Chris and Terijo's blog

Come to Our New Blog

2009-05-29T17:24:00.002-04:00

We've got a new blog: http://misterandmissguided.blogspot.com/

After much discussion and realizing "Jones" is just too common of a blog and a lot of variations were taken I felt that a semi-unique name was something I wanted. I had a lot of thoughts but today it came to me, especially after a tiring and trying week of potty training.

I truly felt misguided by all I hoped to get accomplished this short week of being home before starting back at work. I felt that she would truly take to potty training and we would encounter a few accidents here and there. I wasn't ready for the onslaught of wet underwear one after the other.

Then more misguided thoughts I had in trying to employ all these different things I read about in how to train your toddler. I realized that I have a lot of misguided notions and thoughts on how to best do things in raising a toddler and that my toddler has her own agenda.

Thus came the thought of Miss-guided. Since I'm not the only one in this family who has thoughts that are misguided, mister only seemed appropriate to add. So enjoy our new site and I hope to modify it and add a link soon to the pictures from our trip to the UK and beyond.

Mommy Called the Dr. and the Dr. Said

2009-05-25T21:17:00.002-04:00

Well, we're going to break away from our format that we used in the UK for the blog until we create a new blog which will be coming soon. Before that happens, I don't want to lose our "diary" of Makenna and her growth, foibles, and general mischievousness.

Saturday we were coming back from Chris's parents house and Makenna had her sunglasses but then took them off and dropped them. She promptly said, "Why did you drop your glasses?" I asked her the question back and she replied, "cause." Short, simple and sarcastic all rolled up into one.

Today, we were trying to get ready to go up to the cottage to visit with more family and she was playing with "pennies," which was the change that we save in a jar. She was placing "pennies" every where, down the laundry shoot, down her shirt, in drawers. Pretty much any where except where I wanted her to, which was back in the jar. As Chris and I were talking, I all of a sudden heard a gag like cough and looked at Makenna who had reddish eyes. I asked very sternly, "Makenna did you just swallow a penny?" Her reply...."Yes." We asked her again and again in case she didn't understand our fearful question the first time. Every time she replied "Yes." Chris then asked her to show him what she did, which I didn't think was a good idea. She picked up a penny and started to put it in her mouth. That bumped up the percentage that she actually did it a lot more.

Chris had me call the doctor even though I was fairly certain that all we have to do is wait for the day "she makes change," as my brother put it. Sure enough since she wasn't in any respiratory distress, they said just keep track of her "outgoings" to see if it passes through.

What was really ironic about the whole thing was that just earlier in the morning I was watching a show and the parent said to another parent that he didn't feel he was a "parent" unless his child swallowed a few pennies here and there. I thought that was a weird statement and a bit careless and then it happened to me. It didn't make me feel any more like a parent than before. It just taught me I can't assume that she's past that stage of putting things in her mouth.

Not to mention keeping an eye on her at the cottage. On Sunday, she very quietly sneaked out and had gotten down the steps of the porch by the time I caught her. I happened to walk into the main room of the cottage and asked where she was and it didn't take long to realize where she most likely was headed. When I caught up with her she stated she wanted to "splash" as we had previously been down at the dock and let her put her feet in the water and kick or use her hands to splash around. We gave her a stern talking to about not leaving the cottage without mommy or daddy. That didn't stop her from trying repeatedly yesterday and today. The difference was that today I kept a more diligent eye on her. Now I just have to apply that more often to all things.

22May2009: Day 361: She Ate It, She Ate It!

2009-05-22T23:16:00.002-04:00

We woke up around 5am (as our bodies and minds felt it was 10am) plus we heard Makenna yelling, "Stuck, stuck!~" Chris went up and she had gotten her leg stuck through a wooden slat in the crib. We need to get that changed into a bed ASAP. I went back to sleep and Chris got up around 6am.

We had to get both cars done for inspection as they were expired. We also went through some mail, and went to Sam's club, of course. Sam's club missed us and our outrageous spending I'm sure. I feel surprised that they didn't fold and go under while we were away.

We grabbed a cooked chicken from there for dinner and I cooked some frozen corn. Makenna surprisingly didn't eat much chicken, maybe a bite or two, but she did eat the corn and kept asking for more. I was in shock! She hasn't eaten corn in maybe a year. I was so excited and have great hopes for the future.

We met up with some family and friends at the church to play the "Newlywed Game" which was quite fun and funny. Chris and I won...we're "oldyweds" as Chris said, but we didn't win by a landslide. In fact, it was the last 50 point question that we got extremely lucky on. Another couple was 5 points behind us and they got the question correct. I was racking my brain for what the answer could be and I guessed right! We won a Target gift card and I couldn't be more excited. I love Target and will most likely be spending it tomorrow.

21May2009: Day 360: Isn't That A Pip

2009-05-22T22:43:00.002-04:00

Up way too early - 5am. Chris really wanted to make sure we made it for our 12pm flight. I guess it was a good thing as the motorway on the way to Heathrow did get backed up. That is one thing I will not miss--the inane way these people seem to stop for a butterfly crossing the road. I say this because all traffic seems to come to a sudden halt for no reason that is obvious (besides the fact that they don't seem to be able to merge without stopping,) and then all of a sudden, you are off and speeding again.

We had time to sit and eat a breakfast in the airport and then a little time to walk around. Makenna did really well on the plane overall. She only had about three little breakdowns and each were less than five minutes. It was mostly over her DVD player quitting as it didn't charge like we thought. So she only got about an hour's worth of play time. She was quite upset and didn't hesitate to let us know. I was able to get her to watch the movie on the plane for a small bit. Since we were near the back of the plane, I took her to the back and she got to look out the window and see the clouds and some things below. That excited her. By the last two hours of the trip she was "done." She kept saying, "done, done, off?" I explained that we had a little while longer to go and after that small melt down she calmed down and we got through it.

One thing that got me was the lunch on the plane. It was chicken with carrots and green beans and mashed potatoes. Well, Makenna actually had no problems eating the chicken...until...I thought I'd be "smart" and put a tiny piece of carrot with it. She somehow cleverly kept biting off the chicken without eating the carrot. I finally shoved the whole thing in her mouth and after a few chews, she spit the whole thing out and refused to eat any more. "Dang It!" I said.

We made it to Washington, got through customs pretty quickly, picked up our luggage, walked it 30 feet and turned it back in again. Can anyone tell me why this was necessary? Chris was not too happy that we had to pick it back up to just turn around and turn it back in for our final flight to Binghamton. They don't re-weigh it, they don't check it again, as far as we know, it's just as if we're the baggage handlers to save them money.

Anyways, since Makenna didn't eat too much at lunch, she was hungry and Chris could only find a "hot gog." She chowed this down. I was joking how we're "improving" on our food fare for Makenna...from fried chicken nuggets to the ever healthy hot dog. Great!

Got on the small plane to Binghamton with a small incident. The plane had 12 rows and one column had a single seat "A," and then across the aisle were two seats "D" & "F." Chris, some how, lucked out and had a seat in "A" up near the front of the plane. I was sent to the very last row and Makenna had an "A" and that left me, I figured, with the seat right across the aisle, as the "F" seat was taken by another person. After I got Makenna all settled in, I started to sit and another kid (probably about 12,) came to say that I was in his seat. I also thought I heard him say that I would need to go up front and find a seat. I was incredulous and very tired, saying "Oh, and what am I supposed to do? Leave her back here on her own? Why don't I just do that!?!" He walked away and I heard him say that some lady had the seat with her little child back there. In the meantime, another lady in the row before us told me that the kid had said that he would go up and find a seat. I felt bad for snapping. Makenna on the other hand, after trying and succeeding at taking off her seat belt, finally left it alone and before the plane even took off, was fast asleep.

When we got into Binghamton, we were greeted by some family and went out to eat some GOOD Chinese food. Makenna was a bit grouchy but perked up when she saw her cousin Katie. At the airport Katie's dad, my brother, said, "Katie's Crazy!" Makenna then had the best time for the next two hours saying "Katie's crazy!" When we were at the Chinese restaurant, Makenna also enjoyed following Katie's lead in standing on the table. I was like, "Makenna, you're older and need to set the example, not be the follower."

Makenna also enjoyed saying, "Isn't that a Pip." She started saying this on the car ride on the way to the airport and continued saying it on and off throughout the day. I guess that was a good way to say goodbye to England...bye ending with a typical old English saying.

20May2009: Day 359: Goodbye Gillingham

2009-05-20T17:31:00.016-04:00

Arghh why is it your body gets no sleep in anticipation or stress of things? We were up past 2am last night making sure that everything we needed to be shipped was ready to be shipped. We had to make sure that the suitcases weren’t over 50 lbs and if they were, we needed to pick out more things to be shipped. Then, when we finally went to bed, all I could think about was what things still needed to be done before the shippers came and what cleaning was left to do. At 3:30am I looked at the clock and was like, okay body and mind, time to sleep!

Up about 7am and all the things in my mind had to come to fruition. We were able to “ship” Makenna off to Hannah’s for the morning which was a good thing. The shipper’s came about 9:30am and for the next two hours, packed our things into 30 boxes. Then we had about a half hour to finish cleaning the upstairs and moving furniture back where it was when we first got here.

Makenna enjoyed playing at the park for around two hours with Hannah and her sister and mom. She came in ravenous for lunch and was quite upset she did have her “mushroom-ham noodles.” I felt bad. That ended up being a comment I made all day today, “I feel bad.”

I at least took her to play group one last time so she could go on the bounce house and see Hannah and Bethany for the last time, with the hopes that they will meet again in the not to distant future. They gave Makenna a book called, “You Are Special” and a card to us both thanking us for coming which I thought was really nice.

We came home and she got a nap, of which I was jealous, but I wanted those shoes that I talked about so I went off shopping while Chris took a short nap then continued to get things straightened out and cleaned up around the house. No luck in finding the shoes though. I went to about ten different stores, and only one store had them and I didn’t like the colors available. I soothed my “buying” by getting my new niece Natalie a cute outfit to bring back.

When Makenna got up from her nap, she was already crying for Hannah and to go to the park. Here’s where the guilt really started to set in. I know she won’t remember Hannah after a little while but I feel like these were two souls who knew each other in the premortal existence and to now part them again breaks my heart. We at least took her to the park to ease some of the guilt.

We had a hard time dragging her away from here and when we finally started to leave, she said, “We’ll come back another time, tomorrow.” How do you explain to a young child that she won’t be coming back to this park, most likely ever again? We eased our guilt again by taking her for Chinese and ice cream.

Well, since the house was mostly cleaned and echoing as a matter of fact, I took some pictures of the rest of the house for our memories. I kind of wish now I had taken pictures of our first dinky apartment when we got here as that place was definitely a place to remember (said very sarcastically). I guess I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and didn’t want any memories at the time. At least I’ll have these.

First is the kitchen:

Then the Dining Room:

Stairs going up:

Upstairs "Purple" bathroom:

The "Guest Bedroom" - see what you missed! You could've slept in these bright colors:

Makenna's Room:

And yes, I know the picture is lop-sided - Makenna loves looking at the picture of the "beach" in her room and plays with it

Finally, the Master bedroom. This obviously has the remnants of our "stuff" to be packed so it looks a bit messy:

19May2009: Day 358: One Last BBQ

2009-05-19T18:26:00.002-04:00

Every day it gets closer to leave, I think of reasons not to. One would be all the cleaning and packing and stress of it all. Luckily we only have to pack "things" and not furniture. Also I'm grateful that a company is coming to actually pack all of the stuff.

All of this morning was cleaning while Makenna was at nursery. Plus deciding what more to ship, give away or throw away. Tomorrow will be more of the same plus final packing of our suitcases. I was able to get Makenna's "goal" book from nursery to have so I'm super excited to read more about her progress.

I was able to take Makenna to the park after lunch to meet up with Hannah. This time they did run across the field to each other. Even though Makenna kept running straight past her to her sister Bethany. After about an hour, they both agreed that they wanted to go home and take naps.

Tonight, the neighbor across the street that Chris works with had a BBQ and invited people from Chris's work. I thought it was funny that to get the coals heated up quicker, they added a ton of lighter fluid and then used a hair dryer to get it going. That was a first, but it worked. We had a lot of food food and I enjoyed and was annoyed at the same time by Makenna wanting to go on and off the trampoline that they had.

She kept going on for a few minutes then wanting off, then going back on. This required taking her shoes on and off, thus my annoyance. To see her on it jumping gleefully was worth it though. She would jump up and down and yell, "hi daddy, hi daddy." She eventually tired of this and wanted to go inside to play with the kids (Daniel and Sophie). They kept her entertained for a bit and when it was dinner time, she actually ate a hamburger with "sauce." In fact, she almost ate two - although they weren't very big.

Got her home and gave her a bath. Her last bath here in this tub. Then after getting her down for bed, the bishop of my church and his wife stopped by go say goodbye and give us a gift and a very nice card from the members of the church. This again gave me pause to think about leaving. I don't think I gave or invested enough time in getting to know people and kept more to myself and my routine with Makenna and now I wish I had reached out more. I guess I should take away that meeting people is a privilege and that you should invest time, no matter how short to get to know them.

18May2009: Day 357: Castell Coch & Caerphilly Castle, Wales

2009-05-18T17:38:00.006-04:00

Last Day in Wales and our last trip in England before we return home. It’s hard to believe on some level. We headed off to the two other castles that were part of our package from Saturday that were also owned at some point by the very wealthy Bute family.

First was Castell Coch. It’s believed that there was a castle built here in the 13th century and then destroyed in the 14th century during the Welsh rebellions. Then in 1871 the 3rd Marquess of Bute came in and had the land cleared and brought in William Burgess the architect again to create another masterpiece for him. By this time, Burgess had been working for three years on Cardiff Castle.

Again, you can see some wonderful art done within the castle. This is quite a bit smaller than Cardiff but still had some pretty ornate things to it. There was also a working winch and portcullis. I thought it was kind of neat to see Lady Bute’s room, big and spacious and ornately done and then Lord Bute’s room was a shoe box by comparison and not too exciting. I think the guide Saturday at Cardiff said that Lord Bute spent most of his time in lady Bute’s bedrooms. No wonder, as they were bigger.

Makenna was pretty well behaved but anxious to go outside as it was raining and she was again dressed in a raincoat and wellies to allow her to stomp around like crazy in all the puddles she wants. When we finally let her outside she was as happy as could be as it was raining and windy so there were plenty of puddles to be splashed in. In fact, to get her to go to the next castle, we had to tell her that there were more puddles to be stomped in.

Caerphilly castle was pretty ruinous when the first Marquess of Bute took it over in 1776. The third marquess reroofed the great hall and again brought William Burgess yet again to fix this castle up. I think the only thing besides the roof that was fixed by the Bute family was a gatehouse. The rest was left as the ruins it is. The castle itself is the largest in Wales covering over 30 acres, and the second largest in England after Windsor Castle.

I think the story board outside the castle said it had something like three drawbridges and six portcullises at one time. It gives you an idea how massive this thing used to be. It’s also known because of the one leaning tower, the South-East Tower of the inner ward, which still has medieval features. They think the tower split because of “ground subsidence.”

We weren’t able to go in to the Great Hall as they were filming some BBC show there. We went to the various ruinous parts and looked around but the rain and wind kept us from really doing a thorough walk around. Plus, how much of ruins can you really see? Makenna of course enjoyed it due to all the puddles.

We left and walked to the downtown area and found a place to eat lunch. After, walked back to the car and headed back to our home in Kent. We got back a little bit after 5pm and started the usual laundry. Especially considering we only have a couple of days to do it all in.

I have to say I found the Welsh language extremely interesting. A lot of the words hardly have vowels in them. The signs in Wales have both the Welsh spelling and the English spelling. You can see some of the similarity but a lot of them you have no idea how they come up with what they do. In fact, here’s a link to a town in Wales, one we didn’t see because it’s up north, but it’s known as the second longest name known. http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com/
And I have no idea how you say it, but one of the guys that Chris worked with here, comes from Wales and he can say it like it’s nothing at all.

17May2009: Day 356: Picton & Pembroke Castle, Wales

2009-05-18T17:14:00.005-04:00

Yes, off again to more castles. I know Chris thinks I’m still really enamoured by them, but truth is I would rather find really nice fancy houses to look at so I can marvel at the wealth these people publicly flaunt in their homes. The unfortunate thing is that I don’t know if there are too many of them here in Wales and there is an over-abundance of castles.

We drove two hours south west along the coast of Wales to Picton Castle. It’s half a fortified manor house and half fully developed medieval castle. It was first built around 1300 by Sir John Wogan. We weren’t able to take any pictures inside but in all honesty, there wasn’t anything spectacular to take a picture of.

The castle came into the hands of the Philipps family in 1697 by way of inheritance and was in the family until 1988 when a trust was created to offset the cost of inheritance tax. I think the guide called it “death tax.” There is still one Phillips heir that lives at Picton in a house outside the garden. He said the castle is too warm in the summer and way too cold in the winter to live their.

The guide took us around the first floor and the basement. We couldn’t go up on the second floor where the bedrooms are because, according to the guide, it’s not handicapped accessible so they’re not allowed to let people up. The first floor just had your basic dining room, living room, library, and drawing room. It mostly had pictures of the Phillips family and some other pictures. One believed to be from Renoir and a picture of either Princess Elizabeth or Princess Mary (Henry VIII’s daughter). The guide thinks it is Princess Mary. There was some furniture too but nothing too grand. He liked, and so did I, that the furniture had a “used” aspect to it and not some pristine piece that should be in a museum.

The basement level he showed us a few rooms that contained some old things such as an old kitchen. There was a rolling pin that made ravioli, and things to churn and make butter, along with a lot of other things. Then in the next room were things to do the wash and cleaning. A lot of the things that he showed us were things that were actually from another museum that when it closed, they donated it to Picton Castle, so they weren’t things collected from here directly.

I guess it also had some grounds and gardens but we didn’t walk around as we wanted to get to the next castle as they said the last tour at the next castle was at 3:30pm and it was already 1:30pm. Plus, it was windy and rainy so walking around wasn’t something we were too into. Surprisingly, Makenna was “decent” in her behavior here. When we first got here, she was a screaming miserable mess. Then we put her in the cart to try and sleep, which she didn’t, but she calmed down. When she started to put up a fuss in the castle we gave her some crackers.

We had stopped at the café they had here to grab a bite to eat and got her a ham sandwich. She ate a few bites in order to get chips but she quickly decided she didn’t like to do this anymore. That’s why we agreed to crackers when she asked.

Well we got to the next castle and it was ruins. There was no “formal” tour as we thought. Pembroke Castle in one of the largest in Wales and is on a site that has been occupied for the past 12,000 years! They say this because there is a “wogan” which is a cavern deep in the rock beneath the castle and it was a shelter for cave dwellers during the Ice Age conditions of the Paleolithic period. They know this because of the stone tools that were left behind. Chris and I took turns going down to this cave and it was pretty neat. I was surprised how big it really was and how it was underneath this castle and grounds we had just been walking all over.

The castle started to take shape after the Battle of Hastings as King William II (son of William the Conqueror,) came into Wales and by 1090 all of Wales had become under Norman rule in some sort of fashion. In 1093 a timber castle started to take shape. King Henry I had Pembroke Castle during his reign and this was the Tudor Line (or Tewdwr as it’s spelled in Wales). That was something that Chris and I learned yesterday was that Henry VIII and his line of family is from Wales. In fact, Henry VII (Henry VIII's father,) was born here in Pembroke Castle in 1457.

This castle also played a part in the civil War from 1642-1648. As war broke out, and Wales was known to be strongly in favor of Parliament and the mayor at the time strengthened the castle and town walls. Unfortunately, in 1648, they still lost and surrendered and Oliver Cromwell decreed that the defenses of Pembroke should be destroyed. He had sections of the town wall demolished and at the castle the towers were filled with gunpowder and blew out their external faces. It wasn’t until 1928 that it was restored including the towers being rebuilt.

We went up and down a lot of spiral staircases at this castle. Due to the restoration, a lot of it was still accessible and I thought it was neat how I could go up one spiral staircase, and walk along and be in another section of the castle and come down that spiral staircase and be someplace else. It was a bit confusing at the same time. They had some displays set up to show you how the castle had been used in the 1800’s along with the history of the castle. Unfortunately, the history was very confusing to follow on the story boards.

It wasn’t until we finally relented and let Makenna out of her cart that she really perked up and was happy. We figured that she desperately needed a nap and straight away put her in the cart when we got here. This made going up and down some of these staircases a real treat. But she was yearning to go into the puddles as she finally had her wellies on. Unfortunately, she also fell a few times and is not the quickest to get up so she got quite dirty and wet at both castles.

At one point, I went up to the top of the Keep (a heck of a lot of spiral steps,) and Chris kept Makenna outside. When I came down, she was talking about “did” “did” and sleeping. I couldn’t follow and Chris told me that they found a “dead” bird. Then Makenna went on to say how it was sleeping. I guess Chris tried to explain to her how the birdie wouldn’t wake up and was now with God. When he told her that it was with God, she said they should say a prayer. I thought that was really cute and insightful. I guess I could’ve talked to her about the dead bird from last week at the house. Maybe when it comes to the birds and the bees talk, I’ll have him do the explaining and she can say we should have a prayer about that too.

We walked around the grounds some more and then took off to head back to the hotel. We knew there was a carvery near the hotel and we were anxious to go but smart enough to stop at Burger King to pick up some chicken bites for Makenna, or so we thought. Well, we were smart enough it was the carvery who was of a different opinion.

We were brought in the BK bag with us, and were seated. When the manager saw it, he refused to let us sit and have her eat it in the section we were in. Chris tried to explain that it was like “baby food” in a sense and I said, she won’t eat food off the carvery. The manager said we could eat it in the bar but Chris didn’t want to have Makenna sitting the bar section and I agreed. Chris again tried to tell the guy that it was just for Makenna and it was food for her. The manager didn’t budge. He said, “I don’t think BK would like it if I came in and sat down with carvery food.” I thought that was a stupid example because BK probably wouldn’t care or notice, and it wasn’t us who was sitting there eating it, it was a child. We left.

We drove around quite a while to find another place to eat. I was really not in the mood for fast food but finally relented when all other options looked as though they were closed. At the last minute, Chris found a pub like place and we had a pretty good meal and we all three shared a very chocolaty piece of cake with ice cream. Again, Makenna was really well behaved here. Especially considering she had eaten most of her chicken bites from BK as we drove around looking for a place to eat. By the time we were done with dinner it was 9pm, but we didn’t get here until 8pm with all our driving around so that wasn’t too bad.

When we got out to the car, Chris asked Makenna if she had enough chicken to eat today and she said, “Yes,” quite happily. Then he asked her if she had enough ice cream and she very distinctly said, “No.” Then he asked if she had enough cake, “No,” was the reply again. I think what was funny was the way “no” was stated as if it was a sense of surprise when she realized she didn’t have enough ice cream or cake. It gave us a good laugh to end the day.

Makenna kept asking on the way back to the hotel if it was time for bed and she and we were definitely ready to have an end to this day. I have to say I truly love this child as she loves to sleep and so do I.

16May2009: Day 355: Cardiff Castle, Wales

2009-05-18T16:53:00.006-04:00

We are now in Wales. It’s our last trip away to end our year long trip over here in England. It took us about 3.5 hours to get here. We got to our hotel and headed to Cardiff Castle. We got a combination ticket of three castles of which one is Cardiff. We were able to get a tour and luckily, we were able to take pictures. There was sign saying no picture taking but the tour guide said we could as long as we didn’t use flash. I was really glad as these rooms were really neat to look at.

Cardiff is one of three castles owned by the Bute family. These people were considered the wealthiest family in the world at the time (1700’s-1800’s). The castle was originally Roman built and was more of a fort. When the 3rd Marquess of Bute decided to build a new tower in 1888, they found the Roman ruins and he scrapped his plans and dug out the ruins instead and built from there.

He then brought in an architect by the name of William Burgess who really made a lot of improvements inside the castle to make it a livable mansion. Burgess really had some very interesting designs and painted directly onto the walls. The pictures of the inside designs that you see here are from Burgess.

We got out of the tour and had about an hour before the place closed. We went to the keep which was just a shell. It was getting extremely windy and ominous looking so Chris took Makenna back to the main grounds and I went up higher in the keep. It became very eerie as the wind was blowing really hard and the sky was getting dark. It was like the walls were howling. I was really afraid at one point that the walls were going to collapse it was so windy.

