Goodbye UK...Hello America!

Things I will miss about York

As we prepare to leave for home I have been thinking about things I will miss about York UK...

I will miss...

our daily walks of walking into town

walking to the park almost everyday

running on the wall

having Michael at home on the weekends

my Friend Sophie

watching Harrison, Oliver, and Finn play together

watching Charlie give a little LOVE/cuddle to Lily

Lee's Garden Chinese food

My weekly movie nights with Sophie

having my groceries delivered to the house

eating most meals outside on our patio

British lingo...Brillant, Cheers, he is a clever boy, well done...

What I miss most about America

Calling my friends and family on the phone whenever I want

driving

playing cards with Lou and Don and Velma

grocery shopping in familiar stores

Dill Pickles

Asiago Cheese

my clothes dryer

golfing in golf league and Friday night couples golf

wing night with Jenn and Theresa

Shawn and John's wedding in June

our King sized bed

book club

More from the Forbidden Corner

Here is a video of Harrison and Finn after everyone walked through a long narrow hallway, which led to a small door. It was very challenging for a average sized adult to get through.

Another New Park...

Harrison, Oliver, Finn, Charlie, and Lily made an excursion to the West Bank Park. Sophie and I packed a picnic lunch for everyone.

Finn and Harrison

Charlie, Finn, Oliver, and Harrison.

The kids did play well together. They ran and played and laughed. Oliver got hot and found his shirt "unnecessary".

Lily and Charlie

The Park was a little closer to home, but it also entailed climbing up and down 8 to 10 on either side of a bridge. That was easy with 2 adults, but a little challenging by myself.

The Forbidden Corner

Michael was given a suggestion of an outing to go to The Forbidden Corner (Strangest Place in the World). Soooo......Sophie, Stevie, Finn, Harrison, and I organized an outing to The Forbidden Corner. Stevie drove us up to The Black Swan for lunch, which was amazing! I drank a Black Swan Bitter Beer with a top off of lemonade, which hit the spot. The boys ate fish and chips while the adults had lamb and vinison. It was at Fearby, near Masham.

This is a video of Harrison and Finn before lunch.

Finn and Harrison at Lunch in the Black Swan

Stevie Taylor

Finn and Sophie Morrison

Sarah and Harrison

Harrison and Finn falling the tree telling us to "Go This Way".

Sarah and Sophie Morrison in the Lavender Gardens at the Forbidden Corner

"I feel soooo calm in here"

Sophie and Stevie

Walking through the gardens in hopes of not getting wet by the intermittent spraying fountains.

The boys playing in the water

The boys looking at the surprise spraying water

More Spraying Water

Another Beautiful Garden

Sophie and Finn...Sarah and Harrison

Sophie and Finn ... Sarah and Harrison

It was really great to have a BIG boys adventure as Oliver and Lily stayed with Daddy and Sophie's other son Charlie stayed with his Grandma. It was Definitely worth the trek.

Furniture Sale

We decided to have a furniture sale here at the house today, so I advertised in 3 newspapers and in the window of the post office. It was supposed to be from 8am until noon. We did some serious cleaning and reorganizing from 6:30am until ... WELL NO ONE came. It was hard to believe, but my friend Sophie told me that these house sales are not common. She was not surprised that it was not successful. Oh well. Plan B ... advertised online on Preloved and Craig's List. Tried calling Aladdin's Cave who buy and sell furniture, but they were not interested in what we had. Say a few prayers that a few more things sell.

10 more days.

Small Playground by the Wall

Each time I walked on the wall I saw a small park right next to it, but I was never sure how to find it. Well...one morning I was out with Lily and we were exploring and we found it. It is a nice size for Lily and the boys. She can climb and play on most of it with supervision of course.

Harrison, Lily, and Oliver

Harrison, Lily, and Oliver

Take Note of the Wall behind the kids.

Harrison

Lily still loves to swing!

Oliver loves to spin...FAST!

Lily chats a little while swinging.

Priceless

Waiting for Oliver to fall asleep until 10:45pm

All awake at 6am

Rained all day, so no outings today

No naps for the boys after trying for 1.5 hours

Oliver in bed and asleep at 8:30pm...

Priceless.

Life is Good!

He also slept until 7AM. WOW!

The kids at St Aubyns Place

I thought I would put in a few photos of the kids.

They have created a bus and are driving to PA, around York, to Kansas, etc.

Oliver got off the bus for awhile looking for alternate transportation.

Family dinner at the Patte house. Most meals are eaten outside, except for breakfast and when it is raining. For some reason we eat indoors on those days.

Lily's first corn on the cob. It went over really really well. Not fresh corn on the cob, but none the less not bad.

This is a rare occasion to get a photo of the boys smiling, without their hands in their face, and actually looking at the camera. Life is good.

Toy Story 3

Oliver went to his first big screen movie this afternoon with his mommy and Harrison. It was TOy Story 3 in 3D. He did really well wearing the glasses and sat through the entire movie with little to no movement. I was impressed. It was really fun. They have not seen the first 2, but honestly I did not see the 2nd one and i did not feel I missed out on anything. I think when we get back home we will work on watching the first 2 Toy Story movies as I'm sure they will LOVE them. We had lots of discussion about the BAD guys in the movie, especially the purple bear and the monkey freaked them out a little bit.

Harrison Turns 5

Harrison turned 5 today! Daddy spent the day at home with the family, which was really really nice. Harrison helped me to pick up some party food and his birthday cake. At 5 we had some friends over to the house. My friend Sophie, her American friend Jill, her childhood friend Sarah, her husband Stevie, and their 2 kids Finn and Charlie.

The kids played outside. We played hide and seek, tag, "football", water balloons, and bubbles.

The water balloons went over really really well. A little tricky to fill, but we figured it out. No outside tap.

We ate homemade pizza and fruit salad. Very yummy!

The cake was a big hit. It was an Alien Cake! It turned out awesome and NO I did not make it, BUT it tasted terrible. We missed a Velma cake this year.

Then the little ones were getting tired, so we opened gifts. Harrison got some new books, some monster figures, and some adventurer gadgets...binoculars, magnifying glass, bug collector, stop watch, compass.

It was soo much fun!