Sudeley Castle

Yesterday we went to Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire with our friends Joe and Dyann and their two kids, Julianna and Ryan. Julianna and Aidan have decided to get married so we thought it would be good to get to know our new in-laws :)
The kids had a really great time running around the gardens, climbing trees and chasing each other around. There also was a really great climbing area for the kids and picnic tables for us to eat some lunch - and drink a little wine! The gardens and chapel were beautiful. The flowers were in late summer bloom - I'm sure it is gorgeous in the spring when all the roses are out. Sudeley Castle won best wedding venue in England and I can see why - every where you look is just beautiful!


Aidan and Julianna:

Bristol Zoo

Yesterday we went to the Bristol Zoo which is about an hour west of our house. It was a nice zoo - not as nice as Colorado Springs - but small enough for little kids to walk around. They had a good selection of animals with some pretty up close exhibits. My favorite was holding the Lorikeets but Aidan really liked the merry-go-round and the high wire climbing course that he and Brendan did together. As you can see from the pictures, it rained pretty much the entire time we were there but we had our raincoats and it wasn't too cold so it really wasn't that bad - plus - no one else seemed to mind the rain!



real penguins:Feeding the Lorikeets - their feet were really cold but holding them was amazing!

Riding the Merry- Go-Round

Aidan and Brendan on the rope course - very impressive!

Aidan's bike

We got Aidan's bike in our hold baggage shipment today. We took his training wheels off and 20 minutes later he could ride it! Check out the video on youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBf0ryl-Zww

Stonehenge

We drove down to Stonehenge today. It was about an hour from our house although most of the way was pretty rural! It was really cool and although you can't get really close to the stones you can still get a good look at them and walk all the way around the perimeter. The kids had a good time - mostly because they carried around the audio tour players and learned all about Stonehenge - OK maybe only Aidan learned anything - but they both really liked listening!
Aidan listening:
Emmy listening:

Old Wardour Castle

After we went to Stonehenge today we continued on South to Old Wardour Castle. We drove through the most narrow roads I have ever seen - really they may have not been actual roads! Good thing we had the GPS or we never would have found it! When we got to the castle there were a lot of people there - in fact - there was a wedding in progress. What a beautiful place to get married and a gorgeous day too! The kids had a great time running around and climbing on the ruins of the castle. You can actually go up into the castle and climb the stairs to the top. It is beautiful and you can see all over!

The front of the ruins:
The back of the ruins:
Looking up from inside:
Emmy on the stairs:
Aidan in the ruins:
I couldn't resist taking a shot or two of the bride:

Gorgeous Day

Today was absolutely the most gorgeous day since we've been here! It was sunny and warm and breezy. We ate lunch outside in the backyard and played in the grass. Aoife is getting so big that she fits well into the Bumpo seat and gets a huge kick out of being upright all by herself. She needs to get stronger before she can sit in it for longer than a few minutes. Emmy and Aidan had a great time driving each other around the backyard in the Jeep and Aoife had a great time pulling up grass!

drowning...

I am drowning in stuff! Our household goods arrived this morning - yeah!! The movers were great - only a few things got broken on the way over - nothing important. Because we can't throw big cardboard boxes away in the trash here, I had to have the movers help me unpack pretty much everything before they left so they could take the boxes and paper with them. Here is what it looks like when everything gets taken out of the boxes and nothing is put away!
I really did a good job sorting before we left so we really don't have too much extra stuff - there is a lot in storage in Virginia! There is NO storage space here - a small garage that I don't want to fill with boxes, a small hall closet downstairs for coats and shoes and a closet in each bedroom! That's it! We only brought enough toys to fill the two shelving units we have so every toy should have a place - in a perfect world! The one thing we seem to have way too many of is coats - never knew I had so many - I think I have to donate some!! Now that we have most of our stuff - our express shipment should be here this week sometime - I will post pictures of the house once we get it set up - shouldn't take more than a day or two!

Emmy

I took these cute pictures of Emmy yesterday while she was fooling around with Aoife's blanket - thought they were adorable!! Enjoy!