England Trip 2010 Part One

I have missed my sister and her family terribly since they moved from Virginia to England, but one of the blessings is that we were able to spend our summer in England.  Daniel, Ryan and I flew to England right after our family reunion in July and Scott joined us about 2 weeks later.  I have been taking full advantage of every moment and we have done something pretty much every day since I arrived.

SKIPTON CASTLE

Skipton Castle

It was a rainy day (which is pretty much every day) and of course there is no parking close to the castle.  So we walked about 1/2 mile in a light to moderate rain to the castle.  Notice Charlies nice looking locks.  Once we got there everything was inside and then by the time we finished going through the castle the rain had stopped.   

Daniel standing in a large fire place in the kitchen.  He could look up and see the sky. 

Charlie riding the cannon, and despite the look, he really enjoyed it.  He played on them for awhile (relatively speaking).  When the boys spent 2 seconds at every location, 2 minutes playing in one place seemed like an eternity. 

Daniel is not into having his picture taken (and really I don't know of a time he did like it), but it had been really bad this trip.  Which of course is probably because Jenny and I are trying to capture every moment and have been snapping the camera like mad.  This is one of the only posed pictures we could get of Daniel.  It turned out well, I wish we could get more, but I will take what I can get. 

It was almost impossible to get a picture of the three of them together.  They boys really loved running around looking at everything.  We felt like we needed a photographer and then three adults to watch all the kids.  The steps between the levels were pretty steep and these boys were fast (especially Ryan)!

Ryan and Charlie watching out for any possible invadors.  

One of the fun things about being in a castle is the echos you can make.  Charlie and Ryan were running around yelling most of the time.  They had so much fun.  Thankfully the castle was pretty empty so we didn't disturb too many people.

Enjoying a little snack after running around the castle.  These boys love their fruit snacks (thanks Nana)! 

Daniel is really into "Knights in Shining Armour" .  We got this at the castle gift shop for the boys to play with.  They all love it!

HARROGATE PARK
There is a fantastic park in the town that Jenny lives in.  We have gone there several times and have gotten lots of great pictures.  Here are a few of the boys playing.

The park has an awesome zip line.  Jenny and I could have played on it for hours when we were little. 

Jammin' out in the park.  This is one of Ryan's favorite things to do at the park.

LAKENHEATH
The first weekend I was here we all went to Lakenheath so I could relive some of my childhood.  As a military brat you move around a lot and you don't really think that you are going to be able to come back to places that you lived.  It was nice to be able to visit Lakenheath and see how things have changed and how some things look exactly the same.

The hospital where I was born.  The front looks exactly the same, the back however is completely different.  The hospital is now HUGE! 

My high school.  I loved this school!  Most of the school was the same, but there were a few major differences.  The annex across the street is now and upper elementary school (they call it an intermediate school).  It looks like they took the old building and added onto it.  There is a really nice playground in front of the school, the tennis courts are now an elementary school blacktop.  They have also built a new building by the cafeteria.  The main building, auditorium, science classrooms, gym are all exactly the same.  It was like taking a trip back in time. 

This is the softball field where I met Mia.  It is now an empty field and you can barely tell that it used to be a softball field.  To the left of the field are some nice new tennis courts.  The high school needed those after they got rid of the ones by the new intermediate school.  The softball fields have moved to behind the science buildings.  They look really nice, they even have a batting cage. 

This is where the pool used to be.  It no longer exists and is now a parking lot. 

So after all the changes at the base I was surprised to see the movie theater looking exactly the same.  The only difference was they seemed to get movies on time now.  I remember have to wait months for the movies to show up on base.

LONDON
While we stayed in Lakenheath we spent one of our days in London.  It was a lot of fun, the only challenge was navigating the tube with two strollers.  We ran into a lot of friendly people who helped out as we carried the strollers up the stairs.

Enjoy the ride on the Tube

Natural History Museum. The museum was awesome, but really crowded.  It was hard to navigate through the museum with three little boys, so we didn't get to spend much time there.  It would be nice to go back on a not so crowded day and with older kids. 

Looking at a bird display. 

Daniel playing a game where he had to answer questions about the difference between a spider and an insect.  Then as he answered the questions, a spider was built.  

The boys were tired after going through museum, especially Daniel who has little to no endurance. 

Charlie and Ryan passed out after the museum.  We were taking the tube to Covent Gardens.  They slept through all of Covent Gardens. 

Ryan asleep in the Ergo carrier. 

After Covent Gardens we walked to the London Eye to ride it.  The boys loved it! 

Charlie kept calling it the "Big Circle"

Riding home on the Tube after a long day in London, Charlie saying YAY!.  He is so cute when he does it.  He gets a really low voice and claps his hands as he says YAY. 

Asleep after a long day! 

CAMBRIDGE
One of my favorite things to do when I lived in England was to go to Cambrige to shop.  And boy has Cambridge changed.  I didn't really recognize it at all.  The only thing that was familiar was the square.  Other than that everything looked different.  There are now two malls and LOTS of shopping. We went on a Sunday and it was absolutely crazy.  I didn't even know if the shops were going to be open.  Things have sure changed in 15 years.

This was my all time favorite restaurant when I lived in England.  It still exists in Cambridge, but it has moved and it was not quite as yummy as it used to be.  I got the same thing that I always used to order, but now the Brits are in love with their salad.  It is on the side drenched in bean juice.  Not really how I prefer my salads, but whatever. 

My yummy Tatties meal. 

Market Square (something that looked familiar). 

Lots of people!

As we were walking back to the car Daniel announces with urgency that he has to go to the bathroom!  I told him to sit down, I meant on the front of the stroller, but Daniel sat on the ground right where we were.  He is SO literal! As soon as he sat down he looked at me and told me that it wasn't helping.  Jenny and I laughed so hard, I was the one that had to pee.  Despite the scare he made it home just fine after sitting on the front of the stroller.

NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM

Really close to Jenny is the home of the largest train museum in the world.  Of course we had to take the boys there!  They all loved it and I must say I enjoyed it too. 

On a Japanese Bullet Train.  Which despite Daniel's face to the contrary, he was pretty excited about it.  There was a video above me so he was engrossed in it.  Charlie has been taking lessons from Kevin on sitting. 

Watching model trains go by.

"Chuga-Chuga-Choo-Choo" 

Another day, another sleep.

Part 2... Scott arrives.