A Little Hokie

The picture almost says it all. Erin and I wanted to watch the Virginia Tech/Miami game today, but we only had two options since the British aren't interested in watching "football" with pads and helmets. Our internet connection isn't all that great to begin with, but we thought if Andrea and Tim could position their webcam and turn up the volume just right we could watch the game over Skype. Foreseeing the difficulties that would cause we decided to buy a months subscription to ESPN360. Coverage of almost every sport and every game for a month!! Great, but then there was that crappy internet connection. We found a spot were we seemed to get the best signal and set up shop. We surrounded ourselves on the smallest couch with wings, pizza, celery & hummus and beer to watch VT on the smallest screen I've ever seen. Just hearing the roar of the crowd and the announcers makes it worth while even if we can't really see where the ball is. We loose connection every 10 minutes so Erin decided to start crocheting a blanket for baby while I continued fixing the laptop as quickly as possible. It's halftime and thus far an excellent game. We keep thinking of our friends Jon and Amy getting married in Southern Virginia today. The rain must have justified the backup plan. We miss being with them and all our VT friends, but this little screen on this little couch surrounded by Hokie wings and a crocheted baby bklanket (?) makes me feel like we're there. GO HOKIES!!

A taste of America

After a long journey home Kevin made it back to me late last night. And instead of clothes & toiletries inside his suitcase there were a ton of American goodies!!!! ahhhh delightful :) In addition to all this food there was yarn so I can attempt to make baby a blanket & sweater (the sweater might turn out a little off but I'll give it a go), magazines, scrap booking gear, jewels - yup thats right jewels!!! Kevin's mom gave me a couple beautiful Lia Sophia necklaces and earrings and then Kevin surprised me with a gorgeous necklace - just because :)

Sounds like Dylan enjoyed wrestling & snuggling with Kevin. Again pretty confused when Kevin left :/ poor guy. he's not gonna want us to leave to go to the store when we finally get back for fear we won't come back for a long, long time. We miss him.

BUT this was the last trip back before the final trip back in November. We both have our tickets - just 2 more months :)

Camping & Hiking

To take advantage of the last glimpses of summer we packed up the car & camped & hiked Saturday and Sunday. As predicted the weather was gorgeous!

No matter how many hikes we go on and how many views of the mountains & fields we see it still amazes us just how picturesque it is. We try to soak it in as much as possible - but I know the hikes, views and camping trips will probably end up being some of our best memories of living in England.

Being a little more pregnant now I think I managed pretty well on the hikes - might have been a little slower than usual & took a few more water breaks than usual but other than that I was a trooper. Speaking of troopers - Kevin took the plunge in some ice cold mountain water (pictured above) ...I was impressed. It did look very inviting but the goosebumps that remained on his body for quite a while later reassured me that being the paparazzi for the event was a better idea than being the star.

more pics in our album!

Indian Summer

They are calling it our Indian Summer - the sky is suppose to shed it's gray coat & the sun is going to creep out for the next 10 days or so. Totally siked for it!

Sometimes too much gray'ness gets into your bones & makes you dreary and thats no good.

Ciao Italy!

Definitely sad to see this trip come to an end :( It was so wonderful to be in the sunshine & warmth surrounded by water. We left Saturday and spent most of all the day traveling ...2hr car ride to the airport, 2hr plane ride to Italy, 1hr bus ride to Venice, 30min water taxi to Lido, 1hr of walking up and down Lido trying to locate our hotel...phew! Sunday we seized the day - getting up and out by 9am and jumping on the water taxi to the main island. We proceeded to walk until 9pm that night - no exaggeration. We conquered Venice. Lots of old buildings & tons of people. Monday we spent the entire day at the beach sunbathing and swimming in the Adriatic sea and just stayed on Lido for dinner that night. And our last day Tuesday we spent on the beach in the afternoon and then travelled into Venice for dinner before making the trip home.

All in all it was a great mix of touring and beaching :) we took a ton of pictures - lots more in our album.