What we're up to

 We are getting a little more settled, but are still working on our have to's while trying to enjoy a few outings. The weather here is up and down. It will get up in the seventies, then drop into the 50's and be rainy. Yesterday there were even some snowy flecks in the air. I call it snow, but I don't think anyone else really considers it snow.

Cheap Bowling!

We took a little walking tour of base and went in some of the buildings to see what they had to offer. We got some library books and movies and checked out the gym, the skating rink, craft building, bowling alley, and theater. Last Tuesday we decided to go bowling. We took the whole family and had a blast bowling. We just did one game and that takes long enough. The price was AWESOME!!! 50 cent shoe rentals and the first game is FREE. So since we rented shoes and only played one game it was only 2.50 for our whole family to bowl!!!

Friday morning we headed to Erisweel barn. This is one of the coolest places so far. It is only like 2 minutes from base. Someone converted this really old barn into a place to auction off furniture or whatever else people want to sell. I went the first time the week before and checked it out and loved it!!! They have really nice furniture you can get for really cheap. Some furniture dealers around the area will take their furniture here when they don't carry a certain line. Also I think lots of Military families take their stuff here when they are leaving.

Waiting outside the barn

So we checked out the goods on Friday morning, then headed to a town that was supposed to be about an hour and a half away. It ended up being about 2 hours because the traffic was so bad. When we were about 15 minutes away I was looking at the sheet about the car and realized it said the car only had 4 seats. Great! Not something we would consider buying, except that we had just driven 2 hours. So we looked at it and it ended up having 5 seats, it was just listed wrong. We ended up buying it for a good deal. It was 690 pounds, which is about 1,400 dollars. I don't know what year it is, 2000 maybe? I think it has 110 or 120 thousand miles and runs great! It kinda smells like smoke:( but we are getting that out. We were just glad to have found a car and be done with that hassle of searching.

Hiking at Anglo Saxon village

Since we drove there, we had 2 vehicles to bring home. That meant I had to drive 2 hours home on CRAZY British roads. After we left the guy's house that sold us the car we drove to a gas station. I got out and opened the door to the gas thing. It had a lock. I tried putting the key in and couldn't get it to fit. I was looking all over for Blake for help, but didn't want to go to far from the car because Remi and Parker were in it. A nice British lady realized I was a silly American and tried to help me.

Eventually Blake came over and I realized there was another key hiding on the key ring. We got gas then went across the street to the grocery store to get some treats for the drive home. As we were leaving Blake was following me because I had the GPS. I went to pull out at the round about. Here you go left around the round about. I needed to turn right, so being an american driver I naturally just stopped, checked for traffic then headed right. LUCKILY no one was coming and I realized what I was doing and jerked the wheel left and corrected my mistake. I'm sure Blake was just laughing at me. We eventually made it home though and decided we don't really enjoy the backed up traffic and are glad our house is close to base so we don't have to experience it every day.

Picnic by Anglo Saxon Village

Saturday morning we went to the barn again for the auction. I bought a Dyson vacuum for 30 pounds. Its probably more than I would normally spend on a used vacuum, but they are supposed to be really good vacuums.

Swinging on trees during hike

After our big purchase we tried to find a little park we had seen on our way home from Bury. We drove in circles a couple times and finally just drove toward the place the sign called Anglo Saxon Village. We passed a picnic area so we stopped and had a picnic. Blake, Remi and Broden played soccer for a while and we just relaxed. Then we continued driving towards the Anglo Saxon village. It did turn out to be the park we had seen on our way home from Bury. I actually remembered the name and that there was a sign! This doesn't happen very often. Blake definitely has a better memory than me with things like this. That's why its exciting when I do remember something.

Enjoying the park

When we got there we stopped in the visitor center to see what we could do. They offered tours, but we didn't actually tour the village because it was kinda pricy They also had a couple trails around the park and to a lake, so we took one of the trails. We just had a little umbrella stroller for Parker, not the best on trails. We just turned it backward and pulled him along and it worked out fine. He even fell asleep.

Climbing the wall

After we hiked we headed back to the parking lot and let the kiddos play on the play ground. Parker LOVED the sand. He didn't even try eating it, which amazed me because he loves eating anything he can off the ground. Remi loves to play with the other kids at the playground now, so there aren't very many pictures of her. She was too busy with her new friends. Blake did finally convince her to come build the little stick houses with him and Broden. They had fun building those. Then Broden climbed the rock wall. I was impressed that he could climb so well all by himself. He did need help getting down when he got to the other side, but we couldn't reach him to help, so we just talked him through it. It took him a while, but eventually he got it.

Building Anglo Saxon style houses

After the park we came home, ate and bathed and got things ready for Sunday. Sunday Blake and I got called to be the 6 year old Primary teachers. There are like 120 kids in primary. I think there are like 14 in our class alone. It will be fun, but completely new for me. I have only been in Young Women's and occasionally taught the youth for Sunday School. So teaching Primary will be a fun change. It will be fun to enjoy their innocence. It will be fun to prepare lessons with Blake too, and to hear him teach. I love hearing him teach our kids too.

This is Parker's new found love. When I do laundry and leave the door open he will crawl over and just watch the washing machine. I think it is so funny. He will watch the water run down the glass, then when it starts spinning he will get really excited and start bouncing. Better than any Baby Einstein movie yet!