We left and found a Pizza Hut to eat dinner at and got Makenna some chicken strips but she only ate one and wasn’t really hungry for any more. We left there and walked around in downtown Cardiff a bit. We found the Cardiff City Hall and a museum (which was closed), then headed back to the hotel.

Makenna was fairly well behaved for the most part in the castle. She had a moment or two but we got over them quickly. This was surprising as she had a short nap in the car on the way to Cardiff and we didn’t have the cart in the castle. We just had to make sure she wasn’t touching things that she shouldn’t as the paintings on the walls were really old and delicate.

Hopefully tomorrow she’ll be just as good. It’s a Sunday though and considering her track record on Sundays while we’ve been on different outings, they haven’t been too good. I guess we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

15May2009: Day 354: You Must Be Joking

2009-05-16T03:12:00.002-04:00

Somehow I forgot to type the blog yesterday so it's coming in a day late. Not sure quite how that happened. I just think I have a lot on my mind with all the things we're trying to get done. We had the rental company come over today to do a precursory evaluation to see if there was any outstanding issues that need to be corrected before we leave. Such as stains on carpets, or any damage. The only "damage" I saw was the house needed to be cleaned, dusted, vacuumed. I think they tended to agree as they didn't see anything "outstanding." So I guess that's good. I didn't do my normal routine of cleaning this week as I know that I'll be doing heavy duty cleaning next week.

I had all these plans of going to downtown Chatham after picking up Makenna from nursery because I want to buy a certain type of shoes before I go. I didn't do it though. Partly because I knew she'd be hungry after nursery and partly because I didn't have the pushcart with me and I didn't want to be struggling to keep her with me. I thought about going after lunch but realized that the rental company would be coming then. Hopefully I can sneak it in once next week some how. Plus then, Chris can watch Makenna and I can do it more quickly. Or I can just forget the whole thing all together.

Tonight, while watching this little video that Makenna got from nursery, she started laughing and said, "you must be joking." I was laughing so hard. Chris missed it so I repeated what she said, and then she repeated it again. It was the way she said it...while she was half laughing as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. I suppose she must have gotten this from me as it sounds like something I would say more so than Chris.

I probably muttered it when Chris told me how the rental company wanted all this ridiculous stuff cleaned, or when he told me he thinks we have to leave the house at 6am to make a 12pm flight on Thursday when the airport is only about 1.5 hours away! I know, I know, traffic, and customs, etc., but still

14May2009: Day 353: Ex-Ca-Lent

2009-05-14T16:52:00.002-04:00

We made it back to the song and dance play group today and got to see Rebecca along with her two little ones, Josh and Jake. I have to say I will miss this as I think they have catchy tunes that I wouldn't normally hear in the states - at least not that I know of. Especially the ABC's where they say "zed" instead of "z" at the end. At least Makenna and I will have some of the songs to sing. Hopefully I can find something for us to join that's similar.

We also had our last day of swim class, even though the last day is next week, but we'll be on a plane heading home by then. I think I mentioned that she earned another swim badge and we got the badge and certificate today. I don't have the certificate in front of me to say what she had to do to get it but it was similar to last time with doing more unassisted swimming.

She did pretty well at listening today too. The teacher had this new flotation device which was a shark fin. It wrapped around and Velcro strapped to her. It then freed up her arms to swim better and it helped her float. She actually was willing to put it on and seemed to enjoy it for the most part as it meant that I wasn't holding on to her. She was upset that there was no watering can to play with after. The teacher smartly left those in the closet.

I branched out myself tonight and made a meatloaf. Mainly because I'm trying to use up what food we have left and we have a lot of ground beef left. I remember eating meatloaf when I was young and not really caring for it and surprisingly enough, Chris said the same thing. I found an A1 meatloaf recipe figuring that would be the best for all of us as we love our A1. It came out okay taste wise, it just fell apart. Makenna really enjoyed it, but then again, she loves A1 too and was glad to eat it as long as she had more "sauce." In fact, she came out and said, "Ex-ca-lent," for excellent. Wow, that's quite a compliment. I figured when we get home, this is another recipe I can try and tweak by adding pureed carrots or something.

I have to end by mentioning how we didn't get the pleasure of seeing the "back-story" on the American Idol contestants. Tonight, they just showed what you guys in the states saw on Tuesday, and I already know who the final two are just from the Internet. I was surprised though in watching it tonight, that they cut out the whole home-coming stuff and just made it an hour show with the singing. I felt a bit slighted. Not only that, but I'll have to call my sister-in-law to tape the finale for me to watch when we get home as I won't be able to see it. So if you're reading this...tape it for me!~

13May2009: Day 352: Laugh Now Child

2009-05-13T17:31:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe that we only have a week left before we return home to the states. There were a few days that I longed to go home and days where I felt like I could actually stay longer if needed.

The problem is all the stuff that I feel needs to get done before we go. It just seems to pile up and it overwhelms me to the point of not wanting to do anything. I want to be sure to get every bit of "play" time in for Makenna. That meant going to the gym nursery, then swimming, and then after lunch off to play group.

I made sure that we said goodbye to the personnel at the gym nursery as today was the last time they were watching her. They commented on how much she's grown from last June, not only physically, but verbally.

Swimming was again Makenna vying for freedom from my arms to do it on her own. That meant she went under quite a few times but I was there to lift her back up. No kids came today to play so it was just her and I. Luckily, someone left a "woggle" (water noodle as we call it,) and so we got to practice with it. She typically doesn't like to use it during class so it was a good chance to try and get her to feel comfortable with it. Now hopefully she'll be a bit more willing to use it tomorrow during class.

Play group was it's usual chaos. There's the one little boy who seems to make every child uncomfortable and his mother constantly yelling after him. He gets too violent and pushes everyone around. I don't think he's maliciously doing it but that this is his way to just get what he wants. Plus, his mother isn't always watching him and it's a lot of other mother's reprimanding him. There's also this other little girl that I've only seen there a few times and boy can this girl throw a fit. She only had one today but I've seen her in the past put up quite a fight. It makes me appreciate Makenna even more that her little outbursts are usually due to her being tired and not as intense as this other girl's.

Tonight I tried getting a "jump" on cleaning by dusting this one room a bit more thoroughly than usual and cleaning the windows on the sliding glass door. Unfortunately, I tried doing this with Makenna around and it's like, why bother? She just ended up putting her hands on it again. I told her that she couldn't touch, but that didn't help too much. I finally had her help me put dishes in the dishwasher and that made her happy. Plus, this child laughs at me every time I do some cleaning. She finds it funny that I clean. I keep telling her, "laugh now child, you won't find it funny when you're older and it's your chore to do."

12May2009: Day 351: Um, Excuse Me, I Want...

2009-05-12T17:09:00.003-04:00

The past couple of weeks, Makenna has been saying, "Excuse me, I want...." and then inserting what ever it is she's wanting. Sometimes, she'll add an "um" prior to the statement. This whole thing surprises me because she's showing manners. It's not that we haven't been working on our please and thank-yous, but I don't ever recall telling her to say, "excuse me" prior to asking for something. The only time we tell her to say excuse me is when she's made some bodily noise.
I wonder if we have actually taught her to say excuse me by our example? Nah....couldn't be.

Today was also a bit off the beaten path of "typical." First, we actually got Makenna to sit on the training potty again for some time this morning and we had S U C C E S S! We were elated, singing the potty song, and made sure she got a piece of candy and a monster sticker. She wants to really put up a monster sticker any time she sits on the potty but we told her only when she's actually gone can she get one of these special stickers. We tried several times throughout the day and she was very willing to sit but with no success. She was a bit upset as she wanted another monster sticker and more candy. We'll keep trying.

Chris took the morning off as we had a guy coming over to take a look at what we're shipping back to the states. We had pretty much gotten a majority of it into the spare bedroom so it was a quick visit. The unfortunate thing is that we have too much stuff to send by air so we have to send it by boat. This means we don't get our stuff for about four weeks as compared to about 10 days to two weeks. The good news is that we can send more stuff as the crate is bigger and we have room for more.

After he left we went over to the rental car company. Chris noticed that on the paperwork we had for the car, it didn't show the marks or the fact that it only had a quarter tank of gas when they gave it to us. Plus, we had to get the fuse changed for the cigarette lighter (back when Makenna put gum in it and I stupidly used a key to try and get it out). When Chris tried to fix it, he locked up the radio so that needed a code. We got the correct paperwork and got the fuse changed. The radio is still not working but hopefully we'll get the code before our last trip.

Chris and I ran to the grocery store to finish the shopping I started yesterday and then we both went and picked up Makenna from nursery. She was so excited to see daddy pick her up. He dropped us off back at home and took the car and went to work.

I'm not sure why, but when Chris came home again, she ended up getting really upset. She was at first really elated but then when he wouldn't go sit with her on the bean bag she got upset. We were trying to eat dinner and she just wanted Chris to sit with her...I think. She'd whine about how she was hungry but she didn't want to sit and eat anything. She was as happy as she could be when dinner was over and her and daddy could sit in the bean bag together and watch Star Trek.

That's when I took it upon my self to say, "Um Excuse me...I'm going to take a bath." Hmm, maybe we do have good manners.

11May2009: Day 350: Things Don't Always Go As Planned

2009-05-11T18:07:00.002-04:00

Well, ain't that the truth. I had my day all planned out and right off the bat, Chris needed the car. He ended up dropping Makenna and I off at the gym and we walked home after I was done. That meant grocery shopping went out the window...sort of.

I was supposed to meet up with Bex (Rebecca) the one who first took me to the Thursday's playgroup. She was unfortunately sick so there went our lunch plans. The problem was that Chris had come home to give me the car. But by the time I learned that she was sick we were already back at Chris's work dropping him off.

As we didn't go grocery shopping, we didn't have much in the way of food for lunch for Makenna and I didn't have my grocery list. We went up to ASDA's and picked up a few things and got home close to 2pm! She of course fell asleep on the way home and when I tried to get her up, she wasn't having it. I cooked her noodles but she just wanted to sleep. I took her up to bed and ate lunch my self.

Two hours later I heard yelling from her room. When I went up I she was yelling "noodles!" I brought her down and she ate her lunch...quite late by now obviously. I figured this would really mess up dinner which would be in a few hours.

I was trying to pack some more things in the spare bedroom as the movers are coming tomorrow to get a cursory glance at what we'll be shipping. Makenna was of course trying to "help" me by throwing things down the steps. I called Chris to see if he was ready to come home and stop me from throwing her down the steps (I'm joking of course).

We went to pick Chris up from work and got home and surprisingly, she did eat some chicken bites (that had corn in it), with some "steak sauce." She saw the A1 bottle on the counter and said she wanted it. I figured if that would help her eat her chicken bites then I was for it. She didn't eat too many but it was enough.

I was able to get a lot more ready for tomorrow. So at least if the rest of the day didn't go as planned, I got some things accomplished I was hoping.

10May2009: Day 349: Happy Mudder's Day

2009-05-10T16:46:00.004-04:00

Happy Mother’s day to all our mother’s and grandmother’s and aunt’s, etc. We were able to call my mom and Chris’s mom to wish them a happy mother’s day. Makenna told Chris’s mom, “Happy Mudder’s Day,” then followed it up with “Happy Birthday.” I don’t think she could tell there’s a difference between the two sentiments.

I forgot to mention on Friday and Saturday our potty updates. I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath. Well, since Hannah was over for quite some time on Friday and used our little potty that we got for Makenna, she saw Hannah using it and decided after she left, that she wanted to use it. I used Madonna’s technique and let Makenna sit on it while watching tv. That kept her on it for a good 15 minutes. She didn’t go but she was willing to sit.

Then we did the same thing Saturday morning and after sitting for 15-20 minutes, she did go a little. We did the obligatory potty dance. We haven’t gotten her on since. That’s our problem, we’re very inconsistent and I really have to change that. I’m hoping that the week I’m home before starting work that I can try and concentrate on this task. I’m not making promises though.

Anyways, today we finally went back to church…the first time in a month. I felt bad as I was like, “I know we haven’t seen you in a while, but this is our last week, so bye.” During Sacrament Meeting, I had Bethany (Hannah’s sister,) as she had come up to me the previous class and promptly fell asleep on me. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a small baby fall asleep on me.

When she woke up a little later, her mom gave her a cube of cheese to eat and she promptly made a gooey mess of it. Chris and I were like “eeww.” She’s just so cute though. When she was over on Friday, she got one of Makenna’s musical toys and as it was playing, she was bouncing up and down on her butt to the music. She’s going to be very outgoing like her sister I think. Madonna thinks that Bethany (who’s almost 1 year old) actually starts the fights between her and Hannah. I can see that as Bethany has a thing for hair lately and constantly comes up to me just to pull my hair – no kidding.

After church we tried to quickly get Makenna into a nap as we were going over to the Bishop’s house for dinner. It was a really good dinner of wraps with chicken and bacon, some carrots with honey and other things. I was nervous it was going to be fish so I was greatly elated when it wasn’t as I wasn’t sure how I’d swallow it down. Makenna and her health conscious eating had a bag of crisps (chips) and some of a wrap.

Then we had brownies and ice cream, and lemon chiffon cake. They also had custard but I didn’t have any. I couldn’t have possibly eaten any more. Makenna thoroughly enjoyed the brownie and ice cream of course.

They have two bunnies and Makenna really enjoyed playing with them and especially feeding them. She tried feeding them rocks and then they brought out the rabbit food so she was able to feed them proper food. We had left over lettuce from dinner that went to one of the rabbits. Only one rabbit could be out at a time as the two of them fought if they were both out. We convinced them to let them both out so we could see it and sure enough one came out with a ton of the other’s fur all over it and in its mouth. It was quite entertaining.

Makenna then also put rocks in their food dishes and cages. She also didn’t hesitate to put rocks in their watering can. They were good humored about it even though I felt bad as a lot of the rocks were from places they had gone such as France, etc.

We also talked to them about where to go on their trip through the north east come this July. They’re already planning on going to Niagara Falls and up to Boston and hopefully making a side trip to see us.

I had to add the picture of her in this dress was one that she had gotten back in the beginning of April from Grandma & Grandpa Jones for Easter but this was the first time she’s been able to wear it. It’s a size 4/5 and in all honesty, it’s just long enough and just fits her across the torso. It’s hard to swallow how big she’s getting sometimes!

9May2009: Day 348: Last Hurrah into London

2009-05-09T18:05:00.006-04:00

Thanks to the kind and gracious hearts of Hannah’s parents, Chris and I were able to take one last trip into London to see a few things that we had not been able to see in previous trips without Makenna.. He wanted to go to the Natural History Museum and I wanted to go to Buckingham Palace, even though it’s closed this time of year.

We gleefully dropped of Makenna and caught the train into Victoria station. Of course the underground lines we needed were closed but we were able to just grab another one and get to the museum. We had to walk past Harrods department store so instead of walking past it, we walked through it. Supposedly it has all types of stores ranging from high-priced, high-end to low price. I didn’t see any of the latter as we walked through that's for sure.

We made it to the museum and it was neat to see a lot of different types of things from rocks and gems to dinosaurs. I think the dinosaur findings were really neat. The museum was definitely of the mindset of big-bang theory more than biblical. In fact, one area said that some group of scientists believed that we could’ve evolved from these sea life plants. This picture on the left is of a Saber tooth - pretty cool! Then the picture of the dinosaur standing is of a sloth! I thought that was kind of freaky. I never realized they were that big at one time.

We left there after a couple of hours and we were drowsy from the heat in the place. It seems as though if we don’t have Makenna keeping us on our toes and getting us frustrated by her behavior, we’d rather take a nap.

Since the Science museum was right there we went there. We grabbed a bite to eat and looked at the space section. We got to see the diapers that astronauts have to wear, plus the clever way they have to shower in space. We didn’t stay here too long as I was anxious to get to Buckingham Palace.

We made it to the palace and went into the Queen’s Gallery. This was just a museum like section that had paintings, furniture, some amour, some of the jewelry, and table service dishes. I liked the pictures and some of the furniture. I’ve said this before, and say it again…these people have way too much money. It was actually only three rooms of stuff so it didn’t take us to long to go through here, plus we couldn't take pictures. You weren't even allowed to have your cell phone on.
We went to the front of the palace and took some pictures and got to see a couple of guards do their marching thing. It seems a bit strange and formal for no reason, but I’m sure it’s years of tradition and for show. I think the police walking around carrying machine-type guns were more intimidating.

This collage was more of the fountain in front of the palace instead of the palace itself.

We headed back to the train station and back to pick up Makenna. She seemed to have a good time at an animal farm they took her to. She even took a nap as she was so worn out they said. There was only a couple of incidents with her where she’d scream to get what she wanted and they told her she had to say please and she wouldn’t so they didn’t give it to her…good for them! I’m glad to see them be consistent with something we’d do.

I’m going to miss her having such a good friend, although I know she’ll make more through the years and forget this one and the fun she had, but maybe they’ll meet up again some day and pick up where they left off.

8May2009: Day 347: Po-Morrow

2009-05-08T18:16:00.001-04:00

After nursery today, we ran home and got Makenna lunch. Hannah & Bethany came over so that they could all play together while their mommy watched Makenna and I could go meet Chris for a “goodbye” lunch in his honour in Maidstone at a place called “Flaming Henry’s.”

I was very appreciative that Madonna was willing to come over and watch her for about 4.5 hours. She came over here so that she could Makenna down for a nap. She remembers from last time around Christmas when Makenna just stayed awake at her house all night until we came to pick her up. She knows her kids will sleep anywhere.

The dinner was very nice and when I got there about 2:20pm, they were serving appetizers so I got there just in time. They had fried brie which was really good and some garlic bread. Then they brought out more appetizers of ribs and what looked like onion rings. I bit into one and knew it wasn’t an onion ring but didn’t know what it was. I put it down and found out later it was calamari. I can now say I’ve tried calamari and don’t like it.

Chris had ordered me dinner since I was running late and ordered me a steak which was actually pretty good. Luckily, someone brought A1 and there was a big discussion about A1 vs. Brown Sauce (the main sauce here for steak).

They also had a “razzing session” for Chris and gave him some nice parting gifts. They also gave me a really nice bouquet of flowers. Chris then gave a “short” speech. I sat around and talked to some of his co-workers. One of the guys I talked to told me about the crazy roads and how that they were created the way they were due to the farms at the time. People couldn’t go through farm lands so they’d go around them and it lead to these strange windy, narrow roads. I did eventually leave in order to relieve Madonna and let her go home to feed her husband dinner.

Makenna was upset to see them go and I agreed to walk with them to the corner near the park. She of course wanted to go to the park but I wasn’t up for it and wanted to get her home to get her dinner. She’s actually going to spend the day with them again tomorrow and she kept repeating “po-morrow.” I would say, “Yes, you’ll see Hannah & Bethany tomorrow.”

It will be hard to get back into the swing of things back in the states I think and I know I’ll miss some things here that we’ve been able to do along with people we’ve met.

7May2009: Day 346: New Tyres

2009-05-08T18:14:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, one guy pointed out to us that our tyre (as they spell it here,) was “No good.” We thought he meant it was flat but he was just saying that it was bald. Chris already knew that and had me call the rental car company to see about getting them taken care of.

They told me I had to go to a Kwik Fit (like our Kost Tires I guess,) and get them to see if I really needed them changed. So Makenna and I set off today to go there after we dropped Chris off at work. Luckily, there’s one right up the road from where we live so I knew right where to go.

They looked at the tyres and agreed that the two front ones needed to be replaced. I made sure that they were going to charge the rental car company and not us. He said that was the plan. I also made sure that he agreed that it was normal wear and tear on the tyres and not something we did. Chris said that they were somewhat bald to begin with when we got the car. Kwik Fit also agreed that it was normal wear on the tyres.

Since it was going to take an hour or so, I decided to take the pushcart out of the back and walk back home with Makenna. She surprisingly walked all the way home without getting in the car and not asking to be carried. I think it had something to do with a dirty diaper.

After a quick change, we went to the park for a bit. Since we weren’t going to be able to make our usual sing/dance playgroup today I felt bad. We only have one more week to be able to go so I want to make sure we get there next week. It was a bit cold and blustery so I was cold but she enjoyed running around. We walked back up and got the car and came back home.

Since we had some time, I started to get things transferred to the spare bedroom in order for the packers to get an idea of what will be going. Plus, I was comparing it to the list we had when we came over and adding things. I did this again tonight going through all of Makenna’s clothes that we’ll be shipping back – which is quite a lot. She’s grown quite a bit which I can see looking at old pictures and clothes from when we first got here a year ago.

She had swim class today and wasn’t up for listening the whole time, as usual. The teacher had more success in getting her to do what she was asking then I was. She kept asking to go under again. She did earn another swimming badge though. I asked the teacher if she had to be tested and she replied that she’s been keeping track of her progress and she’s earned it. I’ll pick that up in the next few days or so. I was hoping she’d get another one before we left so I was happy to hear that she earned one.

Now if she could only earn an “Angel” merit badge. But she wouldn’t be two and half then would she?

6May2009: Day 345: Little Mermaid

2009-05-08T17:52:00.003-04:00

Makenna noticed the bird from yesterday was missing and she kept saying he flew away. I just said, “Yes, he went away.”

Today was a nice day so I’m caught up, once again, on laundry. Until oh let’s say…tomorrow. It’ll be nice to have a big washing machine again.

I took Makenna to the gym today and they didn’t have her booked in the nursery but luckily had an opening. I looked at my receipts later and found that I did have her booked and paid for. I’ll have to show them the receipt next week.

We went swimming and did I have a mermaid on my hands today. She did not want me to hold on to her while swimming. I would comply eventually, for a few seconds and she’d go under. She didn’t mind and she kept her mouth closed—hurray! She did really well with kicking her feet and moving her arms. Now if she’d only do that well tomorrow in class. The one thing she started doing though was walking off the edge into the water instead of jumping.

Other kids eventually showed and brought pool toys and she didn’t want to leave and kept trying to get their toys. Luckily they were willing to share. We had already been in though for about 40 minutes or so and had to get going. I let her stay about another 20 and then we left.

I was hoping to walk to play group this afternoon but since we would’ve been 45 minutes late if we did. She would’ve wanted to stop in the park and play and I wouldn’t have the heart to say no, so I thought it best to just drive there and that way we could get home and get her into a nap. She’s still fighting a bit of a cold and for once, I have not gotten it…yet. I’m trying to be more diligent about keeping her at a distance or washing my hands more regularly.

Tomorrow is already looking like a busy day as usual and I have lots to do to get ready to move back. I did take a few pictures of the small bathroom downstairs since I cleaned that today. Just remember…I didn’t pick the colors.

5May2009: Day 344: Birdie Sleeping

2009-05-08T17:46:00.002-04:00

More laundry after another long weekend away – joy of all joys! I grumbled quite a bit last night about how I’m sick of doing laundry. I love the smell of fresh clean laundry but am darn right tired of constantly doing it.

As I stepped out the back door this morning, I saw a dead bird on our back patio area. I was able to keep Makenna away from it until the afternoon. She saw it and I yelled at her to stop and not touch it (I was trying to get lunch ready). She saw it and said, “birdie.” I agreed and then she said, “He’s sleeping.” I agreed again. I’m not about to get into the aspects of life and death with her at this point. She then said, “He’s tired.” “Yes, he’s tired,” I agreed. I saved the “present” as I called it, for Chris to take of when he got home. I was too nervous to touch it with all the weird diseases going around.

Makenna also enjoyed “driving” the car while I put away groceries and hung up laundry. She usually likes to get into the glove compartment and make a mess so that when I show up she says, “Uh-oh, what a mess.” When I got there, she didn’t really get into the glove compartment but still said, “What did you do? What a mess.” I had to see what she was talking about. She was pointing at a place where my gum used to be. Then she’d point at the cigarette lighter which is open for our GPS connection. I look in there and what do I see? Yup…a piece of gum shoved down to the bottom. Wonderful. We luckily have these Bamboo sticks and I was able to use that to get the wadded up gum out. I found the rest of the gum in a compartment…the rest that I know of at this point.

I also thought I came up with this grand idea in trying to get her to eat peas. I bought a small can of them and mixed them in with her noodles. Well, she picked them out or spit them out along with any food attached to it – so much for good ideas. I tried to mush them in but still no luck. I guess because they were canned. She’s eaten peas once or twice before so I was hoping that it would be this easy.

Dinner wasn’t any better. We tried to get her to eat just two penne noodles with sauce so that daddy could take her to the park. It must’ve taken close to a half hour for her to finally eat them. We kept saying, “last chance,” and then giving her more chances. He finally took her to the park and she was so cute all dressed up in her wellies and rain coat and her little camera from Brussels. It wasn’t raining but she had gotten her shoes all wet at nursery jumping in puddles.

