Christmas Term

We just received a Christmas card from a friend who said, "I'm missing your blog lately!"  Then I peeked online and realized that our last entry was from our trip to Paris, which was just days before school started in September.  And now, here we are, the day after the Christmas term has ended.

I will try to give a brief overview of the last three and a half months so I can be caught up before the holidays!

Lane started Year 5 and Ryan started Year 3 in September.  That puts her in the Upper School and him in the Middle School at St. Piran's - a big step up for each of them.  Lane sees over a dozen teachers in a week now, as she now shuffles around the campus for each of her subjects.  She is loving her new afterschool activity - the bell choir.  Ryan has moved upstairs in the main building and is really being stretched in all academic areas!  He is really stepping up to the challenge and ended the term well by being chosen as the boy from his year group to do a reading in the school's Christmas carol service.

Just two weeks after school started, Lane went away for a residential week at Osmington Bay - five days packed with educational field trips and fun excursions.  We missed her terribly, but she didn't seem to miss us at all!

In October, we were happy to have a visit from my dad and stepmom and also be able to see Chris and Karla as they were all across the pond for my step-cousin's wedding.  (Note... We love guests, so just let us know when you want to come for a visit!)

Then we were off to Rome for the half term break.  I don't know if it was because the kids are getting a little older, or because we are all getting used to traveling together, or because of the fantastic weather, or maybe the amazing sights and food - but I think it was our best adventure to date!  It also helped that Ryan has been studying the Romans this term, so he was very interested in everything we saw. (I will also now plug the FREE Rick Steve's Audio Tours app, which kept the kids interested at a lot of sights and had us exploring some really interesting neighborhoods!)

We were back just in time for Halloween and another fun little gathering at our house to trick-or-treat on our sweet close and watch Monsters University with friends.

We had another lovely Thanksgiving celebration - complete with all the trimmings - at our house with our family friends, the Ottos and the Dales.  It's a time of year that we really miss all of our family as they are sledding the sand dunes at Zuma Beach, but it is so much fun to share some of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions with our friends here!

I had the opportunity to talk and sing at the St. Piran's advent chapel service in November.  It was a really wonderful chance to speak to the kids about preparing for Christmas and, in addition to sharing a new song with them, I wanted to give them a gift to take home to continue celebrating through the Christmas season.  With last minute help from Liberty (artwork) and Victory (graphic design), I recorded the song and sent them all home with CD singles.  (If you go to my website you can download the song for free.)  The response was really overwhelming and I am feeling so blessed to be part of the community at St. Piran's.

John has been traveling like crazy.  (Over the last five weeks, he was in the country for thirteen days!)  Today, he came home from a trip to L.A. (with three bags in hand as he did a massive gift exchange - and, of course, some shopping - while he was there).  Now, he is home for awhile and we are all happy to have him here as we continue to prepare our hearts and home for Christmas!

Lane off to Osmington Bay!

Grandmom & Grampy visiting from NJ

Rome

Our Little Tourists

A magician and his rabbit...

Happy Halloween!

Thanksgiving

Ludwigs / Ottos / Dales

Movember

Lane playing with the bell choir at John Lewis

New song!

Paris

What was I thinking?!

Okay, I know what I was thinking... I'll plan a fun trip for the family at the end of the summer so that we'll all have something to look forward to when we come back to the UK.  (And, maybe - just maybe - the kids won't feel as sad to say good-bye to their friends and family in California.)

What I did NOT think about was what the week between our arrival back in the UK and our departure to Paris would be like.  I did not think it would be like this...

• Thursday: Red-eye back to the States.  No one sleeps.
• Friday: First night back in the UK.  Everyone is jetlagged.  Lane cries almost all night.  No one sleeps.
• Saturday: Lane is upset over lack of sleep the night before.  She lies awake from 10pm to 4am (as do I).
• Sunday: Repeat Saturday scenario.
• Monday: Lane finally gets a bit more sleep, but is still up from 10pm to 2am.
• Tuesday: Everyone is finally asleep!  Neighbors alarm goes off at midnight.  Police are called.  John and I are wide awake for over an hour.
• Wednesday: Ryan gets up in the middle of the night with a temperature of 103F.
• Thursday (eve of our departure): We are all packed.  We have no idea whether Ryan will be able to travel.  We have contingency plan for just one of us to travel with Lane to Paris.  I barely sleep stressing about what the weekend will look like.
• Friday 5:30am - Ryan wakes up fever free.  We all decide to go to Paris.  We are out the door at 6:15am!

But I digress....

