Living on Purpose

We're in London!!! We went over thanksgiving weekend and stayed at the Pepperdine London house which was fun because a lot of people stayed that weekend because they had family visiting them! Their house is so cool! The couches are amazingly comfortable and we cozied up every night watching British movies like Love Actually of course!

Off to Hogwarts!! I was beyond excited!! Look at that muggle oblivious to the magic around her!
Sister Says: "I'm so jealous you got to do that!!!!"
Me: "I thought you went to London too?
Megan Carolin Says: "I lived in London the whole year and didn't even get to do this... I'm definitely jealous!!"

Harry and Hagrid walked on here! It was pretty special!

Excited for Harry Potter adventures! We're kind of obsessed...

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!

The London Eye! (I didn't get to ride it, I'm so sad I didn't)

Parliament and Big Ben! I didn't even know it was Big Ben at first! It wasn't as big and benny as I thought it would be!

London double deckers!!

The monastary

Once I found out it was Big Ben I HAD to take a Peter Pan picture!! "Second start to the left and straight on till' morning!" (musical interlude) *duh du duhhh!!!*
Kristen Anderson Says: "You are so cute!! I miss you terribly!"
Me: "I miss you!"

Yay for random concerts!! Jill really wanted to go see this concert in Manheim and it was totally fun! (except for walking around in the dark afterwards in the ghetto and having no idea where we are and totally freaked out! Jill felt using the rents credit card for an emergency hotel was necessary and I 100% concurred!) We heart Mcfly!!

Gotta love the red telephone booths!
Carly Hanks Says: "I'm still mad I didn't get a pic like this!!!"
Sister Says: "This is so stinkin cute!!!"

Photo shoots with Laura and the phone booth are the best!! Model direction, "Look angry at who's on the phone" Lundin in London!!! Best day EVER!!!!

Why is everything cuter in London??
Megan Carolin Says: "mmmm probably because it's the best city in the world!"
Me: "haha! Too bad you weren't there with me :( I can't wait to see all of you guys!!"

Big Ben's cookies!!! So delish!!

The palace, not as grand as you would've expected... I mean compared to all the other palaces I've been too =D

Where's the guards??? We were so disapointed they weren't there we had been brainstorming what we could do to make them laugh the whole way there =(

But still excited to be at the palace!! We did get to watch the changing of the guards ceremony for the ones that were inside the gate and that was really cool because they literally don't move otherwise!

So we just pretended the guards were there instead hahahahahaha! We're so crazy!

Let us in let us in!

Yay for cheerleading lifts in rain boots! Bobbi you're a stud! Why do these make me laugh so hard?!!

Yay I'm a leo!

"How come every time you come around my London London bridge keep falling down!" - words of wisdom from Fergie! "Dance!" I kept yelling at them too and was signing that haha!

It's actually not even the London bridge haha! Everyone thinks it is, but it's the tower bridge.

The London Tower

This is Abbey Road in London where the infamous Beatles picture of them crossing the road is taken! It's got tons of cute little shops and a bunch of movies are filmed here!

Ahhhhhh, best musical EVER!!!! I'm so obsessed!!!! I really wanted to see Mary Poppins but it was way more expensive and so I "settled" for Wicked SO glad I did!!!
Sister Says: "I soooo totally want to see this."
Me: "Oh my gosh Amber it was amazing! I absolutely loved it! I want to go with you and mom sometime You guys will be just as obsessed!
Megan Carolin Says: "It is wayyyyyy better in London... good job seeing it there I saw it twice!"

Funny story, but I never even realized it was about the Wizard of Oz because I'd always hear Mel singing the popular song along with the British version and since it's called Wicked I always assumed it was like the British version of mean girls haha! So I was pleasantly shocked and ecstatic when I realized it was about the Wicked witch of the west!!!!! This theater was built for wicked too! Everything was green from the carpet to the staircases and the walls! Fantastic!

We didn't get to sit next to each other but we visited during intermission and gushed!

"mind the gap"

So cute!
Chelsea C. Says: "You need to come show me how to do this with my camera :)"

Middle East homework on the train SO fun... :(

Soooo... we took a day trip to the Alps... we thought we should give sky diving a try... no big deal...!!!!!! This is our, "We're so hard core" face! I didn't even tell my parents! Everyone was calling and asking their mom and dad's to make sure it was ok and I was like, "I don't even think mine will care, I'm not really worried" and anyways I thought it would be much more fun to show them a "video" from one of my "trips" when I got home for Christmas! =D

We're in Switzerland!! At Skydive Switzerland to be exact! The number two place to go sky diving in the world! I have no idea what could beat skydiving over the alps!! In the snow!!!

I love you so much I would jump out of a plan for you... oh wait... I did!! haha!
Alex Says: "You mean... get sucked out of a plane? I may be scarred for the rest of my life after I had to watch that!! Hehehe.
Me: "Haha, you're right, sucked is the correct word!"
Lindsay Nichols Says: "OMG SHAN!! That's so amazing, I'm so jealous and so glad you're having a blast! Love ya"

Serious time... we're about to jump out of a plane for goodness sakes!!
Christina Says: "Shannon, this is so weird, I have maybe only seen you NOT smiling... once. ever. maaaaybe twice."
Megan Barns Says: "Alex looks REAL serious!"

