If I lived in England, you could all fly over and stay with me whilst you went to the Olympics.  Just a thought.

P.S.  I spent two hours of James' nap time making this out of some of my London pictures.

Brother + Sister

I was trying to figure out how to size pictures to fit my blog's width exactly.  Not quite there yet, but I thought Katie would enjoy a picture of she and her brother (even if my hand shook and made it blurry).

Monday's Memories: Welcome to Bath!

Our first adventure in Bath was finding a place to park.  We started on the side of a road behind this fun sign.  No "Baby on Board" signs in the UK.  They just have cheeky monkeys.

I don't remember why we decided this spot was unsuitable, but we drove on and found a car park.  We walked a lot in Bath, KJ studying the map the whole way until we found our bearings.  I liked this modern take on the whole phone booth thing.

 Texting from a phone booth?  Happy thought indeed.

Our first stop was the Jane Austen Centre.  After her father "retired" she and her sister, Cassandra, moved to Bath with their parents.  There was a lot of society to be enjoyed in Bath; I don't think Jane was very happy about the move, though.  Jane wrote in one of her letters to Cassandra, "We are to have a tiny party here tonight; I hate tiny parties---they force one into constant exertion."  My husband will laugh, because sometimes I feel that way about interacting with people.  Only, I prefer tiny parties to large groups of people.

 

Since we arrived late in the afternoon, we made the decision not to do the entire tour.  I think they show a short film about Austen's life, have an exhibit of wax figures wearing the fashions of the day, and things of that nature.  We just didn't have enough daylight left to see all we wanted to see and spend an hour and a half there, too.  I enjoyed looking through the shop and loved their restroom signs.

Looking through pictures I think that I took the most street shots in Bath over any other city we visited.  I guess that was because we spent most of our time walking the up-and-down streets.  I loved the architecture and the way all the buildings were connected.  Again, everything was so old.

Building lived in for a time by the Austen family

It is now a dentist office and not open to the public...

unless you want to get your teeth cleaned where Jane Austen once lived.

If you've read Northanger Abbey or Persuasion you're very familiar with the Assembly Rooms.  It seems that almost nightly balls were held here, and it was the center of Bath society.  On this particular weekend they were hosting a book fair in the rooms where Jane Austen danced.  This was a fun plus for us.

 Aren't the chandeliers gorgeous?

This wasn't your run-of-the-mill book fair.  It was antiquarian booksellers from all over England displaying and selling the rarest of books, first editions all over the place.  They were wonderful and beautiful and way out of our price range.  We even saw a first edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs--super, super old.  We enjoyed browsing.

I think my original Bath post from England featured these sedan chairs that ladies were carried around the city in.  Very fun.

Traveling in Style

 a street shot outside of the Assembly Rooms

There's a lot more of Bath to come.

Friday's Flashback: Calerne

I already wrote a post about our spontaneous stop to sit on a stone wall and admire the view of Calerne.  You can read about it HERE if you like.

 Wouldn't you have stopped for that?

That's quintessential southern England.

Today

Today I took Ella to gymnastics.  Several pictures will follow that statement of course.  Grandparents need to see these things.

I'm excited about visiting with a dear friend from college tomorrow.  This will be our second visit in 6 1/2 months!  That's a big deal when you have small children and live hours apart.

 our last visit

I'm really proud of my son who did you-know-what in the potty for the first time.  You know...number two?  Maybe he won't begrudge me that sentiment 10 years down the road.  I hope not.  Hooray for baby James!  (who's not such a baby anymore)

What's the big deal?

Ella requested a date with her daddy.  They went out in the rain for ice cream and came back with a ball and tortilla chips instead.  

I'm proud of my husband who edited his Sunday School material and published it for the Kindle!  Buy your copy HERE.  It's good stuff.  

I'm thinking about something KJ wrote on my blog once: 

"I think we are hardwired to like stories that reveal an intricate plan in the end. If the LOST writers are so clever to weave together six seasons and keep it surprising, then O the depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable and unfathomable are His ways! God has a lot more than six seasons to weave together to a satisfactory ending."  

It goes without saying that God is an infinitely better storyteller than any other.  We don't have to wonder if He's laid out the end from the beginning.  He even told us the ending ahead of time!  And it won't disappoint.

Conversations with My Boy

I thought it would be a walk all by myself, enjoying the fresh, cool air after the rain.  

"I wanna go wi' you.  I go for a walk."

My plans changed, and I'm glad they did.

 
Walking with James from KJ Pugh on Vimeo.

Sparklers

We didn't make it to any fantastic firework shows this year, but no July 4th celebration is complete without sparklers.  Our kids go to bed when it's still light out, but we tried to fit in some fire before bed.  Thus the pajamas.  We made it out with only a stray spark hitting James' foot when he and Ella were arguing about something.  KJ suggested shoes after that.  We're really great parents.  ;)

No shoes

This was my first year to break out the tripod and try out some slow shutter speeds.  Trying to make letters with the flames proved too complicated for us, but we got some fun flaming circles. 

With Shoes

And thankfully, my neighbors obligingly fired off some big ones, so I didn't completely miss out on a few fireworks shots.

THE END