Who loves apples?

 If there is ever an apple shortage in this country, I know who to blame.  There are a fair amount of pictures of our kids devouring apples.  Our fruit bowl is constantly begging for more fruit.  If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, we should be good for years to come.

Happy 6th Birthday E!

 On July 11th Enoch turned 6.  This is one amazing kid.  We are really proud of how he is growing up, although we really wish we could keep him just like this forever.  Sweet, smart and fun.  The bad part about having all of our birthdays this summer was that we were in the middle of moving.  As a result, all of our birthdays were super low key.  Presents were shipped ahead to our house to be opened in late August.  E was excited about the DS cake - until he realized it was just a cake.  The box tricked him into thinking we had gotten him a DS.....oops....I should have thought that through better.  For his special day he got pancakes for breakfast, dinner at his favorite place - Graveleys, and a new pair of Knight pajamas we had picked up in Wales.  Happy birthday E!

 And I couldn't resist posting this picture of Phinn on the bus on our ride in on Enoch's birthday.  He insisted on wearing these glasses.  Too cute.

Neighborhood Cemetery

 There is something about walking through cemetaries that I love.  It might be the ability to peer into someone else's world for just a moment.  You try to see what you can make of their lives by the dates on the tombstone, the words that are written, or the symbols carved in stone.  Dave happened upon this cemetery when he was out walking one day and took us all there the next time we were out for a family walk.  The cool part about living in England is that there is so much history surrounding you everywhere, and visiting a cemetery really puts that in the forefront. 

For instance, here is a tombstone for a survivor of The Charge of the Light Brigade.  Do you remember the poem? 

Half a league, half a league,

  Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldiers knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Signs of the Times

My favorite sign in Harrogate is the I Love DY sign.  And yes, I have a tee shirt and a post card with that on it for obvious reasons.  The restaurant is Damn Yankee, and we had to teach our kids that it was OK to say its name.  The food there is supposed to be American.  They are obviously marketing towards the Americans - and some of the food is American inspired.  Chicken and Sweet corn burritos anyone? 

 Then there are the old churches dotting every street.  This one had a Sunday School building.

 Here we have a plaque commemorating the planting of a tree celebrating peace in South Africa. 

 And Hilde found this shop to be charming.  Unfortunately we were never there when it was open and we had time to go in.  Better luck next time?

 And although technically this doesn't have a sign, the door and the layout of this tiny church was perfect.  I loved walking past it, and I think it was for sale.....any takers?

Downtown Harrogate

 Harrogate is an amazing town.  It has some fantastic food, people and sights.  And I love that we could walk into town whenever we wanted, suburban America has nothing on the European set-up.  One thing we really tried to do in England was avoid anything "American".  However, living in a Flat and eating out for every meal gets old, so when the kids begged to go to Subway, we relented. And it was pretty much awesome.

Afterward we walked around town and got some ice cream from Thornton's chocolate shop and did some shopping, or in Hilde's case, dancing. 

Then we walked over to the Stray and played for a while.  It was sunny and warm - really rare for there, so we soaked up as much as we could. 

Flat Living

 At the end of June we moved out of our lovely house and into a Flat.  Our flat was in the middle of town, but on the opposite side than where we had lived, next to some really great old churches and surrounded by a lot of buildings with character.  It was a two bedroom flat and one of the bedrooms had 2 sets of bunk beds in it.  The room was so small, that you could just barely open up the wardrobe without hitting the first set of bunkbeds, and if you pushed the other set all the way against the far wall you could just barely put a pack and play in between the two sets.  Hilde and Enoch were thrilled to both have a top bunk to themselves and despite our fears, Phinn actually slept pretty well in the pack and play.  The worst was just that the sun didn't set until 9:30 or 10 and the curtains didn't keep much light out, so bedtime was not always as scheduled.  Other than that, the Flat met our needs.  After a few trials and errors, we figured out the washing machine/dryer combo and as long as we remembered to run a load every day while we were out of the house we could keep up on laundry.  This was important because a) every load sounded like an airplane taking flight in your living room and b) we timed it and it took 4 hours to run.  Even then, the clothes came out mostly damp half of the time and you would have to hang all your laundry up to dry overnight.  Lovely.

 The kids learned to get by in a tight space without a whole lot to do.  We got a coloring book and some washable markers and they went to town.  Notice the fruit bowl in the pictures?  Despite our best efforts we couldn't keep that thing full.  Our kids were fruit destroyers - eating all fruit within sight. 

 One of the things I am going to miss about Harrogate are all the gorgeous flowers everywhere.  This is just a random flower patch that we passed whenever we walked into town to get dinner.  The roses were taller than us, and just so beautiful.  Old English gardens can't be beat, even regular English citizens know how to make a garden look effortless and posh all at the same time.

I am definitely NOT going to miss the lumpy, small, uncomfortable couches in the flat.  Man, they were awful!

Back at last

This week I am finally at a point where I can start to breathe.  We are mostly settled in, internet is functioning, pictures are being downloaded, and things are not quite so crazy (who am I kidding, things are still crazy around here).  I want to catch up on all the events that have been going on before Baby Y arrives.  The past few months were life changing in so many ways that I don't want to lose those memories.  I want to capture the moments that I can, and remember how I felt.  So, if you are interested in following our journey, my goal is to do one post a day until I am caught up.  Come along for the ride.  And because I know that the real reason anyone ever checks this are for pictures, here are some of the boys playing in the park across the street from the Flat we lived in after we moved out of our house in Harrogate.