What’s Happening at Home?

Well, we’ve settled back into our home routine. John goes off to work at 8 and Fi and I stay home, often going on little outings, meeting with friends, or just playing together just the two of us. Many of the following photos were taken on my phone because our little camera broke on our last night in York. The lens opened part-way and stopped. John learned that Canon had a recall on some of their point-and-shoots so he called them. We were many months past the expiration date of the warrantee, so they sold us a new one (exact same model) with a memory card, all the charging stuff, a new battery, and a carrying case, for half the price of the old one. We got to keep all our old stuff as well and mailed the broken camera back. It took a couple of weeks to get the new camera, so some of the photos are fuzzier than usual because the camera on my phone is not very good (after all, I chose the phone for its phone capabilities, not its camera capabilities, and it was free).

Since we came home. . .

. . . we had numerous tea parties, both inside the house and out:

Please notice that Fi gets orange, grape, and carrot, and I got garlic and a lettuce leaf. I’m beginning to think Fi has a strange impression of her mother.

. . . we went to the zoo with Nicole, Caz, and Kaleo, and rode the train:

. . . we turned Fi’s car seat forward, like it was on our trip.

She really doesn’t care. She missed her mirror at first, but now, she is the same as she was when she was rear facing. She is still rear facing in my mom’s car and has no problems sitting that way. She is very flexible in this regard.

. . . we met Jen and Elliot at the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena:

It was REALLY HOT! Like, 90 degrees hot! Fi had fun running around in the fountains, making things jump and pop and turn and slide and fall in the physics garden, and climbing on various structures:

Look out, unlicensed driver! She’s not even watching the road!

Lunch with friends:

. . . we cuddled Fi when she got a fever after the museum:

Poor thing had a 24 hour fever, but she sure was snuggly while she was sick. It took her two days to recover after the fever. Then John got it. I think last night, or possibly the night before last, was the first time since returning home that I had a full uninterrupted night’s sleep that didn’t end before 6AM.

. . . we had visits from more friends:

 

. . . Fi read magazines with Grandpa:

. . . we went for many walks around the block, sometimes taking baby, sometimes just a purse in case we need to call telemarketers:

. . . I made scones, twice:

The first batch didn’t work so well. Then John got me these very nice cookie sheets and I used a recipe I got from bbc.com and I thought they turned out really well.

. . . Fi showed us that she still sleeps like a baby, literally:

  

or a homeless person:

. . . we had many birthday parties and breakfasts:

 

 

Fi only has so many pancakes, so John got an orange and salami for breakfast today. Also, Fi has been calling breakfast “breaklest” and when we try to correct her, she tells us that “breaklest” is “a different word for pancakes and waffles.” She also informed me that the dolls would all have to use spoons for their pancakes because she had many spoons but only one fork.

We also went to two birthday parties, a meet up that involved a bouncy house and a water slide, and hosted a meet up at our house.

Remember before we left, we ripped out the lawn in the front yard and planted more vegetables? Well, this little zucchini is now a great big zucchini:

Just like with human babies, we forget how small they start out. They are also really yummy and we are enjoying eating zucchinis and giving them to the neighbors.

Here are more photos of the front:

The watermelon taking after the cantaloupe in the backyard, and trying to take over the front yard. At least we can see some small melons (the cantaloupe has four, the watermelon two that we can see).

The beans are coming along nicely, especially given that they have to fight off the watermelon:

The photo on the left was picked over the last two days. We will be eating them for dinner tonight.

Even the tomatoes are starting to produce:

That basket was overflowing, but Fi ate about 10 small tomatoes within 10 minutes of me bringing the basket in the house. Our eggplants are doing well and we have been eating eggplant for a couple of weeks now. The lettuce was great but not very big. We already ate most of it. It was much better than the lettuce we had last fall/winter, which was bitter. My parents’ Meyer lemon tree has been producing like crazy, so I made Meyer lemon cookies and will soon make those lemon bars again.

Something I forgot to mention is that when we pulled up to the house after landing at LAX, all the rosebushes were in full bloom and it was very pretty.

We also had lunch with John twice, once at his work and once at a restaurant.

So, that is what we have been doing for the last three or four weeks since being home. It’s been busy and fun. Next week Fi starts swimming lessons, then she goes back to school, then I go back to work. I will probably return to my once-per-month blogging schedule because I probably won’t have more time than that. But our lives are generally pretty boring so there is often not much to report. The fair is in town, so my next post will probably be all about that.