She’s also at the stage of repeating her comments over and over and over, etc. Tonight Chris and Makenna were watching Star Trek and she wanted to move on to another show but we told her to let this show finish and she could watch one of her own. She repeated,” Let it finish,” about eight of nine times while he was trying to watch it.

4May2009: Day 343: Lulworth & Sherborne Castles

2009-05-08T16:50:00.008-04:00

Today we went to two castles along the route home found in Dorset. The first one is called Lulworth Castle which was built between 1606 and 1610. It was first owned and built for Thomas Howard who was the 3rd Duke of Norfolk’s younger son and it eventually became the ancestral home of the Weld family. It was a beautiful castle which was built as a hunting lodge on a “grand scale.” It was well laid out and the interior was modern Victorian style up until a fire in 1929 which gutted the place. The family never was able to rebuild and the place sat as a ruin for 70 years after which English Heritage (a group that holds many of the castles around England) offered to put a new roof on the place and they rebuilt it up a bit inside. The style they are doing now in most restorations is to make the parts that are not old look extremely modern such that it is easy to tell the difference between old and new. The Torre Abby from yesterday was another place like this.

The place was so gutted that really just the shell remained and there wasn’t much in the place that wasn’t just staged there like a museum. It had old washing machines, cookery, an old bed, etc. There was a re-enactment of the English civil war going on and they had many people around the castle and on the grounds dressed in period costumes. They had re-enactments of battles and demonstrations of horse riding. It was interesting.

Makenna saw a bounce house and that was all she could talk about. We told her that if she was good in the castle that she could go on the bounce house. That was just setting her up for failure though, as she was probably tired and immediately fell to pieces in the castle…wouldn’t listen, or walk. We told her if she didn’t walk she would not go in the bounce house and even that didn’t work. She doesn’t realize consequences for her actions yet though she certainly knows when she is misbehaving. When we took her out of the castle and immediately planted her into the cart she realized that she was not going to the bounce house and immediately put on a fit. We tried to push her off quickly as she was screaming pretty well. There was an announcer talking over a loud speaker when we walked out and I think some of Makenna’s screams were amplified nicely.
We went to a chapel that was there. It was actually the first free standing Catholic chapel built in England after the reformation. One of the children of the original owner became a famous cardinal and about 5 of his 15 children became priests, so it was a really religious family. In fact, that was part of the problem. The family was very Catholic and was penalized and suspected of treason and all sorts of bad things because of it, but they never left or quit. It wasn’t anything fancy, but a nice chapel with a dome painted modestly.

Makenna fell asleep while we were in the chapel and stayed asleep while we walked around the “camp” that they had for the re-enactment. There were several guns that went off while she was sleeping, but she didn’t even fidget. She was dead tired. She is still fighting a cold.

We left there and went to a castle a short distance away called Sherborne. It is the ancestral home of the Wingfield Digby family. There were actually two castles on the sight, the Old Castle and the new fortified Manor.

“Sherborne Old Castle” was the home of the Bishop of Salisbury who built it from the time of William the Conqueror. By the time of the reformation it was a large stronghold and fell to the Parliamentarians only after sustained gun fire. They tore the old castle down so that it could never be used as a military stronghold again.

After this it was the home of Sir Walter Raleigh, who originally tried to rebuild the main ancient castle into a grand Elizabethan mansion, but he couldn’t afford it, so he converted the hunting lodge near by (Sherborne Castle) into a large fortified manor. After he conspired against the king he was convicted of treason and executed.

The castle was purchased by the Digby family who added on to the manor and it grew into a large home for them. We toured the rooms which were nice, but not extravagant as other fortified manors were we have seen, but it was certainly large enough. It had many old paintings and furniture of which we couldn’t take any pictures of.

In the cellar area they had some archaeological findings from around Sherborne Old Castle and from this manor. Even ammonites that were found in quarries from the estate were on display.

We walked between the two castles on some really nice grounds that were wooded and it had a nice lake. We stopped to feed some ducks, as usual, but this time there was also baby ducklings. Makenna thought they were funny. The ducks were literally coming up to us and I almost stepped on one. There was also this other type of duck that I have no idea what it is but I've seen pictures in books before.

Makenna was okay at this castle as we were able to take the cart. They were at first saying that we should leave it but we told them we’ve done gone up and down more stairs around this world than they can imagine carrying this cart. They relented.

When we were done, we had to hurry back to the Old Castle where we parked as the gate between the two castles would close at 4:30pm and it would’ve been a really huge walk to get from one to the other walking along the road.

When we made it back to the Old Castle grounds, we let her run around a bit as we knew it was going to be at least a few hours ride in the car to get home. Sure enough we got stuck in traffic with everyone trying to get home from the Bank Holiday weekend. It was especially crowded around Stonehenge as it goes from two lanes into one. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again…these people do not know how to merge efficiently.

We stopped at a rest stop along the way and got KFC – chicken bites as usual for Makenna. This made her day. We got home around 9pm and my job of sorting laundry started yet again.

3May2009: Day 342: Torquay

2009-05-08T15:23:00.007-04:00

We woke up early today at 6:30 and got out by 8:00 and headed towards the town of Torquay (pronounced Tore – kee). We knew we were going to be too early for our first stop so we went to walk on the beach a little bit. There was a bunch of seaweed on the sand which squished under our feet, but Makenna had fun throwing shells into the water. We walked along the sea wall and it was very windy. Makenna is not feeling well today and we didn’t know how bad it was, but she was just always crying and fussing. Luckily, she went into the cart pretty easily for our walk.

We next went to Cognton Castle, but found it closed until 11am. We decided to go to Kent Caverns instead which was only 20 minutes away. It was an hour long tour of some underground caverns which they call one of the greatest archaeological and geological discoveries in England. There were thousands of years of bones of various animals including bears, mammoths, and hyenas. There were stalagmites and stalactites, but nothing like you could see in the states in Carlsberg Caverns in New Mexico or even Howe’s Caverns in north east NY State. The advertisement made you think there were cave paintings, but when a little girl asked about them, the guide said they haven’t found any there yet, but there are a large number of caves under the main cave we were in and there could be some there. Highly unlikely, since those are even further from the surface so ancient man probably would not have made it there.

They also were doing a bit of new digging in the cave, but they hit bedrock very quickly so they had to stop and dig somewhere else. Apparently, they needed to get permission to dig from the English Heritage organization even though the cave is on private property. They decided to dig through concrete which I didn’t understand…there were plenty of places that weren’t concreted over, but they chose this one place. I thought it was odd and they hit bedrock about a foot down or less from the concrete…then they had to get more permits and moved to the right about a yard and guess what?! They ran into bedrock again...not the smartest in my book.

They had a cafe at the caverns (not in the caverns) and we had Devon Pasties which are pastries filled with meat and potatoes. The Cornwall Pasty is the famous one and it was created for the miners to take into the coal mines with them. These weren’t as good because I think they were made with ground beef (or minced as they call it here…Cornwall Pasties have chunks of beef almost like a stew inside.

Makenna slept through most of the cave and through lunch. The cold she has is taking the life right out of her.

From there we went to Torre Abby. This abbey actually became a home to a family for many years and then they had to move out and rent it in order to pay bills (and this was back in the early 1900’s). That’s why it no longer really resembled an abbey as much as it did a home. We did get to walk through some of the home and see different things (not being able to take pictures,) but we were mainly taking the lift (elevator) and getting off track from what the guide sheet was telling us. We finally got on track but Makenna was awake and not in a good mood whatsoever. It was more of a “sick” cry than anything else. We think she was still tired but something was definitely wrong. We kept asking her but she couldn’t really give us a clear answer.

We went outside and that’s where we could see the ruins of the abbey but no real explanation of what we were looking at. Like, was it where the cloister used to be or where the rooms for the monks were, etc. So we just walked around a bit then walked in the greenhouse they had. We found a small pond set up in the greenhouse with goldfish in it and Makenna was excited to feed them crackers. Then she went right back into miserable mode, so we left.

Teri asked her while putting her in the car seat if she was going to be better behaved at the castle that we were going to and she replied, “sure, why not,” as though it was a good idea. There’s nothing like an adult comment from her to make you smile.

We left there and went to Cognton Castle again and this time we noticed the sign that said it was only open Monday Wednesday and Friday, so, slapping myself, we left and drove down the beach some, then headed back to the Hotel. I also need to mention that the roads around some of these places were absolutely insane. Teri taped a small bit of it but it was literally a two way road but only room for one car…barely. We had the unfortunate pleasure of running into other people coming the opposite way a couple of times and had to make some quick adjustments and move as far over as possible. When we got to the hotel later, you could see red mud on the outside of my tires from where I scraped up against the wall trying to get out of the way.

We happened to notice a sign for a grocery store and decided we stop in to find something to help Makenna. Teri went in and found some paracetamol (their version of baby Tylenol) and gave her some as soon as she brought it to the car. It took maybe 15 minutes and Makenna was now her annoying self instead of her miserable self.

We stopped at the hotel and asked them where a local carvery was. Carvery’s are big here. It’s kind of like our Old Country Buffet with a big difference. Not as much food and only one trip. Of course, Makenna was again not willing to eat anything we got her. I went up and got her some turkey, and carrots and peas, along with a Yorkshire Pudding and a stuffing ball. After much coercing, we got her to eat two bites of turkey and then she was allowed ice cream. We didn’t get her, her own ice cream though, she just shared ours. She is just so determined and defiant at times it’s extremely exasperating. We think tonight it was more of a texture thing than a food thing. She “felt” the turkey and decided not to eat it.

While I was paying the bill, Makenna took off running through the restaurant and Teri chased after her. She finally caught up with her just before she ran off the sidewalk into the parking lot. Teri was very angry and upset and we discussed what we should do about this little child of ours who sometimes doesn’t seem to want to live until three. Teri explained to her why it was bad to run away and that they weren’t playing a game. Tonight after prayers, we again talked to her and told her why it was bad to run away and that if we say, “I’m going to get you,” then it’s a game. Otherwise if we tell her “stop” that she needs to stop and not run away as that means it could be dangerous and she could get hurt. When we asked her if she understood, she said, “sure, sure, sure,” in her exasperated, bored voice.

Tonight, while we were in the hotel room, she had to “do her business” and she walked away for about a minute then walked back to Teri and said, “I did it.” Teri asked her if she was done pooping and she elatedly said, “yeah!, I did it.!”

2May2009: Day 341: English Riviera

2009-05-08T14:35:00.004-04:00

Today we packed up and went to South West England. It is called the English Riviera, to compete with the French, I think, and probably to try and stop so many English from going over there. Anyways, we stayed at a Holiday Inn in Exeter but unfortunately, we were stuck in traffic for a couple of hours with everyone else in England and we eventually made it to the hotel at 3:00 in the afternoon. The plan today was to just go into downtown Exeter and see the Cathedral there, so that is what we did.

But first, we had to get Makenna out of the bathroom that she locked herself in! When we got to the hotel room, she went into the bathroom, shut the door and locked it. I was nervous about what we’d have to do to get her out and I was asking her repeatedly to try and unlock it but she just kept playing with the door handle. She wasn’t getting the idea that she had to turn the knob above it again to get out. Luckily I looked and noticed that all I needed was a thin object to turn it from our side and found a small key I had and it worked. We are now keeping a more vigilant eye on her anytime she goes in there.

The Cathedral was the most worn Cathedral we have seen with most of its outside features well worn away by ages of weathering. Inside the architecture was very amazing. The Cathedral boasts the longest unbroken stretch of Gothic vaulting in the world. The entire length of the Cathedral is vaulted arches with carved sections where the arches meet.

We walked around the Cathedral for about an hour and we were then escorted out as it was closing. One other interesting feature was the astronomical clock that was built prior to Copernicus and the understanding that the earth wasn’t the center of the universe. It showed the time the sun and moon would set and rise. There was some great organ music going on as I think the Organist was practicing during our visit. There were also these really big organ pipes that you could go up to and as the guy was playing the organ, you could feel the air coming out of some of the pipes.

We walked around Exeter for a little while trying to find a place to eat. Makenna of course wanted Chicken nuggets and there was a McDonald’s and we really should have just got her them as she was quite tired, but we saw a Pizza Express and Teri wanted to go there. Actually, she wanted to go to Nando’s, which is a different chain over here that serves Chicken, so we got in the place and she looked at the menu and no chicken nuggets.

We should have left right then, but we like torture…and…we weren’t denied. Makenna was a monster…she didn’t listen, she just wanted to play with the flowers on the tables. I don’t think there was anything she ate though we got her some chicken (not fried and fingered), but she didn’t like it. We decided to deny her the ice cream desert which came with the meal and I’m glad we did. I drank some of the “cappuccino” (warm foamy milk – no coffee) and found a piece of glass in it. I think it was because someone dropped glass earlier and it must have sent the piece flying. I told them about it and told them that they should really wipe out their cups before they use them. I could have blown up, but chose to just tell them to don’t let it happen again. Makenna and Teri were waiting outside and this was the slowest service EVER! The food came quickly, but it took forever for them to take our order, they were just sitting around. It also took them forever to get us the bill…they would stop by and then we would ask them for something and 10 minutes later they would return. Very slow.

After that we packed it in a went back to the Hotel. Makenna would not stay in bed, so Teri and I got into bed and shutoff the lights. We ended up falling asleep and it was only 8:00. She wears us out.

1May2009: Day 340: What the....?

2009-05-08T14:27:00.002-04:00

I was able to get back to swim aerobics today which was nice because after my 35 minute cardio workout, I thought I was ready to pass out from heat. I just felt very hot today. In fact, even tonight at home I was really warm.

After I was done, I tried to make sure I left enough time to run to the bank and to the post office. Well, I had gone to the bank yesterday and it said I put my pin in incorrectly, but I stopped after the second try. I couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong and thought maybe I just had forgotten the order or something. I had just used it a few hours earlier in the day, yesterday, so I couldn’t figure out how I forgot it in that short of time.

Anyways, I went back today and after two tries it said my card was locked. Again, I couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong. Later, I called them to reset my pin but because I did it in a bank machine they have to send me a new pin altogether. I was like “great.” I seemed to have forgotten this one and now you’re sending me a new one to remember? I went up and looked at what I thought the pin was and I was right! So I think maybe what might have happened, is that I either miss-hit a key the first time so it caused me to come up with other combinations and not try the original one again, or two, I might have put in the card from the states as they are similar in colour and I might not have paid attention. Either way now I have to wait a few days to get a new pin number.

What was more frustrating happened just prior to my bank trip today and that had to do with parking. There are not many parking spaces around the bank as they’re usually all taken up and the post office is maybe a minute walk from the bank but again, there are only a few parking spaces in front on a busy street. I first went up the side-street to the bank and all spots were taken. I went around the block and figured I’d try and find a space in front of the post office. As luck would have it, a woman was going to pull out from the last spot so I pulled up behind her to pull in when she left and I had my blinker on indicating that I was pulling over. I was technically in the road still and cars had to go around me as I wasn’t in an official parking space. Well just as that lady pulled out another car cut right in front of me and took that spot. I was dumbfounded!
I sat there with my hands up in the air and two guys on the sidewalk saw what happened and were smirking. I finally beeped at the guy and I was so mad that I wanted to get out of my car and go up to him and say, “What the….. is the matter with you? Didn’t you see I was going to take that spot you idiot? (along with some other words that aren't too nice.)

Instead, I pulled up beside him, looked at him (which he was most likely in his 50s) and then drove off around the block again and was able to find a spot now on the side street to the bank. As I walked around past the hi-jacked parking space – the car was gone. Now I was really mad. Of all the low life dirty rotten things to do. I mean he had to literally squeeze really quickly into that spot. Well, I eventually got over it, except writing it now is making me mad all over again.

I felt bad as it was such a nice day but I couldn’t take Makenna to the park as the guy who takes care of the garden (lawn) was coming around 1pm and he didn’t leave until 3:30-4:00pm. She was already in a nap by then. We didn’t take her tonight either as there’s too much to do in planning our next brief trip this weekend as it’s a bank holiday and Chris gets a three day weekend. Plus, she’s still sick with a runny nose and a whiny attitude that can be very over-bearing at times. She is still hopping from one ailment or need to another. As soon as she gets one cry out about this or that, she’s immediately on to the next thing. She starts crying to watch “Wallace and Grommet” and as soon as we say, “You want to watch Wallace & Grommet” she says, “okay, Madagascar.” So now we’re confused as to which one she wants and asks her which of the two and she throws in a third thing.

I hope this cold goes away soon and doesn’t fester to the rest of us…for a change.

30Apr2009: Day 339: And So It Begins…Again

2009-05-08T14:23:00.002-04:00

Yup…this was the longest we went without being sick since July and now Makenna is back into being sick and whiny to boot. She’s got a runny nose and probably a stuffed up head. She is just very “fragile” and everything sets her off to cry; more so tonight than during the day. We were too busy for her to really think about crying during the day.

I had to drop books and audio cd’s off to the library then we headed off to singing and dancing. She was a bit lethargic there so I knew it was coming (the illness). She played at the park and then we stopped at the grocery store on the way home for a couple of things and went home and ate lunch.

We had to then race out the door to get to swim class. She wanted to just play and sit on the steps but I promptly told her that we would go home and she would go down for a nap unless she listened to the teacher and we finished the class (she was screaming to try and get her way). She then straightened up for the most part and finished the class. She really enjoyed when the teacher had her go under water to swim to me. She was also very excited to have the other little boy have his turn to do the same and kept saying, “Bobby’s turn.”

There were also two more in the class which must have joined while we were away. Unfortunately, we only have a couple more weeks left of class but I hope to find something back in the states for her.

At dinner she was absolutely miserable complaining about this thing or that, that was hurting her. She would cry and whine and say her lip hurt. We would ask her why her lip hurts and then she’d say her back hurts. Then it was on to her eye. It just seemed to never end. Daddy asked her if she wanted medicine and she promptly said yes. I asked him what medicine he planned to give her as she didn’t have a fever and I didn’t feel it was necessary to give her anything. He came up with the good idea of putting apple juice it the medicine dispenser and that calmed her right down. She finally ate a little bit of dinner and was happier…for a while.

She had another new word today that she kept saying which was funny, “dangerush.” Everything was “dangerush” (dangerous). She even applied it to the thought of how I’m always telling her that cars can hurt her and that’s why she needs to stay near mommy when we’re in busy parking lots. She said, “cars can hurt you, it’s dangerush.” I complimented her on how she was very smart and very correct. The downside is that now she’s thinking a lot of things are dangerous and not only that, but a lot of things are naughty. I guess sometimes maybe we go overboard with our warnings but better safe than sorry.

29Apr2009: Day 338: Best of Friends

2009-05-08T14:05:00.001-04:00

Makenna and I went swimming today and she again was taking it upon herself to jump in when I wasn’t in front of her. Luckily I was just to the side of her so I was able to grab her but boy is this girl getting gutsy. Luckily, she’s doing better and better with her kicking and paddling of her arms and keeping her head above the water once she goes under.

I was hoping to get home early from swimming so that we could eat lunch and head to the park before play group. She had other plans of sitting for about 15 minutes on the potty. She said that she went but I was sceptical. I was with her for most of the time and the one moment I leave, she went? Could be.

We only spent a few minutes at the park and then headed to play group. After, we were walking home with Hannah and family and Makenna and Hannah were holding hands. They were giggling and running as they were holding hands. All they needed was a field of flowers to be running through. It was so cute. One would fall and the other would laugh. The one on the ground wasn’t too happy but would get up and they would start off again. I think that when we leave, there will be a lot of asking for Hannah for a while.

For quite some time now, Makenna has been asking if Hannah’s sister Bethany eats noodles (“Bethy oose?”). I would have to tell her that I don’t know. She would ask up to ten times a day sometimes. She knew that Hannah didn’t like them so now her concern was with Bethany. Well, yesterday, Madonna texted me to let me know that Bethany does in fact like noodles. So now when Makenna’s asked, I’ve been able to tell her yes, in fact Bethany does like noodles. Well, wouldn’t you know it, hours after finding out the good news yesterday, Makenna turns around and asks if “Bethy chicken?” I was like, are you kidding me? Now I need to know if Bethany likes to eat chicken? Which I found out today, she does.

One other new word from Makenna today….”fantastic” said while eating breakfast.

28Apr2009: Day 337: I Love Chicken

2009-05-08T14:01:00.001-04:00

Makenna went back to the nursery where she sees Hannah and boy were they like two long lost friends; both screaming elatedly when they saw each other. It was quite funny.

I walked to pick up Makenna from nursery and we stopped in the park on the way home. It was sprinkling every so lightly and I was nervous about my laundry hanging out. Anyways, she found a spot on the playground equipment where I couldn’t get to her and there was a puddle on it. She had a hey-day. She was stomping away as I was asking, then demanding, that she didn’t as she was getting her shoes all wet. The saying I have is “No wellies (boots,) no puddles!” That flies out the window when she can’t be reached by mommy and has free reign to stomp away. I finally got her away from that puddle but others beckoned. She finally came near the slide, sat down…right into a puddle. That was it – time to go home. She wasn’t too happy to leave but was agreeable as she was hungry too.

Tonight, when daddy got home and dinner was about to be served, she started saying very excitedly, “Hurray, I love chicken!” She in fact ate her whole piece and wanted more. We didn’t oblige her though and she wanted to go back to the park with daddy. He did take her while I got other things done.

It seems strange that we can go to a park at 7:30pm and it’s still light out. The downside is that it’s light out too early, like around 4:30am. Makenna is waking up at 6:30am the past couple of days because it’s too light out and she doesn’t have adequate blinds in her room to keep it dark. At the hotels, while on vacation, she would stay asleep after 7:30 because of the dark curtains. Maybe we’ll have to invest in those back in the states for her room.

27Apr2009: Day 336: Officially Two and a Half

2009-05-08T13:46:00.002-04:00

So now we’re caught up – with that part of the blog on to our daily routine.
We figured out that Chris drove over 3300 miles and over 73 hours. I had the exact figures written down but I foolishly left it where little hands could get to it and now I can't find it.

Sure enough I was right. The night was spent sorting through dirty laundry and making piles that will most likely take all week to get through, plus unpacking all the suitcases. Makenna was a real treat and was making more messes than I could take. The house was already a wreck with all of our unpacking and she went and dumped her crayons, took all the books off one of the shelves and went through a lot of toys like she’s never seen them before. I finally had my limit and she wasn’t helping to pick up like I repeatedly requested.

I was so frustrated I walked away and told her no story before bedtime. Daddy had a little talk with her and she came into the kitchen with her head down and just looked at me and after about a minute said, “Tell me sorry.” I repeated it back to her and then she said sorry. I read her one book.

We started again with the potty and I was out of the room but she was all excited when I came back in and she said she went. I believe her as usually when I ask she’ll tell me no, that she didn’t go so I don’t know why all of a sudden she would just say yes if she didn’t actually go. I did my little potty dance and she got a piece of candy from daddy.

Today, my little angel, and she truly was today...during the day, is now 2 ½ . I can hardly believe it except for her typical two year old tantrums. All the hitting, spitting, pinching, kicking, and throwing of things she has been doing has been very frustrating at times. I was reading a mom’s website today and it talked about different ways to try and stop the hitting. I think sometimes she just does it to get attention and the other times it’s out of her own frustration. I was able to employ one of the techniques which was to just take her hands, have her pat me nicely and tell her no hitting, to be nice and gentle, and that hitting hurts mommy. She turned around and hit me three more times (once after each time I employed this technique). I think that I just have to pick a way to handle it and be consistent. I get so erratic with how I react to it depending on my mood.

In actuality though, this day couldn’t have been any better regarding her behaviour. Maybe she’s flipped a switch now that she’s 2 ½ and will improve. I know, I have high hopes but here’s to wishing. I was able to get her to the nursery at the gym and then grocery shopping. By the time we got done and through lunch it was almost time for nap. I kept her up a bit longer and she went down pretty quickly.

I think I’m going to have a huge problem when she’s a teenager. Right now, I love the fact that she loves to go to sleep. It’s when I have to wake her up from sleeping that it get’s hard. She did not want to get up and kept saying “sleepy bunny!” I told her that I was going back downstairs and that I would give her 5 minutes and then I would come back up. It was actually longer than 5, and she came down on her own and was in a better mood.

