We're moving....

...to ENGLAND!!

During our trip to England we fell in love with this beautiful country and everything that it offers. It was completely not our intention to look for a job abroad during our trip, but one came up that we couldn't pass it up. Although it was a LONG five and half weeks to hear back with the offer, it was well worth the wait. WE ARE ELATED!

We'll most likely be moving in January 2010.

The swamp

While growing up in the Northern Virginia area my mother often took us to a nearby parkland, Huntley Meadows, on Sunday afternoons. We liked to call it "the swamp". Over the past couple of years we have been several times, but just this past Friday we visited it once again. It was a beautiful day! The fall air was crisp, but not too cold and due to the rain last week there was a good amount of water in the swamp with lots of snails and fish and several turtles which made for happy kids.

The trail begins to take you through a forest where the leaves were changing...

...and then it takes you to the boardwalk complete with info boards along the way to let you know what you may be observing. This time around we saw lots of geese and a white heron.

Observing moments like this between Brent and Ali are priceless. :)

Here is where we saw lots of snails, fish, and a few turtles.

Soccer is in the genes

I love, love, love that my kids enjoy playing soccer. For the past six weeks, Ali has participated in a soccer program that prepares preschoolers for this team sport and is facilitated by professional soccer players. She has really become a fan of playing...and wearing the gear. If you're going to play the game, you should look the part too, right!?

Ali waiting instruction for the next drill. Her team was lined up here for a game called Alligator in the Swamp. One player is in the middle of the field while the remaining teammates lined up on one end. When the player (the alligator) in the middle tells the others that they can cross the swap they attempt to cross the field dribbling their ball while trying to avoid having the alligator swipe their ball.

One of Ali's fav games on the field is where one of her coaches runs around the field with the ball while the girls try to take the ball from him.

Right after Ali's weekly practice, Marcus attends a soccer clinic for elementary-aged children (in addition to his team practice) for an hour with the same professionals that work with the preschoolers.

During the middle of his session this week I noticed him walking off of the field toward me. He was favoring his shoulder and whimpered just a little. He approached me and said that something bit him. Sure enough it looked like a bee sting. He said that his arm hurt a little. About a minute into looking him over and checking for some type of reaction or swelling I asked him to pull his arm out of his shirt and OUT DROPPED THE BEE!! He was so calm and just appeared to be bothered with this happening during the middle of his clinic. Almost like, why do I have to be doing with this right now...I was having a good time! One of the coaches brought out the first-aid kit, we applied some insect sting relief, not that he seemed to need it, and off he ran back onto the field ready to get back to business.

Simply amazing. He handled that so well, much better than I would have expected a six year who just dealt with a bee sting.

Pumpkin Patch

We know that fall has arrived when pumpkin patches start popping up everywhere. I LOVE it! Recently Carson and I joined Ali's class for their field trip to a local nursery. Ali absolutely loved playing on the merry-go-round. We just don't see enough of those anymore.

During snack time Ali made sure that Carson had a good place to sit, right next to her! She is very maternal especially with C.

This is the first year that Ali really got into the slides. She had a great time going down the slide many times, but was worn out by the end of the day after all that running around. The kids couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a part in this drum action and make some noise.

It was a day well spent!

Pohick Church Fair

Over the past three years, my mom, the kids and I, visited the Pohick Church for their annual fair. The favorite attraction, by far, are the pony rides.

There were lots of carnival-like attractions at this fair. Marcus loved the shooting games (what boy doesn't like shooting games?!), Alison's favorite was the moon bounce, and Carson's were the lollipop tree (where your pick a lollipop from a "tree" and the color on the bottom of the stick determines the type of prize you receive) and the duck pond (you fish a duck out of water and, here too, the color on the underbelly of the duck determines the type of prize that you receive). And who could forget face painting, or hand painting in Carson's case!

The fair also featured a section that displayed artifacts from wars that our country had been involved in. The items and clothing dated back to the Revolutionary War. This man pictured with the kids below is dressed up as a British soldier in the well-known red coat attire. While role playing he asked the kids several times if they had seen "the bad man George Washington" because he had heard that he attended church there (Pohick Church). George Washington did attend this church, but Marcus became really confused as to why this man in the red coat was calling GW a bad man. I then went onto explain the purpose of the Revolutionary War to him and why this man felt that GW was a bad man and why we think that he is a GREAT man.
The kids checked out displays from the Revolutionary Way, the Civil War, WWI, and WWII. Carson was fascinated with this WWII helmet and it's camouflage on top. He tried to clean it off, but then this man explained to him that it helped him to sneak around so that the bad guys wouldn't see him. Carson just laughed at him and put it on.

England (caution! lots of pics)

I can hardly believe that it has already been a week since Brent and I returned from England. It was an AMAZING trip! Everything for this trip came together and sort of just fell into place. A HUGE blessing! Almost like it was just meant to be. :)

Initially when we found out that Brent's agency wanted to send him overseas to England for two weeks, never had we imagined that I would be able to join him, let alone without the kids. In just about six short weeks my parents and sister offered to watch the kids, I applied for a passport, bought a plane ticket, extended Brent's stay, arranged carpools for schools and extra curriculars, and started making endless lists of items to take, the kids agenda (this one took FOREVER!), and must-sees in England. Every little effort was well worth it.

I joined Brent in the beginning of his second week in England. After a seven and a half hour nonstop flight, an hour tube trip, and an hour train ride I arrived at my destination, Huntingdon. Our great friends the Murphy's are stationed in the local American base, but live in Huntingdon. Ryann picked me up and then the fun began! Throughout the nine days that I was able to join Brent and our friends, we were able to experience quite a bit of this fantastic country.

The highlights include:

Brent and the Murphy's (before I arrived) went to the Burghley House and the cathedral at Peterborough.

