Saying Goodbye

This is a hard post to write. I've been putting it off for a while, but it needs to put out there.

God truly and definitely blessed us through placing us so near to my baby sister the last two years we were in England.

We spent time together every single week. There wasn't a week we didn't see each other,and we frequently saw each other on the weekends.

We celebrated nearly every holiday together, and definitely every birthday. I was there shortly after Lael was born (in Germany) and then when Gabby was born (in England). Caitlin's girls are like my own. They would come over to our house or we would go there, and it was like five siblings instead of two and three. I loved it.

So the last day we would see them was the hardest I have spent in a long time.

Caitlin and Artur and the girls drove up in the morning, and we went to lunch at a local pub near where we were living the last two weeks of our time in England. The weather was perfect so we sat outside.
We had a great time and laughed a lot!

Afterwards, we drove to Crickley Hill which is the same place we went our very first full day in Cheltenham. We spent the afternoon running around and playing, sitting in the sun and chatting, taking photos and laughing. It was a sweet, sweet time.








We love you, Lieders. We miss you and love you.

Finishing Up York

So once I started blogging again yesterday I realize I have a need to get caught up with it. And here in America my photos load up almost immediately - as opposed to England where it took forEVER for one picture to load.

So here goes. Our second day in York we drove about 45 minutes outside the city to Pickering Castle. It was one of our favorite kinds of places to visit as it was ruins. Magnificent ruins, though.

From Wikipedia:

The original structure was built by the Normans under William the Conqueror in 1069–1070. This early building included the large, central mound (the motte), the outer palisades (enclosing the bailey) and internal buildings, notably the keep on top of the motte. Ditches were also dug to make assault on the walls difficult. The main purpose of the castle at this time was to maintain control of the area after the harrying of the North.




Next stop, Helmsley Castle. More awesome ruins complete with a really cool museum.

From Wikipedia:

Helmsley Castle (also known anciently as Hamlake) is a medieval castle situated in the market town of Helmsley, North Yorkshire, England.

The castle was first constructed in wood around 1120 by Walter l'Espec. Walter had no children and on his death in 1154 the castle passed to his sister Adelina who had married Peter de Roos. In 1186 their son Robert de Roos began work on converting the castle to stone. He built the two main towers, the round corner towers and the main gateway on the south side of the castle.

I know, riveting. But we just love exploring these places.





We had lunch in the town where Helmsley is located at a quaint pub who gave Patrick a free pudding because it was Fathers' Day. Sticky Toffee Pudding, baby. Yum.

After that, on we went to Rievaulx Abbey - by FAR the best place we visited that day.

From Wiki:

Rievaulx Abbey was founded in 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey as a mission centre for the colonisation of the north of England and Scotland. It was the first Cistercian abbey in the north. With time it became one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, second only to Fountains Abbey in fame.







That night, we sold our English car to a new American family who just arrived to England. We were planning on taking the train back to Cheltenham, so the next morning we caught a cab to the train station. We had some time on our hands, but Gillian was poorly. She had a fever and the shivers. We tried to do a couple easy things, but mostly we took it easy until our train left. We did take a ferry ride on the River Ouse (pronounced ooze) and visited the most awesome National Railway Museum, which is free, for my English readers. Loved it.




This family walked by us on our way to the River Ouse:

And I couldn't resist posting this picture of my darling children:

My Baby is 5

Now I remember one reason I haven't blogged about Aidan's birthday. It's because we spent that wonderful day with my sister, Caitlin, and her family, and looking at the pictures of all of us brings me to tears because I miss her so, so, so much.

But this post is not about me, it's about my totally rockin' 5-year old. Aidan has grown so much in the past year - not just physically. He's a strong boy, alllll boy who is rough and tumble and likes to run and jump and play "weapons." But he's still little enough that he craves a mommy-cuddle sometimes, too.

We celebrated Aidan's birthday at Caitlin's house. He requested sausages and french fries and chocolate cake for dessert.
Then it was time to open presents:



I think this was Aidan's favorite gift: A Storm Trooper costume from Aunt Caitlin and Uncle Artur
More fun opening presents:



Cake time!

The rest of the afternoon was spent at a park near Caitlin and Artur's house in Bristol:

For some reason I only have pictures of Lael and Patrick at the park. Perhaps it is because they are the most entertaining to watch?


I love this girl. She is her aunt's niece. Look at her - so bothered by the sand in between her toes that she can't take it anymore and just plops down in the middle of the playground to clean between her piggies!

Aidan received some more packages as the week went on:



All in all it was a wonderful fifth birthday for this little punkin. Aidan is dear to his entire family, even though he is now learning to hold his own with his big brother and sister. We couldn't have asked for a more precious kid to be the final member of our five. We love you so much, Aidan!