Heatwave

England is having a heatwave - GASP!! Last week & this week have been 'hot' with yesterday being the hottest day since September 2006?!!!

Looks like Kevin & I bring out the extreme weather. This past winter England saw the most snow they've seen in 14 years & now we've got the hottest day.

England doesn't believe in air conditioners - but we're keepin it cool :)

Camping & Canoeing

Weather participated for our weekend in the wilderness! Unfortunately other factors of the weekend made it notsofun. For starters Kevin's allergies were kickin & he was pretty miserable being out amoungst nature and then there was the company that surrounded our tent. The campsites in England or at least in the Lakes District are like none you've ever seen...just a large plot of land in which its a free for all for campers -and these sites get jam packed. We started off having a decent spot only to end up having tents within 10 feet of our tent in every direction. Kevin & I were just looking for a chill weekend in the woods but there were two seperate groups (within earshot) that had complete opposite ideas for the weekend. Needless to say both Friday & Saturday night were miserable nights for sleeping. We were up & back home Sunday by 9am.

Highlights from our weekend include:

- We canoed on a Lake in England -- who woulda thunk we'd ever say that sentence!

- Sunday when we got back we went to the beach and swam in the Irish Sea --again something I never thought we would say

Unpacking from our camping weekend & packing up again, American Style!

Cheesburger in Paradise

ahh the sunshine - been a beautiful week so far, perhaps summer in England isn't over after all?! So in the spirit of good weather we grill :) Cheeseburgers! This will be my first burger since coming to England...Kevin has had one or two when we've gone out but not one of my homemade ones yet. Mouth is starting to water just thinking about it.

Last weekend was a wash out so we postponed camping. We go this weekend instead. Forecast is still predicting the good weather to continue & we have our fingers crossed....we need something to take our minds off the excitement of crossing back to our homeland for a visit.

Summer Solstice

A day late - the 21st was the actual summer solstice but it was a sunless day in Barrow. So yesterday evening Kevin & I went out and took some pics. This is the sky at 10:30pm - sunset was at 9:50pm.

This last picture, below, is of the Irish sea to the far west you can see the outline of The Isle of Man - normally it's not clear enough to see ... last night was one of the few times you could see it - and quite well for that matter.

Rainy Day Gray'ness

After 4 days of sunshiney weather it was bound to rain...

And so today it does.

We're hoping the sky drains itself today so our plan of camping & kayaking this weekend can happen.

Old Man of Coniston

Turned out to be a gorgeous Sunday the night after chimichangas and margs. We hit the hills of Old Man Coniston. Armed with water, trail mix and our new camera we thought the mapless day wouldn't go wrong. We found the trailhead and came across mountain streams and a beautiful lake within two hours. Old Man Coniston is an old mining village set in the pristine hills of the Cumbrian Mountains. We also came across some old drafty mine shafts, but didn't have the nerve to venture too far inside. Of all the walks we have done, this was the first we have done without a map. No biggy you might think, but with paths opening up into vast pastures and mountainsides, seeming direction becomes questionable. We nailed it. We even made it back to the car within 10 minutes of our parking pass expiring! A beautiful day with my beautiful wife.

Day of the Penguin - Night of the Chimichanga

Our day started out in Kendal. Some shopping led to a day full of penguins! We wandered the markets and saw some stuffed animal penguins. Perfect for Dylan we thought. Next we popped into a few stores and I found a shirt I liked, made by no other company than 'Penguin'. Strange. Soon thereafter we stopped in another store, found another shirt, and yes, made by 'Penguin'. After that, what choice did we have but to go to the local zoo?!? Erin tells me she has seen giraffe's just off the road outside Barrow, so on the way home we sought out to complete our day of the penguin. We found it!!! Lions, tigers and bears, oh my, don't forget the penguins!!! Good fun and quite nice I must admit for a roadside zoo in northwest England.

After we'd had enough of penguins we decided to transition to chimichangas!! We love Mexican and what better to accompany that than Marg's? With Erin shakin' and me bakin', we had a wonderful end to our day!!

Yet another reason I love him

On a walk the other night Kevin asked me what I thought my purpose in life was and I answered:

World Peace & Reproduction.

When I returned the question to Kevin he replied:

To make you happy.

awww shucks love...if ever something to trump world peace & reproduction - that is it.

We finally received our lens yesterday so we went out and snapped some shots down in South Walney - funfunfun! heres just a few

Catch Up

Feel like it has been awhile since we had anything interesting enough to blog about happen. SO I can't promise this will be an exciting post & we're still waiting for our lens for our new camera which means no pictures and therefore an even more bland post.

Kevin's allergies have been kickin this week which sucks for him but notsobad for me because he left work a little early yesterday to come home & make a duna bed on the floor in our living room and watch movies. We currently have 10 movies in our possesion 9 of which are chick flicks so lucky for Kevin our first movie was delivered yesterday after signing up for LOVEFILM (movie delivery service).

The last two posts have been about the trips we've planned for Italy & France which combined with our trips back to the states gives us some sort of destination every month until we leave:

JULY - home to the 'rents with the WHOLE family for the 4th-O-July
AUGUST - Venice
SEPTEMBER - VA for Jon & Amy's wedding
OCTOBER - Paris for our anniversary
NOVEMBER - Thanksgiving with the fam? & then back to our storage unit to figure our life out

What else? Kevin has been invited to play on a couple football teams (soccer for those not up with the UK lingo). He's missing out on his first game (tonight) because of his allergies - booo. I'm venturing to Preston today all by my lonesome to do a little exploring (and by exploring I mean shopping). It's a little less than a 2hr train ride but because my sister has me obessed with the Stephanie Meyer vampire books I'm sure I won't even notice the trip.

This weekend marks my sister & Tim's 6 year wedding anniversary - WHOORAH!! as well as Miss Olivia first 1/2 birthday HOLYCOW!!!

Missin Dylan lots as always. ooooo maybe I'll post pics of Dylan

blogging rule #64: when in doubt of a picture for the blog use pictures of babies and/or puppies, they go with most any post.

So Dylan it is :) notsolame of a post after all.

Un settimana in Venice

Translation: A weekend in Venice, Italy!

Booked yet another trip. August 29th - September 1st.

WhoopWhoop :)

City of Love

YAY! I just booked our flights to Paris for our 1st Anniversary :) October 17th - 19th.