Cam it Up

Today we all headed to Cambridge (Kevin too) to show the girls the colleges and to go punting on the Cam. Interestingly enough we had to take two cars to take along all our our guests...a little precursor of what things will be like when Baby Boy Dea comes along and we have guests. Since we had figured out where to go when mom and dad where her in February, it was a little easier to get the girls around the city. We went to a Park and Ride station just outside of Cambridge which was great because you can park a little easier and its a quick bus ride into the city...dealing with parking in England is not a favorite activity of mine. We got to enjoy their first fish and chips at the Anchor pub located on the Cam next to the punting shop. As you can see, Addison is learning all sorts of new tricks. Auntie Crystal let her crawl on the table at home and now she's trying her new skill in new places. It was interesting going through the tour for the second time...it seems that each guide has their own take on legends and stories. Kevin and I had to fill in the holes of some stories since we thought our first guide was a bit better, but this chap did end up redeeming himself by creating a little drama. He evidently got his poll stuck and the boat kept going without him. He got it free but then had to run along the brick wall and under a low tree to hop back on our punt....jolly good fun!After a long day we headed home and the girls got to witness some of the neighborhood fun that we have. The kids started up a cricket game along with water fight. Evidently our house is a perfect target for cricket balls and streaming water.

Market to Market We Go

Today we headed out to the Stamford market. I thought this would be a great place to get the girls with one of my favorite activities in England. The Stamford market has loads of different things to buy from fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats to clothes to handbags to carpeting to jewelry and so much more. Crystal had been upset that her wedding ring didn't fit since she had started that wonderful "swelling" period of her pregnancy so we helped her pick out a beautiful "English" style ring that will be a great keepsake for her...I should have gotten one myself...maybe next time. Crystal also enjoyed some English hospitality when one of the local meat vendors posed with her...some English tummy rubbing for luck.

For lunch, I brought them to Prezzo, one of my favorite Italian places. They loved the food, especially the desserts - sticky toffee pudding and toffee cheesecake. Funny thing happened...we started out being the only people at the restaurant and then walked in my friend Jenny with her boys and her brother and his family who was visiting...how funny!!!

Best Surprise Ever

Today I received the greatest surprise ever. Addison and I drove down to Heathrow to pick up my grandma and great aunt from the airport...this was my first time driving this far by myself in England so I was hoping everything would be okay.  I was very excited to have visitors and not many of my friends can say that their grandma and great aunt could make the trip over. Addison and I anxiously awaited for them and as they walked out I noticed they didn't have any luggage and I got pretty concerned...lost luggage...uggh. As I walked up to them, they didn't say anything, but they parted ways and there stood my 32 week pregnant sister. I instantly started screaming and my screaming turned into tears and then Addison started crying because she got scared, but I couldn't stop hugging my sister. She planned out this whole surprise and was actually able to keep this huge secret from me...she didn't even tell Kevin so it was a great surprise for him as well. It was a lucky thing though that Kevin didn't come with me to the airport because we wouldn't have had enough room in the car. Also it was a good thing that I decided to back out of going along to Barcelona with my grandma and aunt because Crystal would have been home alone for 3 days. Another funny thing was that Crystal's plans almost got cancelled because her doctor didn't clear her to fly until the morning that they left...how crazy.

Words honestly can't explain how excited I was to see my sister. Ever since I found out she was pregnant I was psyched up to be there for her because her due date fell just around our yearly home leave. Then I found out I was pregnant and due just 3 weeks later, so that foiled all my plans to be with her and her with me.  God certainly works in mysterious and joyous ways!  I do have to thank Heath, my sister's husband, for letting her come over especially in her fragile state....thanks bro!!!

Crusin' Greek Style

Six cities in three countries in seven days while riding in-style on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship....ahhh...living in Europe is AWESOME!!! For our first cruise ever, I have to say that we got to see some amazing places, had some wonderful experiences, and we really enjoyed our whirlwind tour of the eastern Mediterranean. This holiday was our combination relaxation and adventure, but we found that there's not much time to relax when you are trying to entertain a 15 month old on a big boat.

