12 hours

On one of the blogs I frequently read (Pink Pistachio), the blogger started doing a collection of posts featuring 12 hours of a day captured with her young boys.  While her days appear much more fashionable and hip than mine, I liked the idea of capturing moments of our days - both the mundane and the more fun parts - so I decided to copy her.  Here is what some of our day looked like this past Tuesday:

7:00 am:

Everyday, Ashton wakes up in the happiest of moods - loads of smiles and "talking"

8:00 am

On the breakfast menu for Olivia, bagel with cream cheese (or soft cheese as they call it here) and apple slices (already eaten in this picture)

On the breakfast menu for Ashton, rice cereal with pears.  She's a fan!

9:00 am:

Bath time

Getting her morning beauty rest

10:00 am:

While I got ready, Olivia tried to put some noodles in her pot.  Unfortunately, only a single, lone noodle actually made it into her pot.

11:00 am:

We took an excursion to the zoo. The London Zoo is only 1.5 miles from our house, but it took us around 30-35 minutes to get there via two different buses and walking.  It's times like these that I really miss having a car.

12:00 pm:

From the moment I told Olivia we were going to the zoo, all she asked about were the giraffes.

 1:00 pm:

Inside the butterfly house

Ashton's first zoo visit

2:00 pm:  

All that zoo-ing wears a girl out!

 Nap time for the girls equals Mama time for me!  That currently involves being hooked on Downton Abby.

3:00 pm:  

While her sister continued to nap, I got some one-on-one play time with this Sweet Pea.

4:00 pm:

The daily after-nap ritual consists of watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and eating snacks.

5:00 pm:

Cooking aprons went on and Olivia and I made coconut-almond energy bars.  And a big mess!

6:00 pm:

Getting her pre-bed snooze in while Mama cooks dinner

Weekend road trip

After being in London for almost a year now and traveling to multiple European countries, sadly we had not yet seen any of England outside of the London vicinity.  So we decided to change that last weekend.  We packed up a rental car and set out for southwest England.  It was fun to leave the city and see the countryside; from quaint towns and thatched roofs to rolling hills and plenty of local pubs.  

Our first stop was Stonehenge, the prehistoric stone monument.  I wasn't particularly interested in seeing a bunch of old rocks, but it is one of those "check the box" things that we had to do and it happened to be on along the way.  

Our next stop on our road trip was the city of Bath.  The primary attraction in the Bath is the ancient Roman Baths.  Dating back to the 1st and 2nd centuries, the Romans built the baths and a temple around local hot springs.  While the baths have been added on to and redeveloped over the years, a significant portion of the original structure is still in preserved and open for viewing.  

 

Isn't this just the cutest cottage???

A trip wouldn't be a proper trip for us without finding a park and playground for Olivia to burn off some of her endless energy.  She could care less about all the old history stuff, but a playground...now we're talking!

Bath Abbey

Our hotel for the weekend was in the city of Bristol so while we were there, took a walk over the Clifton Suspension Bridge was sits above the River Avon.  

Our last stop was the town of Bradford-on-Avon.  I loved this town and am so glad we stopped there!  It was so quaint and pretty.  While Bath was nice, Bradford was smaller and less touristy.  It's just more of what I expected from a little English town.  We ate a pot roast lunch (a Sunday lunch tradition) at a local pub and then enjoyed walking around the town before beginning our journey back to London.

The sign in the picture below is a unclear, but it says Mason Hall was established in year 1500

This girl actually asked me to take her picture and then posed!  Normally I'm having to bribe her in some fashion to stand still long enough for me to snap her.

Destination: United States

After almost 10 months of life abroad, it was finally time for us to make a return trip back to the mother country.  Geoff has made several trips back to the States since we moved to London, but for me and Olivia, it was our first return trip and for Ashton, it was her first trip to her country of citizenship!  Our first stop was Houston since Geoff had to be back for work meetings.  We had a busy nine days there filled with playdates, lunches/dinners and meet-ups with lots of our friends.  While there were plenty more people we didn't get to see while we were there simply because we didn't have enough time, I do feel like we were able to see almost all of the friends we wanted to see the most.  Unfortunately, the timing of our trip fell during the worst time of the year to be in Houston = July.  It was so hot and humid! We've gotten spoiled with the mild summer weather in London and being able to open up the windows in our house at night.  On one of our first days there, I walked to Target and Chick-fil-a from our hotel with the girls since that's what we do in London; walk everywhere we need to go.  Bad decision.  I was a sweaty wreck and the girl's faces were bright pink from the heat by the time we got back.  

Enjoying a couple splash pads in attempts to stay cool

Love this little face!

We spent a couple hours visiting with Olivia's former nanny, Romelia, one morning.  Despite the lack of excitement on her face in the picture below, Olivia was quite happy to see her. 

After Houston, our next stop on our US holiday was Granbury, Texas to visit Geoff's family.  The big excitement there was the arrival of our twin nephews Titus and Zachary who entered the world a few days before we got up there.  What handsome little guys they are!  Given the small window of time we had in Granbury, we are thankful they timed their arrival just perfectly with our visit so that we could meet them.  

The girl cousins had plenty of fun doing their thing together.  Olivia was just excited to see new toys after being in a hotel room in Houston for too many days with not much to entertain herself.  Special thanks to Julie and Avalon for sharing their toys and letting Olivia get into their stuff.  She had a blast and frequently asks me when we're going to go back to their house.

Ashton enjoyed the additional attention from her cousins

Dinner time together

One morning, we checkout out the Ft. Worth children's museum.  They had plenty of hands-on activities for Olivia to do, which she was all about. Of course, her attention span didn't last very long on any one thing so she was bouncing all over the place, but she thoroughly enjoyed it all. 

She actually weighs a bit more than 7.25 lbs!  :)

Avalon and Olivia digging for dinosaur bones together

Family picture time

Mama Glory and Granddad with all six of their grandchildren

After our five days in Granbury were up, we flew up to northern Kentucky to visit my family.  All family members were present over the weekend which was fun.  We had not been all together since last summer.  It was a full house!  For the first time, we all couldn't sit around the dinner table together for meals and a second table had to be set up.  Ashton loved meeting all of her aunts and uncles and Geoff and I appreciated having other people around to hold her and to entertain Olivia. 

The whole family

With "cousin" Zoey

Ashton & Uncle Scott

At the park, riding in the swing for the first time

Visiting a tiny town (actually, I'm not sure it even qualifies to be called a town) on the Ohio River

Taking in the river

Sibling pic minus two siblings who had already returned home

L to R: Stephen, Jason, Suzanne, Scott and Emily

Going for a spin in Uncle Stephen's Bug

Pretty sure I thought this car was cooler than Olivia did

After three weeks away from home and living out of suitcases, we were ready to get back to London.  Thankfully, we have reached a point in our settling in over here where we consider this home now.  While it was great to go back to the States and see our friends and family and to be where everything is familiar and doesn't require as much thinking and planning, it is good to be home.