Final catch up...

I have been horrible at this but here I am again... Before we hit Christmas (yes only 3 days away) I have to finish off about our trip to England/France back in late September, early October.


The remainder of our time in France was spent touring Paris. We visited many places and it brought back a lot of memories of our Honeymoon and Aaron's mission. One of the evenings Josh went back to the villa with Mama, Pops, and Beth while we spent more time in the 'romantic city'. We stopped by a little place before heading back and had yummy chicken kabobs. MMmmm so good.
Below are some places we visited:

Notre-Dame Cathedral

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Arc de Triomphe

Moulin Rouge & Trocadero

Sacre-Coeur

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Statue of Liberty

Eiffel Tower

Before heading back to England Aaron's Mum and Dad treated us to a delicious dinner at the Planet Hollywood near Disneyland Paris. Thanks so much!!!

I Love this Picture - There was a lovely young swan near our villa in France and I think this picture says it all!

When we returned to England we were able to visit a few more places before Aaron returned home. Grannie and Grancha took us to the Croft Castle where I was able to embark in a whole new experience of ancestry. It was such a neat experience to visit the castle where my mother's ancestors came from and learn a bit more about their history. It was such a neat experience to be in the surroundings and imagine what had taken place there many years ago. It was incredible! Thank you Grannie and Grancha!

Croft Castle

We also visited Chatsworth House (Mr. Darcy's house from the Hollywood version of Pride and Prejudice), Sherwood Forest (Robin Hoods Home :)) and spent more time visiting friends and family. Before Aaron returned home Mum and Dad took us out for dinner while Beth and Josh stayed with Auntie Sarah, we had such a fun evening out with the four of us and also got to stop by the home Mum and Dad lived in when they were first married. It was so cute to see them reminisce.

Chatsworth House

Sherwood Forest
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The Church where Robin and Maid Marian were married













Me & Aaron

Mum & Dad

at a Mexican restaurant for dinner

Visiting the first home of Mum & Dad

Joshua Playing 'Trains' with Finley and Chester

After Aaron headed back home we had another week to enjoy our time and relax before following him. Grannie took us to Foxton Locks for a day and that was definitely a new experience. I have to say, I've never seen anything like it, it was incredible.
One of the days Pops, Josh and myself headed to Drayton Manor and Thomas Land. That was the neatest experience and we wish that Aaron could have been with us. Joshua was in heaven, it was like nothing I had ever seen or experienced and to make things even better, hardly anyone was there. It was fantastic. They also had a big shop where EVERYTHING was in Thomas the Train so I got a few Christmas and birthday gifts while we were there.

Joshua K., Olivia and Joshua P. (such a cute pair)

Among all of the fun things mentioned above Joshua loved spending time with his Pops the best. He continually talks about how fun it was to feed the goats and chickens and to ride the horses and asks when he can go to Mama, Pops and Beth's house to do that all again! We had so much fun while we were over there and can't wait until we all live a bit closer so that Joshua can spend more time with them. If Joshua had his way we would probably have chickens and goats of our own... yikes... He does exceptionally well with our two cats though and they love him to bits. Its amazing how gentle he is with them and how they will go to him for attention!

I just love this picture of Joshua feeding the goats! Sooo Cute!

The morning of September 25th brought gifts in bed :) That morning I opened birthday presents as we were headed to Paris later that evening. I got some really nice gifts, thanks so much Mum, Dad, Beth, Aaron and Josh...

We headed to the airport for our flight to Paris a little later that afternoon. Check in went very smoothly but then we ended up spending a few hours in the airport because of some traffic control issues. Between the 6 of us there was a lot of walking around, eating, and card playing. I was quite surprised at how well Josh did considering it was so boring. 

We finally arrived in Paris late that evening. There was a shuttle that picked us up at took us to our Marriott Village Hotel. We arrived there and checked into our village house at 9:30 pm. We were all so tired and ready for bed.

September 26th - My Birthday - Disneyland Paris!!!

Yes, I am so lucky... for my birthday we went to Disneyland Paris. We all had so much fun, even me considering I didn't get to ride much being 13 + weeks pregnant :( That's ok though, I enjoyed every minute of it and Joshua still talks about it.

We started our morning at Walt Disney Studios and then headed over to the Disneyland Park. 

One thing to my surprise is that everything closes at 7:00pm over there, I am so used to parks and attractions being open till 10:00 I was shocked once everything closed at 7. I felt like we were cheated on time... but it was good to get out of there at a good time and get Josh back to our townhome and in bed. So needless to say we ended up splitting up, so that I could take Josh on the little rides and the 'big kids' could ride all the adventureous rides.

