SUMMER 2009

I am THAT bad :o) It has been over a year since I've blogged, but here I am, playing catch up, which I'm actually excited about! If you know the old me I would have never been excited to blog. Something has come over me recently.

We did indeed arrive in England in June of 2009. Big changes, lots of adjusting, and now a year later I think we're as settled as we will be for our 2-4 more years here.

Where we've been in the last year and a half:

First Stop, our new home:

"The Paddocks"

NEXT we visited:

London!

Cardiff, Wales

Paris, France (Disneyland!!)

Quick stop in Maryland

Edinburgh, Scotland

France, Belgium, Germany

Algarve, Portugal + Sevilla, Spain + Jerez, Spain

Dublin, Ireland

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Sardegna, Italy

back to Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany

Conwy, Wales

In addition Luke found time to squeeze in some business trips to:

Bavaria, Germany

Frankfurt, Germany

Oslo, Norway

Minsk, Belarus

Odessa, Ukraine

and back to the states 3 x's

As crazy as it sounds I feel like we're missing some places, but this will have to do for now. Wow, did you read all of those places we've visited in one year, how in the world did we do that!?!? In between all the traveling we still managed to squeeze in the Holidays and the kid's school. For some reason I feel like taking a DEEP breath right now!

The PADDOCKS

arrived July 2009

 

In England it is very common to see houses that are named. For instance in our case our house is named "The Paddocks", which means our house may have originally been where the horses were kept at one time.

We love the friendly goats behind the house! We've actually had them break into our backyard before, and one even invited him/herself into our house to wander around for a couple minutes, that was great fun!

LONDON

July 2009

The first place we went to tour was London. What more can I say than what the picture's can say? It was fun, a whole new experience. If any of you fancy a trip to London, let me know, maybe one of us will tag along with you :o)

CARDIFF, WALES

July 2009

We had a great time in Wales. Loved the people, they were really friendly. We went in circles trying to find the Caeryphilly Castle. The only signs we could see were for Castle Castell. We didn't want Castle Castell, we wanted Caeryphilly Castle. We pulled off the road and asked a nice man where we could find the castle we were looking for. He was so nice that he actually got into his car and had us follow him to the Castle! We had a good laugh when we realized that Castell was actually the native Welsh word for Castle.  FYI: Cymraeg is the native Welsh language. Turns out we should have just followed those signs originally. The sign above is in Cymraeg as well, pretty cool!

CALAIS and PARIS, FRANCE and EURODISNEY

July 2009

We stayed in beautiful Calais our first night ever in France.

HAD to see the Eiffel tower!

 We managed to have a complete blast at Eurodisney! It was my first time going to ANY Disney Park. I had most of my fun watching Luke and the kids have fun :o)

I think for me this may have been the coolest part of the whole trip. Who knew there was a tunnel that went under the English Channel, AKA the Chunnel?! CRAZY! How in the world did they build that thing! It takes 30 minutes to ride through the chunnel. Pretty amazing!

BACK TO MARYLAND

August 2009

Just Boogie (Brooke) and I went home for my brother and his wife's wedding. It was good times! I was very happy to get to be there for it.

May I just add that a perk to flying home (to England) from their wedding was that I spotted a certain well known "footballer". David Beckham.  I was going through the security line when he came right past me. Truth: I've never actually cared about celebrities. I never knew I had any feelings in me for anyone famous. I could NOT believe my own reaction! I stopped in my tracks and FRANTICALLY fumbled for my camera! I was too late! I could only snap the back of him! I RAN to the "lift" to try and meet him at the bottom for a front picture to have real proof that I saw him. Well, I wasn't quick enough, so end result = what I would like to dub the title of this picture as, "the Back of Beckham".

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

August 2009

Thank heaven's for the telephone booths, or we wouldn't have another touristy picture to take! The great thing about these is you can find them in just about any middle of the nowhere location in the UK. True story, I actually tried to use one once because I really needed to get ahold of Luke. It was in some random neighborhood. It DIDN'T even work! Yeah, don't forget your cell phones people, I think these red booths are solely for decoration.

Ladies, do not be jealous of my Scottish man, hands off!

Meeting the locals.

STOP!!

WATCH THIS VIDEO, it's UNDER 30 seconds!!

Edinburgh was really cool! Just Luke and I went together. We went to see the famous Military Tattoo. There is something beyond powerful about hundreds of bagpiper's playing at the same time. The kids got into the spirit of their Scottish Ancestry when we got home.

~QUICK IMPORTANT BREAK FROM THE TRAVELS~

August 2009

LJ lost his very first tooth :o) Is that REALLY my child, do I really have a child old enough to loose a tooth?!

HAD TO SQUEEZE BABY SISTER IN HERE TOO!!!

Okay, and one of Kyle being KYLE :o)

BELGIUM, FRANCE, GERMANY! The BEST part of the whole trip...OMA and OPA came with us!

September 2009

We are sitting on the Sea Ferry.  Leaving from England, heading to France. This time we decided to go by ship, rather then the chunnel.  You can drive your car right onto the ship. 

First place we drove to was beautiful Brugges, Belgium, below.

My favorite part of this city: all the cool people riding their bikes everywhere, and the chocolate :o)

Next stop, Bootzheim France, to look for some Schoeny's. My ancestors are from the time when Bootzheim was actually part of Germany. It's right on the border of France and Germany, now it's part of France.

The above house is where my ancestors actually lived (we found this out after we left, it was by pure chance that we took a picture of it, crazy!). Not sure who lives there now, but can't wait to go back again!

Beautiful scenery in Bootzheim.

Below, Strasbourg, France.

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you!

My buff boys in France!

Rest stop at the lake before heading back to the Ferry.

Coming soon: Fall 2009