

(Tanner, Leighton, Tucker, Keaton, Kell, Me....you're welcome mom)

I definitely made a fool of myself

No big deal lol

After we went to Sodalicious (of course), and met up with some more friends.

I'm totally sold on this soda shop thing now. 10/10 man. I got a Dr. Pepper with coconut, lime, and raspberry puree and lemme tell ya, that was the best thing I've ever drank. I want more. Seriously. I downed that 64 oz SO FAST. And then I had to pee every 20 min for the next 3 hours.

After, we went back to a house and played a really fun game. Can't remember the name, but it was fun lol!

We stayed up pretty late again. I guess I'll sleep when I'm dead. Ugh.

The next morning we went to the Gilbert Temple and did baptisms for the dead (learn more about that here. I promise it isn't that weird).

Then we went to Jack-in-the-box....

And then I got on the plane....

THE END

If you want to read the sequel where Kell comes to Kansas City, click here!

Stairway to Heaven

Oh goodness.

The poor people I went to hike this with.

Hysterical would be an understatement.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a pretty good kid. I like following the rules, I don't like when people are unhappy with me...but I also like adrenaline and feeling like I'm a rebel (lol) and getting good pictures and just getting the most out of Hawaii. So literally two days before I got on the plane back to the mainland, I decided to stay up until 2 AM and hike the infamous Stairway to Heaven. We started out with parking our rental car in a college parking lot (freaking scary! like shouldn't that be a place you don't park at??). We ran into two security guards for the school--picture a group of like 15 college kids dressed in black--and I was freaking out inside. We kept turning down roads to avoid them and ultimately made me decide I was definitely not liking this plan a whole lot. We started making our way to the stairs, but since we didn't want to go where the trail starts (because of the guards), we went a long way that included climbing under barbed wire fences. We had to walk along a road that went under the free way, and then basically trudge through the trees in the dark. I was coming up with places I'd run and hide to if a guard came--I was SO paranoid. There was one point where we had like two friends basically fall down the mountain, but we didn't want to pull out flashlights. At another point a guard shone their flashlight up into the trees because they could hear us and I was FREAKED out. I hid behind a tree and had no idea what to do (I know this all seems very dramatic, but I was seriously freaking out--incase you couldn't tell hahhahaha). We eventually got to the stairs about like a half a mile from the beginning of them, and started to climb. That's when I wasn't scared anymore, because lots of other people were on it too. I was starting to feel a lot better about my choices haha. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating and it had been way colder than usual. So all the hand railings were super wet and slippery, and our jackets were getting soaked from the fog as we kept getting higher and higher. Supposedly the best views of sunrise and of the island were from up there, but we were stuck in a cloud because the sun hadn't melted away the fog yet haha. We did get some pretty good pictures on the way down though! 

It was totally worth it in the end. We got near the bottom of the stairs and could see the guard, so we were like "let's send one person down and have them see what the guard says". So we sent Will down and the guard didn't really seem to care (our back up plan was to run back up the stairs lol), so we just kept walking past him. He did yell at us that we were trespassing though. So I continued to try to come up with a plan as we were walking back to the car (if you get arrested the fine is $1000 and you get a court date....). Luckily our car was there! And not booted or anything! So we all climbed back into the car--soaking and tired from pulling an all nighter. I sat in the trunk of the mini van and it was great. We got back and I showered and changed and then went to church lol. Then I left that next Monday.

Secret Island

THE SECRET ISLAND

(now not so secret because so many people have revealed the location on instagram...ugh)

Soon to be crowded with tourists, but we made it there first haha. Actually a miracle we made it here! There was a car accident, and you know Oahu--only one lane North, one lane South--so it was supposed to take 3 HOURS to get there and then we didn't know if we'd be able to get a bus back! It was a dilemma considering we did this finals week and still both had finals to study for....

This was on my "before I leave Hawaii" bucketlist, so I dragged Sammy along with me! I was actually SO scared because this is technically part of Koloa Park (where I had the movie tour), and there are tours that take them here, so I didn't know what to expect. We did see two different security guards but ignored them and kept walking and made it out haha!

It was fun to get cute pics haha but there wasn't much else to do, so then we just headed home.

Koloa Gulch

 Finally convinced people to go on this hike with me! Well actually I kind of tricked them... this waterfall is probably the most well kept secret on the North Shore. OR maybe it's because no one wants to go on it because it's long (6 hours), but also exhausting. The beginning is pretty steep (I got winded real fast haha), but then you have 2.5 hours of crossing the stream--FORTY TIMES. That is the killer. The rocks are pretty slippery, we all ended up on our butts a couple times at least. It is impossible not to fall in. Fortunately I didn't bring my nice camera, because it probably would have gotten beaten up... Because there is so much water down there it is MUDDY. Like you could lose your shoes in the mud haha. And I mean the mosquitos are just a given. Also it isn't heavily trafficked, so the person in front was the dedicated "spider web remover" (or they wouldn't see it and walk into it). We all got pretty cut up, and were all really sore the next couple of days haha. I'm pretty sure they were pretty mad that I didn't tell them it was a kind of hard hike.... 

I think this hike is also called the "Guava hike", but it was past harvest season so we didn't see any. There is a memorial at the beginning though because a scout died a couple years on the hike... Since it's a "gulch", if it rains, there can be a massive flash flood. 

It was pretty though! And an adventure haha. None of us regretted it, butttt probably won't ever do it again.