The reason it was longer than 5 was that I was looking for my cell phone. She had absconded with it and I needed to call Chris to see if he needed me to pick him up from work. I was unsure of his cell phone number (as the numbers here are about 12 digits) and I had it on my cell phone. I looked in all the places she usually hides things – both garbage cans, the dryer, the laundry basket, her bike, in different drawers and cupboards in the kitchen. I even checked the piles of dirty laundry and the dishwasher. I just couldn’t find it. I took a guess at Chris’s number and somehow got it right. When she came down I kept asking her where she took it and she just would say, “ahhh” like she was thinking. Daddy found it later when he got home as I had him call it. It was in the dining room under the table.

Another cute thing she did today was during lunch. We were sitting down to say the blessing on our food and as I was saying the blessing, she started telling me, “Shh, we’re praying, fold arms.” She kept telling me “Shh.” I told her that I was the one praying so I needed to talk. I chuckled though. In fact, while I was talking to daddy, she actually talked back to him on the phone. She told him very clearly what she was doing when he asked which was, “I’m watching Little Bear,” which is a TV show here that I recorded on the DVR.

Well after doing four loads of laundry, I have no more room to hang clothes around the house as it’s been rainy today, and still at least 4 more loads to do. Plus we got a letter from the rental company on the house telling us all the things we have to clean before we vacate. They have high hopes. Some of the things they’re asking us to clean weren’t even clean when we got here. One thing they are requesting is that the windows are cleaned inside and out! I’m like how the heck am I supposed to clean the windows on the outside on the second floor? Also, cleaning the curtains, but some of the curtains are not the type that can be put in a regular washer. Chris checked at work and they basically expect us to do what we can and they realize the rest will be taken out of the deposit.

Well, the fun starts to begin as we start to wind down our time here and get ready to go. It’s going to be busy the next few weeks as we start to pack up and figure out what day will actually be our day of departure. Unfortunately, we’ll lose internet sooner than I would hope but we’ll update it when we get a chance.

26Apr2009: Day 335: Brussels, Belgium

2009-05-07T17:57:00.010-04:00

It’s the last day of our world-wind trip. Finally a decent breakfast from the hotel consisting of eggs, sausage, mushrooms, etc. Makenna actually ate some cereal too but not enough. Luckily they were in little boxes and I grabbed a box for later.

It was a bit cold and overcast and sprinkled on and off for our last day which was a bit disappointing but as time went on, it got a little nicer. We headed off to Cathedrale des Sts-Michel-et-Gudule (aka St. Michael’s & St. Gudula’s church) and as we did so, Chris realized that it might not be a good day to do so as it is Sunday.

He was right. There was a service going on and so we weren’t allowed to walk around the church but could stand in the back and film and take pictures. The church was started in 1226 but officially consecrated as a cathedral in 1961. There was some nice choir music to listen to and it might have been a Gregorian choir.

We had to keep enforcing with Makenna that she had to talk quietly so she would whisper, “See the picture?” This was one of the things I kept saying to her throughout these past couple of weeks to distract her from doing one thing or another that I didn’t want her doing. Then one time after the choir stopped singing, she looked at me and had her arms folded and told me to fold my arms for prayer.

As time went on, Makenna was getting a bit anxious so we decided to go down into the crypt area. I was surprised it was open but there wasn’t much to it. It had some foundations and other construction elements from an earlier church dating from the 11th century. We stayed down there a little while even though it only took about two minutes to see, so that Makenna could roam around a bit and play with the little rocks she found. Unfortunately she started to throw them around and I kept trying to tell her to put them on the big rock “shelf.”

When she grew bored of this, we decided to leave the church and possibly come back later. It was open at 2pm to look around but we didn’t end up making it back. The outside seemed a bit more interesting anyways and we got plenty of pictures and video of that.

We got back in the car and drove about 5 minutes to the main area called, “The Grand Place.” This was a major touristy area with lots of shops (mostly selling Belgian chocolate,) and some really neat architecture on the buildings. We found the Hotel De Ville and made it in time to get an English tour at 12:15pm.

Since we had about a half hour before it started, we walked around a bit more and found the Musees De La Ville De Bruxelles (Brussels City Museum). It was free to go into but we had to leave the cart and I had to wear the backpack as a front-pack. I’ve decided that Makenna and Sunday’s don’t mix. She was a handful here and we only spent about 15 minutes looking around. We weren’t allowed to take pictures either. So I can’t really say too much about the museum.

We left and went back to the Hotel de Ville. We again had to leave the cart along with the backpack. Chris tried asking them if we could take the cart as we knew that Makenna was really tired. No luck.

The Hotel is Gothic in its architecture and is a town hall since 1402. There’s a tower that’s “in the middle” of the building yet it’s not directly in the center. There’s an untrue legend that when the architect realized his error that he jumped from the summit of the tower. The building is still the seat of the civic government and the royals in the area get married here. There was a room where there were pictures of past foreign rulers of Brussels including the Spanish, Austrians, French, and Dutch. It was hard to get all of what the tour guide was saying as she had a bit of an accent and Makenna was getting near to impossible to control. She kept saying “sleepy bunny” which is her way of saying that she wants a nap. Every time she saw a chair or a bench she wanted Chris to sit down and massage her back.

We ended that tour and headed back out to the main square. We stopped in one of the chocolate stores as they were giving away free samples from a chocolate fountain. We could even get the chocolate ourselves. Makenna helped herself to ones that were already done. We ended up buying some dark chocolate which I’m sure will taste pretty darn good once I get it away from Chris.

We then stopped in a souvenir shop and bought a magnet and Makenna found this little mini camera which when you click the button, different pictures of Brussels come up. She hasn’t figured that part out yet and just thinks she’s taking pictures even though she’s looking in the lens side. Chris thought the mini camera was 2.50€ and when the guy told him 3.50€ Chris told him he wasn’t going to buy it. The guy agreed to 2.50€. I thought it was very ironic that in the video below, Makenna thinks she needs batteries for her camera. Reason being is that we keep going through batteries like water on this trip. We think that either the batteries are really cheap or the camera needs to be replaced.

We left there and got a bite to eat which was chicken baguettes and gave Makenna some of the chicken pieces out of it. She wanted to eat the bread instead but we got her to eat some chicken because she wanted ice cream. We told her she had to eat some of the chicken first. Chris and I got waffles (mmm Belgian waffles…) with ice cream on top and got Makenna a cup of chocolate ice cream. Not surprising that she all of a sudden wanted my ice cream which was Crème Rocher. I didn’t want chocolate so that figures. She only had a few bites and all of a sudden she was insisting she had to have katchu. I couldn’t figure out what the heck she wanted and every time I asked if it was ketchup she said “okay” which is her way of saying yes. She doesn’t like ketchup so I couldn’t figure out why she kept asking for it. I kept telling her, “No I wasn’t getting any ketchup.” She got more and more upset. It finally dawned on me that she was actually asking for cashews not ketchup. We left the cashews in the car so that didn’t help her any and she was still upset. We finally made her lie down and covered her up and as we walked on she fell asleep pretty quickly.

What was nice in the area where we stopped to eat was the three string quartet. I filmed this little bit. I felt very European sitting outside eating and listening to music. Later, they left and another group with a saxophone, a dulcimer, and a guitar showed up and played.

Unfortunately, there were also beggars in the area. From when we left the car park there was one sitting at the elevator with her little girl. Then there was one while we were eating who came up to us. I saw this same woman do this to another couple sitting at the table and she pointed to her little child but I thought it was very intrusive to do this while we were eating. There was another guy on the street who had two or three dogs and a sign that he had no money for food but he looked pretty clean cut so I wasn’t too sure about that one. I guess I felt bad for the ones with kids and I’d hate to have to resort to that. Sometimes you wonder if it’s just a scam of sorts though. Chris thought they looked as if they were from Eastern European nationality, like from Bulgaria. It seems like most of the beggars we have run into during all our trips are from some Eastern European country, in our opinion.

As we walked, we found this other area with lots of shops and walked down and looked at some of them. We stopped in this one shop with teddy bears and it was hard to resist getting one. We moved on and I actually found a shop with this macramé chair and I thought of how my grandfather Rafferty could make something like that and here it is being sold in an expensive store in Brussels.

We headed back to the car and stopped at one more chocolate shop as it said it was the best in the area. We had a small sample and I personally didn’t care for the piece I had but it was a crap shoot as she had a tray full of different ones and I just had to pick one.

We got back to the car and headed for home. It actually was a short trip back to the Euro tunnel. Since we got to the tunnel earlier than our check-in time, we stopped for another bite to eat at the border and since Chris had some Euros left, he graciously bought me some perfume and a watch. I had lost a watch somewhere in an airport when we were coming back to England just after Christmas time. It just fell off my wrist. I still had another one but the battery keeps dying and I’m not buying another battery in the UK. I’ve already bought three (for three different watches though,) and one of the other batteries I bought also died. Not to mention the batteries for the camera like I stated above.

While at the stop before the Euro tunnel, Makenna got a chance to run around and found a ride that had the Teletubbies on it that she kept sitting in. She was pretending to also feed them something to drink. She kept running back and forth between this ride and the vending machines that you get junk trinket toys out of. I finally had to tell her other kids needed a turn so that she would go eat.

I’m sure my night will be filled with lots of unpacking and laundry once we get home, not to mention catching up on e-mail, voice-mail, and looking into possibly taking one more trip before we head back to the states. Not to mention putting all these blogs up for you all to read when you have about a full day to do so.

A few more things that Makenna did that I forgot to mention. Today, when we told her she could have the ice cream, she was so elated, she started laughing and said, “Yeah, I love ice cream.” Then she laughed again, and said, “I love balloons.” Chris and I started laughing as we don’t know why she made the two comments connected.

I may have written about this other habit she’s picked up, most likely from me. She’s been doing it quite a bit, and that’s when we ask her a question, like what movie does she want to watch, she’ll go, “umm, (make a clicking noise with her tongue against the roof of her mouth,) and then tell you. It’s as if she’s had to make some hard decision such as what college to go to.

She’s also repeating lines or noises from this movie or that movie. I know this just shows you that she watches movies too much but it is really cute at the same time. For instance, with Ice Age II, she’ll talk about the little squirrel and make this noise the squirrel does in the beginning which is “hey hey hey” and then she growls “grrr.” For Wall-E she keeps saying “Eva” like Wall-E does. Yesterday in fact, she did it as we were driving and held the “va” part of it as if she was singing a long note. We were really impressed as it went on for about 20-30 seconds.

She’s starting to also get more interactive with her doll and is starting to make her dance and pretending that it needs its nappy changed, or needs breakfast, or a drink. Chris mentioned the other night how she’s becoming a little adult. It certainly seems it at times until she starts hitting, spitting and screaming to get her way. Although, I might know a few adults like that.

25Apr2009: Day 334: Castles in Germany

2009-05-07T12:24:00.010-04:00

We got another free breakfast at this hotel in Frankfurt but Makenna ate nothing – a couple bites of cereal. When we got to the car to leave for our sight-seeing, that’s when she decided she wanted to eat. I ran back in and got a cup full of Sugar Smacks. I can’t believe those still exist!

We started off at Schwetzingen Palace and Gardens which was 45 minutes south of Frankfurt. We got there in time for an 11am tour but it was in German. We agreed to do this tour as the first English speaking tour was at 2pm and we didn’t want to wait until then as we wanted to go on to other places.

Let me mention that as soon as we got out of the car to walk to this place, I sprained my stupid left ankle…again. This was the second time in three days. I did it back in Innsbruck but not as bad as today. I have no idea if I tripped on a bee or if a ladybug pushed me down or what! I really thought I was going to be out of commission but I just used the pushcart as a crutch and kept walking on it. It seems to help if I just push through the pain and don’t sit and let it swell up. This is a bum ankle that I’ve sprained way too many times and Chris wants me to get it “fixed” when we get home. The orthopaedist back in the states said I’ve just stretched my ligaments out too much and that’s why it’s weak.

Okay back to today. So off we went on our German speaking tour. Luckily the tour guide handed us a laminated explanation of the rooms. It was brief compared to what he seemed to be saying but we got the gist. The original palace that was here was destroyed in the 30 Years War and was rebuilt starting in 1656. It was somewhat destroyed again in another war and rebuilt by another guy who added some more to it. In 1731 it was expanded even more by the new guy living their and used as a hunting lodge from May to October. The gardens also became more of the main focus more so than the palace.

One of the owners who was an Elector (one of seven families who was responsible for electing the emperor) was married to his cousin who he was betrothed to when they were very young. She was older by four or five years and demanded respect from her husband. He basically did anything she said in order to keep the peace (hmmm). She eventually took on other lovers and left her husband and he found someone better.

The rooms themselves were okay. They didn’t have really anything spectacular or ornate and there were no “wow” ceiling paintings or anything. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but I did sneak one of this chandelier like thing that was in most of the rooms as I found it quite unappealing. Not something I would have in my rooms.

One description we read was of how the women of the time would paint themselves white and actually add blue to enhance the veins in their neck. This was to distinguish them more from the labourers who were tanned. One of the rooms was a powder room for the women’s wigs and they would use bellows to puff up and powder the wigs.

We did decide to walk a bit in the gardens as they were really nice. There were a lot of nice fountains and flowers. In fact, the grounds had a lot of huge lilac bushes which smelled awesome.

Makenna was pretty well behaved in this castle. She didn’t wander too far from us and she was more interested in the papers we were given, or the book on the place that we had bought. At one point, she kept going into my pocket or Chris’s pockets to pull things out. He had our passports in his back pocket and she kept pulling them out then looking at one and handing it to me. I would then put it back in his pocket and this cycle continued repeatedly until she got bored. I don’t think she noticed me putting them back in Chris’s pocket and thought it was an endless supply. In the gardens she started picking up rocks (another new thing she keeps doing this week,) and wanting to throw them into the water. We let her throw a couple into the fountain. There was one duck in one of the fountains and it almost ate out of our hands. Makenna thought it was funny how close it got to her. Out on the grounds she wanted to run away from us more and since we were on a tight schedule of sorts and I had the bum ankle, we put her in the cart and she fell asleep pretty quick as we continued to walk on.

We walked to the Mosque on the grounds and went inside, but there was nothing too outstanding about this building. It says that it’s not a reflection of any particular denomination but for all to worship as they wish. We walked back towards the house hoping to see the palace theatre but we couldn’t find the right building and we ended up stopping in the lapidarium which is basically a room with a lot of statues and sculptures. The doors were actually closed to the room so we just looked through the doors. We then left and headed off to another castle which was about an hour and half away in Braubach.

We stopped at a gas station and Chris went in and decided to buy a couple of Frankfurters. Got eat one while in Frankfurt! They were actually pretty good and what shocked us even more is that Makenna ate some. She tried a bite without much hesitation and no coercion what so ever and then wanted more. I’m not too hip on hot dogs as a main staple of food as they are usually very fattening and unhealthy but the fact that she ate it without thinking twice about it was shocking.

Marksburg, is one of 40 or so castles found along the Rhine river. This castle is unique in that it’s over 700 years old and has never been destroyed and rebuilt as the other castles have. That being the case, it’s not as ornate or richly decorated as the others are (according to what the pamphlet says). We got here just in time for a 4pm tour, again, in German. We got a paper from the gift shop that gave us a brief explanation of what we’d see on the tour.

We almost missed the tour as we saw a little train ride that we thought would take us up to the castle and we hopped on. It immediately started taking us downhill. We quickly got the driver’s attention and hopped out and walked back up the hill and then up the steps to the castle. This was no where as near as bad as the other day when we had to go up a hill to the castles. It could’ve been if we parked at the bottom of the hill.

This was more of an older castle and had a lot of uneven terrain and steps made right out of the bedrock – just my luck with my ankle. I went pretty slowly and Chris was basically in charge of Makenna. The castle was on top of a peak and the keep was inaccessible as you needed a 30 foot ladder to get up into it which is good if the castle was under siege.

The one bedroom that we saw had wood panelling and was the only room with a stove in it. It had a little chapel area where there were paintings directly on the rock of the castle. They also had a room with different armour dating back to 600 BC! It showed a range of armour from that time up to 1400 AD (I think).

Makenna was fairly well behaved in here too. She tried going off on her own a few times but we had told her before the tour started that if she was a good girl during the tour that she could have ice cream after. She had seen some before the tour started and we decided to use this as leverage to our advantage (okay bribery). She was again interested in picking up all the rocks she could and throwing them here or there. Since we couldn’t understand the tour guide we just basically let her wander within reason as long as she was near us and near the tour. She got her ice cream.

We left and headed off to Brussels – our last stop before heading home tomorrow. We thought we’d eat “light” tonight and went to Burger King. I know, this is pretty bad food fare for us but I like it ten times better than McDonald's and we needed something quick in order not to get to our hotel too late. Makenna was quite upset that she didn’t have more chicken bites than what we had bought (which was 6 nuggets!) We got her to eat some potato wedges and that seemed to calm her down. Then we finished our trip and got to Brussels between 8-9pm.

24Apr2009: Day 333: Munich, Germany

2009-05-07T11:42:00.008-04:00

This was the earliest we’ve gotten up yet and actually got out of the room by 8am. We headed into downtown Munich to see a few of the churches. The ones we stopped at today were not as ornate as the ones from yesterday but still nice to see.

We walked on and found the area where the big glockenspiel is. As it was 9:30am, and Chris thought it “did its thing” at 10am, we quickly walked to another church but there was a service going on and Chris said there wasn’t much to look at. We walked back to the square and grabbed a bite for breakfast. I had a nut roll and got Makenna what looked like a muffin but was really a sweet roll with raisins or sultans (what is the difference anyways?) which she wouldn’t eat of course. Chris got a cheese pretzel and another pretzel for later (which was much tastier than the one from yesterday).

10am and no glockenspiel movement…oh well. We decided to head back to the car and found another church, St. Michael’s. This is where some woman was yelling at me and I of course had no idea what she was saying. I was walking around with Makenna in the cart and as I got up towards the front to take a picture she just started yelling quietly at me. I thought she was just mad that I was taking pictures in a church but Chris thinks I upset her because I was in front of the altar taking pictures while she was trying to pray and I was in her view. I said that I was off to the side of her so I wasn’t in her view but I guess he meant that I basically disturbed her praying by coming into her view. Later she went to the back of the church and talked to the guy who was overseeing things and started yelling at him about me. He just waved her off so I felt vindicated.

This church happened to actually be the place where King Ludwig II was buried. Chris went down into the crypt and saw his tomb. I just tried to quietly keep to myself in the back. I didn’t want any more trouble.

We headed off to another castle in the area. This one was more of a summer palace called Schloss Nymphenburg. At least here we could take the cart but couldn’t take the backpack in with us. I understand they don’t want anyone to bump into things while wearing a backpack but we said we’d leave it in the bottom of the pushcart but they didn’t care. I tried to explain that it had diapers and things in it for Makenna but they didn’t budge. I was frustrated but relented. We got up to the first floor and started looking around when I heard Makenna say, “Diaper change.” I said to her that I just had changed her (which I had about 20 minutes prior). A minute later I saw her feel her pants and I knew something was up. I went over and felt and sure enough she was wet – pants and all.

We went back downstairs and explained to them that we had to now go get the bag. I felt like saying, “you know that bag you wouldn’t let us take with us…well, now I need it to change my daughter…remember how I said I might need it?!” I went and changed her and then when I came out, Chris wanted to take a bathroom break. As I was standing near the area to go back up, the lady was trying to take my audio guide off of me. This galled me. I was like “what are you doing?” She was trying to explain to me that I had to turn it in. I was trying to tell her that I hadn’t even done the tour yet. She kept insisting that I had to turn it in and I kept telling her that I just came down from going upstairs, if she recalled, because I needed to get the bag to change my daughter. She went over to the audio guide person (the one that hands them out) and tried to explain to her what the problem was as there was a communication barrier. The audio guide person told me that she wanted me to turn it in before I left the palace to go outside. I told her that I hadn’t done the tour yet. She said, “Well I don’t know why she’s trying to take it from you.” I replied, “Neither do I.” I was just on a bad foot today with women in this country.

We did get back upstairs and this first room was opulent. We were able to take pictures and video of these places today. There was also another room that had portraits of either 30 or 36 women of different types of backgrounds. One was a shoemaker’s daughter while one was a princess. The pictures were very life-like and it was interesting to hear a bit of background on a few of them.
The grounds of Schloss Nymphenburg also had a lot of wooded areas along with lots of running water, little lakes, waterfalls and other little buildings that we could visit. One of the buildings was called Amalienburg and it was for a wife of one of the people that lived there. It’s definitely not as opulent as the palace and it’s a bit faded but still interesting none the less.

We then walked to Die Badenburg which was a bathhouse with a pool. Badenburg means “Nympheon” or holy temple of the spring nymphs. We didn’t know what this big area was and I thought it was maybe a kitchen (with no remaining cookery,) and it wasn’t until I looked at the book that we realized that it was supposed to be a bathhouse and pool. There was no explanation while we were there and we were looking down into it from a top level. Chris guessed it was a pool.

Somewhere along the way we stopped to feed a bunch of ducks, a goose, and a Canadian goose. Makenna enjoyed it as always especially since the ducks were practically coming up to her to get the food. All through the walk on the grounds, anytime she saw water, we had to restrain her from running to it, or maybe even into it. She started picking up rocks to throw into the water thinking the ducks would eat those, even though I explained to her that they don’t eat rocks.

We walked on again and got to Pagodenburg. Which was a ballroom downstairs and the upper rooms had Chinese wallpaper. The last building on the grounds that we went to was Magdalenenklause. It was like a church made with bricks on the outside, but then the inside – wow! Talk about different. The chapel is decorated with colored pebbles, corals, mussels, etc. It was very well done, in my opinion. The other part of the building was more like an apartment area with dark wood rooms and old pictures that were black and white and seemed as they were done in pencil or charcoal. When you went into this area, you had to put on these fuzzy slippers so not to scuff up the floor. I thought it was a good way to clean the floors and a great way to practice ice skating as it was slippery. Luckily we decided to leave one person outside with Makenna while the other went in to this building. This collage is a conglomerate of all the little buildings and a bit of the inside along with a few statues outside along the way.

We left there after chasing Makenna down the main steps of the palace out front and headed off to Frankfurt. We stopped to eat at another rest stop and we’ve decided that after last night and tonight, the German’s give you way too big of portions. You think that American’s get big portions – well, this was way too much. I had another schnitzel but this was with mushroom sauce (I think it was called jagerschnitzel) and vegetable rice. Chris had a goulash with rice and as you could’ve guessed…Makenna had chicken. We made her eat a couple of bites of rice too, especially since we argued about her lunch of chips, and apple which I made her eat in between eating chips, and cookies. It’s just too hard for us to keep a cooler with all the travelling we’re doing in order to have better food. We definitely have to change our eating habits after this trip!

I have another interesting bathroom to report about. At the road stop, I had to pay to use the bathroom (.50 Euro) which is quite common but I’ve been able to avoid doing so until now. Anyways, when I flushed this toilet, it was making this weird noise so I turned around and the seat was rotating! I guess it was going through this cleaning ritual and it rotated to do it. I’ve never seen anything like it. Good idea though.

23Apr2009: Day 332: Bavaria, Germany

2009-05-06T13:44:00.010-04:00

We actually did get up early today and went back towards where we were yesterday. There are a couple of famous castles, Hohenschwangau and the better known Newschwanstein. When we got there it was quite chilly and cold and I was longing for yesterday’s warm sun. Of course, it didn’t help that we were up in the mountains.

We bought a combination ticket for both castles and were debating whether to walk to the Hohenschwangau or take a horse and carriage ride. We opted to walk. You had to be there on time for your tour number or else you’d have to go back to the bottom and start over again, by buying another ticket for another tour time. We headed up after bundling up some more. It wasn’t too bad of a walk up, a bit tiring but not too steep.

When we got to the top, our tour number hadn’t come up yet so I went into the gift shop. I saw a ring or two, I would’ve loved to have bought but resisted. Plus, I had no money…Chris has it all…smartly. When I went back outside, it was raining, and quickly turning to hail. Not hard hail, but not snowflakes. We were under this tent like thing waiting for our tour number. When we did finally get to go, we had to leave our cart behind. Big pain in the butt! Makenna was tired already and had actually fallen asleep while we were walking up to the castle. We carried her up these steps and got a short tour of Hohenschwangau Palace.

This palace was found by the Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria. He happened upon ruins and decided to buy it and restore the castle, which he did from 1833-1837. The colour of this castle is the first thing you notice. Like a shade of yellow. Inside was different in that there were a lot of murals painted on the walls. Only very few pictures were actually painted on canvas and hung. Also, a lot of the murals had depictions of battles but no blood which was common at that time. It had a lot of neat things that were left behind in the castle, mostly wedding gifts that were given to the King and his wife, whether it be a desk or a box. This castle also had ceramic stoves which were pretty and usually matched the décor of the room. I wish I could show you pictures from the inside but they didn’t allow pictures or video at either castle. This picture is one of the stoves and it was at the end of the castle as you left so I didn't feel guilty about taking the picture. But you can see how they look more ornate than just a fireplace or a wood burning stove.

