Distance Makes the Heart Fonder...and Sadder

My parents and Aunt arrived in Henley 2 weeks ago and in what felt like just a few days, they were headed out the door and back to the airport again this morning. It was a sad, sad morning of goodbyes, but the two weeks that we got to spend together made today's depression well worth it. 

On the day of their arrival, we took the family out to Henley's Three Tuns pub for some good English eats to celebrate my dad and Dorian's birthdays. The next night, we got to take my dad out for his first pub drinking experience: awesome. Everybody was in good spirits-- including my dad...who was a bit jet-lagged!

Zzzzzzzz...

The weather was amazing in Henley that first weekend! We took the family on a stroll along the river and had a picnic by the bridge.

Walking to town

At the Bull on Bell with Lesley and Richard

The day after Dorian's birthday, we packed our bags and took a taxi to St. Pancras International train station to board the 2 hour Eurostar train to Paris for the rest of the week. Warning: major photo and caption blogging ahead!

Taxi ride to Eurostar

When I asked my dad what he hoped to do during our week in Paris, his reply was simple: "Nothing" (well, except eat and drink wine of course!). We spent 5 days walking the beautiful streets of the City of Lights, ate baguettes, drank vin rouge, practiced French, tried not to get mangled by the fast-closing metro doors, and enjoyed some touristy attractions. This was a completely different experience compared to my trip with Stegen 7 years ago for our honeymoon--ah, kids do change everything, don't they? 

Here are some shots from our trip:

Notre Dame

At Point Zero

Night Louvre pyramids

Daytime Louvre

Picnic at Eiffel Tower

Sacré-Cœur

Doors of Sacré-Cœur

Across La Seine from Eiffel Tower

Louvre with Mummy

Rare family shot at Eiffel Tower

Dad and Stegen at Arc de Triomphe

Bateaux Vedettes du Pont Neuf (Seine cruise)

Glace at Eiffel Tower

Pont de l'Archevêché (Lovelock Bridge)

Climbing up Eiffel Tower (Go Dad!!!)

Go Dorian!

3/4 way up to 2nd floor before I had to carry him up...impressive!

Dad at the top of the tower

Montmarte

Night tower (tres jolie!)

Eurostar back to London

We returned back to Henley and the kids went back to school. For the rest of the visit, my Mom frequented Waitrose (she told me she'd miss that market the most), built Legos, my Dad whipped up some mean Chinese cuisine, my Aunt explored the city, and we took a day trip out to London for some sightseeing. Of all the beautiful places we saw, my mom was most excited to see the Tower Bridge (her lego set in real life!). I love these pictures of my parents:

Isn't it funny how relationships work? I never really had a good one with my parents--always arguing with each other and never truly enjoying each others company. Insert a crazy move across the world and I'm left down and weepy, missing them now that they're gone. We love you Mom, Dad, and Niang! Thank you for coming to see us, we'll never forget it.

On a happier note, Audrey has started a collection of "jump shots" from around the world. I'll be posting them to the blog and hopefully she'll have a nice photo book of her travels (and jumps) by the time this adventure in England is complete! First up: jump shots in Paris.

Arc de Triomphe

Arc de Triomphe with Dad

Champs-Élysées side of Arc de Triomphe

Pyramid at the Louvre

Louvre

Louvre (again)

Louvre (again, again) with Dorian

Eiffel Tower

Sacré-Cœur

Happy jumping!

Oh, Mr. Sun!

It's true: we had some gooooood sunshine the last few days. I didn't know how much I craved it until I found myself sitting on a bench in front of the library for 20 minutes, just soaking it all in. Don't believe me? Here's my ankle with proof:

Amazing.

The sun did my mind and body such wonders that I decided I needed to do something really meaningful--why not pull out one of Audrey's teeth?! Juuusssst kidding. Audrey's tooth has been wobbly for quite some time now and with the new tooth already popping up behind it, I had no choice but to take action! Yes, there was a little blood, but minimal screaming (sorta)! She wrote a note to the tooth fairy asking her to please let her keep her first tooth. Here's the happy girl with her tooth back and a £2 coin :)

Anyway, my parents and aunt arrive around noon tomorrow--I still can't believe it! Had we not moved to the UK, I doubt my parents would've ever step foot in Europe. This makes me even more excited to show them around Paris next week! I've been learning French with a friend every Thursday--I now know how to ask for the toilet and order a glass of red wine. Yep, all set.

Double Dipping

No, I'm not referring to salsa or guac and whether or not one is allowed to re-dip a chip that's already been in contact with one's mouth. I'm talking about Mother's Day (or originally "Mothering Sunday). Who knew that the day to celebrate how awesome Moms are was different in the UK?! While we celebrate our moms on the second Sunday of May, the Brits celebrate it on the fourth Sunday of Lent, exactly 3 weeks before Easter Sunday. This year, that falls on the 30th of March.

Being that I'm an American living in England...does this mean I get to double dip on some mother love??

