Sunday = Funday

Furness Abbey for stroll, Dalton Castle for a look around, Farmers Arms for lunch, Walney Point for a wade, home :) Still enjoying having the Bass's company in our house. Kabobs for din-din.

Happiness.

forsure forsure we've taken tons-o-pics check 'em out!

Crazy Americans!

The Bass's made it!

So far there visit has been delightful sans the fact that Anna caught a bug somewhere between CT and the UK :( booooo. Thursday when they got in we went to Curry Night at the Railway and called it an early night. Friday we traveled downtown to show them the exciting town of Barrow & then came back to hang out on our front porch in the glorious SUNSHINE! And fish tacos, games & drinks were on the menu for the evening hours. Despite how she was feeling Anna was a trooper and suited up on Saturday for our big trek to Keswick a town about 2hrs away, home of Englands oldest mountain - which also happened to be one of four mountains that ascend over 3,000 feet. A trek it was! Almost a straight up incline for over half the hike up..yowzer! But the views were incredible and you couldn't beat the weather. 8 hrs later here we are back at home cookin some dinner. Not sure whats in store for tomorrow - but we're hopin Anna Banana is feeling better.

Back in action!

Kevin & I ...or maybe it would be more correct to say Kevin has been doing a lot of research recently on cameras and we both knew eventually we would purchase one. BUT! little did I know Kevin did buy one!!! It came in the mail yesterday (whoopwhoop!) the Cannon 40D. He ordered a separate lens which hasn't arrived just yet but once that does watch out folks the paparazzi is baaaaackk.

all smiles.

Wheely Bin Madness

Every Wednesday is trash collection day so every Wednesday we put our 'wheely bin' (aka: trash can) out back & every Wednesday the rubbish is collected. 9 out of 10 times when we go out the back to collect our bin afterwards it's not there...most of the times it's because the wind blew it down and around the corner but 2 Wednesdays ago it never was found. Someone stole our wheely bin?! I just ordered another one & my goal will be to go get it immediately after the collection so that no wind or wheely bin thieves can get to it first.

Anna just called - they're at the train station...just a mere 2hrs till I go scoop them up.

Bank Holiday Weekend

our camera is in the process of being fixed so until we can snap some new photos I'll rely on pictures from others. Here's a pic of D being a bad boy a gma's and gpa's - havin a snooze on the couch. But how can you be mad at that face?!

It's Memorial Day Monday except it's not memorial day here, yet it's still a bank holiday...hmmm, interesting. It's been really nice weather this weekend which always makes me happy. Saturday we walked around town for a few hours buying a couple more things for the house - Now that we're here for another 6months we gotta make this place a little more homey. Sunday we got up and packed some bowls, spoons, milk & cereal and drove to Walney Point to have breakfast on the beach in the sunshine. Kevin had to work 4 hrs so while he was there I hopped into my bathing suit and went to Barrow Park to read & catch some rays. And today Kevin left to go golfing at 5:30am - it's bright and sunny again :) so when he gets back we'll probably do something outside...maybe a hike.

The forecast for next week looks glorious! Fingers are crossed that this is the one time the forecasters have it correct and Dave & Anna get to see Walney Island in the sunshine. The days are continuing to get longer - Sunrise: 4:55am & Sunset: 9:26pm

It feels like some sort of ride but it's turning out just to be life going absolutely perfectly

It's been confirmed Kevin & I are being extended in England until November 2009!

Reasons we're sad to stay till November:
Dylan
We'll miss Virginia Tech's football season...ahhh!!
Missin our friends & family

Reasons we're siked to stay till November:
$$
We'll be able to travel everywhere we want
Oktoberfest in Germany....helllllllooo!
Life in another country for a year - who wouldn't be siked

So thats where we'll be till the end of November - Cheers!

London Riddle

If one picture says a thousand words how many words do 778 pictures say?

