Saturday 27 November 2010

First Snow!

This morning we woke up to the lightest dusting of white stuff! The first snow of the season is upon us!

Everyone is saying its going to be a rough winter this year... apparently they're calling for lots of snow. I will perfectly fine with all that snow as long as a) we have heat (which we should have by the 15th of December--they start work on replacing everything on the 10th) and b) we can still get out and about and travel with Mymom and Grampy who arrive in England in a week!!!

I cant believe that some of my favorite people on Earth get to come out and spend Christmas with us!!! We have a lot planned for their trip and I want to be able to get out and see things... so the snow needs to hold off.

Our itinerary includes: London (of course), Paris, possibly Italy (fingers crossed on this one!), Brighton, Windsor Castle, Leeds, and lots more! Of course, pictures and blogs will follow!

Hope everyone has had a great shopping weekend-- we've spent the weekend perusing the sales online trying to find things we cant live without.

100!

With all the blogging I've been doing this month (in honor of National Blog Posting Month), I've been able to reach some pretty awesome stats on the blogs! I hit 100 posts on the baby blog a few posts ago and today, 100 posts on the travel blog!

I wish I had an epic post for my 100th, but we've not done a lot of traveling this year. We realized that we've only been to Paris and the States...no where near the amount of traveling that we wanted to do this year.

Next year is our last year in England and we WILL travel. We're definitely still planning a cruise at the beginning of the year (we're trying to decide between January, February, and March), so we'll hopefully see a couple of Italian ports, Spain, and maybe even Greece and/or Egypt.

We also want to go and spend some time in Italy. We're hoping to do a week-10 days for our anniversary next year. I would also love to go back to Germany at Christmas... that was one of the coolest things we've experienced since we've been over here, so I'd love to do it again.

So, pretty much a pointless post today... but a promise to ourselves and to everyone who reads and is interesting in our worldly travels--we WILL travel next year, come hell or high water! :)

Friday 26 November 2010

Happy thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We got together with friends from my work and had a massive spread of food!


I posted on the baby blog about everything I'm thankful for... but most of all, friends and family. Being so far away from home during the Holidays can be difficult, but phone calls, emails, and skype make it a little easier to be physically so far. Having good friends definitely helps as well...

I hope everyone across the world had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Harry Potter 7 Pt 1


So, those of you who know me know that I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. Judge all you want, I really dont care... I fell in love with the books long before the movies came out. The last book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is not only my favorite Harry Potter book (minus the epilogue...hello JK Rowling, I need more than that...lol), it is probably my favorite book of all time. Again, judge all you want, I dont care.

Anyway, every time we go to see one of the movies, I always leave dissatisfied. They always leave too much out and change things they shouldn't change (do I need to talk about what they did to the Burrow in the last movie...ugh). Anyway, no one ever likes going to see them with m because I critique... well, bitch really, about everything.

This time, I left the theatre and wasn't totally and completely disappointed. There were a few things that I really missed that they left out, but nothing too major. I actually said it was decent adaptation. Christopher freaked out and was like, that's like you saying its the best movie ever!

So yeah, it was alright. I'm excited for the last movie... but I'm sad its the last. Just like I'm sad the books are done. JK Rowling needs to get on it and write some more... I have not had enough of Harry Potter!

On a side note... it is SO different watching the movies once you've lived over here. Like the Dursley's house? SO British! The wallpaper, the decor, the neighborhood, everything.

Saturday 20 November 2010

Again, I really dont make this stuff up.

Today we ventured out to Birmingham with our friends Liz and Tim to the Christmas Market. We hit crazy traffic in the town center trying to find a parking garage. And then we found the parking garage, parked, and got ready to walk out when Christopher shut the trunk and then a string of explicatives came bursting out of his mouth. He locked the keys in the trunk.
We called the AA (their version of AAA) and waited for an hour til they showed up. We walked around the market while we waited and then the guys went to meet the AA guy. Liz and I ventured around and finally decided to go and see how they were getting along. Luckily we did because they were trying to unlock my car all wrong (its a push button thing instead of pulling it to unlock.. Saturn's are weird). So, after trying to unlock the door with a long, metal coat hanger looking thing, and then trying to pop the trunk for what felt like forever in the freezing parking garage, to no avail, the AA guy gave up and left. And we were left trying to figure out what to do.

We ended up grabbing some dinner and walking around the rest of the market before heading to the train station. We found out to get a ticket from Birmingham to Huntingdon, we'd have to go through London and our tickets would cost about £60 EACH (that's like almost $100) and there were 4 of us. Not cool. So, we checked with a cab company and found out they would only charge us £120 (about $200). MUCH better. Plus, instead of getting to Huntingdon at 1am, we got back at 10:30... which ended up giving the boys enough time to head back to get the car before the garage closed.

Let me just tell you a little bit about the car ride back. We were serenaded by the most ridiculous hip hop and pop music from the 90's & early 2000's. It was like being in High School again. Seriously. It was hilarious. And so unbelievably random. Bouncing around between Aqua's "Barbie Girl" to Lauryn Hill to Usher to 50 cent. And the driver blasted it. It was... interesting. Liz and I just kept looking at each other and laughing.

Needless to say, it was an interesting/stressful day. We had a decent time at the Market, but we were all a little, um, irritated. I'm holed up in our bedroom with a glass of wine, two space heaters (we STILL have no heat), and Sex and the City while Christopher goes to rescue the car.
The lesson for today? Always have spare keys with you.

Thursday 11 November 2010

Veterans Day

Today, November 11th, I salute and thank all of our Military members... past and present. I thank each and every one of you for your sacrifice, honor, and love of our Country. Without the dedication of our military members, the US wouldn't be the amazing place it is today! I'm proud to be an american and the Wife and Daughter of a veteran!


Friday 5 November 2010

I know, I know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I've been neglecting the Travel Blog. I know. We really haven't been doing much of anything lately with all the baby stuff going on (see baby blog for details).

We went to the Navy ball on October 16th and that was pretty fun. I love getting all dressed up and seeing Christopher all decked out in his dress uniform!


We also carved pumpkins with the Gray's and hung out with them on Halloween, handing out candy to the kids in their neighborhood. Mom Wofford bought Angus a Sailor outfit for Halloween, which he really didn't mind too much (well, except for the hat).


Oh, and this is proof that I dont completely disregard all holidays but Christmas. I have a fall wreath and we carved a pumpkin! lol

On Halloween, we were talking to our friend Hannah, whose husband is TDY to Holland right now, about the cruise they're taking in January. They're going on an Eastern Med Cruise that will port in Croatia, Greece, Egypt, Israel, and Italy! Amazing! So, I think that we're going to tag along... and I think the Gray's are too... so we're getting really excited about that. Egypt and Israel are places that you dont really travel to alone... they're just not the safest places in the world. But, to take a cruise and be with a large group of people makes them at least safe enough where we feel comfortable to go. I am sooo beyond excited! With everything that's gone on this year, we need a really stellar start to 2011!