English Holiday

Okay, after this I am resigned to stop acknowledging my absences from blogging. Just expect some delay between posts. ;o)

Our family had an excellent summer; one of the best I can remember. I can hardly believe that it's over; okay, not technically over, but starting school seems to determine the changes in season more than the weather and calendar. This autumn looks like it will be extremely busy in our household, but we hope to enjoy our last several months here in Tallinn. I know we're going to miss it here so much! But I'm not going to think about that now. Let's talk about more pleasant things..... like, the title of this post. That's right, we finally made it to England!

If you've read my blog for any length of time you'll remember (I hope) that I was hoping to visit England some time while we were living in Europe. Well, God allowed it to happen, and of course, it was wonderful!

My husband had a conference to attend for his work, so his employer was paying for him to fly to England and back, as well as paying for his accommodations during the conference. This was the perfect time for our trip, since we'd only have to pay for 3 tickets instead of 4. Plus, we were allowed to stay in his (free) hotel! The first week we were there my husband had to attend meetings for his conference, but the kids and I stayed busy with shopping, bowling, etc. But the second week was when our "real" vacation began. We moved to a hotel in Surrey (southwest of London), rented a car, and explored!

I won't bother posting too many pictures. Most of them have our family in them, and the others are things you've probably seen pictures of before, like the Tower Bridge in London....


or Big Ben....


Buckingham Palace....


Stonehenge....
and the Roman Baths....

We also went to an open air museum near Chichester that was having a kids' day. There were all sorts of hands-on activities for the children to do. One of them was a Victorian era school that they were able to take a "class" in. They were given little costumes and their teacher taught them a whole lesson from "1895"; even opening with PRAYER! (do you see my son?)....


Sightseeing in England was great. We really enjoyed ourselves and loved the English castles....
and countryside....


But the best part by far was the people. To be specific, my FAMILY! If you'll remember, my mother is British and all of her family still lives in England. There's always been a pesky ocean between us, but we finally found ourselves on the same continent. We stayed at a hotel that was only a few miles away from my Grandad's home. I was impressed when we got to our room, "Wow, they've put fresh flowers here for us!" But after reading the card I found that they were from my Grandad, how sweet!.... (I realize the picture isn't great, but trust me, they were beautiful!)

I was very nervous meeting my family for the first time....

But we got along wonderfully and it was so nice getting to know each other and learning so many interesting stories! My aunt came from Lancashire (northern England) to meet us as well and she was so loving and sweet, you couldn't help but like her immediately. We spent as much time with my family as we could and we loved every minute of it. We have their promises that they will come to see us in America some time soon, and we are so looking forward to that.