Precious times

What a lovely evening we had with the Poulsons. There are people in this life who you are blessed to know and call friends and Tom and Jill are those sort of people, not just with us but everyone they come into contact with. They are family, maybe not by blood, but in the deepest sense of the true meaning of the word. The children viewed them as family too, it was amazing how they were, immediately, so comfortable with them.

We talked all night, sharing our hearts, catching up for all the years we had missed. It was a good time and we are so grateful for who these people are.

Today we walked to a local park to play and feed the ducks, so of course the kiddos were happy. English parks have been a hit.

Asia took the picture of me!

All the parks we have been to have had one of these zip-line swings, which have proved to be a favorite...they are pretty fun.

Sweet Jill doing most of the hard work, James helped a little too.

Bryttain loves the monkey bars, she feels very empowered and fulfilled.

Feeding the ducks (and geese), Asia may have worried Jill a little.

On our way back to their house Brtyttain collected daisies and we made daisy chains. Asia kicked a ball all the way home.

My old best friend, Sarah, joined us for lunch (Tom and Jill are her parents). It was so nice to see her again, the last time I saw her was when I came over for my brother's wedding, on my own. I had been completely jetlagged and missing my family on that occasion, but here we all were together - so amazing. She has not changed at all, just as funny and sweet and wonderful as ever, my only regret is that it was a short time and she left before I had the chance to take a photograph. Although I did manage to get photos of Tom and Jill with the kids. Then it was time to leave.

I can actually be quite funny in real life...at least my kids think so!

It was a long drive and we had been planning on stopping somewhere for dinner and a break. We finally passed through a town and found a Chinese restaurant. English Chinese food is definitely different than American Chinese food (as were the exorbitant prices). We were tired and hungry and our poor waiter could not actually speak much English and just seemed to know the items on the menu phonetically, which meant a little frustration as well as polite attempts to contain our mirth, but we left him a nice tip, which he seemed surprised and happy about. We finally arrived at Grandad and Nanny Pam's, far too late and past all the bedtimes, but the kids soon settled in and were ready for a bedtime story with Nanny.