The parade was a huge hit and was so much fun! Josh loved seeing all of his favorite characters and the music was fantastic! For dinner Mum and Dad treated us all to dinner at a Steak House within the park. Mmmm I LOVE steak! They surprised me at the end of dinner with the staff singing Happy Birthday and presenting us all will yummy desserts. There was one very odd dessert on our plates (I won't mention what) but hey, we were in France right...

Thank you so much for a fabulous birthday and for takign us all to Disneyland Paris mum and dad!!! We will never forget it and had the time of our lives...

Our first 6 days in England...

Well my 3 week story from our lovely travel to England begins here... We arrived in England on the 19th of September. Our flight there went better than I had thought it would. We did have a few minor issues with our seats and Aaron didn't get to sit by us on the long flight from Chicago to Manchester but we made it there with big smiles on our faces. Joshua did amazingly well with only sleeping for 2 hours on the 7 hour flight there and then staying awake for most the day until evening of the 19th. We left here mid-day on the 18th and arrived early morning on the 19th so the trick is to stay awake until bed time of the next day otherwise you risk major jet lag. So here I was 12 weeks pregnant and only had 2 hours of sleep in 30 hours. It was crazy but we all did really well.Saturday the 20th began many fun activities for the time we were there. That day we spent resting and then went to visit Aaron's Grannie and Grancha (Grancha was in a home for falling and injuring himself). We had a wonderful time visiting with them and Josh took to them as if he has always known them.
 

That evening Mum secretly threw a suprise birthday party for me. We had planned before hand to have a few of our good friends around for dinner but I honestly had no idea that mum had turned it into a birthday party. We had a lovely BBQ dinner followed by a delicious chocolate fudge brownie cake and fun games.

One game we played is called 'Pass the Buck'. The game is played by rolling two dice that will then instruct you how to pass the buck to the other person. They also roll the dice to see how they will 'receive' the buck. It is such a fun and hilarious game to play with a big group. It can get quite interesting :)

Sunday the 21st we had some family around after church for a lovely afternoon. Aaron's Grannie along with Auntie Alison and Uncle Kim and their families joined us outside for the beautiful weather.

This trip was the first time i've ever experienced nice weather in England. All other times it was always very wet, damp and cold. 

Joshua loved helping Pop's pick apples off the tree and jumping on the trampoline with the kids. After the guys were done playing pool we had some delicious home made apple pie. MMMmmmm yummy!

The 23rd we spent our time at Jonny and Cassie's house. There the guys played video games and we enjoyed talking. Jason and Olivia and their little girl joined us there as well.

24th we headed to Cadbury World. This was an exciting adventure especially because Aaron had never been there and this is his favorite chocolate. We ate so much free chocolate we felt a bit sick near the end of our tour.

That evening we spent at Jon and Maria's house. Maria made a delicious Roast dinner that we all throughouly enjoyed. The kids (along with the adults) enjoyed playing together. The men did an excellent job putting a princess puzzle together!

Our Halloween Fun!

This year we dressed Josh up as a clown for halloween and this is actually the same costume my brother wore when he was three; so it is about 18 years old. Josh had so much fun in it and didn't want to take it off all night. We are so grateful to scott for letting us borrow it! :)

Aaron's work did a trunk or treat for the kids throughout their building so we decided to take Josh there for all the excitement. We had a blast and Josh came back with so much candy we decided not to take him around the neighborhood also because it was cold and rainy. So instead he had fun answering the door with daddy to give the other kids some candy. He got so excited to open the door and yell "Boo" in hopes of scaring the other children.  

Before heading home from the trunk or treat we picked up some Panda Express for dinner (Aaron and Joshua's favorite). We told Josh that he could eat as much candy as he wanted that night after he ate all his dinner. Well we never have a problem with him eating his dinner when it's Panda. He ate so much that when it came time to go through his candy he only ate about 4 pieces and then was done. I think he was also pre-occupied with answering the door but hey, i'm not complaining.

All in all it was a fantastic evening considering this is our most disliked holiday :) We had a lot of fun and had Marcus and Nichole around to share our evening's activities. 

Here are the before and after pictures. When leaving our house Josh was in tears because he wanted to be the one to paint his face and was extremely disappointed when I took over. But as you can see, once he had his bag full of candy he was as happy as can be with a big smile on his face!