Oh, and the sun is finally shining!

UK Trip 2013 (Jedburgh, York, Old Windsor, Home)

On the morning we were to leave Edinburgh, Dan and I went for a run. It was really hot, even early in the morning. We were all packed and ready to go not long after check out and we hit the road. Our first stop was in Jedburgh, mostly because Fi and I needed to use the toilet, but there was a nice park there, so we stayed and let the girls run around, then found a cafe for lunch. Fi really wanted tomatoes, but shortly after we ordered, one of the workers informed us that they were out. A very nice man named Neil (or maybe Niall) gave Fi tomatoes he purchased at a farmers’ market nearby. It was really nice of him and we were very grateful. Fi ate her tomatoes like apples. The dads took the girls back to the park while Krista and I had some time to chat, then we walked through the gift shop (I wish I would have purchased some things there) and got back in the van.

John and Fi reading in the morning:

 

Playing in the park (one of many this week):

 

Jedburgh:

Fi in a funny highchair:

Speaking of highchairs, I noticed that all the highchairs, in most of the restaurants we ate in, were really baby-ish. In the US, the highchairs are mostly wooden, sometimes plastic, but definitely made for older children and they don’t usually have trays. It seems like in the UK, only young babies use highchairs because they all reminded me of the one Fi used before she sat in a booster seat. Anyway, just something I thought about on our journey.

The border:

 

How I felt about leaving Scotland:

 

Not sure what this sign is about:

True story: We saw a lot of logging on our way out of Scotland and someone in the van said something about where the border might be. I said something about when the logging ends, that will be the border. No joke, the logging section ended at the border. It was a very distinct line. I didn’t take a picture but I thought it was funny. Maybe you had to be there.

We made our way to a section of Hadrian’s Wall in Chesters. It was very hot, so we first enjoyed some ice cream:

Chesters was really fun because Fi could run around and there were stones and walls to climb on:

 

Fi and John sitting on the potty:

Hiding in the columns:

Fi took this photo:

After we got back in the van, we thought it would not be long until we were in York. We were wrong. First, we had to get gas and go to the bathroom. Then, we were hungry. We made several stops, including in some little town with one pub that was not open and possibly didn’t even serve food and finally ate microwaved food we bought at the M&S at a rest stop. When we finally made it to York, we drove around in circles trying to get to our new hotel home. Fi hadn’t napped that day (again) and was really cranky, crying for long periods of time and wanting to sit on my lap. Eventually we made to our destination: The Dutch House in York!

The Dutch House is the oldest brick built building in York, according to the owners. It was part of an old brewery. The owners, who live in another park of York outside the walls, gutted the place and rebuilt it as a vacation rental plus 12 apartments. They did an excellent job. Upon arrival we had a basket of treats with cookies, chocolates, and wine. The small kitchen had a fridge and freezer side by side, and a dishwasher. The Dutch House is three floors, the ground level having the kitchen and living room, and the other two floors having a bedroom each. It was such a cute place. Krista and Dan’s shower was literally a closet and we had a giant bathtub in our room, and behind a small door, a washing machine. Fi loved it because she had to climb stairs to get to our room.

Here are some photos, because I feel like the Dutch House was part of the experience of staying in York:

  

And, no, it isn’t the perspective that makes the house look like it is leaning. It really is leaning. See?

 

I didn’t realize the extent of the lean until I put a pen down on that big stone hearth and it rolled right off.

A giant bathtub in our room:

It looks like a closet, but SURPRISE! It’s a shower:

 

It was very cozy there, and very quiet.

York is an old walled city and on our only full day there, we decided to walk on the wall:

Our street:

The local post office:

My loves again:

The cathedral, as seen from the wall:

More looking through crevices and climbing up and down stairs:

 

 

LOVE that face:

We stopped at a tea shop for tea and scones (of course) right next to the cathedral. I’m glad we did, because originally Krista and I were going to go to Betty’s Tea Shop (famous place) but the line was out the door and around the corner. No thank you. The cathedral was large with lots of tourists, but it wasn’t free unless you attend a mass there, so we looked inside to see what we could see from the entrance and left it at that. There is no way we were going to either pay the large sum or try to get our girls to sit through a mass. So we saved our money and let the kids run amok on the green next to the cathedral and took photos of the outside:

We played tickle and hide and seek and ran around shrieking like banshees. It was a blast! Fi even made friends with a little baby girl who was about 15 months old.

