Let the Journey Begin!!!

Hello everyone!  Just wanted to do one last post before things get crazy.

Nathan made it back to Bristol last night after a 2 day business trip to Broughton, UK to visit the Airbus manufacturing plant.  He had a great time and was glad to be able to actually see where the wings are being produced that he works so hard to design.

I have been doing this...

Checked Baggage...check!

Carry-on/Gate Check items...check!

 In approximately 3 hours our driver, Tom, will be here to take us to our hotel in London.  Feeling very excited and still so ready to go home, but I will admit to feeling a bit sad that the adventure is almost over.  There are definitely things we will miss about Bristol and the UK in general.  I plan to do a post about that after we get home.

YAY!!!!  We crossed off our last day today!

Grant is taking his last nap in Bristol.

Such a big boy!  I can't wait for everyone to see how much he has grown!

We leave London at noon (6am CST) Friday.  Fly to Minneapolis, MN and catch the 5:20 pm (CST) flight to Wichita!!!  Prayers for safe and stress free (as possible) travels are greatly appreciated.  As of right now there appears to be an open seat next to one of ours on the flight from London to MN.  If they don't fill it with standby passengers then that means we will be able to have a seat for Grant.  Let's all say a BIG prayer that it stays open.  LOL!

Thank you all for following us on our journey, and for your love and support through it all.  Can't wait to see everyone when we get home.  My next post will be from HOME!!!!  Woo Hoo!  

Until then, "Cheers!"

Last Week

Phew, not going to lie, this week it feels like time is standing still.

Tomorrow Nathan is heading up to Broughton, UK, which is about 2 hours northeast of here, for a couple of days to see Airbus' manufacturing facility.  Which means I will be packing everything up by myself, of course I will have my 3 little helpers here too.  Talk about your bad timing.  Anyway, I'm so excited to go home I almost don't care, almost.  Ha!

Tomorrow is "Day 1" on my list of serious packing.  I've been tossing things and working feverishly on getting laundry caught up for weeks now.  We are staying in London for a night before we fly out so I've been trying to plan the best way to pack the things we will need for that night/next morning.  I just have to keep my eye on the prize at the end of it all and I should be alright.

In more exciting news...

  Grant turned 10 months old on Sunday...double digits!!! Can you believe it?  I sure can't!

He is so precious and just a joy to be around.  I love the last shot because you can see all 5 of his teeth.

He is such a fun baby.  Still doing the army crawl, but occasionally gets his knees up under himself, so I don't think it will be long before he figures out the actual crawling thing.  He has just started trying to pull himself up a little bit on things, but it usually ends badly for him.  He is saying, "Dada, Nana, Mama" and "no" (though he only says "Mama" when he is in distress).  He has really good coordination with his hands.  He feeds himself really well, and he even draws already.  

Check out his first piece of art work  

Not so bad for a 10 month old.  He's a little squinty because it was late and my flash was really bright.

He will have his 10 month check-up the Tuesday after we get home.  I can't wait to see how much he weighs and how long he is.  We are also looking forward to his first Christmas.  I have a feeling he will have NO trouble tearing into gifts.  Leah and Dylan were only 7 and 6 months, respectively, for their first Christmas experiences.  This will be a whole new ball game having an almost 1 year old.  I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Grant has really changed a lot since we first arrived here in the UK.

He has graduated from the ducky bath tub to a big boy bath.

Here's a fun splash picture for your viewing pleasure.  There's no shortage of splashing when he is in there.

All of the kiddos have grown so much.

Dylan and Leah working on a fun craft project.

A beautiful sunset was just what I needed to end this day.

I am going to miss the view from up here.

Crazy Big Milestones Happening Here Today

Happy Saturday to all!  

We spent the day exploring Blaise Castle right here in Bristol.

It was sort of one of those low key days.  Blaise Castle consists of a castle, of course, and a museum house, some great play areas for the kids, and tons of wide open space to run around and roam.  We spent the majority of our time at the play areas.  I have to confess I didn't even see the actual castle.  Nathan, Leah, and Dylan hiked over to it while Grant and I went back to the van to figure out what was making him so terribly uncharacteristically unhappy.  

I still don't REALLY know what his deal was, but I suspect much like his Mum he was tired of being cold.  So we warmed up in the car and he showed of his very first word other than Dada, Mama, and Nana.  I think it's ridiculously adorable right now, but I'm sure the more he starts using it in context the more I will dislike that my 9 (almost 10) month old can say "no".

Leah and Dylan were late talkers.  I was totally caught off guard today when he said "no" as I was trying to put on his mittens (that he hates to wear).  He has been trying to mimic sounds that we make for about a week now and it is so much fun!  He will be 10 months old tomorrow, so hard to believe.

Dylan also had a big day.  He earned the last sticker on his big boy potty chart this afternoon.  

 His hard work finally paid off!  He has been begging me to buy him this Finn McMissile car at the grocery store since the first week we arrived in Bristol.  He finally got it today with the completion of his chart.  Now here's to hoping the potty training success continues!

Here are some photos of our fun at Blaise Castle today.

