31 August, 2016

Park Fun - A Story in Pictures








Let's Talk Food

Since we haven't found a place to live yet, we've had to eat out every single day. Not that we're disappointed, since we love trying new foods and new restaurants. I think we were most excited to sample the fish and chips, Indian food, and desserts.

The first full day we were here, we headed out to dinner after Matt got home from work. We kind of have an early bird eating schedule (and have been made fun of for it), so we were surprised to find that restaurants don't typically open for dinner until 5:30 or 6:00. Well, we were hungry, so we went to the only open place we could find (besides McDonald's, we did refuse that!). 


An American-style steakhouse. Womp womp. Well, the food still tasted pretty good, and we laughed at ourselves for eating before the old people.

I did have an English cider

Since that first day, we've had Indian, Thai, and Turkish, to name a few. Everything we've had so far has been really good. One of our favorites has been fish and chips, especially on evenings when we can tell the kids will not behave well in a restaurant.  We've tried two of the three highly recommended places in town, and I can't decide which is better. 


Melts in your mouth!

Sorry, I don't have any poetic descriptions of the taste of everything. And I always forget to take pictures of food (not my normal thing). So the only food photos I have are the fish and chips above, and...



This giant naan. So the perspective makes it look bigger than Clara, but it probably was almost as tall as she is! 

We've also tried a couple of chain places - Pizza Express and Wagamama. Both were also very good, and of course, the kids loved them. 




Next on my list to try is pub food, tea, and a traditional English breakfast. According to Wikipedia, an English breakfast consists of, "bacon (traditionally back bacon), fried, poached or scrambled eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes, fried mushrooms, fried bread or toast with butter, sausages, and baked beans. Black pudding, bubble and squeak and hash browns are often also included."

Image via seriouseats.com
Holy cow, that's a lot of food! I haven't yet decided if I'll be brave enough to try black pudding (aka blood sausage). If I can work up the nerve, I'll post about it!


29 August, 2016

I've Fixed the Comments

I just noticed that the default settings for comments were to only allow registered users to post. I've fixed it so now anyone can post a comment.

Sorry about that!

26 August, 2016

School

School starts for the kids on 6 September, so today we met the head teacher and had a tour. We're sending them to a private school because Matt's job helps out with tuition. When we found out about this job, Matt started researching schools in town, and we really liked the look of this one, but all we had to go on was the internet. We decided just to go for it, and enrolled the kids sight unseen. Huge leap of faith there!

Exterior of the school


Miles will be in Reception, which is similar to Pre-K back in the States. He is already 5 (nearly 6), and did go to Pre-K last year. However, there was no room in the Year 1 (like kindergarten) class this year. Also, the head teacher said that even if Miles is intellectually ready for year 1, it might be good to keep him in a more familiar situation to help ease him through the transition. We were anxious about our decision at first, but it really does seem that they will teach to his level rather than stick to a strict curriculum, where he may get bored. He will attend 5 full days per week. Oh, and the Reception class is smaller than usual this year, so there will be 12 kids in his class with two teachers!

I can't stand the cute! And this is without the knee socks and green cap.


Lily will be in Nursery, which is comprised of 2, 3, and 4 year olds. She will attend 3 half days per week, especially since she hasn't been to school before. Her class will be 22 students (the standard size of the classes there) with two teachers. She won't have to wear a uniform until she goes into Reception, so no cute jumper for her yet.

Just one of the play areas outside


The head teacher really took her time with us, freely gave so much information, and answered all of our questions. And now the kids are really excited to start school and meet new friends. And I'll be excited to be able to spend some time with just the baby a few times per week. So until 6 September, please pass the wine!

25 August, 2016

Picture Post, Take 1

Okay, how about some pictures of the town we are calling home for now?


This is to give you an idea on room size. We did look online a lot before we came here, and we knew that we would not be getting American sized rooms. But it's still a bit of a shock to actually try to live in such small places. With kids. (FYI, this is just temporary housing we're in while we search for a place to stay for awhile.)

Church across the street from our first temporary apartment





These are examples of housing nearby. The buildings look so old, and have great character.

I loved this sunken, perfectly square little yard

Fields across from the kids' school. There are sheep!







I know the pictures above aren't the best quality. It was bright out and I couldn't see what I was getting. But this is part of a large nearby garden. There is also a play area for kids and a pool, and a lot we haven't even seen yet. I'm looking forward to exploring this more.



One more for now. This is also at the park; it's a pond for model boats. Of course the kids wanted to play in it.

That's all for now, since Clara is having trouble sleeping. Cheers!






