December 2016

December was a lot of fun and very busy! The kids started their 4-week school break in the middle of December so we hopped on a plane and joined John in Spain for a week (he was there for a conference). We spent two days in Valencia then took a train to Barcelona for 4 more days. Such beautiful cities! And fun to try speaking some Spanish! It reminded us a lot of San Diego. Also found some great paella and tapas, YUM. The only bummer was the weather, we had a few breaks from the rain but not many.

Dunkin Donuts in Valencia!

Eating at McDonalds in Valencia

We found a great park in Valencia where the kids tried out all kinds of fun exercise equipment. 

On to Barcelona: a much bigger city then Valencia. We stayed in the Gothic Quarter which was a maze of narrow streets that could barely accommodate a car. It was fun to wander around - many shops, restaurants, and bakeries.

The kids wanted to see the beach! It was cold and windy but they didn't care.

We went to see the family performance of Handel's Messiah at the Palau de la Musica Catalana. It was a gorgeous theater and the performance was just amazing. Even the kids joined in singing the Alleluia Chorus!

Placa de Catalunya

Arc de Triomf

We ventured a bit outside the main part of the city to see a new cathedral called La Sagrada Familia. What an amazing cathedral!!! Designed by Gaudi in the late 1800's this cathedral has been in the building stages for about 150 years. It is due to be completed in 2026. It is absolutely amazing inside and out, not enough words to describe it.

This is what happens after the kids get dragged around a city in the cold rain for the day and have to suffer through a local market - La Boqueria. Grumpy faces. Fortunately their stay in Barcelona wasn't all bad - we were able to see Rogue One while we were there, in English even! 

The kids were much happier making sand castles then looking at local architecture and markets.

We arrived home from Spain just in time to prep the house for Christmas! Our Christmas visitor this year was Grandad who made the trek 'across the pond' to join us for 5 days. It was great to have him here.

Our Christmas Eve meal was at the oldest pub in England, over 900 years old. Delicious food!

On Boxing Day (Dec 26) we took Grandad to see a National Trust site called Cliveden. Beautiful gardens and a large house that resembles a castle, it is built on a hillside that overlooks the Thames River valley. Good to get out and see some sunshine!

The next day we took Grandad into London and fulfilled his wish to get into the London Eye! The lines were just crazy but it was worth it, quite an amazing view from inside that little gondola. Grandad's inner civil engineer came out and we had to discover what was holding this thing up. Turns out there are 6 strong cables keeping the whole thing in place. Must be well-bolted to the ground!

The Tea Room at the Imperial War Museum is an excellent place for a nap.

Having fun with reflections on the Tube.

November 2016

November was a quiet month for us in England. With no major undertakings and no major holidays we are finally getting into the swing of things and feeling more comfortable here. It was strange to have no Thanksgiving celebration this year, just another day at school for the kids. But we do find that people start Christmas celebrations and Christmas shopping much earlier here so November is still a very festive month.

We're starting to discover the footpath network which is very extensive in the UK. There are footpaths everywhere! They are like hiking trails but normally lead through fields and woods (and to pubs) instead of up a mountain. We found one near our house where we went out for a walk one day and came upon some horses in a fenced-in field along the way. This is very common here, the footpaths are set up with 'stiles' to walk through so animals stay in their enclosure but people can come and go.

In early November we headed into London on the train for a day to get some great pictures of the kids by the Thames (Christmas cards) and also to see the show Matilda. Its based on the Roald Dahl book and it was an excellent show. We all loved it!

Carson is playing rugby at his school and also practicing some soccer ("football") in preparation for the winter football season. Here are some shots of him and his teammates.

While we were investigating nurseries for Christmas trees we were introduced to a real reindeer named Cloudy. Fortunately she wasn't camera shy. 

October 2016

October already! This month we celebrated Rachel's 11th birthday and the kids had their "half-term break" which means the last two weeks of October they had a break from school. We thought about going somewhere in Europe for their break but since our furniture finally arrived at the beginning of October we decided to stay home and get the house unpacked and settled. We discovered an IKEA not too far away and since we now have a car we were able to get the furniture we needed. October was furniture assembly month in our house!

The car gives us the freedom to venture out a bit and find new places. One night the kids were craving cheeseburgers (happens almost every night) so we looked up the closest Five Guys restaurant online and used our 'Sat Nav' (i.e. GPS) to get us there. Took us a little while to figure out parking and such, but we finally made it and those cheeseburgers were a delicious taste of home!

Rachel and Carson love to cook. Especially sweets! Here they are making chocolate cookies.

For Rachel's birthday celebration the kids took a cooking class at Jamie Oliver Cookery School in London. They learned to make pasta and ravioli from scratch, even used a pasta roller to roll out their own pasta! We took the Tube into London and here are some typical images of the kids and Daddy playing during the Tube ride. 

After the cookery school we ventured into Hamley's Toy Store which has a Build-A-Bear on the third floor. Rachel LOVES Build-A-Bear because she loves stuffed pets. She found this dog and knew it was the right one for her.

Cake time!

The second week of the kids school break we got out to see some local attractions. Below is a model village in a nearby town. It really is amazing, a HUGE village done on a small scale. 

We also visited a place called Kidzania in London. Its designed for kids to try out lots of different careers for a short time. Rachel and Carson both wanted to work in the grocery store. They also tried out the ice-cream making and the chocolate factory. Hair nets were mandatory!

One day we went for a walk in some fields and had lunch at one of the oldest pubs in England (www.rsoe.co.uk). We came upon a herd of ponies during our walk and the kids had fun feeding them some grass.

There is a great National Trust site not too far from us called Cliveden where we spent one Sunday afternoon. The gardens on the grounds are just amazing and there is an old castle that overlooks the Thames River Valley. There was a Halloween activity going on for kids, below the kids each made their own broomstick out of twigs they found.

Lots of people celebrate Halloween here in the UK but its not quite as big as it is in the US. Fortunately the American Women's Club hosted a trunk-or-treat for Americans like us that are used to more of a celebration. The kids had a great time dressing up and going to all the different trunks to collect candy. We also went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood on Halloween night, but it was slim pickins, only about a dozen houses in our area were handing out candy.