The Burghley House was built in the 1500's by Queen Elizabeth I's treasurer and principle secretary. Over the years through different acquisitions many priceless pieces of art were acquired and created. Additionally the family Italian painters to paint the rooms different scenes ranging from the Heaven Room to the Hell Staircase. There is also a huge sculpture garden and a smaller water park area.

Entrance to the visitor's center at Burghley House

Per Brent-The Peterborough cathedral was located about 20 minutes from where I stayed. It was originally a monastery that was founded around 655 A.D.; however, it was destroyed in the 800's by Vikings and rebuilt as the Benedictine Abbey in the late 900's. Throughout the exterior, numerous graves were observed and many of them were no longer legible. Talk about a great location and a beautiful church (we couldn't go inside because services were being conducted).

The rear of the cathedral.

While Brent fulfilled the last day of his work commitment, Ryann, Timmy (Ryann's two year old son), and I took a day trip to Blenheim Palace. The palace was built in the early 1700's and belongs to the Churchill family. Winston Churchill was born here and we were actually able to pass through the room where he was born.

I loved this door that took us into the front courtyard. The doors were massive and bear the family crest.

The courtyard in the front of the Palace.
The gardens are amazing here. Unfortunately we were not able to see all of them, but the few that we did see were very impressive.

The side view.

Ryann and I.

The following day Brent was able to join us for a trip into London to see the Tower of London. The public transportation systems in England are wonderful. To travel back into London we took the train and the tube and to top it off we were able to get a great discount on our tickets! For those of you who have traveled in England, this one is for you..."MIND THE GAP". Okay there, I got it out of my system. I feel better now. :)

We entered the tower through Water Lane. The Wakefield Tower is the round pop-out on the left which is connected to the Bloody Tower.

The Waterloo Barracks houses the Crown Jewels. BEAUTIFUL!!! This guard was position just outside the entrance to Waterloo Barracks.
The Yeoman Warders stand guard throughout the Tower grounds and provide tours as well. In the Beauchamp Tower prisoners were held and often left their mark through etchings on the walls.

Our trip to the tower coordinated with a magnificent display of Henry VIII's arms and armor housed in the White Tower. To his credit, the King thought he "was the man" (enough said).

From the Tower we were able to see the London Bridge.

We came across the London Eye en route to Westminster Abbey.

Big Ben.

The Entrance to Westminster Abbey. It was so fascinating to be among the final resting places of many British royalty. We took an audio tour which was very helpful in identifying the centuries old history that took place there. You could spend all day here and still not see it all.

To top off the evening as well as many other evenings, we had a little Wii action.
We couldn't travel all the way to England and not capture a photo of us in front of the infamous red telephone booths! We didn't find any that would take us to the Ministry of Magic.

The following day the four of us (Terry, Ryann, Brent and I) traveled into London for a day trip which included a tour of Buckingham Palace. The tour took us through a good portion of the Palace, since the queen was on holiday for the summer. The paintings, the tapestries, the architecture, and the craftsmanship each reflected that royalty resided there. My favorite portion among the tour was the display of Queen Elizabeth II's apparel throughout her reign. Not only did they have each article clothing displayed but they coupled most of them with photos of her wearing the gown or suit at the function that it was intended for. We also toured the Royal Mews where much of art and royal porcelain sets were held dating back to the 16th century; there were also a 96 carat diamond broach taken from the Cullinan diamond and two Rembrandt paintings.

During this day trip we made a quick stop to Trafalgar Square. We stumbled upon the closing remarks of a Muslim gathering, celebrating the end of Ramadan, Eid ul-Fitr. It was great to see some of this religious celebration ending the final day of their fast.

On Sunday, after attending the primary program (which was so cute!), we drove into Cambridge to go punting. Brent is here in front of King's College with Timmy.

From the exterior St. John's is magnificent. I can only imagine that the inside is equally as beautiful! This is a location that Hitler had put into an accord that would not be bombed (he wanted to use it as his European headquarters after victory of WWII, but that did not happen.

The vegetation on the rear of St. John's was breathtaking, especially this time of year as the colors were changing. The reds and greens were so vibrant!

Here we were on our guided punt tour around several colleges at Cambridge by a knowledgable graduate from one of the colleges. It was great to hear about the history of the schools from one that is from the area.

On Monday we visited York. I loved observing these children in uniform. (I secretly love school uniforms! If Ali had to wear a uniform I would have at least five minutes back to each school day that is lost in our debate of what is appropriate to wear to school.)

While touring York Minster's crypt where we learned that this city was occupied as early as 71 A.D. by the Roman Empire. York Minster was originally a roman fortress and throughout the ages the different empires built upon the original fortress to create a building that suited their needs. It also contains the first evidence of Christianity in England.

Inside the halls were lined with tombs as well as floor tiles were replaced with gravestones to mark the graves of the deceased.

After checking out the crypt we moved onto the tower. The walk up the winding staircase to the tower was a tight squeeze! There are 275 steps to the top, thus you are breathless when you get there, and very windy.

Here is the view from the tower overlooking the city. Two-thirds up from the bottom of the picture you can see what remains of the gray city walls.

Brent next to the statue of Constantine the Great, just in front of York Minster, who was a proponent of Christianity (and the first Roman emporer that converted to Christianity). The next picture explains.

Check out this sloping building.

This is Clifford's Tower, the last remaining part of York Castle.

It was an amazing trip...simply amazing! We fell in love with the country and hope to be able to return one day...

Ali's first day of school

I can't believe that Ali is already in her second year of preschool! She is a little wiz with her letters, writing her name, and doodling random letters with any writing untensil she can get her hands on. The year began wonderfully as she walked confidently into her classroom and jumped right into the art projects left of the tables for the kids to complete.