Makenna was pretty good here as she was still trying to sleep, unsuccessfully as Chris and I kept trading her off as she’s getting to be bigger now and our arms get tired pretty quickly. The tour guide was a bit hard to understand due to her accent and she didn’t really seem too happy to be giving a tour as she kept sighing.

When we picked up the cart, it was a bit wet as the guy we left it with just left it out. That was frustrating. We walked down the “quick route” back to the main road where we then had a decision again to walk up to the next castle or take the horse &carriage, or this castle also had a bus that went up to it. Chris first thought we’d do a horse & carriage ride, but there wasn’t one available at the time so we headed towards the buss. Unfortunately, the bus was just leaving. We went over there to stand anyways figuring maybe they come every 15 minutes or so. As we were standing in line, a lady from the restaurant came over to tell us that they weren’t doing any more bus rides due to the weather.

Since the horse/carriage rides can’t guarantee that you will be on time for your tour that meant we had to hoof it ourselves. This was a workout and a half. We only had about 40-45min. to get up there before our tour started, and it takes about 40 minutes walking according to the guide. We had to take turns pushing the cart up this non-stop steep incline. We had to stop a few times too as we were getting really sweaty, even though there was snow here and there along the ground, and just worn out. Of course, when we got up there, we had to leave the cart again.

We finally made it up this hellacious hill and had just enough time to drop off the cart, along with our backpack. This proved to be more of a problem this time as Makenna was extremely tired and took every opportunity to let us know by screaming, running away, spitting, etc.

The castle Neuschwanstein was really nice it was built by Ludwig II who was Maximillians son. This is the more famous castle compared to his home of Hohenschwangau. When Max died, his son Ludwig, at the age of 18 became king of Bavaria. Building began in 1869 and went at least until 1880. I guess King Ludwig II actually had five castles built but only one or two were finished before he died of mysterious causes (they believe he was killed).

This castle was very grand and interesting. One room, the Throne Hall, had blue marble looking columns. I asked the tour guide if these were real and she said no. The materials were “cheap” but the work on them to make them look authentic was not. Speaking of the guide, she was a bit easier to understand than the one for the other castle, but since Makenna was in a miserable tired mood, we couldn’t always pay attention to what she was trying to tell us. She also said that Ludwig II only stayed in this castle about 174 days more or less. Chris reminded me that Walt Disney based Cinderella’s castle on this one.

Another interesting part in this castle was The Grotto. This was an area that was built within the castle to look like a cave. It even used to have a running waterfall within the cave. The guide said that Ludwig wanted it built based on some play that the King was a part of. I think he may have been in the play, or he really liked the play, so he wanted something to remind him of it and he had the cave built.

After the tour was done, we headed outside and had to walk back around to the front to get the cart again. It gave me a chance to change Makenna’s stinky diaper (that was another reason she was such a pain, she couldn’t get privacy to go, so she just wanted to be left behind, which we couldn’t do.)

I insisted that regardless how easy it would be to walk down the hill, we were taking the horse and carriage. Chris agreed. We stopped and picked up a pretzel first. It looked like one of the ones you get from Auntie Anne’s in the Mall but it was disappointingly different. It wasn’t hot and warm, and was almost hard, but not stale, thank goodness. We got in to the carriage and I was showing Makenna the horses and the guy offered for her and I to sit up front with him. This absolutely elated Makenna. She kept saying the “horsie is walking.” After we got to the bottom, she got to pet him and thought that was really neat.

We then headed off to find a couple of churches in the area. We got to “The Wies” (aka Pilgrimage Church of the “Scourged Saviour”.) As Makenna was finally sleeping, Chris went into it first while I took the opportunity to rest my weary legs and stay in the car with her. When I went in, it was another bright airy church which is known for its baroque art and architecture. Chris was the first to mention how these churches were much different from the dark churches of England, but he finally mentioned why today, which I didn’t realize…they’re painted white inside. That’s what makes them so bright looking compared to the dark stone of the ones of England. It makes the colours of the frescos and other paintings pop out at you and seem just more eye catching.

We went on to the next church which was Rottenbuch (aka Parish Church of Mariae Geburt) which is another baroque church. We did the same thing where Chris went in first then I went in. This church also had traces of Romanesque sculptures and medieval decoration but in 1262 & 1322 this church was ruined by fire. Over the years different parts were rebuilt. When I went in, there was a guy playing a trumpet along with the organ which was nice ambiance music.

We left and headed back towards the hotel but looked for somewhere along the way to stop and eat. We found this bar/restaurant and knew we were in for trouble when we couldn’t read a thing from the menu as it was all in German or Bavarian (if there’s a difference?) We tried making out some of the words like asparagus and schnitzel. We asked the waiter if he could help us and he brought someone else who knew better English. The lady asked us if we were looking for something specific or if we were up for Bavarian type food. We said we’d try typical local fare. She suggested a sample platter of sausage, and other meats and another meal of pork schnitzel. We were able to get chicken for Makenna, as usual, along with pom frittes (fries). We also got a salad and it had pickled beets on it. I took a chance and tried a small taste of one which wasn’t too bad. It was a bit sweet and went well with the salad and dressing. Our meals were pretty good too. At first I wasn’t sure I liked the schnitzel too much, which was what was put in front of me, but I got to like it more as I continued to eat it. I gave half of it to Chris and tried some of his different meats. He also had this potato looking thing but we’re not sure what it was. It was really salty and had a strange texture. He thinks maybe it was rice and I thought it had a consistency of a matzo ball. Makenna was just happy as usual to eat her chicken.

Off to the hotel for another swim. Luckily this time the pool seemed a bit warmer and there was no one stripping. Chris was swimming under the water towards her again and she just laughed and laughed. When he came up out of the water she said, “Daddy is so funny.” Makenna will be disappointed as we check out tomorrow and none of our remaining hotels have pools that we know of.

Chris has been enjoying driving really fast on the Audubon and I’ve enjoyed that there have been very minimal motorcycles and a lot less people smoking here.

22Apr2009: Day 331: Innsbruck, Austria

2009-05-05T16:02:00.013-04:00

Remember how I mentioned a couple of days ago that with the new road system they closed off some of the exits? Well, it’s also a problem when you’re trying to get back on them and the GPS has no idea but to send you down these routes of which one is a dead end. After the third attempt, we finally found the highway and off we were to Innsbruck. It was only just over a few hours away but it took us longer as we stopped a couple of times to stretch and film the scenery.

There is just no comparing the beauty you see of these huge mountains with snow caps on some and houses that just seem random dotted along with no visible roads to them. Plus rows and rows of what I believe are grape vines, and occasional castles and churches on the mountainsides. It truly just makes you appreciate God’s sense of beauty and nature. I wonder if the people who live in these areas truly appreciate what they have. They probably don’t care for it in the winter I would assume but today was just so warm and sunny out, yet cool at the same time. I could’ve lain out to get a suntan it just felt so good. One thing that has also been interesting to see is how the roads are just “S” curve after “S” curve with short bursts of straight road, and tunnels sprinkled throughout. Plus it always seems as though we’re going down hill, hardly ever up.

We finally got to Innsbruck about 2:30ish and found a place to park and headed straight for a couple of churches. These were very different from a lot of the ones we’ve seen as they were well lit and airy, not dark and dismal. The only thing was that you could only peer through a gate. They weren’t open to walk around in. The first one was Stift Wilten as seen here:

Then this one that was right across the street called Basilika Wilten:

We then headed more into town and found another place to park and walked to another church, as we thought it was the Dom Zu St. Jakob (Cathedral of James) but it ended up being another church called Jesuitenkirche which is on the site of the university which was founded by the Jesuits in 1699. After taking a few pictures inside, we walked on and found the tourist area and the Dom Zu St. Jakob (collage below). This church had something inside I’ve never seen and don’t know if I can explain as I have no idea what in the world it was. It was up front and from a distance looked like a tree that was rotting away. When you got closer, it looked as if the top had wax melted on it but the bottom base it was in was wet looking as if this thing was moulting or “bleeding” water. We think maybe it was a strange candle holder but can’t explain the base with water (not water to extinguish hot wax either).

When we left, there was an area just outside with flowers and a fountain. Makenna fed some birds her crackers that she didn’t want and then she saw the fountain. Makenna is a magnet for water if I haven’t already said in the past, and she went over to it. She decided to pick a flower and throw it in the water. I have no idea what ever gave her the idea to do it. I made sure she didn’t pick any more as she wanted to. I think she just wanted to put something in the water.

We stopped at various stores and bought a little horse ornament, a magnet, some candy, and Chris bought a Stein. It was hard to pass up buying a cuckoo clock and even harder to pass up buying this cute little Bavarian dress for Makenna. It was over 80 Euros though and considering she’d only wear it a few times I just couldn’t do it.

While we were in the store, Makenna was looking at a little trinket and she said, “Oh, that’s so pretty.” It’s as if every day she’s picking up phrases and applying them at appropriate times, it’s just amazing to me. Another thing she did today was while she was on Chris’s shoulders, she was sticking her fingers in his ear and he said, “Don’t stick your fingers in daddy’s ear.” She then said, “eeh ah – eeh ah” as if she was a donkey. Chris said, “Did she just make the noise of a donkey at me?” I told him yes and we both started laughing.

We took pictures of different interesting architecture, fountains and buildings we found as we were walking around. We stopped for a sandwich of some sort of salami on a roll. Makenna – chicken nuggets from McDonalds. She better enjoy all these nuggets now because I am not one to stop at fast food places when we’re in the states except for Subway or Wendy’s. I’m already thinking about ways I might be able to cook chicken nuggets at home to make them healthier.

We walked around a bit more then headed to the car and off to our hotel which was another 1.45 away. We luckily didn’t have any issues finding the hotel and this place had a pool. We took advantage of it and Chris finally got to see how well Makenna does in swimming. The pool wasn’t too heated which was quite a shock to me when I jumped right in.

Makenna enjoyed jumping in, swimming back and forth between Chris and I, and us throwing her back and forth in the water. She wasn’t too willing to go under but did a few times. She thought it was funny to see Chris swimming under water at her.

What was nice was that they had separate dressing/locker rooms down here so we could just bring all our stuff down and change. Plus they had a shelf full of towels so it didn’t matter if we used a couple. After we were done swimming, I went over to the shower area to rinse off the chlorine and Chris did the same while Makenna just stayed off to the side. Well, this guy who was down at the pool area with his buddies came over near the showers to go into the sauna and he stripped off his bathing suit! My mouth dropped open and I was looking at Chris and mouthing, “What is he doing?!?!” I only saw his butt in all honesty but still. I was shocked he’d do that with me there but more shocked with Makenna standing there. I don’t think Makenna saw anything as she was turned the other way waiting to go into the locker room with me. Chris said he heard his buddies laughing when he went into the sauna. Well, that’s a way to end the night!

21Apr2009: Day 330: Venezia (Venice)

2009-05-05T12:37:00.006-04:00

We actually got Makenna to eat a bit of toast this morning and I finally had some cereal; first time in over a week. It was this granola with chocolate bits and it was really good. The only thing I didn’t like was that for some reason, they don’t seem to keep their milk cold over here. It’s the second hotel that I’ve found that just keeps it sitting out. Not that it’s sour but I really like cold milk with my cereal.

We drove to the train station which was near the hotel, and took it into Venice. Makenna was a real “treat” on the train as usual. What was a treat though was that there truly are no cars or motorcycles on the roads in Venice—which was a very nice change! It looks a lot like you see on tv – lots of gondolas and canals everywhere. There are also a lot of other motor boats as that’s how people get around quickly. Plus, a lot of them are “taxis.” We did a lot of walking and we were already exhausted from not getting enough sleep. We stopped into a church which was small but very picturesque with frescos and other paintings. They wouldn’t let you take any pictures inside as it said that a church is for worship not a museum. So all I have is this picture from the outside.

We kept walking on and found another church with the same rule. It’s a shame in that it would be nice to have a picture memory of the beautiful artwork inside on the ceilings. These churches also seemed to have a lot of medallion hangings which was something new.

After grabbing a bite to eat and stopping at various places along the way to take pictures and video, we made it to St. Marks square. This is the most famous area of Venice due to St. Marks church. Once you got past the guy who insists that all backpacks be checked in (in fact, a lot of the places we went to in the square required that we checked in our backpack,) the church itself is free to go into, but every other little aspect costs money.

We paid to go into the treasury which was very small compared to some of the others we’ve seen but it had some interesting artefacts. Mostly different bones encased in various types of containers. I just don’t get why someone would want to save the jaw bone, leg bone, piece of a spine, a tooth, a hand, part of the skull, etc., of a dead priest or saint, or who even knows whom. All I could think is that they can always have a piece of that person or maybe so that they can worship the remains? I’m clueless here. Chris paid 2 Euro to see a screen with gold and jewels and a whole bunch of saints on it. I forget what they call this type of screen but it’s usually behind the altar. I took the opportunity to sit. I forgot to mention that with all the walking, my foot is getting a few blisters and a callous. We then finished walking through the rest of the church, of which again, no pictures could be taken. I was way too tired to attempt the bell tower. We walked around the plaza a bit and decided to go into the Doge’s Palace (aka Palazzo Ducale di Venezia,) which is a gothic Palace.

For many, many years, the Doge's Palace had three basic functions: as the Doge residence, the seat of government, and as the palace of justice. This was where some of the most important decisions for Venice's, and even Europe's destiny were taken. The Doge was a guy who ruled the area of Venice in old times and it took over 800 years to build this palace to what it is today. He had a bunch of advisors who would come and meet and decide on policy and justice. All I could think of was how people in power have way too much money. This place was huge and it had a lot of rooms that had wall paintings, and ceiling paintings. There wasn’t much furniture left in the rooms so it was mostly looking at the paintings and the fireplaces which were very ornate in some cases with marble and statues on them.

Makenna was still asleep, as she fell asleep just before St. Mark’s church, and unfortunately this place had tons of steps that we had to keep carrying the cart up and down. By the last 15-20 minutes, we were just ready to leave and forget seeing the rest. The last 10 minutes was just seeing the prisons below the palace which were many. They must have had a lot of prisoners at some point with all the cells that they had.

We foraged on to another museum after as the ticket we bought for the Doge’s Palace was good for five museums. This museum had some old books, and some more sculptures, pictures, and busts. We only had an hour before it closed and we did a quick walk through anyways as we were hoping to make it an early night. I was hoping we were going to find the four horses or the quadrangle here that was the spoils from a war with Constantinople, but I guess that was in a section off the church that we missed.

We went back out to the plaza and let Makenna run around. This plaza is filled with pigeon’s who will eat out of your hands and sit on your arms if you have food. It was funny and neat to see this but all I could think about was, I hope they don’t decide to relieve themselves while they’re on your arms and hands. I was hoping to get a film of Makenna chasing the birds but she of course didn’t want to do it as soon as I got the camera out.

We took one of the water taxi’s back to the train station. When we first got on the boat, there were two sides that were going on two different routes. We couldn’t figure out how the boat was going to split in half to do this. Come to find out, we weren’t on the boat taking us; we were on a floating dock. We felt pretty dumb as Chris was trying to ask people how it worked. I was glad we got on the boat that only took three stops to get to the train station. Chris wished we had gotten on the slower one as it would’ve taken us more through Venice instead of the back waterways and he could’ve gotten more video.

Before hoping on the train, Makenna was playing in the train station and she liked the photo booth that you can go into to take silly pictures. She thought the seat was a wheel and kept “driving.” You could hear her say, “Come on stupid thing” as she tried turning the seat/wheel. Makenna was much better on the train ride back as she got to run around on the train for a bit before it left and then she had her own seat some of the time which she jumped on. She also had a pen and paper to write with and when I asked her to do something like move over to be with us, she said, “In a minute, just a second.” It seems as though she’s now picked up another saying of mine that I’m sure to hear for many years to come.

We found a nice restaurant after getting back and it made me long for the days of having a babysitter. Just to sit and eat a nice meal in a nice restaurant without the crying, whining, and general mischievousness of a kid. She decided she didn’t want to eat her noodles with mushrooms and sauce that we got her and would rather walk around and lift up her shirt for everyone to see her belly. Not to mention lick the chair and spit at me. I made her sit in her chair and she proceeded to scream really loud.

I took her out and made her sit outside on a chair for two minutes. Part way through she started yelling, “tell me sorry,” as a way to get out of her two minutes quicker. I still made her sit there, and since it took us a few tries to get the full two minutes we were out there for just about 10. Before we went back in, I told her she had to either sit in her chair, or sit with mommy or daddy. It was as if a light switch went off. She came back, sat down and didn’t hesitate to eat her dinner. She realized that it tasted pretty good as she usually does with much coercion.

Well, needless to say, we didn’t get an early night as we had hoped. We did decide to skip another day in Venice and have decided to head up to Innsbruck, Austria tomorrow. Not that there wasn’t more to see in Venice, but it’s more for the atmosphere than the things they have in our opinion. Plus, I didn’t mention all the steps you have to go up and down in Venice as you are constantly walking over this or that bridge.

20Apr2009: Day 329: Vatican Part II

2009-05-05T11:28:00.010-04:00

We had already planned on going back to the Vatican today since yesterday was such a “bust” with Makenna and with a lot of the areas being closed. Our tour bus ticket from yesterday was good up until 10am today and if we could just get up and get moving, we could’ve used it to get back there. Alas, when you have a two year old and have to pack to leave the hotel, you need to add a lot more time. We just ended up doing what we did yesterday and took the metro and switched lines to get us there.

When we got off, we got barraged, as usual, by all these tour groups trying to sell you their package. This one lady was annoyingly persistent and even though we were walking away, she kept walking with us and trying to sell us on the tour. She was good at her job as she convinced Chris that maybe taking a tour was a good idea as it cuts through waiting in the long lines to get in. It was 45€ a piece and we were short of that. We gave them 10£ but we think that we still shorted them by a few Euros.

It was definitely worth the money in the end. It did bypass all the long lines and we got headsets to hear the guy and he was from the States, I believe. He also could speak Italian, and possibly Spanish. Not to mention that the lady who sold us the tour said he looked like George Clooney and I kind of see it. I just envisioned that it was George Clooney taking us on this tour. He was pretty funny and showed us some things in the museum and pointed out how it related to the Sistine Chapel, which he was going to be taking us through. See what you think...he's the one facing the camera.

He took us through the Vatican Museum and explained to us about some of the important statues and he tied his explanations of them into the Sistine Chapel and how it all related. At one place, outside of the musem,

he had to stop us outside where all the tours stop to talk about the Sistine Chapel as you’re supposed to be quiet inside. He did a good job explaining the different sections and why some of the pictures are the way they are. For instance, he said at one end, was a picture of the pope who had asked him to paint the ceiling. What was interesting about this section was that Michelangelo had a falling out with the pope so he painted two kids next to the pope, one kid with his arm around the other. No big deal, but if you see the “sign” that the one kid is giving the pope, it’s as if the kid is “flipping him off,” as the tour guide put it. He put this one other place in the painting too. The tour guide even explained to us how this was done (all in four years) and how Michelangelo almost went blind doing it. It gives you a real appreciation for it.

The only problem was, this was the only place you weren’t allowed to take pictures – all because the Japanese restored the fresco and has rights to it. Isn’t that something! The painting was a bit dark and dingy to begin with, and then the Japanese took 10 years and figured out a method to be able to clean it and brighten it up at no cost to the Vatican. So the way they make their money back is by having rights to any pictures or filming of it. You still saw people taking pictures, but if the ushers caught you, they basically yelled saying, “No photos.”

The other unfortunate thing was that Makenna needed to be changed and I took the in-opportune time to go the bathroom myself. I was able to change her in about two minutes but the line for the women’s bathroom was as usual – long. Plus, this one gutsy lady from Canada, just kept moving her way up in front of people by talking to them and was eventually in front of the line. I was pretty annoyed but she was an older lady and it reminded me of something my grandmother Rafferty would do. So by the time I was done, I only had about three minutes in the Sistine chapel whereas Chris probably had around 15 or so. These photos below are actually from inside St. Peter's Cathedral.
We finished up the tour shortly after the chapel and got one last titbit of information which was that if we looked at this one building as we left, it’s where the pope resides. If the shutters were open, it meant that the pope was “in.” We looked as we left and they were open. He also told us that the pope only speaks from the main balcony a few times – once at Christmas, once at Easter, and once if he’s just been elected pope. Otherwise, he speaks from the window from his residence.

Chris and I decided, since you still couldn’t take the carts inside St. Peter’s Basilica, to take turns going in to finish seeing what we didn’t see yesterday. So he went in first for a half-hour, then I went in. He wanted to go back in and see the treasury and then I could go up the cupola. Unfortunately, both required money to do and we were all out of Euros. So we just went into Vatican city and let Makenna run around.

She was pretty good all day today and it was the best day yet in regards to her. She fell asleep pretty quickly once the tour started and was awake only for the last half-hour to 45 minutes of it. She again relented to sitting in her pushcart until it was done. That’s why we let her run around later. Plus, while Chris was inside the basilica, I sat outside with Makenna and she was just so cute. She wanted some chips and she insisted on sharing with the pigeons. She thought it was just too funny that they would all gather around to eat what she gave them. She would clap and say “yeah” and then one time she even insisted that I clap too.

We took the metro back to the station where the Holiday Inn van would pick us up, but because it was too early for the first bus to come, we actually got on a bus and got off at the right stop and made it back to the hotel. Luckily, Chris asked just prior to the stop what one we needed to get off on. We packed the car, stopped at a grocery store for more granola bars for Makenna and off we were headed to Venice.

It wasn’t too long until we stopped at a rest stop for food as we had no lunch. The place had cafeteria like food and since Makenna wanted chicken bites, all we could do for her was baked chicken. It didn’t take to long to persuade her to try a piece and she realized that chicken without greasy fried coating was just as good. She ate it up pretty quickly. I think it was baked in butter as it seemed a bit greasy so I’m sure that had something to do with her willingness to eat it.

I wish we could say it was an easy trip but it seems that Venice has built all these new highways and closed off the ramps to some of the secondary roads. This caused quite a problem as our GPS didn’t know and against Chris’s better instincts, he didn’t get off the exit that said Venezia. This meant we had to go way out of our way another 16 miles and the “fun” didn’t stop there. Getting back on was no treat and since we didn’t already trust the GPS at this point, we decided to follow our instincts. It seemed as though we would follow the GPS at the wrong times and when we decided to try it on our own, we should’ve followed the GPS. We finally made it close to 1am to the hotel, which was about an hour later than scheduled.

Another thing I need to mention is that it’s these European countries that are keeping the tobacco industry in business. A majority of people smoke over here – no matter what age. Okay, well I’d say the youngest I’ve seen may have been fifteen but still. I go to bed and I swear I still smell it. Maybe our room used to be a smoking room or something but I think that my nose is just all gunked up with the smell. You can’t even sit outside on a nice day to eat as that’s where most of the smokers are. We went into a souvenir shop today and the guy working there was smoking inside the shop. Even yesterday, at the Vatican, I saw someone smoking then throw it on the ground and stomp it out. I was shocked. I saw a priest walking around holding an umbrella and a cigarette. It just seems like these people don’t care about cancer.

Also, as soon as it’s raining, you have four or five vendors standing around with lots of umbrellas in their hands trying to get you to buy one. They see you without one and they immediately are pressing you to buy one. Chris had this really big one that he was using yesterday to cover both him and I and we had a raincoat covering Makenna in the push cart. As soon as they saw that I didn’t have one, they were sure I needed one. I finally said to one, “how do you expect me to push and hold an umbrella?” rolled my eyes and walked on. One in fact made some comment of admiration about the big umbrella that Chris had as if they should be selling those types instead of the chincy one person umbrellas.

Today, it was very lightly sprinkling as we left the Vatican and they were out like flies holding umbrellas trying to sell them. I thought about how I didn’t see them as we walked to the Vatican. It’s as if they are just waiting for one drop to fall out of the sky and “bam” they suddenly appear. I think some of them must be the same vendors that are along the roads set up trying to sell you other things, but then as soon as it rains, they have their buddies mind the store and they run out to sell the latest “fad” to have of umbrellas.

