Trip to England

Russians take the entire first week of January off to celebrate New Years and Christmas.  We decided we didn't want to sit around getting lazy and fat so we decided to go to England and get lazy and fat.  Levin's brother lives near Cambridge University and we went to stay with them.  We spent a lot of time just around their house and going to all you can eat restaurants - big mistake said the scale when I came home.  Actually - I only went to one all you can eat, but my sister-in-law Siobhan, fed me well.

We weren't good at taking pictures around the house, but we did take a weekend trip to York and took some pictures near there when we visited some abbeys.  I've already forgotten the names.  When we go on trips I am just kind of along for the ride.  That is not to say Levin plans it selfishly.  The reason we came to visit these is because one of my favorite memories from mine and Levin's first trip to England before we were married was Tintern abbey.

If you want to learn history, don't learn it from my blog.  ha ha!  But a king was mad at the church and burned a bunch of abbeys in England so only the stone parts remain.  I just think they look so cool!  This one was by the coast which was kind of cool.

 My sister-in-law is always planned so well and so helpful.  She planned rain suits for our kids.  Leah wouldn't wear hers, but did borrow a cousins snow boots so her feet wouldn't be all wet.  Oliver wore his rain suit and some borrowed rain boots even though the suit was a little too small.  It was cold though, so he wore it.  I was shocked because normally anything Leah won't do, he won't do.   You have no idea how many times we've been ready to go out the door and he has to change his footwear when he realizes Leah is wearing boots and he's wearing shoes, or vice versa.  He always wants to be like Leah - or Yeah as he says it.

We went to a castle too.  I learned some interesting things about women.  They held the keys to the castle and in their training before marriage learned how to manage budgets, etc.  So women have always run the show. :)

We went to one more abbey - even larger and more impressive than the first.  Autumn was tired of always being in her car seat buckles or the stroller so we let her walk around at this one - she came out quite muddy.

We just need to photoshop Leah into this one.  She didn't want to go in at first.  She later went in with Aunt Siobhan and her cousin Lincoln and I stayed in and saw it with them too after Levin and the other two kids went out.

We did a lot of driving on this trip.  At first we had Autumn in the middle - not her usual spot - and she was a mess.  I think because she could see me she would cry for me a lot and also she had no window.  Finally we realized, she had to be in her normal spot where she is sitting behind a seat and can see out a window.  She was soooo much happier.  She was the happiest when she could hold my chap stick.
I wish I had a picture of it, and this picture below looks the opposite, but Leah and Oliver are so used to sitting by each other that when we first rearranged the seats and they were back to sitting by each other they just put their heads right near each other and looked so relieved to be back together.  This one below was taken another time.  Notice Leah is holding her "puke bin."  I don't think she ever used this, but she used plenty of bags before we got this.  Only one time did she not get a bag in time - once when I wasn't in the car.  I am pretty good at checking in on her and I am sure Levin and Lincoln got to talking and forgot to check in on her and she was probably too shy to ask for a bag.

We went to teh London temple our last day there - yeah, I know, no pictures.  Lame.  We got there and I needed to rush in, then Levin and I had to switch really fast so he could catch the next session and by the time he go out we were hungry and bored and it was dark.  But it was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  We hadn't been since Ukraine last February so it was nice.  And there was no blizzard to keep us trapped there like in Ukraine either!
*On a side note, thank heavens we went to the Kiev temple last winter and not this winter with all of the protests!

I can't believe these are all the pictures we took.  Autumn loved being near her cousin Eileen and Preston wa terrified she'd step on her - with good reason.  Autumn's cast came off.  I got to eat a steak one night and another night Papa John's pizza!  We went swimming in the hotel in York.  I only went one night, but the kids and Levin went both nights.  The church branch we visited inYork was the friendliest I've ever been to.  Lincoln and Siobhan have a little insert, maybe to hold fireplace tools, in their living room wall and Autumn loved to go sit in it.  We called it her chair and we'd tell her go sit there and she would.  She was good child proofing practice in their house for when Eileen gets more mobile - breaking jars of gravy, etc.  Siobhan and Lincoln are excellent hosts.  One thing I hope to gain from my sister-in-law is her ability to anticipate any need you might have and help you fill it.  So great!
My only regret was the only day we were near the Taco Bell on one of the military bases, it was New Years so it was closed.  :(  Oh well, it gives me something to look forward to in America in just 3 months!