They sure do enjoy the zip lines.

Trying to stay warm and cozy.

She was having so much fun!

















Dylan was having fun closer to the ground than Sissy.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Mommy and her Munchkey!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Prezzo

Tonight we took a chance, and boy am I glad we did.  We decided to take the kids out to a sit down dinner at a nice restaurant.  Scary right?  Still feeling festive from our 15 year celebration yesterday and with a coupon burning a hole in our pockets, we decided to give it a try.  Recently Nathan and I watched the movie, "Friends With Kids."  It was pretty funny, but there was a part in it where the actors were all dining at a nice restaurant and scoffing at the parents sitting at the next table who had the audacity to bring children to such a fine dinning facility.  I'm not going to lie, as we walked out the door tonight I said a little prayer that we would not be "THOSE PARENTS" at dinner.

Off to Prezzo we went.  It is a little Italian restaurant not too far from our flat.  The dim lighting with candles and wine glasses sitting on every table kinda place.  They did have a kids menu though, so that made me feel a little bit better.  At some point after getting seated and ordering our food it hit me just how well our children were doing!  Once I relaxed the whole experience was much more enjoyable.

Grant is a BIG fan of pizza crust.

Oh Leah.  She really did very well, with the exception of a few minor silly moments.

This was my prosciutto e funghi pizza.  It was delicious, but I had texture issues with the not cooked prosciutto.  It was easy enough to remove so I could enjoy the rest of the pizza.

 Latte and lemon drizzle cake...AMAZING!!!

This was on the "Mini Desserts" menu.  The latte and cake together were only 4.75 pounds ($7.62).  You could pay that for just a latte in most places.  It was quite a deal and so delicious!

 Grant was such a good boy.  He managed to conk his head on the edge of the table as he was sitting in his high chair when we first arrived, but after that he was happy as can be.  Gnawing on pizza crust, drinking water from a straw, and doling  out smiles to anyone and everyone who passed by.  I thought one of the waitresses was going to snatch him up and take him home with her.

Our poor waitress was so swamped with tables that it was taking her a while to get us our ticket.  So, I bundled up the kids and took them outside where they could run around a bit.  Prezzo is right between the Science Museum and the Aquarium that we recently visited.  There is a nice little open area and the kids took full advantage of the chance to run off some energy.

 Dylan wanted his picture taken with the giant beetle statue in front of the aquarium.

We tried to get Grant's picture with it too, but it was kind of hard to see the beetle.

Oh, and just before we got up to leave the couple sitting behind us turned to us and said what well behaved children we had.  The gentleman said he didn't even know there were 3 kids sitting behind him.  Seriously, that was enough to make my day, or week even.  What was I so worried about?  

I know that our sweet kiddos are just that, kids.  I also know that this is just a stage of life that will pass all to quickly and things like eating a nice dinner out will become easier with time.  I think tonight was God's way of reminding me to relax and focus on my sweet little ones and less on what other people are thinking, especially as we venture out on our 8 hour and 2 hour flights a week from today.  

Happy Friday!

How It All Began...

December 6th, 1997

I will never forget that day.  A sweet, handsome, sixteen year old tuba player who took me out to a movie and dinner at Hardees in Harrisonville the night before, called to ask me if I would be his girlfriend.  Not once in the last 15 years have I ever regretted answering with an emphatic, "YES!"  

Not too many people find the love of their life when they are just 15 years old.  It's not lost on me how incredibly blessed I am.

Homecoming 1998...I think?

Tonight thousands of miles away from any babysitter, this is how we celebrate...

After 15 years of "togetherness", as I call it, he knows me so well.  A Starbucks skinny vanilla latte and chocolate cake...perfection!

We will get our date night very soon.  I have a feeling there will be no shortage of loved ones wanting to steal our babies from us when we get back home.  Until then I shall eat my cake and dream of dressing up for a night on the town with my man who has been by my side for 15 years now.  Geez, the more I say that the older I feel.

Anyway, Happy Togetherness Anniversary Nathan.  Life with you has been better than I ever dreamed it would be.  Here's to many more years of "togetherness."

Phew, now that all that sappy lovey dovey stuff is out of the way, here is what has been going on this week.  

Dylan is on the mend.  Poor guy had a rough few days.

I believe this was Monday morning that I found him with his "puke bucket" (no worries it was clean) slung over his shoulder while he slept.  I had no idea just how handy that Halloween bucket, turned cookie mixing bowl, turned puke bucket would be when I paid a whole pound for it several months ago.  By Tuesday evening he was back to his old self.

Grant is about to hit double digits (he turns 10 months old on Sunday...eeesh!) and he has become quite the mover and shaker.

Here he is after Dylan, unbeknownst to Mommy, shared his Capri Sun with Grant.  It was mostly empty, but Grant was going to town on that straw like he's been drinking from one his whole life.  I have a feeling that once he gets back home and is crawling on more carpeted surfaces he will no doubt be crawling on all 4's in no time instead of the army crawl he has perfected here on the hardwood.  He is FAST and sneaky.  It's definitely time to get back home to a more baby proof environment.