19Apr2009: Day 328: Bus Tour and Vatican (Rome, Italy)

2009-05-01T18:25:00.006-04:00

We decided that today we’d do the shuttle from the hotel and then we had to figure out the metro system. Luckily, Chris figured it out pretty quickly and got us into Rome. From there we hopped on a bus tour. We sat on the top and Chris filmed, I took some pictures, and Makenna looked around.

We decided to hop off at the Vatican even though we were going to do this tomorrow as I thought it was closed today. We saw some of St. Peter’s Basillica. A lot of it was closed off and the crowds were surprisingly huge for a Sunday but not because they were trying to go to mass. Makenna was miserable, absolutely miserable. The biggest problem was that she was tired and they wouldn’t let us take the cart inside so she couldn’t sleep. She wouldn’t stay with us, was hitting, spitting (which is a new trick she’s picked up in the past month,) and just all around a pain in the butt! It made Chris and I both on edge towards each other. I finally told him to walk around and film what he wanted, and I would move up front and find a place to sit with her.

I found a “chapel” which was really just an area off to the side not really separate from anything and it was roped off but people were sitting including another family with a child. They got up and left shortly after I sat down and then the ushers were coming and saying I couldn’t really be there but I said that I had a small child who needed to try and sleep so they let me sit there. I had another usher later come up again and I finally said, “Is there a time limit to sitting here?” He finally relented since he saw Makenna. She, shortly after, decided to not want to sit there any longer so the whole misery, for me, began again as she wanted to get out and do what she wanted to do which was to run away. I moved to a more obvious place in the middle and Chris finally found me. He said he had been looking around for 45 minutes.

I figured that he would’ve eventually found me from walking around and filming the various spots as he was filming but he just finished filming the one spot and then left to look for me. Oh well, communication is short and sporadic when you have an unwieldy child. I assumed he understood what I was saying and I guess I was wrong.

To make matters more “wonderful” it was raining outside so we couldn’t really go outside. We decided to head down to the vault area where all the popes are buried. It was a quick 10 minute or so walk through the catacombs and most of the hold up was around the newest internment of Pope John Paul II. No surprise there. You weren’t supposed to take pictures down there but there were plenty of people doing so.

We then left and picked up Makenna’s pushcart and she fell asleep pretty quickly. Chris & I grabbed bite to eat then got back on bus, finished tour back to where we started. We walked to another church which had a display about Galileo. After stopping at McDonalds for Makenna we then went to the National Museum where they had statues and frescos and a lot of old coins from different times and places. What’s nice is that the museum’s are free until April 29th – why until then I have no idea.

We made it back to the hotel and left again to find a place nearby to eat. We walked down the road and found a pizza place that had seating and that was open. We got Makenna some rigatoni which she was very unwilling to eat at first. We had to tell her that if she wanted more water she had to take a bite of rigatoni. She finally relented and found out that we weren’t trying to poison her and that it was actually pretty good. I had a calzone and Chris had a pizza – practically a full size pizza but the crust here is very thin. I then got a dessert which I shared mostly with Makenna, of profiterole with chocolate and vanilla gelato on top. It was pretty tasty.

At the restaurant, there was this red-headed Italian girl (which I think is very different to see,) who came up and was talking with Makenna but she mostly spoke Italian and we understand very little. I was surprised we were even able to get our waitress to understand what we wanted to get Makenna as I didn’t see rigatoni or penne noodles on the menu but mention an Italian noodle and they get it. I could be losing a whole bunch of weight with all the walking we have been doing, if I didn’t turn around and order the cheesiest and greasiest things off the menu.

18Apr2009: Day 327: Rome (Italy)

2009-05-01T12:00:00.010-04:00

We debated whether to take the car into Rome or whether to take the hotel’s shuttle bus to a drop off point and then take the metro in. I was for the latter but Chris felt he could find a place to park in downtown. We drove down and again it was a mad house of people on motorcycles weaving in and out of lanes. I swear I don’t know how these people aren’t killed doing what they do.

He did find a place to park and we headed off to the coliseum. It was actually free but we decided, or got talked into, a 10 Euro tour which at first I thought was not going to be very good as it was a guy talking and we had to all crowd around him to hear him. But a few minutes into it he got us all headsets and got us through the line to get in quicker. He did tell us some interesting things and showed us some spots where the movie Gladiator was filmed. He told us a bit of history about how the middle of the coliseum would be flooded and they had “naval battles.” It was later drained and a floor was put over the passageways for the gladiator fights and other spectator sport of killing animals that had been previously trapped for this purpose. They had a 100 day festival during the summer when these events would take place.

The guide tried to tell us we had to meet up with this other guide outside of the coliseum at a certain time but we didn’t do it because we believed we would’ve had to pay again for that part of the tour.

We left and just started walking around to a lot of different areas. We tried to walk to a lot of the famous sights that were close by the coliseum. We saw the Trevi Fountain, and the monument to the Unknown Soldier (picture here,) which was really grand. We saw a lot of different ruins and statues that we are unsure what they were of.

We stopped inside some random churches that we saw that looked interesting and found them to all be very appealing in that most had paintings on the ceilings of the domes or other interesting things of some sort.
We eventually stopped for some gelato and picked one of the busiest stores to do so. I guess because they have a lot of flavours – I couldn’t even see them all as it was so crowded. I again decided on mint with vanilla and got Chris vanilla & chocolate and Makenna a scoop of chocolate which she promptly made a complete mess of all over her face and clothes. She was in very happy mood after that.

She had fallen asleep when we were at the coliseum but was a handful before hand. For the most part, she keeps asking to walk, but when we let her out she wants to be carried. So we kept her in cart and she relented.

Then the frustration really began after our sight seeing trip. We needed to do laundry and we could not find the place that the hotel told us about. When we were driving into Rome in the morning, we happened to see one along our route and we couldn’t find that again. I mentioned to Chris that maybe we should go back to the hotel and then retrace our route, but he was stubborn (in my opinion,) and insisted going up and down this one street. Then he tried looking up on-line on his blackberry but couldn’t find one. So he finally relented and dropped Makenna and I off at the hotel (after more than an hour of looking). He left to find another place and I took Makenna up to the room and cooked her favourite noodles. A few hours later Chris showed up and we just ate a snack and went to bed hoping that tomorrow was going to be better or least a better ending.

17Apr2009: Day 326: Pisa (Italy)

2009-05-01T10:48:00.006-04:00

Today we travelled to Pisa which was only just under an hour and a half away from Florence. When we first got there, we found a parking lot that also had a Lidl store (Aldi’s). We decided to stop in the store first and buy some water as we were out – again. We also picked up some other things such as pita-like bread, ham, cheese, some little boxes of orange juice for Makenna and some chips that taste like Munchos that are in the shape of bears also for Makenna.

We walked over to the area where the Leaning Tower of Pisa is along with a cathedral and baptistery. It was a bit windy, but a very picturesque day with the sun shining and white fluffy clouds. I was amazed at how much the tower is really leaning! In fact, it’s been “fixed” so that it’s not leaning as much as it was. We saw a brief film on how they tried to fix it starting in 1990 when things were getting critical. It took 10 years and a few tries at different things until they finally removed some soil underneath the side that it was leaning away from, so that it would start to settle the other way. When it was first built there was a river near by and the land was swampy. Only the first 3 floors were built and then it started to promptly sink and tilt. So it was abandoned for a while until another four tiers were built and it sank and tilted some more. So more time passed and then the bell tower at the top was finally put on.

Chris was nice enough to let me go up into the tower as a “gift” for taking care of Makenna and being a stay-at-home mom for the past year. I got some good video of the area of Pisa. It only had over 200 steps so it wasn’t too bad of a climb. As soon as you walked in you were tilted. Then you could feel the tilt more as you came down the steps in my opinion. I felt the different muscles in my legs getting a work out as the building shifted.

We bought a ticket that got us into 5 different things in the area—the baptistery, the cathedral, two museums, and a mausoleum. We went into the baptistery first. Makenna liked roaming around and especially the phone like devices that you could pay one Euro for to get a bit of history on the building. She would just pick it up and chat away like she was talking to someone—if we could only get her to talk like that when someone is really on the phone. What was really neat was that a guy went to the middle of the baptistery below the dome area and started singing. You could hear his echo on the dome and it sounded as if someone was singing back to him. He kept doing it so that he was then harmonizing with himself. It was the coolest thing to hear as if there were three people standing there singing and it was just him and his echo. Then I left to go up into the Tower and Chris sat with Makenna and actually got her to eat some ham and she absolutely loved the “bread” as she kept calling it. I was able to see them from the top of the tower. I came down and we went into the cathedral. In 1093, the first stone was laid to be build this Pisan Romanesque style church.

Then we went off to the mausoleum (aka The Camposanto ("Holy Field") or Monumental Cemetery). It was constructed in 1278 around sacred dirt brought back from Golgotha during the Crusades. It was later decorated with extensive frescoes, and was the burial place of the Pisan upper class for centuries.

A lot of the frescoes were completely destroyed when in 1944, American warplanes launched a major air attack against Pisa, which was still held by the Nazis. The wooden roof caught fire, its lead panels melted and the hot metal ran all over the frescoes. In repairing the remaining ones, they found sketches underneath called sinopie. They were used as a "preparatory sketch" for the artist to see how it would look before they painted the frescoes. This helped the people who took the frescoes down to see what they were supposed to look like. They took the sinopie & remaining frescoes and put them, into the Museo delle Sinopie, which we also visited.

There were again a lot of vendors all around trying to sell you things. There were guys even selling watches and belts. The hardest thing for me to resist was buying an Italian leather purse. I looked at quite a few but passed on them. If anyone knows me well, they know that I don’t carry a purse around too often. They tend to annoy me and the strap gets caught on everything it seems. Plus you just end up carrying more stuff around that I don’t tend to need and you end up carrying other people’s stuff – like your husband’s wallet. But for some reason, I love to buy purses. I don’t do it very often because it’s just a ridiculous waste of money.

We did stop back at Lidl’s again and picked up more water and pita bread as we could see Makenna really enjoyed it. We then packed up and headed to dinner – McDonalds – again. Out of all the fast food places, I like McDonalds the least but they have the chicken nuggets that Makenna will eat and we needed to get on the road to Rome.

When we were getting off the motorway, we had to stop and pay the toll and the machine says “ARIBA Dirche” and Makenna said, “Uh yeah” like one who doesn’t understand what was just said and you’re just saying “yeah” hoping that’s the right answer. Plus, when we got close to the hotel she wanted her movie changed and I had told her on the way a few times to let the one she was watching finish and then she could have another one. So this time, after she asked, she pointed her finger at me and said, “Let it finish.” I chuckled at that.

16Apr2009: Day 325: Florence (Italy)

2009-04-30T16:09:00.007-04:00

After eating our breakfast of Granola Bars, we headed out to the maze of Florence yet again. We found a parking garage where they took our keys and parked our car. It made us a bit nervous but what else could we do? They mainly have parking for the motorcycles and bikes in the downtown area and not so much for cars.

As we walked towards our first destination, we saw many vendors selling all sorts of things from trinkets of the area to belts, scarves, sweaters, shoes, purses, etc. Plus, as the day went on there were people begging for this reason or that, other people selling paintings, and since it was raining on and off, people walking around selling umbrellas.

I think the people selling paintings were the most interesting. They had a portfolio, would come near you, open it up and flip through their pictures. Some even put them on the ground for you to walk past. They were nice pictures but I had a hard time believing that the people selling them were the same people who painted them. There were some painters near the Uffizi gallery who were sitting there painting and with paintings of theirs to sell. That I believed. In fact, I was tempted to buy one I saw but it most likely would be ruined by the time we get home as we’re in such a small car. Plus, I’m sure they probably cost quite a bit.

Anyways, the first stop was at the Cappelle Medici (Medici Chapels) which is adjacent to the Basilica of San Lorenzo. We first went into the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. This was a building that Michelangelo created to “shelter the expanding library of the Medici.” The entrance into it was inside an entrance. So you were inside and as you went into this library, the entrance was as if you were entering from outside, even though you were already inside. Then when you got inside it was rows and rows of really high pews. On the outside of the pews was a label of sorts. What it was, was a list of the books that would be within that row of pews. What people used to do was go into a row and sit and read the book they wanted from that row. They also then had a history of writings and samples through the ages of writings even on papyrus and wax and stone. Some samples they had were from 251 BC! Talk about exciting. They had some writings from books of the bible (even sections that aren’t familiar in a standard bible). They also showed the standard large bible as compared to what they call the Marco Polo type of bible which is smaller and portable. Unfortunately, the only pictures we could take were on the outside of the building and it wasn't too exciting really to look at from the outside.

We then went down into the Medici tombs which were created by Michelangelo. It basically had a lot of things too look at as the treasury was also down there. One box, not sure what it was for, had a bone in it, like an arm bone or something. Since most of it was in Italian we couldn’t really tell what some of these things were or what they meant. The main thing here was the tombs of two Medici family members. As I’m not familiar with who Medici was and what the importance of the family was, I can’t really expand. I know it’s something important as the name was mentioned a lot during the day – as if it was a time period in government that wasn’t good. We then went into the chapel and it had some interesting paintings but it did not have anything too exciting as I can barely remember going in here. I just remember Makenna starting to act up.

We then went to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore which means St. Mary of the Flower and the flower represents Christ. This cathedral is known for the Brunelleschi dome which we could only really see a small part of. They roped off the area that lets you get close to look up. We didn’t pay to go up to the dome either. Although, I would’ve loved to have gone up and get a full view of this work of art. It also had an underground area that you could pay and see all the findings of what was there previously prior to this church. There was another church back from the 5th century on this spot but they found that it was too small and in 1296 started to build this grand church which took 170 years to complete. At the time, it was the biggest in Italy. The outside was almost more interesting in design and definitely the most colourful that I’ve seen yet.
It also had a separate bell tower that you could pay to go up and see a lot of Florence. Chris didn’t feel I’d be up to it as it had 421 steps (maybe more) and said if we had time later, which we didn’t, I could go up. There was also a baptistery (Baptistery of San Giovanni,) aka John the Baptist. This was really neat to see. The dome inside this was also painted and had a lot of meaning; mostly of Christ’s judgment at the time of resurrection. Even the shape of the building, an octagon has meaning. Each side represents a day but since an octagon has eight sides, the eighth day represents the day without end, when Christ comes again.

We got Makenna to fall asleep inside this cathedral, as she desperately needed it by her antics, and we walked to a little café and grabbed a bite to eat and some food for her for later. We continued to walk to the Galleria dell’Accademia which is known for the sculpture by Michelangelo of David. I do have to say, I’ve seen this in pictures but this was truly an outstanding piece of work. I was mesmerized by it and not because it was of a naked man. Just how perfect it looked and to be carved out of marble makes you wonder how in the world he did it. Especially since other artists at the time tried and failed to make something out of the big block of marble that the David was sculpted out of. Michelangelo took the challenge as a way of making his mark. There were other works of art and even other works of art in marble from Michelangelo that were unfinished and believed that some were from demolished buildings as you could see architectural features still attached to the sculpture.

They had a room of plaster castings that were of marble sculptures from other parts of the country. What’s interesting about these was all the nails in the sculptures. Why does plaster require nails to hold it together while marble none? I guess because of the composition and how it will break down? I would think that plaster would break and fall apart if you drive nails into it.

Also, you were not allowed to take any pictures inside this museum, especially of David. There was this one museum worker who caught a guy taking pictures and she yelled at him and then made him take the picture off his camera. I don’t know how he didn’t see all the signs that were posted telling you not to take pictures. Of course, I can’t blame him; I would if I got the chance.

Which I did, but a replica in the Piazza della Signoria. This is basically an area where there are a lot of statues and it’s next to the Uffizi Museum. It had a replica of the David, along with a fountain, and numerous other sculptures. It's the focal point of the origin and of the history of the Florentine Republic and still maintains its reputation as the political hub of the city. It was originally just a plain plaza but since the seat of government was there, over the years, various people gave sculptures to improve the look of the area.

The Ufizzi museum had an excruciatingly long line and surprisingly, Makenna did well. Of course, she had a good long nap, and she could get up and run around as mommy or daddy would take turns watching her as the other stood in line. When there were maybe 15 or so people in front of us, the guy who lets people in saw us and moved us ahead of the line. Wish we had made ourselves more noticeable sooner. What was nice about being in line and then in the museum is that it kept us out of the rain.

This museum officially opened in 1765 and is said to have Italy’s finest collection of art. It has works from Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Mategna, Bellini and others. I have to say that I’m not a huge art fan but it is truly amazing to see these works. We saw Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus,” and Leonardo’s “Adoration of the Magi.” There was also a room that had statues in it and what was more interesting to me was that it had been bombed in 1993 by some guy I guess. I have to look that up. We unfortunately couldn’t take pictures here either but at one point did take some pictures of the outside from inside the gallery. We weren’t the only ones and I think it was okay to do so.

After, we went to a restaurant near by and I had lasagne – had to – while in Italy! It was okay. I have to say that other one in France was a bit tastier even though it was smothered in cheese. Makenna had penne noodles with mushrooms and she gobbled up the mushrooms. Chris and I helped her to finish off the noodles. I had asked for a child sized portion and whether they gave us less or not I don’t know but they still charged us for an adult portion. I was upset but they made up for it by giving her a free gelato (ice cream). Chris and I had got some for ourselves on the way back to the car. This was good ice cream! Chris had this extremely chocolate kind and I had mint chocolate. Makenna had a bit of both of ours (on top of the one she had from the restaurant). We’ll definitely have to indulge in that treat again before we leave Italy!

That brings me to something else I found interesting. Again, at the rest stops, they had your usual stuff for sale but they also had huge tin cans of olive oil and also bags of different types of pasta. I should’ve bought some pasta that I can’t find in the UK.

15Apr2009: Day 324: France to Italy

2009-04-30T15:17:00.005-04:00

Again, it was another poor breakfast for Makenna. She didn’t even ask for a granola bar. We did get her to eat some cereal – chocolate something or other. I told her she better eat this kind of cereal now as mommy isn’t buying this type at home – ever (Be sure to check with me in a few years to see if I have stuck to this!)

We finally got on the road at 10am for a long trip to Italy. Again, the mountains that we are driving near, around, through are just amazing. Very large and ominous and snow covered at the top. It’s just beautiful to look at. Pictures just can’t do it justice – at least with our camera. There were about 10 -15 tunnels through the mountains we had to go through I wonder how they ever cut through such stone without having it all collapse on them…

After one particularly long tunnel (the Tunnel of Mt. Blanc) there was a washed out roadway, just below a glacier that was coming between two mountains. It looked like there was an avalanche and there were a couple of cars trapped. It seemed as they were waiting to get out of the lodge that was on the side of the mountain. There was a nice waterfall coming through the mountains and a beautiful view of the mountain. Chris kept making me take pictures of this and that, but it was difficult to shoot by his big nose at times out his side window! (Click picture to see better)

We were glad we drove. We stopped at several points to just take in the scenery and the fresh air. There was still snow on the ground at several stops, but it was easily 65F out. We also saw some castles and a gondola ride up the side of a mountain that we saw in passing, but didn’t stop because it was a 7 hour drive and weren’t going to get to Florence until after 6pm as is.

Once we got to Florence, we got settled in the room and headed out to explore a little bit and get some money. We thought we could scout out the location of the sites we wanted to see tomorrow. We ended up driving down this maze of narrow one way streets with motorcycles and scooters everywhere zooming by us. We found the places we want to see and they are all within a short distance from each other. We then headed back to get money and food. It was around 8:30 by this point and Makenna was getting more and more cranky. So we changed our mind from a good place to eat to opting to go to McDonald’s…I know…in Italy and we eat from McDonalds? Well when you have a tired 2 and a half year old, you have to make compromises and this latest compromise was get fast food that we know she would eat and get her to bed ASAP.

She was screaming these incredibly high pitched screams, so loud they were actually deafening and our ears were ringing. She wanted everything now. We would have her get calm and then gave her whatever it was she was asking for. She would then immediately throw it and again start screaming for it. It was really annoying, but she is testing us.

Unfortunately, McDonald’s turned out to be back in the maze of narrow streets I mentioned and we were disappointed to have to go back through that maze again. We managed and it was actually open, so Makenna got her nuggets and mommy and daddy got a cheeseburger. They were the same soggy burger that we get back in the states. The Kids meal of 4 nuggets is just not enough for Makenna because she doesn’t always eat the fries, but she suffered through because that was all Daddy bought for her and she wouldn’t eat our hamburgers. She took it ok really, and surprised us eventually even eating a couple of fries.

I have to also mention…

1) the motorcycles and bikes in these European countries are like gnats. There are so many of them and they just weave in and out of traffic and at the tightest of spots. The problem is that you can’t always see them coming and as you start to take off from a light all of a sudden they’re zooming right past you, between you and the other car to your side. Oh, and that reminds me, here in Italy, there were at least lines on the road for cars to stay within, they just failed to do so (unlike France where there are no lines and they don’t follow any set pattern anyways).

2) What is up with the bathrooms? When we first got to France we stopped at a quick rest stop that only had bathrooms. I thought that it was a trucker stop or something because the toilet, on both sides of the building, only had a bowl, no seat. So I didn’t go. There was no demarcation as to which side was for women or men. Then, as we stopped at other places, I realized, nope, it’s the squat system. Well, then today was the one that topped them all. I’m not in the habit of taking a camera into the bathroom with me, so let me clear that up. It was when stopped just after passing through Mt. Blanc and we wanted to look at the incredible mountain. I was walking along taking pictures and I happened to notice a restroom so I went in. As you can see – this had not even a toilet bowl! It was truly a “bear in the woods” type deal where you were just squatting over this thing on the floor. I told myself it was a good workout for my thighs to go the bathroom in these countries.

14Apr2009: Day 323: Cathederale St. Pierre & Geneva (Switzerland)

2009-04-30T12:41:00.013-04:00

The past few mornings, Makenna has actually eaten a granola bar. In fact, now, when she wakes up, she asks for “na na bar.” At first we had a hard time understanding what it was she wanted. The problem is that every day, she’s eaten less and less of it. Luckily today we had a complimentary breakfast with our room, unfortunately, Makenna wouldn’t eat much. I figured this would set us up for a bad day or a day filled with junk food, but she was not too bad considering.

We set off into Geneva again and headed towards the Palace de’ Nations – or the United Nations building. By the time we got there, right at noon, it was closed for tours until 2pm. I had read on-line that there were English tours at noon, but that’s not the case now. So we just took some pictures and left. Across the street was the Red Crescent Museum which is all about the Red Cross and its founding’s, but that’s closed on Tuesday’s which is today.

So we went back to the car and decided to go to Cathederale St. Pierre (St. Peter’s Cathedral). It wasn’t anything too spectacular but it did have a chapel section which was really neat. Then I went up into the tower which was a heck of a lot of steps, that’s why I went alone and Chris took Makenna outside. When I got up the first flight of many steps, I was inside a wooden structured area inside the church. I couldn’t even tell you where I really was. It wasn’t really the bell tower but you were basically walking above the church I guess. Then I went up some more steps and found myself outside. I got a pretty good view of Geneva but it wasn’t until I went up even higher that I got a 360 view of the area. As I was up there filming, the bells started going off which scared the living daylights out of me but at least I got it on film.

I came down and felt like my legs were rubber.
We all then went down into the crypt area underneath the church which was excavated for 30 years starting back in 1976 I believe. It had a lot of Roman ruins and even some before that. In fact, they found a skeleton from 100 BC of some important chieftain that was under the choir area. It was still half-buried so all you saw was from about it’s hip area down. There was a circular hole where his head would be as someone tried digging to find it in order to worship it so they think.
It also showed how the church was built over and over again through the centuries to be expanded or modified until its present make-up now. So you were able to see ruins or remains of baptisteries and even a roman mosaic floor, or what was left of it.

We left there and we walked around and found the Reformation Wall which honours many of the main individuals, events, and documents of the Protestant Reformation by depicting them in statues. The individuals most prominently depicted on the Wall were Calvinists. These states are of William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza & John Knox. (Not sure if it's left to right or vice versa).

It was in a nice park that we found had the University of Geneva in it, which explained all the kids milling and laying about in the park. We then headed back to the car as it was starting to rain. Even though we would look up and see no clouds but if we looked directly up, we saw the dark cloud above us. Of course when we got back to the car, it was nice and sunny again.

We decided to try and find the oldest house in Geneva. Come to find out, we probably walked past it a couple of times in the past two days and had no idea. We were unable to take a car down the road it was on so we just left to figure out what to do about dinner.

