Pokies

We are having a great time with my parents here. They've already had much better weather than their first trip here at Christmas of 2012. We've had some periods of grey skies, a solid rainy day, but the majority of the time has been sunny, sunny, sunny! How lovely.

We've gone on a couple family walks with them here and discovered that the combination of my mom and Walter is kind of lethal. They are two pokey pokes and really put the saying "stop and smell the flowers" literally...and I love it!

We also enjoyed some time at school, returning Crackers the guinea pig, who was holidaying at our house for a week, and cleaning out the chicken coop.

After discovering a beautiful garden in Lewes with my friends, we had to show Grandma and Grandpa it, too.

72 & Sunny!

As Jer alluded, my dear friends from Augsburg, Tracy & Lindsay, were here! We had so much fun together. Its amazing what good friends can do for the soul.

We spent a long weekend away, visiting Dover, Calais & Rye, with many pit stops along the way. Seeing the cliffs of Dover from the ferry was really beautiful. Exploring the picture-book village of Rye was so relaxing. But tops was definitely the company.

After our time away, we returned to Brighton where I enjoyed showing them around our adopted city. The boys loved having new sets of eyes to show their magic tricks to and share stories and laughs with.

After such a harsh winter in Minnesota, Lindsay & Tracy were so excited to see green grass, daffodils, tulips and other wild flowers blooming, and the beautiful budding trees. As we prepared for a day trip to London, we saw it was meant to be 72 & sunny, which of course was very welcome. We all dressed in light layers, anticipating getting down to our t-shirts. However, true to unpredictable English weather, it didn't ever quite get to 72 or sunny...it stayed more around 62 and cloudy. We were all a bit chilly needless to say, particularly Lindsay who got talked into just wearing a t-shirt and light scarf. We laughed the rest of the trip about it being 72 & sunny.

We brought them to Heathrow on Friday...with a little time to stop in Windsor for the changing of the guards before my mom and dad arrived...let the fun continue!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Monster!

Today's flashback comes from 5 years ago when we celebrated Al's 60th birthday. Today is the big 6-5 and we wish ever so much we could be helping light the candles on this year's cake with him! A huge Happy Birthday to you, Al! We sure love you and miss you!

Booth Natural History Museum

Today the boys and I took a bike ride to the Booth Natural History Museum in Hove.  Even though the museum is only 1-2 miles away from our house, we hadn't taken the time to visit yet.  After seeing it, I wish we would have discovered it sooner!  The admission was free (like all museums in the UK) and it was mostly empty since the rest of the British children were in school.

The museum was packed full of animal taxidermy and skeletons.  Walter was intrigued by a display of exotic butterflies from all over the world.  He told Owen and I that he wants to take on some butterfly research at school after seeing all of them.  Owen enjoyed the skeleton room the most.  The room had skulls from almost any animal you could think including the full skeleton of a Killer Whale.

A Killer Whale!  Look out!

Walter and a pair of Golden Eagles that are eating a dead coyote.

Owen with a Walrus skull.  Can you imagine keeping those teeth clean?

On the way home we stopped for some onion rings at a pub called 'The Dyke' that was just down the road from the Booth.  After filling-up on greasy food, we biked to the top of Dyke Avenue where we knew there was a mountain bike path that weaved downhill through the woods (a half mile ride) and would bring us close to home.  The museum was fun, but I think bombing down this forrest path became the highlight of the day.  At the bottom of the hill, Owen wanted to immediately do it again.  But...with Tricia on her way home today and a house that looks like a tornado ripped through it...I convinced them that it is best that we just head home.

Preparing for a down hill mountain bike ride...see the start of the path in the background?  Don't worry, their bike helmets were only removed for the picture.

Spring Training in Hove

The clocked jumped forward by an hour in the UK last night. As a result, we all slept in a bit longer than usual.  For Owen that meant 7 a.m. after the change over.

We created a chicken puppet with Walter this morning.  It has gold eyes and a purple beak.  Rumor has it that the chicken is a Viking fan.

We walked down to the dog track around lunch time to watch Senor Heat.  Senor Heat was coming off of a two month layoff due to injury and was put into an A4 graded race this afternoon.  He was long odds in the race, going off at 10-1 when the traps flipped.  The bookmakers had it figured out as he took dead last in the race.  He will likely get moved down to an A5 for his next race, but my guess is that he will need to get back in competition shape before we are picking up another trophy.

After the dog racing we walked down to Hove Park for some baseball catch.  The boys have both improved over the winter and are now catching and throwing with confidence.  They are looking forward to joining Little Leauge teams when we return to Minneapolis.



Here is a glimpse of a two future Major League prospects...

I am off of work on Monday and the boys are off of school.  We haven't figured out what we are going to do yet, but we do know that it is going to be fun.

Rainbow Chicken

Tricia is out of town for the weekend with her dear friends Lindsay and Tracy.  Last night they started their  journey to Dover so they could wake up early and take a ferry to northern France for the day.  We can't wait to hear about their travels when they return on Monday.

Didn't think you were going to get family blog posts while she was away?!?  Think again - I am taking over the controls for a few days...

Owen, Walter, and I spent the day out and about in Hove.  With no car, we decided to walk down to the Hove library.  Walter was anxious to pick up the 2nd book in the series of "Mr. Gum".  Last weekend (after visiting the Brighton Jubilee Library), he ripped through all 150 pages of the first Mr. Gum book.  He is going to be a constant reader like his Great Grandma Donna and Grandma Joanne.

Owen selected books on craft projects, puppet making, and drawing.  After a quick scan of the puppet book, he chose a project which required a walk to the local art store to get some special materials.  After returning home, we immediately got to work. We hope you enjoy the results:

After the puppet making project we chowed down on a big batch of homemade Indian Curry for dinner and are now settling down with popped corn and the Muppets movie.  Movie nights with dad include a little bit of extra butter on the popped corn.

This has been a really fun day!

Owen and Walter both have been saying this randomly on weekends lately. We have been spending so much more quality time as a family since we started going on walks in the country side, I am certain they feel it. In addition to the walks, we have finally mustered up the confidence to bike around the city with the boys. We've been opting for a day of walking and a day of cycling on the weekends - so fun!

On Saturday we walked between 3 villages, starting in Alfriston. It was a beautiful walk but my camera battery died about a mile in, so I don't have much to show from it.

On Sunday we biked into Brighton with stops at the library, the Pier and lunch. It really was a fun day!

Tomorrow...MY FRIEND TRACY ARRIVES! I'm just a little excited...