The first week in the Mother country

This is my Nanna, She will be 83 this year and can't travel to the the USA anymore so we went to see her.


This is the house I lived in in England. I took a picture for posterity.


We spent our first night in England with the Ashtons. It was a great reunion of children and we really enjoyed seeing each other. We really appreciated their hospitality and the fact that they let us come back for a night after Dayna threw up the first time!!

Our blog of our trip would not be complete with out a picture of the car that carried us 2000 miles. We crammed our whole family in here and Jason learned how to drive left handed and navigate his way through "skinny lanes" and multiple roundabouts. So, here's to the Peugeot 407!



On our first Sunday in England we went to church in Wynchcombe with Aunty Carol. Dirk and Dayna joined right in with the children's worship time during church and in the playing around after church. It was great to be enfolded by another congregation so far away from home.
At Sudely castle near our lodging at Hunting Butts, (yes that was its name), Dirk picked up a "mate" and his Dad to sword fight with. There was a huge wooden fort for them to run around on and defend, a good time was had by all.
We visited a beautiful villiage in the cotswolds called Bourton on the Water. We had a little rain but really enjoyed the miniature village and beautiful surroundings.

Icecream is the same in any language. There is always the promise of icecream whenever grandpa Roger's around.
My Parents very kindly took our children for three days whilst we went to Wales to celebrate our tenth anniversary. Their couple of days commenced with a trip on the Cheltenham steam train.
Our week concluded with a trip to Oxford. All the Grown-ups were enthralled, the children were not. We parted ways with my parents and left for our grand adventure in England and France.

Week 2 part 1 "Look kids, Big Ben Parliament"

Our first week on our own began with a cheap hotel room. Our mornings began with cereal and push ups as demonstrated here by Dirk and Kiera.











Kiera was not impressed that the children were speaking "English" and would not play with anyone. Dirk and Dayna found some playmates and we enjoyed a nice picnic and walk on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace. That evening we checked into our Legoland hotel where we had the worlds largest hotel room. Very nice.














Lego land was a huge hit with our children and Jason. Kiera went on most of the rides with Jason, Dirk went with me and Dayna was independent and went on her own.














Dayna took her first driving lesson and on the other side of the road none the less!













Dirk's goal was to go as fast as he could. He claims however not to have crashed into anything.













Dirk and Dayna really enjoyed Driving school Kiera just crashed constantly. Kiera's favourite ride was Fairytale brook with the story of little red riding hood. She was totally enthralled by "the leaf boat ride." Behind her is Hansel and Gretel and the gingerbread house.










Dirk loved the rides at Legoland and the castle and the show and the whole thing. His favourite was the ride at Pirate Falls where you splashed into the water.











Mini Land in Lego land is definately my favourite. If I had known what our following day in London was going to be like, I would have taked the kids pictures by mini Parliamen, Tower of London and the Eiffel Tower and called it good. "But it's the experience", you say... Well I guess, I just refer you to the last picture for Dirks take on the whole thing.





















The tower of London and the Tower bridge were two of our three stops in London, the third being buckingham palace. It was hot and the kids were not impressed they did enjoy eating a picnic supper on the banks of the Thames right by the tower of London.












Here we are on the sightseeing bus on our way to the Tower of London and Tower bridge. Kiera took a 1 1/2 hour nap on the bus!










Here is a picture of Kiera attempting to console Dirk who was tired hungry and really sick of walking. I think for future reference, we'll call it the "why we decided not to go to Paris", picture.