No better group of people to go skydiving with!

First group suitin' up! Ahhhhh, so exciting!!

Look at you Natalie! You're so beautiful and happy!!

So cute!

The most perfect day you could've ever imagined!! It had snowed just the night before so it was untouched and totally perfect!

My lovely group of skydiving girls! We got to go 2nd which was exciting to me to watch them all come down and hear how exciting it was! I think Casey was regretting not going first because she got more and more scared by the minute!

The coolest part was seeing the little party in the sky of parachutes and trying to figure out who was who!

Ahhhhhh I was so excited I could barely stand it!! I wasn't scared for a second I couldn't wait to jump!! Kleist was my videographer and was like the coolest 7ft guy EVER! I was so excited he was mine! and he was funny too!! Dave was Mr. Skydiver, AKA the man I entrusted my life with, he looked safe to me!

Kleist thought I was funny, he was laughing at me the whole time he filmed me, probably cuz my smile was taking over my face I was so excited! The proof is in the picture!

Almost done getting suited up!
Alex Says: "They are paying you to be a model for their skydiving magazine aren't they??"
Me: "Dangit, how'd you know it was all just for show??! Haha, yeah right?!"

Any last words??

Soooo incredibly happy!!!

Taking a look at the runway, beauty

soooo Perfect!!!!

Alex Says: "So cute!!"
Layla Says: "You are the cutest thing to ever jump out of a plane!"

Come fly with me... they put that song as the background for my video!! (I told them to haha)

Waiting for the plane to come back so we could jump! Ahhhhhh!!

Our butts were lookin' bootylicious in these outfits!!

Oh my gosh we look so hard core right here!!

About to get on the plane...

No turning back!!!

Such a pretty day! I can't get over it! If it had been snowing still we wouldn't have gotten to jump and if it hadn't snowed at all it wouldn't have made for such pretty viewing while falling from the sky! Also, some people who went the week right before us couldn't even see anything because it was a foggy day so we had kind of perfect timing! While we were up there they kept joking around with me that they accidently put me in the wrong size parachute... they were like "uh oh... it's a large!! Oh no!" Because I felt really loose sitting there but it was because they don't tighten it up all the way until you're about to jump so you can breath while the plane's getting high enough! 13,000 ft. to be exact!

I made it!!!! Here I come!! That was my favorite part! parachuting down in spirals so it was really fast and then slowing down to take in how beautiful it was! I got to jump out of the plane 2nd and it was so funny watching Kasey, she looked so freaked out I thought she might throw up! Alex was a little scared too but nothing compared to Kasey I felt so bad for her! Then when I got to go I told him I wanted to flip out so we did!! Ok, I lied before, THAT was the best part!! It felt so crazy weird! And then I free fell for like 30 seconds which was soooooo freezing cold!!!! I smiled and then I couldn't close my mouth the rest of the time it was so forceful in my face!! It makes your eyes water and your throat and nose burn but it was so worth it! It was fun too because Kleist was falling right with me and he would grab my hands and make me grab his foot and stuff and then we would spin like crazy in circles together! It was fun falling with someone! I felt so bad cuz my braids were probably smacking Dave in the face but I did braids cuz my hair is so long I thought he would'be be able to see if I just put it in a pony tale! But when I got my video back it was so funny cuz he was pretending to steer me with my braids holding onto them like handle bars! And then he pulled the shoot as we waved goodbye to Kleist... and something CARAZY happened! It was super bouncy and we like bounced around in a sitting position violently like 5 times and then it evened out... but I didn't think anything of it cuz I've never been before so I thought the jerking was normal! Apparently it's not!! After we stabilized Dave was like "that was interesting" and I was like "what does that not usually happen?" and he was like "no" and I just laughed cuz if he wouldn't have said anything I wouldn't have even known there was a problem! Then when I came down everyone was freaking out and was like "ONE SIDE OF YOUR PARACHUTE DIDN'T OPEN!!" They said it was like crumpled up for a few seconds and they were freaking out! Figures that would happen to mine, but oh well it ended well! haha!

Happiest moment of my life! Landing from skydiving over the Swiss Alps in a few feet of perfectly powdery snow!

Kleist coming to get my initial reaction!

I couldn't get over hoe much I loved it!

Pure happiness! My face looks like that the entire video haha!

Running to be with my dive team!

I love this! Reuniting after the jump out of a plan at 13,000ft.!!!!!Uncontrolable happiness!
Chelsea B Says: "This picture is PRICELESS... love you both!"
Kasey Says: "Shannon I LOVEEEE this picture!! Haha we were SOOO happy weren't we... I think I've been living in this moment for the past week!
Me: "Oh my gosh me too!!!"