We had 60 Swiss Francs left so it was a toss up between finding a restaurant or just getting things from a grocery store. We opted for the grocery store. Makenna has been asking for her “oose” (noodles) and we were hoping to find some in the store. We were pretty lucky to find a grocery store as we were just saying how we hadn’t seen any that we knew of in the towns we had been driving through. Today we found two. We figured out that co-op was one and as we were driving we saw one and pulled over.

Chris went in and I waited in the car with a sleeping Makenna. At the time, I thought he was just going in for noodles, but as time kept going on and on I figured he was either buying food for all of us or he had gotten mugged and dragged out back somewhere. He came out with two bags full and spent 6 Francs more than what we had. He said there was quite a language barrier and luckily some girl behind him could help him with the cashier. He was trying to tell her that he didn’t want the cashews and to take them out but he gave up and just went over the amount we had using the credit card for the extra 6 Francs.

When we got back to the room and I started to unpack the food I asked him where the cashews were as I didn’t see them. He totally had this look of panic on his face and said, “what!? You’re kidding?” I answered, “Yes, I was kidding.” He said that was a good joke after all he went through regarding stupid cashews.

We had a picnic on the floor and Makenna was ecstatic to have her noodles. I was glad to give her some food, although not healthy, that wasn’t complete junk food. She only had one or two break-downs today and both times were because she was tired. We were able to get her to sleep in the pushcart by putting her coat over her and she fell asleep pretty quickly. That was after doing the crypt and she did a lot of steps and running around down there so it wasn’t too surprising that she was worn out.

Chris will be glad to get out of Switzerland and is in fact planning our route to Italy to avoid going through Switzerland. He’s mainly planning it around so we don’t have to pay 40 Swiss Francs to just go on their motorways and since it only added 20 minutes to the trip, it seems a waste to spend the cash for a 10 minute ride on the motorway. It’s required that you have a vignette (sticker) to allow you on those roads. He’s also glad because to get to Geneva, it’s been a huge hassle with the one direct road being closed and the GPS just taking us in circles to get us around it.

Thought I'd add some pictures of the ruins under St. Peter's Cathedral

13Apr2009: Day 322: Drive through France & Switzerland

2009-04-29T12:49:00.008-04:00

I woke up this morning feeling someone kicking my bed. Makenna had at some point, fallen off of her bed onto the floor. I’m not sure how long she had been there. We had planned for this possibility and put the top covers and other padding on the floor. What was weird is that she was turned the other way—her head at the bottom of the bed—and I highly doubt she turned around while on the floor as there was not much room. She crawled into bed with daddy while I got up and took a shower. I came out and found her fast asleep.

We finally got going and Chris drove for over 3 hours through the French Alps. We took some video and pictures. It was truly amazing. Think of those movies where people are driving around “S” curves on a high mountain and one wrong turn sends them flying down into a ravine. That was us today. In some spots there wasn’t even any guard rails which made Chris real nervous. We were also driving through these mountains through tunnels that were carved out.

We got to our hotel which is right on the edge of France and Switzerland. We checked in and then took off into Switzerland to see what we could find. We first found a bridge that was out so we had to keep telling the GPS to avoid road block. We finally got to the border and found no one there to check our passports – again. Now we’re wondering if borders were dissolved with the EU.

As we were driving to downtown Geneva, I found some of the buildings to be retro 70’s. It was like I was viewing the Brady Bunch. There was dark brown with teal and orange buildings. We got into downtown Geneva, found a place to park and started walking. We found the Jet d’Eau which is a huge water jet that is Situated at the point where Lake Geneva empties into the Rhone River. It’s one of the city’s most famous landmarks. We then walked along the park that is along the water some more and found the also famous "Horloge fleurie,” which is the flower clock and is exactly what it sounds like.

We stopped to eat at a restaurant right there in the park. Chris and I shared a pizza which was pretty good. We knew it had meat on it, but were unsure, when ordering, what type of meat. It ended up being hamburger – I think. Makenna had chicken bites and fries, again, but didn’t eat any fries. In fact, she didn’t want to finish her chicken and was opting for ice cream. We put a few pieces of chicken on a plate and said, “You eat those and you can have some ice cream.” She started to gobble the first piece and we had to tell her to slow down. While her back was turned I added another piece for her to eat. Then again, I added another piece. She looked at her plate and grimaced with this face as if to say, “Hey, I know I was eating, how come there are more pieces?!” We both started laughing and took away the extra piece. We did get her ice cream and us one to share. It was good to taste real ice cream again. In fact, Chris wished we had gotten chocolate as he kept having some of Makenna’s.

We took off walking again to find a bank machine so that we could get some Swiss Francs. Even though the Swiss are part of the EU they don’t use the standard Euro. While looking we saw another merry-go-round. Makenna was anxious to go on it but we had no money. We finally found a place and went back up to the merry-go-round. She got into a car and went around herself. She had an absolute blast! We video taped her and at one point as she was coming around, I heard her say, “Come on stupid!” I was laughing so hard. When it was over, we had to tell her that other kids needed a turn and off we went. We found St. Peter’s Cathedral (Cathedrale St. Pierre) which is one of the places we’re planning on visiting tomorrow. We walked up to it anyways just to see if it happened to be open but no luck.

We then walked back to our car and headed back to the hotel. On the way back, we could see the clouds resting on the Alps. It was really neat to see, especially with the sun going down behind it. When we got back I gave Makenna her first bubble bath. She seemed to really enjoy it and it was nice because she didn’t splash around as much. Plus who knew all it takes is an empty water bottle and a cup to keep a child content in a bath tub. I’ll have to try that at home.

This collage is of different things we saw as we walked around in Switzerland. Click on it to see a larger version of the pictures.

12Apr2009: Day 321: Chambord and Chenonceau (France)

2009-04-28T15:47:00.013-04:00

Happy Easter to us. We didn’t have any dinner of ham nor did Makenna have an Easter egg hunt but we did see a castle and a chateau in France. That’s a pretty good Easter to me.

We set off about 8:30am and went to Chambord which was about an hour and a half away. This place looked amazing and huge. It was a hunting lodge used in the summer, I believe. I know it wasn’t a full time residence I just don’t remember when it was mainly used. The design of it was thought up by Francois I who eventually became King of France on Jan 1, 1515 at the age of 20.

I guess the original architect is unknown as the plans have been lost but it’s constructed in the model of an open-country stronghold, meaning that it’s designed for defence of a time gone by. It was started in 1519 and didn’t finish being built until 1685, during the reign of Louis XIV.

I think what was the hardest about the layout of this place was knowing where I was and what I had already seen. We would walk from one side to another, go in a circle and then go on to another side, walk in a circle, etc. But I couldn’t help but feel we missed some areas. We kept going up a floor and repeating the process.

One of the rooms was set up as an area to show how the name and image of Chambord has been used in advertising. It had different cases set up with things that took on the Chambord name, including liquor – which I had forgotten about. There was also a vacuum, a pushcart, miniature cars (like matchbox cars,) and various other things.

Makenna was pretty well behaved AFTER we got her some food. We grabbed some sandwiches at Chambord before going in. They had an open market right on the grounds, plus some shops, as if it was a mini-town. What she really wanted was chips, as usual and was screaming to let everyone know her desire. I bought a chicken sandwich, which is really on a baguette, and barely had any chicken, but took out pieces for her to eat and did the whole bargaining process with her. She would take the smallest bite of chicken possible in order to get a chip, but eventually she realized that the chicken was pretty good and she ate it. I bought Chris a sandwich which I thought was going to be ham and roast beef, but the word I thought was beef was really egg. He ate it anyways, I guess it was okay. She also started to breakdown near the end but we put her in the cart and she fell to sleep pretty quickly. Unfortunately it was only about a half-hour nap and this came back to bite us in the butt big time at the next place.

We left Chambord and he drove another hour and a half to Castle/Chateau Chenonceau. I wish I knew how to pronounce it but I have know idea – any French readers out there? It wasn’t as impressive looking at Chambord but it was neat in that it had a gallery that walked out over the water. What wasn’t neat was that everybody and their brother decided this was the place to be today. It was extremely crowded. I figured everybody would be home enjoying an Easter dinner – not here. If it’s anything like England, a lot of places open back up for the season on Easter so that might explain it.

We started out by going to the wax museum which was kind of cheesy but it gave us a bit of history on the women of the castle which is what was the driving force of this place existing. The building itself was built sometime after 1513 and after the first owners passed away, Thomas and Katherine Bohier, it was given to their son but for some reason he was fined by the king and in order to help pay his debt, he had to give the king the property. It then became a royal residence until the King, Henry II, gave it to his mistress for her husband’s “great and commendable services.” This mistress then had the original debt by the son of Boheir cancelled which removed the castle from crown control and she got the son of Boheir to sell it to her.

Anyways, it went through a few other women of which two were queens before it fell into the hands of the Mennier family who decided in WWI to install a hospital and all the rooms of the castle were used. During WWII, the gallery that I spoke about that goes over the water, was used by both sides as the Southern door gave access to the “free zone” while the main entrance to the chateau was in the occupied zone. This last family also took the time and money to restore it to its former glory including all the many gardens around the grounds.

There certainly were a lot of gardens to look at. We only looked briefly at a couple. One because it had a water spray and Makenna would never have forgiven us if we didn’t stop to see it. The other one had these beautiful flowers, mostly tulips all in bloom. I read in the book that the rooms in the castle have fresh flowers put into it every day from the gardens. I remember seeing the flowers, I honestly thought they were fake – I didn’t even bother to look.

Again, towards the end of being here – the last half hour or so of being in the house – Makenna was mainly screaming about this or that. She had kicked off her shoes for about the fourth time and I was waiting for one of the times to not notice and have no shoes for her for the rest of the trip. I massaged her head lightly with my fingers at one point and that calmed her down. She was just very tired again. Chris and I were taking turns going into rooms and then the other one keeping her calm as possible – which didn’t seem to be too possible. At one point, I was coming back upstairs to let Chris go look around and I heard this high-pitched shriek of a scream. I knew that screech anywhere. I took Makenna outside while Chris finished the house, which is what she wanted anyways by the yelling she was doing – “OUTSIDE!” Once we got her out there, she was much calmer and her whole demeanour changed to being that of a happy girl.

That’s when we walked around the gardens and Makenna was able to see some ducks and some donkeys. Another little girl (probably about six or so,) came running up to Makenna and rubbed her head, and gave her a kiss. Makenna stood there frozen not sure what to do. The girl noticed Makenna’s Dora cup and showed her Dora stockings to Makenna. It was very cute. At the place we ate dinner, another little girl put in her own money for Makenna to ride a horse machine which I thought was really nice.

We did find a place to eat on our way to the next hotel. It was called “Buffalo Grill.” The food was somewhat American and we could more or less figure out the menu. Plus, Makenna was extremely happy to have chicken nuggets. She didn’t even eat one fry.
On a nice note, Makenna had an ice cream cone at this chateau and enjoyed it immensely. She didn’t understand the concept of eating it quickly before it melted everywhere so it did get quite a bit messy for Chris who was holding it. Plus, as we left I told Makenna that we were going to get food and she was like, “okay, let’s go eat!” I’m always amazed and surprised at how much she understands concepts and can reply with appropriate answers such as this.

So I have to end with kudos to Chris who at the last minute last night, put together this trip today for us. He did a great job!

11Apr2009: Day 320: Notre Dame & Surroundings

2009-04-28T12:03:00.013-04:00

We all slept in until almost 9am as we all desperately needed it. Then we headed over to Notre Dame. Well, we tried to head over. The roads here are just absolutely insane as I probably mentioned yesterday. I added this fun video at the bottom for you all to see, of Chris trying to drive in part of the main section of Paris. Along with a couple of cute videos of Makenna from today.

Unbelievably, he grazed a “speed bump” of a smart car. Imagine a Volkswagen Bug and cut that in half and you’re still too big. So you can understand how Chris “might” miss hitting it. We pulled over when we could find a spot and I was like – “good luck,” figuring we’d have some angry Frenchman yelling obscenities that we wouldn’t understand. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This guy got out, looked at his damage and said that everything was okay. Chris apologized and the guy asked us where we were trying to go. We told him and he was explaining to us how to get there and then he said we could follow him. Chris told him we had the GPS so that it was okay, we’d get there. When we looked at our damage later, it was very minimal.

We did finally get there and it was neat to see, but I tend to compare the cathedrals to Westminster and everything else pales in comparison. It did have some really pretty stained glass windows. It was dimly lit and some of the chapel sections had paintings that we couldn’t really see as it was sectioned off and you could only peer over the barricade to try and look at what was in there.

Prior to Notre Dame, the Romans had built a temple to Jupiter, which was followed by a Christian basilica and then a Romanesque church. Building of Notre Dame started in 116 but it was not completed until roughly 180 years later in about 1345. The cathedral has had an eventful history over the centuries. Crusaders prayed here before leaving on their holy wars, and polyphonic it was pillaged during the French revolution. Citizens mistook statues of saints for representations of their kings, and, in the midst of their revolutionary fervor, took them down. Many of the cathedral's other treasures were either destroyed or plundered — only the great bells avoided being melted down.

It was also here that Napoléon, wishing to emphasize the primacy of the state over the church, crowned himself emperor, and then crowned Joséphine, his Martinique-born wife, as his empress. The job would normally have been done by an archbishop. Pope Pius VII, there for the occasion, raised no objections. I’ve seen a few paintings in regards to this occasion.

They did have something really neat and exciting which was a small piece of wood from the cross that Jesus was crucified on. I don’t know how authentic this really is but to actually have something like that is amazing.

We did do an audio tour, for what it was worth. Couldn’t always pay attention as this is where Makenna started to have some of her break down fits. It started out in this one chapel area where she could sit in the pew sections. She and this other little boy were playing on them and he didn’t want to leave either. I finally grabbed her off of them and then “it” started. She just broke down and gave us problems. We got over that hump. It seems that we have to deal with about 20 minute fits (probably shorter in some instances) but they seem like an hour when you have a child screaming in a section that says, “quiet, people praying.” Oh well.

One thing the audio guide said about the cathedral was that it was built to be high and open to get nearer to God. I thought to myself, that’s how the people of the Tower of Babel thought too and look what happened to them.

There was also another interesting section where people could actually sit and wait to do confessions. What I found funny about this was that the seats were in full view for people to sit and wait so everyone could see who was going in to confess but then the room they went into was a bit covered. You could see people sitting in there talking to someone but obviously couldn’t hear what was being said. They had two booths and signs that showed what languages you could repent in. I guess everyone else is out of luck.

We left the cathedral and tried figuring out what else to do in the area. WE walked about aimlessly and because Makenna was in the midst of another break down, Chris and I started to break down. I just didn’t want to walk aimlessly until we had a set destination. Plus, I wanted to go up to the top of the cathedral and Chris wasn’t really into going, especially with Makenna—too many steps. We did finally go down into the crypt. It was neat to see a lot of excavated ruins from hundreds of years ago that are under Notre Dame. Of course, most of everything was in French so we couldn’t understand what they were telling us. There were some English signs so we did get some insight into what it was like before the present Cathedral was built and what some of the excavations were.

We left and eventually found the Hotel De’Ville. We didn’t really know what the building was at first even though it’s what we were looking for. We didn’t go in as we weren’t sure what it was (a museum, a place of government, etc.).

There was a merry-go-round right there so we let Makenna indulge and she went on it twice and really enjoyed it. She was a typical “woman” in that she changed her mind about five or six times before the ride started about what apparatus she wanted to enjoy the ride on.

After, I realized that we were just going to walk about aimlessly and I was okay with that, especially when we stopped for a chocolate crepe. I’ve never had a crepe before and was anxious to try one, not to mention I was hungry and what better way to enjoy your first crepe but with chocolate and in France.

We walked around some more and found a café to eat at for dinner. I figured it would be better to eat in an area where we had some chance of someone speaking English and seeing a menu in English (somewhat). The waiter (maybe owner,) was really nice and helpful. He told us what he could in his best English and we pretty much could figure out the menu. We ordered a burger with “prize” as Makenna would say, for Chris to share with her. I ordered a lasagne and salad. Makenna was really well behaved as we waited for dinner to cook. She mostly ate fries and it wasn’t until we employed the one bite of hamburger for more fries technique that she finally relented and realized that she really liked it, as long as we took the cheese off of it. My lasagne was really good. It was really cheesy and about half way through it, I was wishing I had more sauce but I still ate it all regardless.

Because of these crazy roads and not being able to understand our GPS it took us over an hour to get back to the hotel room. Of course we did stop at one place that had these amazing buildings that we had to take a picture of – even though we have no idea what the buildings are. I’m pretty sure one was a museum/art gallery.

Makenna had a hard time getting to sleep as we were trying to plan out tomorrow and had the lights on. She even leaned over and turned off my light that I was using to read with. Then she asked daddy to turn off his light. We finally obliged. Chris used the light from his laptop to finish planning our day and I had brought a book light that I used and Makenna blissfully went to sleep.

10Apr2009: Day 319: Versailles, France

2009-04-10T15:31:00.007-04:00

Yes, we’ve been gone on a trip through Europe – YIPPEE! So be prepared to catch up on long blogs of our days as we kept a “diary” of our days, sometimes pretty detailed, while we were gone so that we’ll never forget this opportunity to see sights, scenery, history, and culture.

We got up way too early to head off on our trip and then ended up missing the train we scheduled at 5:20am by minutes. Chris still tried to get on, but they just put us in a lane and we had to sit and wait for the next train at 6:20 (not the 6:50am one they said we had to take). So it was a good thing he tried to get us on the missed train. The disconcerting thing was that no one even checked our passports and just let us through. I guess they were assuming we might make the 5:20am train too if they just let us pass through.

We got to our hotel in pretty good time and I have to say I’m grateful that Chris was able to stay awake as I think both of us got less than 2 hours of sleep the night before. I honestly don’t know how he made it through the whole day. I’m also grateful that Chris DID forgot to put my name on the car rental, meaning can’t drive – drats! (said very sarcastically). That meant I could catch up on some sleep, plus I didn’t have to drive on these absolutely crazy streets. We got honked at a few times and it just seems at certain spots it’s a free-for-all – you got to have the guts to just go and hope someone else has the smarts to stop. Plus, picture your GPS telling you to turn right and there are three streets to turn right on to. Which one do you pick? If you’re us, 90% of the time, it’s the wrong one.

Versailles was unbelievably huge! Unfortunately, the first hour and a half was spent outside while Chris was in line trying to buy tickets. I guess we should’ve bought them on-line ahead of time. The pictures are of various things in regards to Versailles. Click on them to see bigger images. Our camera is not capable of making a complete image of Versailles as it's just a small digital but this picture from the distance gives you a very small glimpse of just the front.

Versailles took fifty years of building to become what it is today. It started when Louis XIV went to his father’s manor in 1661. It wasn’t until 1668 that he finally started adding extensions to the manor. In 1677 Louis XIV decided to move the Court & Government to Versailles permanently. Then the real building started to take place. The inside was constantly renovated and the gardens were constantly redesigned.

With the revolution, the chateau was emptied of its furnishings but the buildings itself was spared. Then after years of neglect, it was restored first by Napoleon I, and then by Kings Louis XVIII & Charles X. Neither of them dared to make it the seat of power again. It was saved from destruction by King Louis-Philippe who transformed it into a museum and was opened in 1837.

There was also one spot at Versailles, outside, where Makenna lost her footing and fell, I was trying to hold on to her from falling too hard but then she took me down with her. I ended up falling a bit on top of her (not fully). I was banged up and she really got banged up – on her head – as usual. Some older ladies helped me get up and Chris thought they were yelling at him for not helping quick enough (he thought I might have hurt my ankle…again).

The other unfortunate thing was that Makenna was absolutely miserable and a total major pain, especially in our backs. She insisted on being carried everywhere. She wasn’t up for listening to us and was up for screaming and going her own way. She was very tired as we soon concluded. She finally fell asleep but the problem was that you weren’t allowed to take pushcarts into the palace, so our arms (and backs) got quite a workout as we desperately tried to hold on to her as she slept and still went room to room. We kept trading her off like a hot potato. Plus, what is it with kids who sit down in the only free spots available in the rooms, see a mother struggling to hold onto her child and continue to sit? I felt like going up to them and smacking them upside the head and saying, “do you not see me about to drop my child?”

She was getting so hot (as we had left her coat on her,) that we finally took it off but it woke her up – then the misery begun again. It wasn’t until after we got back to the hotel and let her have about an hour and a half nap that she was much better.

I wish we had more time to see all of this. It had so many more buildings farther out in the gardens where Marie Antoinette would spend her time. Plus the gardens looked amazing. If it wasn’t such a long day already and Makenna was tired and grouchy to say the least. I would definitely jump at the chance to come back to see Versailles again.

Then it was off to find food. We’ve deduced that most people don’t eat dinner here until after 7pm. We finally found a pizza take-away and ordered pizza. That was fun. We didn’t understand some of the toppings and had a language barrier as no one spoke English. We kept asking them what “largon” was and then we asked, “can you show us?, or show us a picture?” The guy didn’t understand. One guy finally pointed to his eyes and I said, “Yes!” He showed us ham. “Oh, ham” we said. They said “ham” as if they have now learned a new word in English.

One last thing to add that came to mind when we got into the hotel room. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that the French are known not to wash their hands after using the toilet facilities. The reason this popped into my mind is because our toilet in the hotel room, is completely separated from where the sinks are. So if you’re incredibly lazy, I can see how one might get into the habit of by-passing this hygienic ritual we all hope others do.

As we’re on the subject of bodily functions, I have to add that Makenna needed to go number 2 tonight and it took over an hour. She was just having a hard time of it. She was moaning in pain and we felt bad that we couldn’t do anything to help her. Why I added this little bit was because when she finally relieved herself her mood instantly changed and she immediately said, “yeah!” It was so funny. Chris and I were both laughing at her comment. It’s great to see the joy little things like pooping can have on one’s demeanour.

9Apr2009: Day 318: Living Room 360

2009-04-09T17:24:00.007-04:00

Well, I realize the pictures below don't make it look "clean" (aka picked up) but I just got done cleaning (vacuuming, dusting) to the best of my ability with a toddler. I don't know how anyone can clean with a toddler around. It was more of me yelling at her to stop taking things out as I was trying to pick them up. I reached a frustration point of where I was about to lock her in her room. I'd be in one room vacuuming and she'd be in the master bedroom taking things out of drawers. I said, "Makenna, mommy needs to vacuum in here...stop taking things out!" She'd start laughing. I'd grumble.

It didn't help that I felt "rushed" all day. I just felt like I had so much to do and get done and not enough time to do it. In fact, right now, I'm feeling rushed so lucky for you...this MAY be short.

We did get to the song and dance playgroup and met Hannah and her whole family (her dad is on Easter break). When we first got there, all Makenna could do is say, "Hannah!" She finally calmed down and got into it. On the way home we stopped at the library to drop off books and picked up just a couple more for Makenna. As I was trying to look at books, Makenna was off on her own. She found a computer in the kids section with the Teletubbies on it and I heard her yelling "mommy" in the library and for me to "come press button," to get it to work.

Well, let me add the pictures. Again, forgive the messiness look as this is the main family room. You can see the books all over the place as Makenna tends to get them down almost on a daily basis so we just haphazardly throw them back in. Then you can also see a pair of Chris's jeans on the heater. Sometimes, this is the way we dry clothes when it looks like rain outside and we typically like to air dry our clothes that aren't under-clothes.

8Apr2009: Day 317: Belated Birthday Wishes to Uncle Jake

2009-04-08T17:10:00.007-04:00

I was wrong yesterday about, “I for scott.” It’s “I for cot”. I just wanted to clear that up.

I totally "for cot" to wish my brother Jake a happy birthday back on the 6th. I apologize profusely! I at least got him a present while he was here so I was ahead of the game (for a change) in that respect. Usually our family is a 6 month or so behind in giving gifts kind of family when it comes to birthdays.

After working out, I took Makenna swimming as there are no lessons tomorrow (the teacher is off). She is getting to be more confident, and daring, in her abilities. I have to make sure I’m constantly watching her because she is getting so daring. She kept jumping from the steps and going under but trying really hard to keep her head above water and I would lift her up. Surprisingly, she wasn’t ever upset and rarely coughed from too much water intake. I guess that’s why she kept doing it again and again. I also remembered to bring toys and there were other kids with toys that she was able to share and play with.

