UK Tour - 29th August - 8th September

Right, now back to filling you in on our UK trip...

The 29th August was our, wait for it, 13th wedding anniversary! Yes, we really are that old! Ed and I went out for dinner at the Wycombe Arms (the setting for many a happy celebratory feast in the past!) and we both concluded that the results of our annual wrinkle audit were favorable. Maybe it was the lighting?!

The rest of this portion of our trip, Ed was back at work and Daniel and I took things fairly easy. There were a few memorable highlights though... a lovely day with our good friends, the Packmans - such a treat to be able to get to know Lydia (another of our fabulous God-daughters) better and to catch up with lovely friends that we feel so at ease with.

A lovely, girly lunch with Liddie (a G at heart, although we know you now love being a C!) and a mad night out with the freeway boys... you're all loonies!

Two wonderful family-reunion days - one in Winchester with my Mum's sisters and their (ever-increasing!) families and Dad's sister & her husband...

...AND one in Wimbledon with Ed's Mum's side of the family. We are SO blessed to be part of such big, caring and Jesus-loving families! Our hearts ache to be back in the UK so that we can see MORE of you all!

We have now officially been back in the USA for over a month! Life here is going well, we have been enjoying 'scorchio' weather conditions - which has been a real treat. Generally, we have just been slotting back into the comfortable familiarity of a predictable routine, but this weekend, we DID break the mould by going WHALE watching in long beach on Friday! Oh yes! Apparently they had been seeing blue whales on a daily basis for the week or so preceding our trip, so we set sail with hopeful hearts. Sadly, although we DID have the joy of seeing plenty of dolphins up close, the whales were obviously having some kind of deep sea convention... elsewhere. They didn't show us even the tip of a tail fin to satisfy our large-sea-dwelling-mammal appetites! But it was still lovely to be out on the ocean in glorious sunshine.

From long beach, we headed further east, into the LA mountains for our church retreat. We were told we were going to be staying in a 'basic cabin' and friends of ours who had been before had warned us that it was fairly primitive... but when we arrived, we were amazed to find that our cabin was GORGEOUS - honestly, we would have paid top dollar to stay there! It was a great weekend. Surrounded by breathtaking scenery, receiving challenging and uplifting teaching and getting to know our brothers and sisters out here better... a perfect way to spend a few days!

Daniel's vocabulary explosion is in full swing. Every day new words emerge that I had no idea he knew. His favorite word is 'hot'. He is very pleased with himself for learning how to say 'A,B,C' this week... and so says it ALL the time! His only other 'phrase' is 'have a giggle', which is simply adorable! He can now climb up the ladder on the climbing frame at our local park - something that other children his age are not attempting! NO sign of any developmental delay there then! Praise God! His absolute favorite thing to do? The cleaning! Yesterday I bought him a mini broom - and the delight on his face as he sweeps his way around the house is an absolute picture!