Around the world he goes

Since our arrival in London, Geoff has started to rack up the airline frequent flier miles and become quite the jetsetter.  Three weeks into our move, Geoff went back to Houston for a week for work meetings.  Since then, he has been to Olso, Beijing, Hawaii and Houston again.  Here are a few pictures of some of the highlights of his trips.

China

In December, Geoff took a quick trip to Beijing for some meetings at his company's office there.  He left on Sunday and returning on Thursday, which is a pretty quick turnaround for flying 12 hours away.  Even though the trip was brief, he and his coworkers managed to squeeze in a visit to the Great Wall.

Hawaii
Last month, Geoff flew 16+ hours from London to attend the wedding of a friend from high school on the Big Island of Hawaii.  The wedding happened to coincide around the timing of scheduled meetings he had to be in Houston for so we figured if he was already making the trek from London to Houston, he might as well tag on the extra leg to Hawaii.

I have to admit it.  I was rather jealous that Geoff was lounging by the pool and soaking in the sun while Olivia and I dealt with the coldest weather of the season.  We also got at least three inches of snow that weekend.  One day, it literally snowed all day long.  Our landlady said she's lived in London for 25 years and can't remember it ever snowing all day long.  Lucky us.  London seldom gets significant snowfall and so they don't do much to clear it when it does occur.  The sidewalks were snow packed for days until it melted off.  Pushing a stroller on snow covered streets is very challenging so Olivia and I had to limit our activities outside the house for a few days.

Texas (which is thought of by Texans as its own country, right?)

While in Houston, Geoff went on a hunting excursion in south Texas as part of a work function.  Geoff has never really been into hunting - I can't remember him ever going hunting since we've been married -  so it was hard for me to visualize him in cammo gear, toting around big guns.  The trip was successful though as he shot two deer, a doe and a buck.  In the picture below with him and the doe, you can faintly see a streak of red of his forehead.  I guess it's customary to dip your figure in the wound of the first deer you kill and smear the blood on your forehead.  So it's official now - he's a hunter.

Poor Bambi....

For the buck that he shot, Geoff was given a couples options of what he could to do with the head/antlers of his kill: 

• Option 1: Have the whole head & antlers mounted
• Option 2: Have the head skinned, leaving you to mount the skull and the antlers
• Option 3: Dispose of the whole head and just mount the antlers

Stuff animals on walls that used to be alive creep me out and the idea of a skull hanging on our wall got quickly vetoed too, so we went with option 3.  Someday when we return to Houston and move into our custom built home, Geoff can put the antlers up in his man cave.  Or wine cellar.  Or maybe the attic would be good.  :)