Now that the scene is set, though, you will understand why Paris was a fun adventure... but also influenced heavily by the fact the four of us were exhausted when we arrived.  We were all a little (understatement) cranky.  So, we did our best to keep it simple.

We arrived on Friday, dropped of our things and headed straight to the Eiffel Tower.  We were really pleased with our family room at the Renaissance L'Arc de Triomphe (yay - Marriot points put to good use!) and our fantastic location near a main metro stop.  The day was beautiful and we headed straight up the stairs of the tower (over 600 of them!) to the second floor.  From there, we took the elevator to the top!  A very fun experience!

On Saturday, we spent some time (as several friends had recommended) at Luxembourg Gardens with the kids.  They loved the playground and the boats. We walked to a fantastic cafe nearby for lunch, where we sampled escargot and then followed with our travelling tradition - gelato.  We visited Notre Dame, did our souvenir shopping, and called it a day.

On Sunday, we thought we'd visit the Louvre.  Apparently, so did everyone else in Paris.  As the line had an estimated three hour wait, we moved on and visited Musee de L'Orangerie.  Perfect... quick line, small museum and the kids got to see a major piece of art (Monet's Water Lilies).  Another nice cafe lunch, then we headed back toward our hotel.  We headed to the top of L'Arc de Triomphe (more amazing views) then were on our way to the Eurostar!

It was quick, but it was a nice overview.  The Eurostar was fun, and fairly easy to navigate.  The weather was gorgeous, so I'm glad we made the trip happen.  Did we cover all of Paris?  By no means, but we had a nice highlights tour and the kids will certainly remember it!

Eurostar to Paris

Heading up the Eiffel Tower

At the top!

Eiffel Tower

Enjoying our room at Renaissance L'Arc de Triomphe

Luxembourg Gardens

Boats

Escargot

Gelato

The Louvre

Point Zero

CA Trip - Summer 2013

Today I sat at my desk on a grey and rainy autumn day, cleaning out my inbox, clearing off my desk and FINALLY getting through all of our pictures from our trip to California this summer. Wow - were we all that tan only four short weeks ago?

There is a reason it's taken me so long to go through those pictures and update this blog.  It was a crazy trip.  This year, more than last, I felt like we were racing around and, quite frankly, just trying to get too much done!

Now, we certainly had some nice times to relax.  John and I thoroughly enjoyed our two nights alone at the Westlake Four Seasons and there were plenty of quiet times in Ludwigland.  Yet, I still felt overwhelmed by shopping that needed to be done, appointments that needed to be kept (including four dental cleanings, two annual check-ups, three visits to the eye doctor and a trip to Children's Hospital) and friends & family to see.  As intentional as I tried to be, a lot of it seemed to go screaming by in a blur.

It's nice, though, to look back at these pictures and see all of the fun we had!

The kids really enjoyed the time with their cousins and friends.  (And the transition back to the UK was tough for Lane this year.  Clearly her best friends remain in the States.  For Ryan, though, we are seeing his most precious friendships forming here.)

The weather was gorgeous.  Even though we didn't have as many sunny mornings in Malibu as last year, it was still wonderfully warm.

The times we had with smaller groups of friends were our favorites... families visiting us in Malibu, intimate dinners out, lazy evenings in Palm Springs.  As much as we love seeing everybody, these gatherings tend to suit us the best.  We'll have to be more deliberate about getting everyone in, but in smaller doses, next year!

We started & ended our trip with visits with the cousins.

Lane loved spending time with her friends.

We had some great days at the beach!

The kids had a great time with their OCF friends...

... and so did we!

Palm Springs

And Ryan got his new glasses!

 

Our Lovely English Summer

Tomorrow, we are off to California for most of August.  But before we leave, I wanted to recap the last couple of weeks since school broke up for summer...

The weather has been warm.  Time with friends has been plentiful.  We've had some lovely little adventures. 

Whereas last July I was dying to get to California, this year it doesn't feel quite so urgent.  Not that I am not desperate to see our family and friends, but I think I will miss our lazy days and our balmy summer evenings...

School finished up on Friday the 12th of July. That Saturday evening, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner out on the patio of a restaurant in Cookham with our friends Stuart and Louise.  Sunday was warm enough for the kids to set-up a fun lemonade stand in our front yard.  We had invited our neighbors ahead of time and had quite a few people turn up and pass the afternoon in patio chairs on the green. 

The next day, the Andersons arrived.  We all loved having a full house and spending quality time with them.  When they left just a few days later, Lane was in tears over the silence in the house.

