Newport Aquarium

One of our favorite things to do with Grandma Verda is to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. There are seals, sea lions, giant crabs, critters you can touch and tunnels to walk through where there are fish and things swimming all around you.

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween. Kirstin took our two smallest (along with Auntie Ashley, Hudson, and Bryan) to a pumpkin patch then got dressed up to scare....

After the pumpkin patch Kirstin transformed into her alter ego the gorgeous witchy wife and went for a walk with a little horsey and a darling ninja for company.

K and kids to Oregon

Kirstin and the Kids got tired of living in a dumpy hotel on the base while we were looking for a new house.  We had looked at MANY places, made offers on several and were still not making any headway towards finding a house.  We had also decided to homeschool our children (which was really hard in a two room hotel without many resources available).  One day I came home from work and Kirstin said, "I'm leaving and taking the kids to Oregon."   I was a bit shocked at this revelation and it apparently showed so Kirstin quickly added, "Only till you find us a place to live, I can't stay in this place any longer!"  We had discussed this several times but she had just stumbled on a great deal for airfare so the time was right.  Here are some photos of everyone back in Oregon, away from the blazing heat of SA and relaxing with Grandpa John.

 

Stewie on the High Dive

Last month Stew could barely put his face under water. Last week he couldn't swim without something that floats. Yesterday he jumped off the high dive and swam back to the edge of the pool by himself!

back to the USA

29 July has got to be one of the longest days of the year! Well it was for our family this year anyway...
This was the day we left England and relocated to San Antonio, Texas and we spent over 25 hours traveling to get from point A to point B. That in itself doesn't sound so terrible but it's what happened along the way that caused the minutes to tick by like hours...
A few days before we left some of our best friends showed signs of stomach problems with production out both ends (you can see where this is going). Other than mild stomach pains we didn't show any signs until halfway through the voyage when both Emma and Brackley decided that JFK was a good place to empty their stomachs. As we had arrived from a foreign country we had to retrieve all our luggage and pass it through the customs process (including the random x-ray delay) then get it back checked in for our connecting flight. After soliciting support from the SkyCap team we got Emma and the floor cleaned up the luggage dropped off and caught a shuttle to switch terminals when Brackley decided it was time for him to join the fun and get a new set of clothes (fortunately we had planned ahead with the extra set of clothes for the baby).
Then we had an amazingly long line to wait in to get back through airport security and on towards the next stage of our journey. WIth only 10 minutes to spare we were collecting our backpacks and putting our shoes back on to sprint through the terminal to the flight when Brackley remembered that there was more in his stomach and sent Kirstin to the bathroom to change her shirt and strip the baby down with nothing but his brother's sweatshirt. Fortunately our flight was delayed (how often is that a fortunate thing) an hour and a half. As the plane was overbooked all extra seats rapidly filled up and while we weren't looking one of our six chairs got filled with an extra passenger (Brackley was on Kirstin's lap at this point and we were distracted trying to get some bags to help Emma through her second round of the throw-ups).
By the time the plane took off we started to get nervous about the two hours we had to change flights in Atlanta for the final stage of our travel but not to worry the next flight was delayed as well (this time three hours)!!
As a courtesy to our hotel in San Antonio I called to let them know that we were going to be checking in rather later than originally planned and was informed that I didn't have a reservation (one I made a month earlier and had verified 3 days earlier). We finally sorted out somewhere to stay through multiple phone calls between Atlanta and San Antonio but I'm glad I called and didn't just show up at 3:45 am with no where to house my sleepy children!
Oh the joys of moving with the military!

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Once again we were able to find an excuse to get to Garmisch so at the end of June we took the family on a fun excursion. We took the ferry from Dover to Calais and didn't spend too much time outside as it was cold and windy (normal British weather for June).



One of our favorite things to do while in Garmisch is to ride up the Eckbauerbahn (a gondola ride up a beautiful mountain then a leisurely hike down. This trip we weren't able to bring any hiking boots (as they were packed up with all our belongings for the move to Texas) and spent a few minutes discussing the need for proper footwear with an elderly German man (very sweet, not annoying).