Speaking of holidays, we were invited to a friend's house on Tuesday and were promised pancakes after school. I thought it was a little strange to set such a specific snack, but I went along with it. On the way over to their village, the DJ's on the radio were raving about their lunch pancakes and wishing us well on our own pancake adventures. Am I missing something here? Apparently I didn't get the memo--it was National Pancake Day! Once I knew what we were celebrating, I was all in! The mom we visited whipped up some "pancakes" which I'd say we're more like crêpes lined with lemon and sugar or Nutella...yum!

Today was another day of celebration! World Book Day was happening (I still need to consult the Google to make sure that it's real!) and Audrey was asked to dress as her favorite character from any Roald Dahl book. If you know Audrey at all, then you'd know that she thinks she's half princess...which is why I was very surprised that she chose to be Mrs. Twit from The Twits! Here she is, warts and all:

Dorian's celebration was less specific, so he went to school dressed up as a dinosaur:

I have yet to confirm, but if it is indeed real, then Happy World Book Day to all (especially you Christian Grey fans out there!). Stegen celebrated by buying himself some pastries at our Thursday town market:

Anyway, the rains have subsided a bit, and the sun even came out for a bit on Saturday! My parents and aunt will be here on Friday of next week and then we're off to France the following Tuesday to celebrate my dad and Dorian's birthdays. I've been checking the weather reports for Paris and it looks like we're in luck--no rain expected and we may even get some temperatures in the high 50's!

I don't have a new 30 Seconds With Audrey, but I do have a sweet picture of her at her very first sleepover in Henley. 

We hope you're all having a nice week so far!

It's Bahhhth Time

Half-term break flew by, but we made sure to sneak in a quick trip before the kids go back to school. On Saturday, we took our little car on its first road trip since it joined our family...and I drove!! My driving skills must be improving--such smooth sailing that Dorian took a nice, long snooze.

We hopped in the car with snacks galore and took off on a 2-hour drive to the very beautiful city of Bath (aka Baaaahth). Our first stop upon arrival was to find some hot food to fill our tummies. What better place than some good ol' Cornwall pasties? Piping hot and filled with their new recipe of Chicken Tikka Masala--these guys know the way to my heart: flaky crust + delish curry = oh yes.

After devouring our pasties and nursing our burnt tongues for a bit, we strolled along for about a block and came upon the Roman Baths. I'm usually always on the lookout for some free museum trips, but TripAdvisor promised that the Baths were worth the admission fee of £17/adult (and since the guy at the counter didn't charge us for the kids, it felt like we got a discount!). Well TripAdvisor, you were right--the Roman Baths were definitely worth the price. 

The kids each got their own audio guide explaining the baths in kid-speak and a map with stickers to fill out as they found exhibits. The Roman Baths are found below street level and are still filled with the hot springs that rise at over 1 million liters everyday!! If you look closely at this picture, you can make out the steam above the water and even some bubbling on the surface.

Here is where the excess water is diverted to other baths:

We took about 1.5 hours to explore the baths as well as the many artifacts that were on display from the Bath Temple--including objects that were thrown into the Sacred Spring as offerings to Minerva, as well as Gorgon's head above the entrance to the temple.

We got up-close and personal with the main bath towards the end and got a good picture of Audrey:

After returning our audio guides, we found ourselves in the Pump Room where a faucet continuously pumps clean spa water for visitors to drink. The water is pretty hot and according to Audrey, it "smells like fart." Well, we drank it anyway!

Right outside of the Roman Baths is the Bath Abbey, which we were really excited to see (the Tudors stood in abbeys just like this one!!). 

The architecture from this time never ceases to amaze me. I mean, seriously, can someone make my ceilings look like that?!

We left Bath at 3:15pm with minutes to spare on our parking permit and decided to make the hour trip a bit East to see Stonehenge. Everyone says it's not worth the trip, but dangit, we were too close not to just see for ourselves! We got to the entrance (wait, we can't just drive up to the pile of rocks?) and were told that the last tour was at 3pm and that we'd have to come back another day. We asked if we could just drive by and get a glimpse of it, but the tall line of trees they planted to block our view along with her "sorry, sucker" look, answered our question. Ah well, a tram ride to the rocks was £15/person, so this was probably a blessing in disguise! (Sidenote: £15 to see the rocks? Brother, please.) 

So off we drove, sad and forlorn--we wouldn't see everything we had set out to see after all.

But, wait! What's that coming up on the side of the road?! (Cue triumphant music)

Stonehenge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I see you!!!!!!!! Ahh, all is well in the world again.

Aside from having a successful first road trip, Saturday also marked an important "first" for Dorian since being potty trained-- he took his first emergency wee on the side of the road!

Well, we're nearing the end of February, which means the countdown to my parents' and aunt's arrival in Henley is officially on! Distance truly makes the heart grow fonder. I would never have imagined that I'd be this excited to see them again. It's almost like being 10 years old, laying in bed with my sister and Aunt Jessica, imagining ourselves on the Top Gun roller coaster (my favorite!) in anticipation for our Great America trip the next day (if you grew up in the Bay Area, you know what I'm talking about!). I'm pretty excited.

So excited, in fact, that I'm considering getting the kids new pets!

Or not.