24 August, 2016

Driving

A shuttle picked us up at the Bradford/Leeds airport and dropped us off at the rental car place. I wasn't about to try driving just yet, but Matt was game. We picked up the car (which was one of the largest they had - no minivans here!), and loaded up the luggage.

I still don't know how it all fit

Now, I was already having some anxiety about even riding in the car here, which I'm sure didn't help Matt at all. We loaded up the necessary address in his phone, and turned on the audio navigation. I think the combination of the unfamiliar surroundings plus the stress from traveling had a big effect. Matt made a right turn just a little too wide, jumped up onto the curb, and popped the tire. Luckily we hadn't made it very far, so we went straight back to the rental lot. Matt filled out some paperwork, and we called a taxi.

We were both pretty shaken up by this point, and I vowed that I wouldn't be driving at all while we're here. It actually took me about 3 days before I even got back into the car as a passenger. 

Anyway, Matt caught a ride with a co-worker on Monday, and picked up the rental car after work. He was much more calm, and has since become more comfortable with driving. 


I'm still a reluctant passenger. The streets are so narrow, and even when there are two lanes, they're not always big enough for two cars to go through at once. It's commonplace for people to just pull up halfway onto the curb to park, and it really feels cramped then!

Matt said that when he spoke to his work contact about taking a written driving test, he inadvertently mentioned how nervous I am. And now it's noted that I'm a nervous driver, haha. So we now have the names of a few driving instructors that I can choose to take lessons from. I'm sure that's for the best, but I still plan on walking as much as I possibly can.

Who wouldn't want to walk through this?





22 August, 2016

Travel Day

Since our travel plans were changed pretty last minute, we decided to spend our last night in Denver at the hotel attached to the airport. No fighting traffic, and we could sleep in (until 3:30 am).
We stayed at the Westin DIA, which was beautiful. I wish we had had time to enjoy the fluffy beds!


Here is the swanky lounge


And the view


Saturday morning we  ran over to the airport at 5 am. Because of our massive amount of luggage (we checked 11 pieces!), it took forever to just get our boarding passes. Then the lines for security were horrible. By the time we got to the gate, we barely had enough time for Miles to hit the restroom before we boarded the first plane.  I thought that it had to get better, right?


Our seats were scattered on this flight, but we did at least end up sitting by the kids. I sat by Lily, with Clara on my lap, and Matt sat with Miles. The girls were great on this leg of the trip, and the man next to Lily complimented her behavior. Overall, this flight was a win (once we boarded).

We landed in Philadelphia, and I guess it had to be around noon. We had a 5 hour layover, but after the craziness of the morning, we did not want to leave the airport. We got a bite to eat, bought some Dramamine for the kids, and let them play in the play area for a while. I thought I had taken a picture of that, but I don't find any.
Now, when we had first booked our travel for one direct flight from Denver to London, I had requested a cot for Clara. A shelf thing folds down from the wall, and the cot attaches so baby can sleep. Of course, now that our arrangements were changed, the cot was already taken. So I got the pleasure of holding a 10 month old the entire 6+ hour flight. At least she slept, which is more than I can say for myself.

Some cool artwork at the Philadelphia airport


The flight from Philly to London was a little less fun than the first. Miles slept the entire time from the Dramamine (judge if you want, I'm trying to get them used to being 6 hours ahead!). Clara slept a lot, and only had one short fussy time. The lady sitting next to me was so helpful and understanding with the kids. That was so nice. It was hard for me to sleep while holding Clara, and I only managed a couple of small catnaps. I did listen to an audiobook, which was nice, and had a cup of wine.

We landed at Heathrow about 9 am, I think. It could've been an hour either way, with my current memory. And our flight to Leeds was due to leave in one hour. I had no time to reenact the opening of Love, Actually in my head. We had to go through security again, fill out a customs declaration or something, and have our visas checked. Then we literally ran to our gate to be the last ones boarding our final flight. Lily had a fit or two on the way (she hadn't slept much overnight), and Miles had an outburst or two. Luckily, this was the shortest flight, at only about 40 minutes long.
I do want to mention that the people at Heathrow were among the nicest people I've encountered. A couple of the security ladies seemed really grouchy, but once they saw Clara they were very sweet to us all. Plus, after getting into the airport, Lily was scared and refusing to step onto the escalator. Matt was ahead, and I was holding Clara, so a wonderful woman picked her up and carried her during the whole ride. I was so grateful.

Upon landing in Leeds, the kids made it clear that they. were. done. Honestly, after nearly 24 hours, I didn't blame them. We picked up our luggage (minus two small pieces that were gate checked. They hadn't made it), and blew right through customs.