At the end of the hike (bottom of the mountain) there is a small alpine slide set up and the kids can't just walk by now (it is part of the hike). This time I was able to convince Kirstin that the ride was worth it. She only went once.


We stayed in cabins this trip and while we were there were able to meet some new friends. They were in a cabin just up the road from ours. Turns out they were an LDS family assigned to the Embassy to the Brussels Embassy. Too bad we are moving back to the States it would have been fun to head off to Belgium every now and again to see some friends!

Another tradition we have is to visit the Eibsee, a lake at the bottom of the Zugspitze (tallest mountain in Germany). There's a beautiful scenic trail that goes around the lake (around 4 miles). It was a bit long for a few of our little ones but it was still fun!

Ander's Birthday

With Kirstin still gone I was left to make Ander feel special for his birthday. I told him that I wanted to take him out to dinner and that I wanted it to be special so I was going to take him to a place that's got to be one of my favorite places to eat. After 20 minutes of hearing how he wanted to go to McDonald's I was finally able to convince him to try something better and we drove to a village called Deddington to eat at the Pudding Face pub. I tried to start out early so we could get back to a friends house for cake and singing and we arrived at the pub only to find that they didn't open for another 40 minutes. After opening presents in the car and going for a walk I was disappointed to see that none of the pies were really kid friendly and after so much work to convince the kiddos to be happy with "good" food I finally gave up and took them to McDonald's for a Happy Meal... Guess I should have just listened to Ander in the first place, it was his birthday after all!!

Warwick Castle

Kirstin went back to Oregon with Brackley yesterday for Auntie Lizzie's wedding so we thought we'd go have some fun as well and took a day trip to Warwick Castle. The boys dressed as knights but a skirt was as close as I could convince Emma to go towards dressing like a princess, "that's babyish daddy."

a few random scenes

London with the Stewart's

A trip to England just wouldn't be complete without a trip to London with a double decker bus tour, a riverboat tour and a lot of walking...

Stewie turned Four!!!

Bristol - Bath

While on his mission Grandpa John remembers Bristol as one of his most favorite cities so of course we had to visit. A lot had changed but once we got into walking around John had glimmers of memories and told many stories, like how he had performed with a choir in the Bristol Hippodrome. Mostly by memory we were also able to track down where the mission home used to be (now split into several rented apartments). After a day in Bristol we stopped by Bath and spent the day thinking about Jane Austin.

A quick trip to Scotland

With only a little time available we worked in a quick trip up North to see a bit of Scotland. On the way we realized that we might not have packed well as we saw snow on the hillsides along the Motorway but in the end we had three days of beautiful sunny weather. Most of the visit was spent at one of my favorite places, Edinburgh and the Edinburgh Castle. After that we took the detour to see the kids favorite castle in Stirling and were able to see a new one for me that was quite nice to see as it was in simple ruins (stone walls still intact but missing most of the wooden floors).

Waddesdon Manor

Again John missed out on the outing (this time he was on a trip to Germany). Today we visited Waddesdon Manor a home formerly owned by the Rothschild family. Now a great place to walk around and imagine what it might have been like if you were loaded...

Oxford

Closer to home we spent the day in Oxford and took a foot tour of the area around Christ Church and the Covered Market. If you ever go make sure to stop by "Moo Moo's" for a milkshake and "Ben's Cookies" for... well that's pretty obvious.

Stonehenge

While John spent a riveting day at work the rest of us took Grandma and Grandpa down to Stonehenge to see the giant stones and marvel at how they were put in place.

Bury St. Edmonds + Cambridge

Took a nice trip with Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa John to Bury St. Edmonds to see the Cathedral and a stroll through Cambridge for other old churches and tired children...

John and Cheryl come to visit

We are so excited that Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa John are coming to visit us for a few weeks while the kids are on school break. John served his mission in England so we're hoping to help him re-live some of his memories and build some new ones with our children... As they don't usually travel too far from home we have a fairly solid list of places to go and things to see and only fear wearing the kids out too much in the process!