With John that weekend, we all ventured to Cliveden and Hever Castle, and then spent another afternoon on our green for the annual Cadogan Close potluck BBQ.  Lovely.

Last week included playdates and sleepovers with friends from school.  I realized how nice it is for Lane and Ryan to spend time with their friends, and how hard it is to find that time during the jam-packed school terms.

After a thorough clean-out this last weekend, we started packing for our trip!   On Saturday afternoon, though, we snuck into London for one last little adventure - a visit to Kew Gardens followed by a family dinner at Santa Maria (a truly authentic Italian pizzeria in Ealing).  You know how sometimes you get the perfect table and it just makes the meal all the better?  Yep, that happened to us. 

The last couple of days have been lazy, chilly and rainy.  If it clears enough, the kids and I may make one last trek to the Holyport Green to feed the ducks before we begin our highly-anticipated trip to the States tomorrow!  (The kids are literally about to burst with excitement!  If you are reading this, you can pray that they hold it together at Heathrow and for 11+ hours on the plane!)

Last Day of School

Date Night with the Ottos

Daddy & Ryan taking advantage of the warm weather!

Making "the world's best lemonade"!

Ready for the crowds!

Visit with the Andersons

Hever Castle

Water Maze

Cliveden Boat Tour with Friends

Sleepover w/ Charlie

Santa Maria

Wimbledon

Yesterday, we went to Wimbledon. 

Not only did we go to Wimbledon, we sat at Centre Court and watched Andy Murray play in the men's semi-finals. 

Unbelieveable.

With the weather being incredibly beautiful this week, we thought we'd take the kids out of school early, spend an hour in The Queue and, hopefully, get a peek inside the grounds at this very British event that happens just in our backyard.

We left Maidenhead at about 3pm and arrived (after train & tube) at Wimbledon a little after 4pm.  We headed straight for The Queue, where you can enter the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club as space becomes available.  The Queue is really an experience in itself, as some people will camp out all night to get in when the doors open in the morning.  It is also common for latecomers to arrive in the afternoon to go in as ticketholders leave after the main matches.

Working against us were several factors... the beautiful weather, a record-breaking long first semi-finals match, and a Scotsman in the second semi-finals match.  No one was leaving. 

However, it was beautiful weather, we had brought a picnic, and no one was complaining.  Our original plan was to wait an hour in The Queue, and head out to dinner if it didn't look like we'd get in.  We ended up standing in line for over 2.5 hours. 

Honestly, it wasn't so bad.  Our kids are pretty good at waiting.  We had a picnic and card games.  The weather was perfect and The Queue is along golf course with plenty of room for the kids to run around and play tag.

The stewards told us that, although there was room on the grounds, The Hill (where everyone without court tickets goes to picnic and watch the matches on a big-screen TV) was overcrowded, so they did not want to let any more people inside.  But soon, they had the semi-finals match on the big screens in Courts 2 and 3, so they let everyone in.

We were excited just to have made it through the turnstiles after our long wait!  We headed to Court 2, but Lane and Ryan weren't particularly interested in following the match on TV, so we decided to walk around and check out the grounds. 

Most everything was deserted, and they were watering the courts around the periphery.  Then, as we were standing at a souvenir stand, a young guy walks up to us and offers us two corporate passes since two people from his office did not show up.  YES!  John took Lane inside Centre Court with the intention of coming back out for Ryan in a bit.  They made it inside for Murray's second set. 

Not more than 15 minutes later, a nice couple walks up to Ryan and I and asks if we have tickets.  I said, no, thinking they were looking for tickets (as many people milling around outside obviously were) and then they offered us theirs since they were leaving!  SCORE!

Ryan and I headed in to section 202, seats 46 and 47 in row E.  Great seats!  John and Lane could see us from across the court.  We were able to watch all of the third set.  It was perfect.  Although Ryan could not follow all that was happening, he sat very intently (and quietly) watching! 

When the third set had finished (which Murray had won!), it was 9pm and we knew we had to go.  (Honestly, it was perfect for Ryan... I don't think he could have lasted any longer.)  Since the match wasn't over, we easily hopped in a cab to the tube station and the kids were in their beds at 11pm.  A late night - but well worth it!!!

We've arrived!

Waiting in The Queue

Kids playing Top Trumps while we wait...

We're in!!!

John and Lane in their Debenture seats

If you look just to the left of the "202" you'll see Ryan in a bright turquoise shirt sitting on my lap!

Woot!

All England Lawn Tennis Club

A little loopy by the end of the day... but worth it!