This is a common look for our little boy these days. Sir Enoch is ready to protect you from fiery dragons, napping monsters, ugly trolls, and silly daddy which are all abundant at our house as it turns out. His sword is sharp, his armor strong and his smile and giggles contagious. You have been warned.
Just a few miles from our house, tucked away where it was a little difficult to find, was this little gem Plumpton Rocks. To get in you turn down a "road" which our car was very nearly too wide for. Then you pass a little shack with a person sitting in a lawn chair collecting money for your entry. After that you have to find parking in an area not remotely resembling a parking lot and then navigate your way to any type of path. Once you get past all that, you are rewarded with quite a nice scenic area. It is mostly a small lake with large rock outcroppings and a path around the lake. It was very beautiful and we would have spent a significant amount of time there, but Hilde was stung by a hornet, her first sting ever, and we made a quick exit. The poor girl was pretty scared by the whole thing, but she was brave enough to ask if we could stop on our way back and have daddy say a blessing for her to get better. She doesn't want to go back any time soon though.
A nice view of the lake, and my pregnant belly a couple of weeks before giving birth. We think we can take the kids fishing here sometime.
Janet came through town on her tour of England and Scotland. It was nice to see her and the kids loved showing her around. Here are some pictures from our trip to Fountains Abbey. 
Enoch was being Kung Fu Panda in the two pictures below.
Younce kids in flight -
We had some of the best weather of the summer, a perfect day out.
The base celebrates the 4th of July on a Saturday before or after the actual 4th, but not on it. So this year we celebrated a week early, and Aunt Janet was with us. She must have been crafty through, because she was only in a couple of our pictures from the day, and always with her back to the camera, so you will just have to imagine her there having a great time. The base really went all out this year. They had more rides and more activities than last year by a wide margin. The kids LOVED the military obstacle courses, there were two on offer. 
We started the day at the Fishing Derby and although Enoch had "the one that got away", Hilde actually caught a 14 1/2 inch trout, her first catch ever. They thought the maggots used for bait were gross, but really enjoyed the whole experience. Well, all except the part where Enoch fell into the marsh.... It was catch and release and the kids competed for most fish caught and biggest fish caught. We didn't win anything, but we will definitely take the kids fishing again in the near future.
This year was the first annual soap box derby and we enjoyed watching it. The 421 ABS car looked good, but was completely uncontrollable and took a really long time to hobble its way down the hill. The winner was the baracuda car, which Enoch insisted on calling a shark. The guy driving had to be duck taped into it without shoes, it was such a tight fit. But it really hauled down the hill and none of the other entries stood a chance. Very fun.
Captain America made an appearance through face paints. Guess if Enoch liked it.
Don't mess with this little girl or boy, they are tough cookies.
Despite being 9 months pregnant, and realizing how crowded Knaresborough would be, we decided that we couldn't pass up the bed races. We got a later start than we had planned, and so by the time we reached the train station, it was crazy busy and we saw a mean side of English people that we hadn't seen before. Normally they are so polite and reserved with each other, even in times of difficulty, but trains too full to pick up passengers, and too many people crammed into too small spaces seemed to cause a few of the English to come undone. But we won't dwell on the negative, the positives were great. This year we staked out a spot at the starting line, it was one of the few places still open, and it turned out to be a great place to take pictures and see all of the teams. Then behind us was the river. It was too packed for us to see any of the crossings, but Dave climbed up on a van, lifted his camera up and took a ton of pictures, some of them turned out great, others were of arms and shoulders. There were 80 teams this year of all different ages and make-ups.
Here we are waiting for the races to begin. Since the teams cannot all start at once, it is a timed trial where they start about a minute apart and they race agains the clock. They seed the teams so the ones they anticipate to finish first start first and so on. As we saw teams run by us, you could really tell which "beds" were built better than others. Some were already falling apart or having wheel problems by the time they reached us, maybe 150 feet from the starting line, and it is a 5K race!
In the picture above I can totally picture my nephews Thompson and Forrest putting together a team and running this. Wouldn't that be fun? And get a cute girl to sit in the bed for extra good measure.
All of the teams march in a parade and the beds and participants are all dressed up. For the actual race they pair down to running outfits and the beds, but the Alpine team really kept up their theme and looked totally awesome.
Below are some of the good pictures Dave got of the river crossing. Note that their is a scuba diver in the river to save any unlucky team members. Also, the river is very deep, this isn't like crossing a stream.
Now, time for our kids to have some fun of their own. It was a hot day in the sun and they were begging to go on the bouncy castle (what they call moon bounces here). They had a great time.
Then we made our way through the crowds and back home. All in all a pretty good day.
I turned 34 this year, mom and dad - you are so old. My birthday was great, Dave and Hilde had just got back from the States and we were all together again. And Dave surprised me with a fancy dinner to Rudding Park - a high end restaurant/hotel near us. Hilde told me that I needed to dress fancy and so I scrambled to find anything in my ever shrinking stack of maternity clothes that fit and are "fancy" at 8 months pregnant. Then we enjoyed a date night of Rudding Park and then Star Trek at our local movie theater in the smallest theater I have ever been in. The theater was full (there were only about 50 seats) and it was hot and the chairs were tiny and crammed together. We were both so incredibly uncomfortable that I honestly thought about walking out. But it was a date night with Dave, and we were in no rush to go home, so we stuck it out. 