Journal: England Trip 2012 - Part II

Day 2, Sunday morning, dawned bright and clear and chilly--but NOT raining (very important!). Sadly, Nana woke up not feeling well, so she stayed in bed while the rest of us got ready for a church service at King's Church. Blueberry decided that the amount of rough and tumble boys going to the children's service was a little much for her, so she stayed in the main service with us--and wound up taking a nap on mommy's lap instead.

Blueberry charming the world in her tweeds. 

In the afternoon, Christopher decided to brave the heights of the Lake District and went on a gentle (ha ha) seven mile hike up Walla Crag with my dad and Steve. Blueberry and I stayed home and had an hour long battle of her refusing to swallow her food (really?!) eventually followed (battle was a draw) by a walk downtown Keswick. The number of beautiful dogs of every breed imaginable in Keswick is extraordinary, and thanks to Blueberry's incredible powers of observation, we did not miss seeing one of them if they were within half a mile of us. 

Our night was punctuated by Christopher and I both having bad jet lag and finding ourselves awake at 2am, unable to sleep (8pm US time). Watched an interesting show on some musically talented kids who have Tourette syndrome. Still would rather have been sleeping!

 Left: Steve, owner of Primrose Cottage, former fell runner turned fell walker when his knees gave out. Definition of fell runner: one who literally runs up the mountains (fells) of the Lake District rather than hiking up them as most sensible (read: "less fit") people do. Right: My daddy, in his favorite place in the whole world--on top of a Lake District fell.

 Keswick is located on the banks of lake Derwentwater.

 Keswick from the top of Walla Crag.

 Walla Crag as seen from Ashness Bridge.

 Ashness Bridge

 Derwentwater

Part III coming soon.

Journal: England Trip 2012 - Part I

After a year of planning, 7 months of sitting on tickets waiting to be used, several unexpected twists and turns--the biggest being the discovery that this trip would occur when I was going to be 5, almost 6, months pregnant--a week of insanity trying to get everything set up and done as far in advance as possible to help out our wonderful Relief House Parents, and experiencing a tearful farewell from our cottage girls, September 21st finally dawned and we left on our adventure.

Our flight left Little Rock around 10:40am. Flew to Chicago. After a layover of several hours (during which Blueberry was running around the airport and crashing into poles to "fall down"), we finally boarded for Manchester in the evening. Seven and a half hours later (Saturday morning UK time), Blueberry was still awake. She had taken one 15 minute nap on top of me, but that was it.

We were met at the airports by my parents (who had arrived a few days earlier, done some grocery shopping, and rented a car), and we drove another few hours to Keswick in the Lake District. Due to my tendency for severe car sickness (and my ever-burgeoning waistline!), I sat up front in the car during this trip. Which meant I was quickly set to helping navigate the trip. For the record, Internet directions are a lot clearer in the US of A than they are in England.

For those unfamiliar with Keswick or the Lake District, you have my pity. Keswick is found in the Northwest of England, very near to the border of Scotland.The town itself is located in the Lake District of England--the land of inspiration for Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Ransome, Shelley, Keats, and many others. Its easy to understand how the natural beauty and yet complex landscapes are so inspirational to any writer or artist who is a lover of nature.

On a personal note, my grandparents, now both deceased, retired and lived in a house there for many years. My family used to stay there for weeks at a time when we would visit my UK relatives, so for me, the memories extend through my whole childhood.

Upon arrival we did a bit more grocery shopping (getting some essentials but realistically waiting for the right time to go to our stopping spot for the next week), met up with the owner of Primrose Cottage which we were renting for the week (owned by an old friend of the family), and after lugging in a very full car of suitcases, food, people, etc, I finally crashed for a nap around 2:00pm. Woke up an hour and a half later, and wandered down the stairs to find my husband and daughter. Found my husband comatose on a couch.

Freaked out upon not finding my daughter. Finally discovered her buried by the side of the couch, nestled up to one of daddy's shoes (yuck!), sound asleep.  

In returning to the Lake District after so many years, I had been haunted by the thought that surely it could not be as beautiful as I remember it being. After all, the last time I had come was when I was 16. Fortunately, it took only the drive to Keswick and a short walk that afternoon to convince me that my memory was not faulty and the Lake District truly is the land of beauty of my memory.

 Walking along the river Greta with Nana and Papa, notice the sleepy face of the Blueberry. 

 View of mountains from the Keswick Park. I have a lot of memories of this park as a child--walks here with my grandparents, playing on the playground. It was a shortcut from my grandparents house to the towns central shopping area, and I have frequent memories of playing Pooh Sticks from several of the bridges in the park. 

Speaking of her Nana and Papa, Blueberry's memory of them has been limited primarily to Skype video calls and photographs. Her concept of them has been more of a single entity: NanaPapa. So she spent the entire first week figuring out who was who. For a few days she attempted to resolve this conundrum by simply saying, "Hey!" whenever she needed/wanted one of their attention. Eventually though, she did sort through the confusion and hopefully will have a better experience even with Skype in the future with her better understanding of who they are.

Part II to come.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

I'm home. Been home since late Thursday night, actually. Mostly over jet lag, but definitely still catching up on everything that's happened since we left.

The house was still standing. All of our girls are still here. Just lots of emails and things to do and some behaviors to address and definitely some love and attention and reassurance to give. The girls were very enthusiastic about our return, which is nice as I would hate to think they would prefer us to not be here! Our relief house parents (the couple who filled in most of the time while we were gone) were also definitely enthusiastic about giving us the house back!

Since coming home, Chris and Blueberry have both had colds. Hope those are beginning to clear up. Blueberry has had a hard time settling back down at night, but appears to be happy to be home. Calista was so excited to see us that she was literally whining in her joy. Rather hysterical to behold.

I'm okay. Had a definite increase in contractions since our final journey home; however, saw my midwife today and everything checks out well, so keep up the fluids, rest, and all should be good. Baby Q himself is bouncy and kicky and most definitely growing.

I now look ahead to the looming holidays and the rapidly approaching arrival of Baby Q himself into our lives. The to-do list stresses me out, so I'm just taking it one day at a time, one item at a time, and I figure we'll get there one way or the other.

I shall be looking backwards to our trip over the next few days with photos and journals and other thoughts, so keep reading for all our trip news!