Home!

Sooooo ... on our trip to Reno, I discovered that we had several devoted followers of our blog, so I'm attempting to revive it.  Have patience, with me :)  And, hey, if you want to comment and give me some encouragement, I'm sure it will motivate me!

 We're home!  

We made the twenty-two hour flight from Reno, via Dallas, without too many glitches :)

We had an interesting second leg of the  journey, where we were originally all seated in separate seats!   We ended up getting us in groups of two in middle sections, not the best, but at least we were together.  Kate, Eliza, and I were in between two interesting men, one of whom snuggled up with me half the flight while he got some good sleep!  Then there was the time he spent talking to himself ... interesting, indeed.

Kate was watching the Wizard of Oz ... love her expression :)  Strange guy #2 is in the background.  At one point he lost his headphones and got Kate involved in helping him find them in the middle of the night.  It struck me as hilarious and I just couldn't stop laughing!

We came home and crashed ... which is not the best way to adjust, but we just couldn't stay up any longer.  We'd been nearly 24 hours with no sleep for the adults, and a few hours for the kids.  So we all crashed and slept for five hours!

Bard and these three all slept on the couch :)  I guess, when you're tired enough, you can sleep anywhere!

It's been five days now and we're still struggling to get adjusted to the eight hour difference.  We miss everyone back in Reno so much and our house seems quiet and awkward.  I'm sure we just need a few weeks to break it in :)

For Bard

Bard is away so I’ve taken a few pictures for him, but you can look, too :)

Tuesday Morning …

Kate waking up :)

 

The kids spent an hour playing with beans and rice at the table.  Emerson, claiming all the tools as his own!

Mathis was too engrossed in listening to Odyssey to play.

Emerson giving me his pouty face.  He’s a natural!  We moved on to playdough later and Kate made this snowman.

My lunch.  I knew you’d want to see it …. spaghetti sauce w/ ground beef topped with eggs and cheese.  By the way, we’re down to 7 eggs and I’m panicking.  I’ve started rationing!

The boys cleaning off your car so we can get the Morlan’s package out.

 

Eliza watched from the window while the kids played outside and they had a grand time coming to see her and making her laugh.

So glad we have underfloor heating!!

I made up some spray bottles with green and red water in them and the kids had a blast!  Had to take the next one really quickly, hence the blur … she did this herself!

 

Priceless, huh?  Apparently, Emerson placed first :)

 

Action shot :)  Emerson had three belts and the suspenders on, plus an extra belt to hold his dagger :)

the many faces …

This was his “get the enemy” face.

 

Mathis headed out this morning to get some butter for breakfast.  I had no idea it was going to snow.  We woke up to six inches of fresh snow and it’s still coming down :)

View out the front door this morning :)

Christmas Pictures

Hello, all.  Thought you would enjoy some fun pictures of the kids.  We went to a wildlife park to see Santa (aka Father Christmas).  This is one of the things that is quite different for us here in England.  Seeing Santa is definitely a different experience.  First, you can hardly find a place to visit the dear old man that you don’t have to pay, and it’s not cheap!  They did get some fun face painting done, although Kate wasn’t keen on a stranger touching her face so she opted to have a flower on her hand :) 

Jackson isn’t sad our uncooperative, that’s just his contemplative face :)  It was raining pretty good, but we still enjoyed seeing the roaming peacocks and lots of different birds, a few reindeer resting up before the big night, a very sweet Christmas fairy in a gypsy caravan, Santa in the tiniest house ever (I had to stoop to get in), and the beautiful lights decorating the trees and paths through the park.  We made the best of it, despite the rain.  I’m not sure why there was no photo op with Santa, but the kids did think it was pretty cool to be in his sleigh.  The reindeer, whose horns you see in the background, was made of metal, mostly horseshoes … interesting! 

Hopefully, you’ve received our Christmas picture, so I thought you’d enjoy seeing a few of the 397 photos we took to get a good one :)  We did this over two days and four different set ups.  We had to get as much light as possible and it gets dark here at 4:30 so I couldn’t wait until Bard got home.  It was pretty crazy, but so worth it.  I love these outtakes!  The winner is the last picture, if you want to skip to the end :)

 

Notice Kate’s smile in the photos below?  She was soooo happy to get to hold Eliza!

 

If I forgot to send you one (and it’s completely possible), here’s the winner …