We really enjoyed cruising with Royal Caribbean because we got to enjoy an international crew with an American twist - American classic tunes playing on the deck, breakfast and lunch buffets with loads of food, real lemonade (not the fizzy stuff that tastes like 7-up), paying for drinks in US dollars. Addison had a great time smiling and waving at everyone - the staff seemed to adore her and I think everyone on the ship knew who she was by the end of the cruise. It's nice when people help entertain your child to a point, but it's also hard to tell people to leave her alone so she will actually eat something.

Our boat ported out of Venice, Italy and we spent our first full day cruising so we enjoyed life pool side and catching up on sleep from our early morning flight. Our first stop was in Athens, Greece where we made our way to the top of the Acropolis and got a great view of Athens while walking around the Parthenon. It was pretty cool to finally see the actual structure that I tried to reconstruct out of cardboard as a grade school project when we studied Greek mythology.

Tuesday we tendered just off the coast of Mykonos. We did some shopping around Mykonos town and made our way to Ornos Beach where Addie had a blast playing in the sand (more like very tiny pebbles, but she loved it). We also got to see our first "Bourne" site as the windmills on Mykonos island are featured at the end of The Bourne Identity when Jason Bourne walks into Marie's shop and says "Is this your shop?" Pretty sweet!!!

Next we ported in Katakolon, Greece which allowed us to do a quick trip into ancient Olympia to see the site of the first Olympic games. We were told that in the first games that men competed in the nude...that had to be pretty interesting.

Corfu Island was our next stop and the port was beautiful. We really enjoyed the shopping in the markets of Corfu town, but it decided to start raining on us half way through the morning. It turned into a torrential downpour as we ate lunch and we got pretty bummed out because we were packed up to head to the beach after shopping. Also by now we lost both of Addison's passies and we were in desperate search to find some replacements. Kevin searched out three pharmacies and we actually found the same silicon Nuks that she likes (it was a long shot finding one because I've only seen them in the States). We decided to walk back to the boat thinking the rain would let up, but it didn't and we got soaked. On the bright side I stubbled across our missing passy laying on the ground where Addie dropped it on our way into town. I know I should wean her off the whole passy thing but it has been a life saver when we get in some pretty sticky situations.

Our final port was Split, Croatia which is a beautiful city. We stumbled upon a fresh fish market, a crazy-busy food market, and everything-else market...it was insane on how busy they all were. We attempted to find a beach to hang out for the rest of the day but the city beach was a little shady and we didn't feel like stranding ourselves on a beach 20 km away with only a few hours left before our ship left.

We got back into Venice early Saturday morning and wanted to make the most of our last few hours our holiday. We hopped on a water bus and continued with our trend of whirlwind tours into Venice city centre. We got to spend about 1 1/2 hours seeing some sites. We got pretty scared waiting for the next bus to show up because you feel a bit helpless when your only mode of transportation between two points is a small boat. We did end up making it to our "land" bus with about 5 minutes to spare.

When we made it home, we were very glad that we had two days over the May Bank Holiday to recover because we were pretty tired. It was a great trip and we look forward to doing it again...next time with two kids we'll look at bringing along our babysitter to help us out. (By the way...I had a really awesome mini-movie put together to show you all more pictures but it must have been so good of a production that Google wouldn't post it because they thought it was copyright infringed.)