London with the Hertels was awesome! And despite not having our own camera - we ended up with a ton of pictures to help document our trip. We had a perfect mix of touring around town & visiting with each other. We spent all of Saturday & Sunday sightseeeing and Kevin & I were able to see a ton of stuff that we weren't able to fit into our last trip to London. I'm pretty sure Andrea, Tim & Olivia got a pretty good taste of London as well - weather and all (had some solid rain on Sunday). Our nights were spent eating, drinking, playing games and visiting while Olivia slept in the bathroom of the hotel room. Olivia was quite the little traveler and was on her best behavior the entire trip - it was good to hold her & have photo sessions with her cute face. Can't believe how much she's grown up since we saw her last. Andrea & I also had a fun time - nice to have her near, even if it was just for a couple days. Andrea & Tim did more of a day to day blog - check that out & I'll get around to posting some of the 778 pictures this afternoon.

Miss all the Hertels already :(

Times they are a changin'

When Kevin & I crawled into bed last night to read before hittin the hay it was still light out! Which means either one of two things

A) We're huge lame-o's
B) Its now daylight for the majority of the day

and since option A is not possible that leaves us with option B. When we first got here one of the women we talked to mentioned that during the summer it's light out till crazy times and starts to get light out in the morning crazy early. I didn't believe her at first ...but I think I'm a believer now. I checked the sunrise/sunset times today:

Sunrise - 5:15am Sunset - 9:05pm.

The sky was still light at 10pm last night and it was light again at 4am....whoa baby!

The intineary for London is set - just need it to be Friday now

T-minus 3 days.

This time next week

Andrea & I way back when it was ok to wear your undies on the front porch

Andrea, Tim & lil Olivia

We will be traveling to London to meet up with my sister & her little family - whoopwhoop :) Can't even wait - feels like it's been forrrrreverrrr. Kevin has taken an extra day off work so we can try to squeeze in as much tourist activities & visiting as possible. Only bummy thing about the trip is well, for starters - eventually they will have to go back :/ but also, our camera broke at the wedding last weekend and we are left cameraless - GASP! I'm sure we'll figure something out - don't you worry your pretty little heads. Worst case scenario we'll have to convince Andrea to take enough pictures to cover for both of us (somethings telling me that won't be a difficult request to fulfill)

Getting excited!
i heart may.

One day...

...we'll wake up in a house we call our home & to the warmth of the sunshine.

Windy, wet & gray England weather has started to to make me feel gray. I woke up several times last night to the wind ripping across our house & it hasn't let up yet! Combine that with the chillest temps we've had in a while & the gray sky and you've got a pretty miserable day.

WhoooRa!!

The Bass's have booked their flight!! May 27th - June 1st :)

Brace yourself England.

Whirlwind Weekend

We've made it back! Although the short visit combined with the long travels made for a whirlwind of a visit. We pretty much crashed at Kevin's moms house on Thursday when we arrived & Friday was spent helping to organized some furniture at the house before we headed out for Dan & Jenn's rehersal dinner. Kevin stayed the night with the groom on Friday night while I drove to my parents house & stayed up a bit to visit with Mom, Tom & Dylan :) Saturday was the wedding - the weather cooperated long enough to have a dry, perfectly warm outdoor ceremony...everything was gorgeous and Kevin & I had an absolute blast. The next day we woke up way too early for the amount of drinking and dancing we did the night before thanks to the jet lag catching up. So we got up only to remember that my barefoot dancing the night before left me with a large wound on the top of my foot - YOWZER! The large quantities of wine must have numb the pain last night. We got back to my parents house much earlier than they suspected we would so we went out to a delicious, just what the doctor ordered breakfast :) And then spent the rest of the day & Monday catchin up and rolling around with Dylan. Neither of us were able to sleep on the plane ride back so within 5 mins of arriving home yesterday we fell asleep for a solid 3hrs! Only to wake up to make some fish tacos - sorry cinco de mayo...we couldn't muster a margarita.

Kevin made it back to work today but I'm thinkin that given the chance to switch places with him I would...I have the jolly task of unpacking & cleaning up the mess that seems to come hand in hand with a weekend of traveling.

All is good in the world

Reunited again.