Oh, and did I mention the dishes??

Ryan, Katy and I went to the factory stores to look for DISHES!! Now, I have to say that I had not been a dish shopper in the past, but these girls CONVERTED me!  What a great day.  The pictures can't even begin to capture the breath-taking factory stores.  It's probably good that the day I went shopping, I thought that I would have to figure out a way to ship my stuff home...if I'd known that the military packed and shipped 500 lbs, I would have thrown away clothes shoes etc and shipped 500 lbs of DISHES!  My self-restraint was admirable (well, that's all in how you define it, I went $150 over my original target budget :)

but, as it turned out, quite unnecessary!!

Sisters

Oh how I miss being around my sisters (and mom and nieces) !! Here's a random collection of pictures with these fabulous women.  What fun it is to be around sisters.  What a gift you each are in my life!!

Hammerton Zoo

So, we were out driving around our house one day and, in what seemed to be the middle of no where, we found a small zoo. From the outside, it looks like there's not much there, but, the tigers, camels, cheetahs, reptiles, owls, marsupials etc etc etc would beg to differ!

After we spent some time admiring animals, we headed to the play area-- and, yes, that rope climbing thing IS just as high as it looks in the pictures. Parks have all sorts of cool and dangerous things here in England where the legal system doesn't seem to run the country quite like the litigious U.S.!!

NARDIS - Seth's music adventure

The white cliffs of Dover

I love Dover-- ever since I was little and my mom read me Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang, I imagined the cliffs of Dover to be grand-- they do not disappoint!!

When we have traveled to France (twice!) we have been able to get up close to these magnificent cliffs--it is an spectacular contrast to see the cliffs up against the channel

Kailey's 9!!

Kailey turned 9 on Saturday--
She wanted to go to the London Temple and then go to a castle. We headed out for the temple at 12:30 and, the 1.5 hour drive took us until 4:30!! London traffic is a sight to behold!! We got to the temple after it had closed but spent some time on the fabulous grounds and then went out to dinner. Instead of a castle, Kailey has a sweet memory of being able to experience London traffic for her birthday:(. She was thrilled with the temple and the fanfare at dinner (they turned the lights down and sang her happy birthday at the restaurant)

We had the Turners over for dinner on Sunday and celebrated with a lasagna dinner and a birthday cake.

Safefield Farm House-- our home in England

We have been living in a 100+ year old farm house in Alconbury, England. It's about 20 minutes from Cambridge. For those of you Jane Austen and Georg Elliot fans-- think Mansfield Park and MIddlemarch (well not for the manor houses, but for the location--) both books were set right in this area of England. We've had fun in this 3 story house set on 600 acres

Mother's Day Breakfast with Jordan

Jordan's class did a mother's day breakfast-- it was very sweet! Their teacher taught them how to do a hand massage, they sang songs, recited poems, and treated us to a nice breakfast. Very sweet!

Lymes Regis-- England's Jurassic Coast

We had some friends come over the other night and they mentioned they were headed camping in Lymes Regis. We hadn't heard of it-- they invited us to go along and so, two days later (and another trip to the camping store) we were headed down to the magical Jurassic Coast! We camped for 3 nights and combed the beach for fossils. Lymes Regis is the place where the first dinosaur in England was found-- it was found by Mary Ammes, she was just 12 years old at the time. When the tide is out, the dedicated fossil hunter can find amonites, dolimites, fools gold, molton rock from a volcano, quartz and sea glass. We are the proud owners of at least 40lbs of such a collection of artifacts-- how much does it cost to mail home ROCKS!! We had a great time camping with the dinosaur bones!!

Oxford-the city of spires

We spent the day in Oxford--we parked in front of the house that I used to live in (they are remodeling it so it doesn't look quite as grand as it used to) and then went to the libaray so we could find "mom's book" (more accurately named my doctoral thesis). We walked around town and found the Pitt Museum (which, I must admit, I had not been to whilst I was there) which is a great dinosaur museum with all sorts of other cool artifacts. The museum was the highlight of the day for the kids. We walked through the park and all over down town. I will never get over that city! I will always love Oxford!!