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll save our car shenanigans and first full day for tomorrow.

Here is a sneak peek though (the entrance to an English park)



21 August, 2016

A Little More Time

I tried to post this Thursday afternoon, but my phone was acting up. It also isn't letting me post pictures, so I'll try to figure that out.

So, we were supposed to fly out at 7:40 this evening. It was a direct flight to London, with a connecting flight to Leeds.
Well, the connecting flight was cancelled, so the airline rebooked our travel. Without notifying us at all. And didn't change flight information for Miles (let me just send my FIVE YEAR OLD ahead to see how it is). Luckily, Matt's brother saw that the fight was cancelled so that Matt could make sure things were fixed.
And, several hours later, we have a new plan. We will now fly out tomorrow at 7:30am, with a 6 hour layover in Philadelphia. Not as ideal of an itinerary as before, but we will still get there.
A goodbye view of Denver

18 August, 2016

To Do List

We leave in about 31 hours, and we're just trying to get through our to do list. Right now we're waiting at the car rental place, and when we're finished here we have the following to do:

Get lunch for the kids. I'm sick of fast food, but we don't have the time to sit down for something good or healthy.
Take our van to CarMax to sell it.
Return stuff to Century Link and close out our account.
I have a doctor's appointment.
Sign closing paperwork for the house (that won't take long since we're presigning).
Wipe down counters at the house.
Get rid of the last bit of stuff we have at the house.
Close out one bank account.
Cash in some change.
Sell Matt's car (we already have a buyer).

That's not an exhaustive list, but it's all I've got at the moment. The stress comes in waves. I was feeling pretty good about things until Lily started crying just now that she's hungry. We will get through this!

Sorry there aren't any photos here, I'm just doing a brain dump. Plus I don't think a picture of Avis would be very interesting. :)

16 August, 2016

We have a move date!

We received our visas in the mail today. Nothing like cutting it close!

Movers are coming to pack up our house on Wednesday (1.5 days from now)! So tomorrow I have to get everything together that we are not shipping, so we will have it with us when we travel.

And the people at Matt's work booked our travel today. We leave on Friday the 19th at 7:40pm. We'll arrive at our final destination sometime around 3pm Saturday England time. I'll miss about half of my birthday because of travel, but I'll let that slide just this once.

That's it for now. I have so much to do in the next 24 hours!

07 August, 2016

Mountains, Beautiful Weather, and Friends


I was not driving when this picture was taken


We moved to Colorado in January 2012. Coming from the Midwest, I was in awe of the mountain views, and I wondered how anyone could drive around taking this scenery for granted.
Four and a half years later, I'm still in awe.  Now, though, there are times when I haven't noticed the mountains until halfway through my drive somewhere. I will miss these views terribly, and I'm really trying to soak it in every time I have the chance.

January 2012

January 2012, days later


Another thing I will miss around here is the weather. The lack of humidity and the sunny days paired with the amazing scenery made me fall in love with the Denver area. England won't have as dramatic shifts in temperature, but it also won't have as much sun, or even snow. I'm already trying to mentally prepare myself for the adjustment.





Lastly, I will miss the friends I've made here, and I will miss my kids' friends. I've met some great people in the last four years, and I'm trying to distract myself from this part because it makes me emotional. When we moved, I was unsure if I'd be able to make friends without my hometown safety net, and now I know that I can.  That thought at least helps my anxiety of moving even farther away.

I am excited about the huge adventure in front of us, but these are the local things I'll miss the most. And maybe Smashburger.

05 August, 2016

Intro and FAQs

Greetings!

For the past few months, our family of five has been preparing to make the move from Denver to the UK. It has been an exciting and hectic time for all of us.
Some of our preparations have included a giant purge of household things, a yard sale, putting our house on the market, and making one last trip to our hometown to visit friends and family. As of this posting, we're under contract on the house and awaiting our visas.
This will be my first time blogging, but I'm excited to give it a go and post about our adventures and challenges.

Here are a few of the most frequent questions I have received so far:

1. Why?!   My answer to this is, "Why not?" Matt and I are jumping at the chance to live in another country for a time. Of course, this will be regular life (work, school, childrearing), just in a different place. But it will allow us opportunities that we wouldn't have otherwise.

2. Where will you live?  We will be a couple of hours north of London.

3. How long will you be there?  We really don't know yet. We will have to be there for at least one year, but after that it's open ended. If we love it, we can stay for as long as the job goes on in that location.

4. Where will you live once you return to the US?  We have no idea. It all depends on where the jobs are and where we can afford to live. Love you, Colorado, but our time may be at its end!

I hope you enjoy following us on our travels!