Then, it was time for lunch. York is very touristed. It is a tourist city through and through, and if I didn’t know how old it really was, I would think it was a lot like Solvang (except Solvang is Danish). We finally found a pub that was not really crowded and didn’t have an hour long wait for a table, but it so happened that it was like an hour long wait for our food! Maybe that’s why no one was there? The place looked like it used to be a residential house and we were in an upstairs room. I do not remember the name, and the food was not bad, but it took so long to arrive. It was like a repeat of the Sheep Heid and the Indian place. Eventually it did arrive and we inhaled it. Then John and I took Fi back to the Dutch House so she could take a nap, and Krista, Dan, and Sophie went in search of Yorkshire pudding and meat pies for our dinner.

That evening, I made dinner for the girls, and the adults ate the take-away pies that Krista and Dan purchased. They were very tasty.

On the morning of our departure, our friends went in search of a book shop so Sophie could get a book they promised her, and we went off to find souvenirs. The only thing I found was a box of fudge for my dad. You’d think in a city this touristy, there would have been more. We also wanted to see The Shambles, an old medieval alley way. This was The Shambles:

  

I bought my dad’s fudge in a sweet shop on the left in the leftmost picture.

See how many people are here?

A random sign:

We had a relatively uneventful trip south. We packed lunch before we left so that we could just stop at a park and eat, but that turned into a funny story. We pulled off the road in some town, and followed signs that looked like the historical attraction signs for something that sounded like it would be a park or a field, but turned out to be a new housing development. We had to ask some people at a bus station how to find a park. They directed us to a lovely park where we ate and played for a while. We got back in the van and drove drove drove, stopping only once on the side of the road because Fi said she had to use the potty (but didn’t actually go). We hit terrible traffic, but eventually made it to Old Windsor (after driving in circles a little bit) to the Innkeeper’s Lodge, which is some sort of chain I think.

We registered and got our keys at the bar. Our room was small and basic, but fine, and we walked to our last park of the trip. It had an in-ground trampoline that we all liked:

There was also a little boy doing tricks on it. Krista chatted with a dad who lived in Florida for a while and I took photos of the cool looking garbage cans:

 

And those froggy trash bins are my last photos of the UK. We ate dinner at the hotel and it was not bad, but nothing to write home about and went to sleep. Dan took us to the airport that was crazy, and I did not have time to shop the gift stores there, so I bought hardly any souvenirs. It’s really my only regret because I had a long list of people I wanted to buy for. The good news is that the Dean’s shortbread cookies are available here, so I have that at least.

The flight was looooooooooooooooooong. First, we were delayed while on the plane for over an hour. Then, not long into the flight, Fi decided that she had to poop, but did not want to do it on the plane. So I spent about two hours walking her around and rocking her and holding her while she cried and screamed “I HAVE TO POOP!!!!” really loudly. I normally do not discuss her functions here, but it was almost comedic. Once she finally did go, she was like a completely different person. She read books and even watched a video for half an hour, and fell asleep on me two hours before landing. We were able to exit Customs and Immigration relatively quickly for LAX, got a rental car to drive back to our car (that we left at John’s workplace, believe it me it is much much cheaper to do that than to park at LAX for two and a half weeks).

Here is Fi waiting for the rental car and car seat:

You can see how tired she is in this photo:

She fell asleep on the way home and we were able to transfer her to her own car seat, which was still rear facing, without so much a peep:

She slept all the way home and we just put her in her bed, showered, and went to sleep ourselves.

We woke up the next day to find that our cantaloupe was trying to take over the world:

It ate our tomatoes and we had to cut it back, but it’s growing again! Ahhh.

And that is the end of our trip. It’s been fun writing about it because I get to relive it again, and I miss the UK so much, especially Scotland. I hope we go back really soon. In the meantime, my next post will not have the words “UK Trip 2013” in the title, and I can update on what we have been doing in the three weeks since we returned home.

If you read this blog and have read all the other posts, you deserve a box of Dean’s.

Oh, and irony of ironies, when we returned from the UK where the last week of our trip it was hot and sunny every day, we found June Gloom in July! It has been overcast and cold here for weeks! What??? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Just wanted to make that last note. Weather is so weird sometimes.

Have a good weekend!