I made some pumpkin muffins on Wednesday.  I am determined to use all of the canned pumpkin before we leave.

Fairy Max the Elf has been continuing his mischief.  

Pillow fort

Marshmallow snowmen that look like each of the kids.

He turned our milk green.  Elves LOVE the color green, in case you didn't know.  Dylan had some green milk and Cheerios.

Then another night he got into a little trouble for having too much fun with the toilet paper.  Silly Elf.

We are down to one week left on our adventure.  I have begun throwing stuff out, and packing up bags of clothes to donate.  Today I was able to enroll Dylan in preschool for the spring semester and found out he is going to have Ms. McCalla.  She was one of Leah's preschool teachers, and Dylan just ADORES her!  The smile on his face was priceless today when I told him the good news.  Leah's teacher emailed me today as well.  Her class really enjoyed the postcard Leah wrote to them a while back, and she was so thrilled when I told her that the kids were excited for her to return to school after Christmas break.

I'm sure I'll post a few more times before we begin our journey home.  I hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!

Hills With History

Our plans for driving to London to visit Windsor Castle didn't pan out as we had planned on Saturday.  Grant was working on two more teeth Friday night into Saturday morning, so he and Mommy were in no way ready to get up early and hit the road.  As it turns out it was incredibly foggy Saturday morning also, which was not great for a 2 hour drive.  So, all that made us decide to hang out in Bristol.  Daddy hung out with Grant from 6:30am til about 10am while Mommy got some rest.  Then we just spent the afternoon tooling around the shops in town with EVERYONE else in the greater Bristol area.  People are in Christmas shopping mode for sure here.  I had to decide between the lessor of two evils, shopping during a week day with all three kids by myself, or shopping on the weekend with thousands of people.  We still had fun, but I will be returning sometime this week with the kids by myself to attempt to actually make purchases when there aren't lines all the way around the stores. 

This was the best picture I could get of his new teeth.  The top two are through and so is one on the bottom right next to the first two teeth he got.  Which brings his teeth total to 5!  He will be eating all kinds of things now, and hopefully sleeping much better too.  Ugh.

Just enjoying breakfast.  Doesn't everyone prop their feet up to eat their Cheerios in the morning?

Saturday night I put Leah's hair up in about 6 braids when it was wet. 

She thought it was the coolest thing.  It looked very pretty and totally reminded me of the good old days of crimpers.  Do they still make those things?

Sunday we woke up and decided to head north to the Malvern Hills area.

 After breakfast Dylan started complaining of a tummy ache.  He felt a little warm, but I just thought he'd eaten too many of the marshmallows that our little elf friend brought that morning.  He fell asleep in the car and slept the whole drive to Malvern Hills and just got more puny as the day went on.  Poor guy.

Leah didn't want her picture taken so I pretended to take mine and got the little stinker.  Ha!

We went to Malvern Hills to investigate this place...

It used to be an Army Hospital during WWII.  Nathan's Grandpa Billy L. Miller was stationed here briefly before heading to France after the Allied invasion.  It was such a neat thing to be able to see in person.  My mind couldn't help but picture what it was like all those years ago.  What a different experience Grandpa Miller had on his journey to England and France from ours today.  I also felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and thankfulness for all of the people who made sacrifices and fought so hard for the freedom we enjoy today, and those who are still fighting to protect it.

A tree just off of the old Army site.

After visiting the old Army Hospital we headed up into the hills.  Hills that would probably called mountains in Kansas.  They were so beautiful and the views were absolutely breathtaking as we wound our way up the side of them to a hiking trail at the crest.

Daddy, Leah, and a puny Dylan explored one of the more vertical trails right near the car park (aka parking lot).

Grant and I hung out at the bottom of that trail since the stroller would not have made it up to the top.  He wasn't too sad about it.

 It takes a guy who is secure in his manhood to wear pink mittens.

It was so beautiful up there.  The pictures really don't do it justice.

Okay, so those of you who have seen the Disney movie "Brave", doesn't the sunspot on this picture make it look like Leah is following a wisp up the stairs?

Dylan was fading fast so Daddy, Leah, and Grant continued on up the trail and Dylan and I went back to the car.

 Leah was "hike running" as she called it.  The girl seriously ran the entire way up the trail.  I wish I could borrow some of her energy.

On the way back to the car I convinced Dylan to let me carry him up the trail that Nathan and the kids went up by the car park.  I am so glad I did, it was more than worth the view at the top.

I could have sat up there all day long.

After our hike we had some delicious Subway for lunch and headed to Goodrich Castle.  The kids were pretty disappointed that we didn't see Windsor Castle, so we figured we better get them to a castle of some sort and this one was close enough to Malvern Hills that we were able to squeeze it in before it closed for the day.

Did some baby wearing since it was a stair filled muddy mess of a trail out to the castle grounds.

Goodrich Castle

As with all the castles we have visited, everyone enjoyed exploring and running around the castle ruins. 

It was a great way to end a great weekend.  I don't know what we're going to do when we get back home and don't have castles to explore every weekend.