Monday, May 7, 2012

Bath

 Friday the 10th of February we decided to take Eric down to Bath. We had so much fun the time we went over Thanksgiving and the hotel is so cheap we thought we would try it again. We got there Late Friday night and all the kids were ready for bed. So we tucked them in and watched a movie. In the morning we headed to a little town called Glastonbury.

They had a cute little museum that was free, so we enjoyed walking through it. It had all kind of things about how life used to be, like the bathroom, how they made boats, soap, cooked etc. They also had a little farm outside and the kids of course had to chase the chickens and sheep. The barn by the museum was huge and so pretty. I thought it used to be a church or something, but it was just the barn that went with the Abbey. I wonder what the Abbey would have been like:)

After the museum we headed up the hill, hiking to the Tor. It is a big hill that has a tower on top. The view was amazing! It was a nice day too, a little foggy, but not freezing cold. We even took off our coats for a while.  We walked through the rest of Glastonbury and it was a cute little town. Lots of free spirited people.

We left Glastonbury and headed to Bath by way of Wookey Hole and Cheddar Gorge. Both are cute towns, but very touristy. We got to Bath after dark and went to the Abbey where they were having their services. We listened to them sing for a while and it was very interesting. The preacher would sing part of his sermon and the choir would repeat the message with different words. I couldn't understand most of what they were singing, but it was fun to hear. The kids were even entertained by it for a few minutes. We had to go though because they were getting restless and they had to go to the bathroom. So we walked around for a little while then headed back for a night of games and bed.

Sunday morning we got up and headed into Bath again to look around a little bit before church. Church was Awesome! We just went to Sacrament Meeting and the talks were great. The members were very welcoming too. After church we went to a park and just let the kids play before heading home. They got sooo muddy, but had lots of fun.
Old fashioned toilets in the museum. Blake, Remi and Broden are using them. There were 3 all together.

The is the inside of the barn. It was really pretty especially considering it was just a barn.

Massive doors of the barn

Parker in front of the door

Eric playing catch with Parker

Parker thought it was great

Hiking to the Tor


Our fam at the top

The view was awesome, it was a little foggy, but you could still see forever

Parker in the mud

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

playing hard

Eric, Remi, Broden and Parker in front of the Tower of London
This week was filled with lots of fun events. Lots of tag, hide and go seek and wrestling at night when Blake and Eric are done working. Also, Blake and Eric are playing on the Med Group basketball team, so we watched them play on Thursday. Friday we played Wallyball with some friends and Saturday headed to London for the day!

When we were in London we first went to see The Tower of London, followed by walking across Tower Bridge. Then we jumped on the Underground and headed to Picadilly Circus for lunch. We walked through China town and chased pigeons, then jumped on the Tube again and went to Westminster. Remi's reaction when we walked out of the Underground station was priceless. Right in front of us was "The Eye of London"(like a huge ferriswheel). She shouted, "The Eye of London," then turned around and saw St. James' tower and yelled,"And Big Ben, AWESOME!"

They studied London at school for like 2 or 3 weeks. She knows most of the important sights and some facts about each one. So she loved seeing Westminster Abbey, The Rives Thames, The Eye of London, Trafalgar Square and The Houses of Parliament. We even paid to go in the Houses of Parliament for a tour. It was more for us to get the little ones out of the freezing cold. It was well worth it though and the kids were awesome! Blake, Eric and I were all kind of in shock at how well behaved the kids were for the whole 70 minute tour.

Alissa was cute during the tour. She was amazed by all the paintings on the walls and that some of them were princesses and Queens. In one room she was looking at the pictures and said,"Uh, oh." I asked here what was wrong and she proceeded to tell me that one of the princesses shoulders were showing. I told her that she was right, the princess should cover her shoulders. She said the princess is too high I can't reach to fix it:)

We have been strict with our girls from day one about modesty. We don't put them in sleeveless shirts or dresses because I don't want to have that argument when they get older. They will just know it has never been allowed. I haven't really said much to Alissa, but she is watching everything I tell Remi and listening.

After Trafalgar square we headed to Hamley's Toy Shop and we all got overwhelmed by toys and the lists of "I wants". Then we ate at Subway and watched the snow start to fall. It was beautiful to be in London at night when the snow was falling. But we were exhausted and decided to head home instead of staying. It was already 6:30. So we jumped on the Tube and rode back to our car. There was snow on the ground when we arrived and we let the kids, including Blake and Eric play before we drove home.

Sunday morning we woke up to snow covering everything! The first snow on the ground since we have been here. It was so peaceful. Church was cancelled, so we enjoyed a morning of french toast and omelets followed by snowball fights, "Testimony" meeting, reading scriptures and a yummy dinner with our next door neighbors. I missed church, but it was a great, relaxing Sunday!

Enjoying a lemon from mom. Thought I would get funny face pictures, but he loved it.

Yes, he found the butter dish and ate it!

Hair by Eric

The front of hair by Eric

Riding the Tube


Dad helping Parker chase pigeons

Eric, Remi and Broden with The Eye of London in the background

The Lion in Trafalgar Square

Parker playing in the snow

Broden throwing snow at me, in the house:)

The boys wrestling in the snow

I think the teams were everyone(Blake, Remi, Broden, Missy(neighbor mom), and Olivia(neighbor) against Eric. Then I joined Eric's team. Fun times!

Parker reorganizing my cans on the table.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

A Visitor!!!

Nice view of a church in Warwick
 Our first visitor in England has officially arrived! My brother, Eric came on Thursday morning! Alissa, Broden, Parker and I left for the airport at 6:00am Thursday morning. Eric's airplane landed an hour early so he was waiting for us instead of us waiting for him, but that's ok!

So far Eric has been in bed every night by 7:30 or 8:) Tonight we are staying up and playing games though. I think he is all adjusted to the time. 

The kids were so excited for Uncle Eric to come! They were so willing to help clean and organize to have someone stay with us for 6 weeks. We set up the bunk bed in Broden's room and got some drawers to go under the bed. The office/craft room is all set up too so Eric can just work out of our home. Remi has still been going to school and Broden and Alissa have been suprisingly good when Eric is working. They understand they can't go in the craft room when Eric is working. All weekend they will ask if Eric is working if he is ever in the craft room using the computer. It's great that they are well enough behaved that it is working. Hopefully they keep it up.

Saturday morning we woke up and went to Warwick Castle. We left at 9:15 and were supposed to get there at 11:15, but after a huge detour we finally got there at 12:30. We spent the day at the castle and it was awesome. We saw all the towers, the princesses, the bird show and peacock gardens and some of the grounds outside the castle. What an amazing place. Still hard to believe that these buildings are 100's sometimes thousands of years old. One of Remi's friends came with us. She is also our next door neighbor and they have so much fun together.

Cool tower in Warwick town

Outside Warwick castle





climbing up one of the towers

climbing a the wall

climbing some more

Amazing views from the top

Beautiful view off the side.

playing dress up

Princesses posing



feeding peacocks







More fun trips to come with our visitor!!!