Mother's Day

It is so exciting to celebrate my 2nd Mother's Day being a mom of one with another on the way. I do have to say that I have a very sweet little girl and wonderful husband who treated me like a queen on Sunday. We woke up to a glorious day and made pancakes for breakfast. Then we went on nice walk and took some pictures by one of the close by canola fields. The walk sure reminded me of how pregnant I am...Kevin usually has to ask me to slow down and this time I had to ask him to slow down for me. We then went into Peterborough city centre and had a wonderful lunch sitting outside at Pizza Express (one of my most favorite brick oven pizza places). Then Kevin and Addison brought me to the mall and had me pick out something special...and I choose a beautiful sterling silver bracelet. When we got home we Skyped our moms to wish them well. My mom was pretty jealous of our super nice weather since it was about 35F and rainy in Iowa. That evening we were invited to the Wong's for an Asian BBQ which consisted of grilling out sausages, burgers, ribs, satay chicken and beef, fried noodles, fried rice and lots of other goodies. It was awesome...kind of funny that we had an American BBQ, a traditional English roast and and Asian BBQ all in the same week.

Not Quite OSHA Approved

Ever since we've moved into our house, we've noticed that our back hedges were way out of control and needed trimmed. Several months ago Kevin bought an electric hedge trimmers and managed to shave down the sides of the hedges, but our trusty ladder wasn't tall enough to get the tops hacked off. One option was that we could go buy a really tall step ladder but with the lack of a larger vehicle to haul it home we haven't bought one yet. So for a more resourceful solution we took our patio table, loaded it up with some boards and topped it off with our trusty ladder. Kevin armed himself with the electric trimmers, the hedge clippers, the hand shears and extend-o shears that our neighbor lent us, while I steadied the ladder. The whole endeavor took about 3 1/2 hours since we had to break a few times to feed and play with Addie. We had a few friendly visitors to share their concern about how crazy we were with our set up but it worked out pretty good and the hedges look a heck of a lot better.

It's Getting Warmer

The weather in England has been amazing the past several days...mid to upper 70's all week and no clouds in the sky. Addie loves to be outside, so much that she has been throwing pretty bad fits if she doesn't get to go out. We do get out a lot but I have to load her up with sunscreen when we stay out for too long.   She loves playing in her little car or riding on her tricycle when mom and dad go on walks.  She as also become very fond of the game of golf at least she likes to drag her clubs around.  And yes folks she does have a diaper on....we're not in Iowa....and yes, for those of you not from Iowa, it's something we do in the summer time...run around naked to keep cool on those steaming hot, humid days. 

A Picnic in London

It's kind of funny to say, "Hey, let's go to London for the day", but we've done it a couple times now. Even though it is starting to sound normal, we find a new adventure each time we make the trip. This past Saturday we decided to have a picnic in Kensington Gardens. We packed a few bits to bring with us like a small blanket, fruit and goodies for Addie, but for our main lunch we planned on Subway sandwiches. In order to fullfill this craving I searched out Subway locations in London on their website...did you know that there are 107 Subway stores in London? I happened to find one not to far from the park and our Tube stop. The park was packed so we walked around a bit but then found a perfect spot next to the Round Pond just east of Kensington Palace. Addie loved watching the swans and ducks in the pond and she got to play "football" with daddy. Kevin and I even tried tossing a frisbee, but it wasn't a very good one and it was a little breezy. Plus it's pretty funny I'm sure for observers to see a pregnant chic chasing after a "flying disc." After lunch we circled the grounds of Kensington Palace and I fell in love with the Sunken Garden. Kevin's got high hopes that I can re-create such beauty when we return to Illinois. We stumbled upon the Albert Memorial which was absolutely amazing. Queen Victoria built this memorial in honor of her husband...sorry Kevin, I don't think I can afford something this extravagant for you any day soon. We continued on to Hyde Park where Addie and I shed our socks and shoes, and we dipped our toes in the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. We ended up our day with a stroll through Green Park where Kevin and I got ice cream cones and a big New York Style Hotdog...it's those crazy pregnancy cravings I tell you. The city was so busy and there were people everywhere, but the sun was shining and it was an absolutely perfect day. Again Kevin and I had to pinch ourselves to make sure we weren't dreaming and we thanked God again for giving us this wonderful opportunity to be here.