We had to get home by noon as we finally had a gardener coming to do the lawn. It hasn’t been taken care of since October. While he was out front taking care of the front lawn, Makenna wanted to play out back. I had the garage door open and there were little plastic balls that the neighbor boy left for us back in July of last year. So she was taking them out and putting them in various places in the yard. I tried to keep her “contained” in her spreading of them so as you can see from the video I brought out a couple of bowls to have her put them in. She also wanted to use the watering can, her favorite toy. I was glad that it was a nice day so that she could play outside since we couldn’t leave. Plus, I could keep an eye on her from the kitchen so I could get it cleaned up.

The other exciting thing of the day was an Easter gift from grandma & grandpa Jones. You can again see in the videos below that her excitement was more for the bubble wrap (sorry grandma & grandpa). We can’t wait for her to try on the pretty dress.

7Apr2009: Day 316: I For Scott

2009-04-07T17:48:00.006-04:00

A few times today I reminded Makenna of something after she asked me a question and she’d say, “oh, I for scott” (I forgot). This weekend as we were driving to different places, she would see things out the window and tell us what she sees and then say, “Look, out the window.” It would go something like, “See the cow?” “Look, out the window.” More cute sayings she can add to her repertoire. She also keeps asking for uncle Jake and anytime I’ve been on the phone, she first asks if its daddy, and when I tell her no, then she says, “oh, it’s wooter,” (Walter). Chris had talked to Walter this past weekend so she must be remembering that.

After lunch we went to the Strand which is another park in the area that has more playground equipment. We met Hannah and family down there but Makenna was more on her own mission of what she wanted to do. That was to go in this bounce house they had there. At first I kept saying no as I thought it was mainly for kids over five. After much persuasion on her part “this, this” (as she kept pointing to it,) I finally gave in and went over and asked if she could go on and how much. It was a pound-fifty for ten minutes and the guy said she could go on.

She was actually pretty patient for her turn, although, I had to keep telling her to wait for her turn. Hannah on the other hand had a major melt down. She wasn’t going on the bounce house and was pretty darn upset about it. I felt bad and offered to pay but her mom said no. I then thought they left the park, but I think she just took her to another part of the park for a bit.

Makenna did surprisingly well on it. I say surprisingly because I had this feeling that she would get off after a few minutes of being there but she stayed the whole time and in fact, I had to drag her off when the time was up. She of course wanted to go on again but I told her once was enough and that other kids had to have a turn. She stayed in my sights too which also helped me. She also wanted to go on this little train ride they had that went around this one area of the park but I said no to that and kept to that. They also had a horse ride, one of those one’s you see in front of a store where you pay money and it moves. I put her on the ride but didn’t pay for it to move. I usually do that to all these types of rides for now – until she realizes that it can move – then I’m probably going to be in debt.

She then moved on from that and wanted an ice cream. I gave into that one too. Not hard when I wanted one. She was upset though because I said that we were going to take it home to eat it and she just wanted to sit right then and there and eat it. It was starting to get a bit chilly and really windy so I wanted to get her home and then she could go straight to a nap after.

I added these pictures for you to see the fun she had today. The first one is in our back "garden" (yard). I just like all the pretty flowers that are now out. Plus, I need to rub it in since I see my hometown is calling for snow (tee hee hee).

Then the next is her on a see-saw. I'm on the other side. This is a nice see-saw from the ones I remember in childhood, as it's weighted and it doesn't fall down - at all - thus sending your "opponent" into a hard crash to the ground.

Here she is on the horsey-ride I was talking about above

Then this cute video of her on the bounce house - it was windy as you will hear.

6Apr2009: Day 315: Tattoos and Butt Cracks

2009-04-06T17:21:00.002-04:00

Just to start out, if you click on the link to the Blog of "Grosek Family" you can now see pictures of Makenna's new cousin Natalie. She looks just like her big sister Katie. Especially the picture with her mouth wide open (as if screaming). Also, read closely the board from the hospital room. I can tell that's Josh's handy work.

I was nervous that today was going to be another bad day as it didn’t start off too well. Luckily, I was totally wrong. After going to the gym, things improved drastically. My attitude was better and Makenna was better.

We did go to the park after lunch and it was quite crowded as the kids are off from school now for two weeks. Makenna really wants to just stay on the swing anymore which is quite different from when we first got here. I had to let her know that we “hap to share” the swing with other kids waiting to get on. She agreed and we went to the slides and other areas. She kept asking to go back to the swing though. I did get her on it for about two more minutes then another kid came. She unfortunately didn’t get another chance to get on. I have to say I’m really impressed with how much Makenna does on her own now at the park. She crosses the thin little bar on her own. She gets herself up the steps and/or ramps, usually on her own.

Tonight we got out her flashcards. This gives me a lot of anxiety as it creates such a mess and I usually have a hard time getting her to help me pick them up. She loves to throw them all over more than look at them, but I remind myself, it’s no big deal. I’m so excited to see all the ones that she knows now. She even knew and remembered xylophone, although she didn’t quite say it correctly, but she tried. I think the only one that she stumbled on a bit was nest. She kept saying it was an egg. I'm just amazed at how much she has absorbed over the short time we’ve been here.

Now, on to some other observations of mine. There are two things that I’ve noticed about a lot of people over here. One is that they are really into their tattoos. A lot of the women even have tattoos. The swim aerobics instructor had this one on her leg that went up from her foot to her knee, maybe farther. I’ve also noticed one guy at the gym who has his head tattooed, even around his eye. It’s like you want to see but don’t want to stare. I’ve only seen him twice.

Another thing is that they seem to not care about their “plumber’s crack,” to put it nicely. A lot of women mostly, but also some men, wear pants that are just ill-fitting. So when they bend over you get a “lovely” view. I saw a guy at the gym last week who really needed some new work-out clothes so that we didn’t all have to see what areas that he needed to work out. I think it starts young though, as I remember many months ago at the park, a little girl running around and her pants were just not fitting her and she didn’t seem to care that they were practically falling off. I just wanted to run behind her and pull them up. I swear she was probably six or so.

One last little tidbit for anyone planning on traveling into Europe…if you plan on driving, you may need an IDP (International Driving Permit). This is not a license or a permit as we know it, but it basically translates your license into something that the people in the country can read. So it’s like a translation of your license. Chris seemed to be aware of this and is now having me frantically search for a way for us to drive in some of the European countries. We’re trying to plan a trip and this can put a serious wrench in our plans. We can get away with not having it in some of the countries but some of the others say they require it. So now we either avoid those countries or hope and pray that we don’t get pulled over for any reason, or the best outcome would be to find a way to get the IDP in time.

5Apr2009: Day 314: Syon House

2009-04-05T15:18:00.015-04:00

Today is General Conference for church which is broadcast from Salt Lake City, but here, it’s shown late so it gave us an opportunity to go see something else today. Syon house is along the River Thames and is only open on Sundays and one other day during the week so I was anxious to go today. It’s just outside of London so we were able to drive. The house has been used in different films such as “The Avengers,” and “Gosford Park.”

It is owned and lived in by the Duke of Northumberland and has been in his family for over 400 years. It started out as an abbey that was built from 1426-1431. In 1539, while King Henry VIII was in power, he was getting rid of abbey’s and so this became more of a property. In fact, his fifth wife, Catherine Howard was confined at Syon and was given two rooms “furnished moderately” until she was executed in 1542. In 1547 the present house was constructed.

Even more gruesome was when King Henry VIII died in 1547, his coffin was placed in the abbey (before the house was built,) and a certain prophecy was fulfilled. A Franciscan friar named William Peto had said, ‘that God’s judgments were ready to fall upon his head…and that the dogs would lick his blood as they had done Ahab’s.’ This came true as a dog was found licking up certain remains which had seeped through the coffin from the bloated corpse inside. People felt this was what he deserved as he desecrated the abbeys.

Well, onto the house itself. We were unable to take any pictures inside but I was able to download pictures from their website. The first picture, above, is a staircase (obviously). The next is of the Long Gallery. What was interesting about this room was at one end of the room, the bottom 3 shelves of a bookshelf was actually just a picture of books as it was a door. Then each end of the room also had another small room off of it. One of the rooms had a small birdcage (with a fake bird). Makenna was enamored with this. She kept going back to see the birdcage over and over. The last picture is the Princess Victoria bedroom, which was used by her in 1832.

The grounds had many different things to it but we strolled along the gardens after going to the conservatory. Makenna enjoyed this area since one part had a water fountain with fish in it. She eagerly gave her chips and some crackers to the fish. As we walked around the gardens, which ran along the Thames, we found some ducks (not your normal looking ducks,) to which Makenna again gave her crackers to also.

The day would’ve been splended if Makenna was in the mood to listen. She started at home and continued pretty much all through the day of trying to get her own way. But alas, she’s just exerting her two year old will. At one point in the house, I put her in the hallway in a time out. Oh, I almost forgot something that happened yesterday and today. The staff at the houses felt that my little “boy” might get hurt so I needed to keep a close eye on “him.” I corrected both attendants telling them that it was a girl but the one yesterday kept using the pronoun he or him. Oh well. I thought now that she has more hair that it would be more discernable but I guess not yet. You would think that the pink boots she wore yesterday would’ve at least given it away. Had to throw this last picture in - too cute not to.

4Apr2009: Day 313: Arundel Castle

2009-04-04T17:16:00.011-04:00

We finally got to this castle that we saw as we drove past the town sometime back in October or November of last year. Today was the opening day for the season. You can see this castle as you come down into town as it's up on a hill and very ominous looking.

On the way to the castle, I was driving and hit one of these birds (pheasant). Not as big as this one but still a pretty good sized one. I had no choice as I had cars all around me. We saw quite a few feathers fly everywhere and when we got to the castle, there were feathers all underneath the car and even on the back of the trunk.

The castle was originally owned by the Earl of Arundel who was given the land from William the Conqueror in 1067. As most castles, it was built with earth and timber and then over the centuries, it was replaced with stone, actually flint type stone. So it looked really interesting on the outside.

The castle is now used more as a home and it looks as such. I said to Chris how I would love to live here as long as we had plenty of maids. It had a chapel inside that was pretty spacious. A lot of castles have some sort of chapel but usually it’s a very small room. I had heard that a relative of the current owners just had gotten married here a week ago.

There were a lot of nicely decorated bedrooms. One in particular called the Victoria room as Queen Victoria visited and stayed here. The owners at the time had actually had two years notice before the Queen’s arrival (along with her husband Prince Albert,) and refurbished the room.

Makenna really enjoyed this place as there were a lot of places that had stairs, especially when we got to the older sections of the castle—the gatehouse and keep. In this section, there were a lot of spiral staircases and it got a bit nerve wracking with her wanting to do the stairs herself, but we got through it. We were able to take photos of these sections. Although, I did take a few pictures inside the newer, house like section but I took them looking out onto the grounds such as this picture.

There is also a separate chapel on the grounds called the Fitzalan Chapel. This was founded in 1380 by the 4th Earl of Arundel and surprisingly it’s a Catholic church, “an unusual, if not unique, anomaly in England,” as stated in the brochure. It’s mostly used as the burial place of the Dukes of Norfolk. So there are a lot of tombs here such as this freaky one of John, 7th Earl of Arundel. It has him on top in armor looking majestic and then below it’s him looking very emaciated. I guess the brochure says it’s to remind us of mortality. Well that’s just lovely.

We then decided to walk up to the cathedral church that is in the town of Arundel. Chris and I took turns pushing Makenna up this steep hill. We figured we could use the exercise. We got to the Cathedral Church of Our Lady & St. Philip Howard which is another Catholic Church. There were quite a few people inside praying as its Holy Week. We tried to walk around quietly, hard to do with Makenna, especially when she saw steps. (pic 140). It really, in my opinion, was not much to look at. There were a few stone carvings but other than that, we couldn’t see much as most of the figures were covered in purple—again, something to do with Holy Week.

On our way up the hill there was another church so we stopped on our way down. It’s called, “The Parish and Priory Church of St. Nicholas.” We didn’t end up going into this church as they were having choir practice. We walked around it and saw a lot of tombs and graves. Some were even cracked a bit.

We walked back down into town and walked around a bit. We got some ice cream which made Makenna extremely happy. A couple of times today when we asked Makenna if she liked something she’d say, “umm, not bad.” We had a good laugh. Especially when it was for things such as noodles and ice cream, both of which she loves.

As it’s light out longer now, when we got home, Makenna helped Chris to cook dinner on the grill and water plants. This girl would drown plants given the chance. We then had a chance to Skype and see Makenna’s new cousin Natalie, along with her other cousin Katie and her uncle Josh and aunt Autumn. This new cousin, according to Josh, is extremely different from how her cousin Katie was when she was born. This one is quite happy and content and a much better sleeper. I say it has to do with how big she is (over 9lbs!). We got a chance to ask Autumn if she knew she was going to have a baby this big and she said the doctor had measured and said probably around 7lbs. Whoops!

3Apr2009: Day 312: Water Aerobics

2009-04-03T17:34:00.002-04:00

All I can say is that we are in shock and awe of what’s happening today in our hometown in NY. We feel bad for those families who have now lost family members due to this man and those wondering about their loved ones. It’s weird to see such coverage over here on BBC and even more surprising is that they are saying and spelling the city’s name correctly.

I decided, now that I have a decent swimsuit, to take the water aerobics class after my weight workout. It was actually a pretty intense class. I would definitely go back. What was even nicer was that I knew I wouldn’t have time to go home before I had to pick up Makenna but I would be too early to shower and leave, so I went into the Jacuzzi. It was very relaxing.

Makenna had a chance to go to the park twice today too. The first time was after lunch. I took her to meet up with Hannah and family. It was funny because when we got to the park, she ran towards Hannah (who was also running towards her,) screaming as if she was seeing a lost long friend, even though they just saw each other not even an hour ago at nursery all morning. Then later, when daddy got home and after dinner, he took her again. She really is into being on the swing lately. I had to take her home earlier than planned as she was starting to throw fits that she couldn’t go back on it. Plus, she was getting tired and it was near naptime, and a stinky, messy diaper. After daddy brought her in, she wanted to go back out right away, back to the park.

We were also able to take her little bike to the park. She did better than last time. She kept her feet on the pedals, although not pedaling. Now I just have to get her to steer it properly so that we’re not going into a wall or car.

We also had a much better day. I read a book last night; I think it’s called, “Mother’s Guidebook….” I forget the rest and am too lazy to go upstairs to get it. Anyways, it talked exactly about what I was blogging about yesterday. How I resort to two year old behavior and how I treat her like a 20 year old. It was my “divine intervention” for the night as I was right at the chapter at the right time. I really concentrated on what I blogged about yesterday, in that it’s my choice to exert my patience that God may have given me.

It was also nice to see her face light up so joyfully in seeing her father as he was gone all week. She was just so very excited but she also still cuddled up to me. He treated her by making popcorn – one of her favorites. I saw her later feeding a piece to her dolly and saying, “go on, taste it,” and then making um um um noises as if she was eating it.

It is hard to believe that this was the same girl that I was so angry with yesterday. Not that she was the epitome of wonderful but my attitude definitely has a lot to do with how the day goes and my mood at the end of the day. Now if I can only put this into practice every day instead of a day after feeling like I deserve the “worse mom in the world” award. This, according to the book last night, is the adversary’s way of getting a hold of my psyche—clever, very clever.

2Apr2009: Day 311: Heaven Help Me

2009-04-02T17:13:00.003-04:00

Seriously, I needed some divine intervention today. I pray every night and every morning for patience, understanding, the ability to re-direct Makenna in a positive manner when she’s doing something she shouldn’t be, and most of all, for me not to become child-like in my reactions to her. FAILED!

I’ve already been on my knees once today asking/begging for forgiveness and I know I have more to do tonight. As I was doing this it came to me that I need to choose to exert the patience I’ve been praying for. God may have given it to me but I need to choose to use it. I don’t know why I have a hard time some days wrapping my brain around the fact that I have a two year old and not a twenty year old. So my trying to rationalize with her, or tell her why some things need to be done at certain times or why some things are not done just slip from me and I find myself getting really frustrated and angry.

I’ve realized that a lot of the times it’s because that I feel like I cut myself short on time. What I mean is that I’m “running” out the door to get somewhere on time or that I have this “sense” of what needs to be done at certain moments and not letting go. Knowing this, I try and give myself another 10-15 minutes leeway in leaving. I don’t always succeed, but when I do, I’m more relaxed and I can let her dawdle and stop to pick up every gross thing off the ground (well not everything.)

Then there are times like today that I forget that at 4pm, when she hasn’t had a nap yet, that she’s bound to not follow directions and fight me on anything and everything. When all I want to do is get her home and into a nap and all she wants to do is play with toys. Plus, going back to the “she’s not 20,” thing, I expect respect of sorts for treating her with a cookie after swim and all it really does is prolong getting her to her nap thus starting the cycle.

So I need to think of these things before getting irrational in my actions or responses to her. She’s two for goodness sake (almost 2.5!). Tonight was better. I had her help me make banana bread as she likes to pour things into the bowls and mixing. In fact, today, she was helping me mop. The video below was before I put water in the bucket. Then when I did put water in the bucket, she still helped and got a lot of water on the floor, but I was okay with that.

The good news is that I was able to go out and get a bathing suit this morning. I was so excited. I desperately needed a new one and the fact that I found one that fits and I could feel comfortable enough in made me happy. Plus, I got to try it out today during Makenna’s class.

Makenna did well, but had a hard time concentrating on what the teacher wanted, as did the other little boy. In fact, 10-15 minutes before the class was to end, the other little boy just quit altogether for the day. His mom was not in the pool with him but on the side and his grandmother was in the pool. But he wanted him mom and basically that was it for him. Makenna quit with about 5-10 minutes left in the class. But I still worked on some things with her as she played. Unfortunately the class isn’t being held next week, so we’ll have to definitely make sure we go Wednesday morning to meet with the other moms and kids.

1Apr2009: Day 310: She's Here

2009-04-01T17:03:00.002-04:00

I got a call from my brother Josh a little after noon our time to tell me that Natalie Rebekah arrived about 5:47am their time. She weighed in at 9 lbs 12 ounces! Now, if anyone knows my sister-in-law Autumn, she’s a very thin girl, so to have her carry around this child had to be quite a sight to see. Not only that, but she had it naturally. First it was by choice, but then when she decided she wanted an epidural, it was too late. Josh said not to worry, that all the hospital knew what was happening by her screams. Not sure how long she was but had to be a good size. She was only 3 ounces off from Makenna.

I took Makenna swimming after my work out. Wednesday’s was the day that the moms from the swim class last semester said they’d still meet. There was only one from the class and I asked her if the mom’s were meeting. She said that yes there was usually more. We had missed the last two times from being sick and then Jake being here. Makenna did exceptionally well. She kept jumping in, and really kicking her feet and moving her arms more than usual. She even tried pulling herself out of the pool but relied on me for the most part. Hopefully she’ll do as well tomorrow during class.

We stopped at the park after lunch and before play group. At play group, they had them decorate mini-baskets (made of cardboard,) so that they could do an Easter egg hunt. I ended up decorating the basket as Makenna has this insatiable need to pick up toys all of a sudden. Figures, I can’t get her to do it without some real persuasion and the one time she can leave toys to play she’d rather pick them up. Anyways, after, we went outside and were allowed to pick up one big chocolate egg (a bit smaller than a Cadbury’s,) and then two small chocolate eggs, and two small chocolate bunnies. I really had a hard time finding them at first, but we eventually got them.

Since we walked to playgroup, we had to pass through the park again to get home, and my plan was to just take Makenna straight home but as we were half-way through, we saw Hannah and Bethany. They were unable to make it to playgroup, so I allowed Makenna to go in and play in the park for another half hour. This then meant a later nap time.

Yesterday and today, Makenna decided to throw her fruit on the floor. I found it very aggravating. I’m not sure why she’s picked up this fun trick of sorts. I’m of course out of the room when she does it and so her punishment has been to help me pick it up. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because she wants to help me clean. She tried helping me clean tonight again. I told her not to worry, there will come a day when I’ll require her to clean and she won’t be too happy about it then, I added, “Trust me on that.” I’ve been trying to have her help me put silverware into the dishwasher and she seems to enjoy that. I guess I have to find little things she can do while I have a willing helper.

31Mar2009: Day 309: That Can't Be Good

2009-03-31T17:16:00.001-04:00

Something new happened at the gym, and not in a good way. I was on the alpine climber and I happened to notice this girl come out of her class and bend over outside the doorway. I peered over and saw she was talking to a friend who must have come out earlier and who seemed to be trying to catch her breath. Then I saw this friend go over and get a cool compress and the next thing I knew, the girl on the floor just keeled over. They got some of the gym staff to come over. An ambulance was eventually called and they took her out on a stretcher.

The stretcher was weird. It wasn’t a normal flat stretcher, but a chair and they had wrapped her up in a big blanket of sorts, which didn’t make sense since she was probably over-heated to begin with but I’m not a paramedic. The way she was strapped in reminded me of those movies where you see a person in a mental hospital who’s belted in to an upright chair—very strange. You could see people trying not to look but not helping themselves—kind of like rubber-neckers at a car wreck scene. Since she passed out in front the classroom where she had been taking a class, when the class was done, people were just stepping over her to leave. I think they had moved her over a bit so people weren’t literally stepping over her, but still.

I did walk down to pick up Makenna from nursery. It wasn’t as nice a day as yesterday but it was still nice enough out. We stopped at the park and every time I asked her if she wanted to leave to eat lunch she’d say, “No,” and then continued playing.

After we did make it home and had lunch, we had to run out to Enterprise to have them look at the car. Last Friday when I was taking Jake to Heathrow, a rock had hit the windshield and it cracked a bit. Every day I go out, it gets a bit longer. They needed to make a damage report and then they are supposed to have someone contact me about replacing the windshield.
Well, no new niece yet. My sister-in-law called me about an hour ago to say that they didn’t get her into the hospital until after 2pm so she was now starting the drugs. She wondered what time they could call me tomorrow to let me know how it all went. So hopefully tomorrow, I’ll be able to mention the new arrival.

30Mar2009: Day 308: Not Pro-priate

2009-03-30T17:50:00.002-04:00

Makenna woke up a few times in the night. Not sure why but according to her yelling the first time, which was sometime around 3am, her blanket was stuck. You could hear her through the baby monitor, “blanket stuck!” The third time I got up and told her that it was time to continue sleeping, made sure she had her blanket and told her to go back to sleep. That seemed to work.

We’re back into our normal schedule and after the gym we went grocery shopping. The thing that bugs me about taking her is her penchant to putting her mouth on the cart. It’s just disgusting. The more you tell her no and that it’s gross, the more she tries to do it. I realize that it really is gross, but also I think I’ve become more vigilant in germs since we’re always sick. After we wash her hands before eating, she starts touching things that make me think, “why did we bother washing your hands?” For instance, she tends to touch the garbage lid in the bathroom, or pull the plug of the sink out. So in my telling her no today about putting her mouth on the cart, she replied, “That’s not pro-priate.” “Right,” I said, “It’s not appropriate.”

After lunch, we took a walk up to the Post Office. It’s about a 10-15 minute walk and it was a really nice day. On our walk home we saw two kitty cats and Makenna was really excited. I wish I had taken her to the park but I hadn’t washed up from the gym knowing that we were going to take this walk. I guess it shouldn’t have mattered. I hope that if tomorrow is another nice day, that I’ll walk down to pick her up from nursery and then we can stop at the park on the way home.

My little helper today decided to help me take the groceries out of the bags. I did appreciate it but I was nervous about the stuff in glass bottles. She hands them to me and says, “thank you,” as if telling me I need to say thank you for her handing it to me. I think it’s just that I always say it to her when she hands me something so she’s used to me saying it. Then later, I had her help me put silverware into the dishwasher. I really find it exciting that she wants to help. She keeps asking me about vacuuming and then saying, “Don’t be scared.” I told her we’d most likely vacuum later in the week unless something necessitates us vacuuming sooner.

Well, one last wish to my sister-in-law Autumn as she’s being induced tomorrow. I hope all goes well and that I’ll be able to at least mention that the baby has arrived by the time I do my blog.

29Mar2009: Day 307: Don't Use Your Face to Stop

2009-03-29T17:59:00.002-04:00

We finally “sprung ahead” and are now five hours different from the states again. Well, five hours from where we live in the states. Somehow we got really lucky and Makenna slept in so she should be right on schedule. The only problem I have had lately and will more so now is that it will start to get light out anywhere between 3am – 4am. So I have this herbal rice bag that I tend to put over my eyes to blacken the room again.

Speaking of the states, there was a new missionary today who when he spoke, I said to Chris, “it sounds like a NY accent.” After church, I went up and asked him and sure enough he’s from Lockport. He was also excited to hear a familiar voice of sorts. I told him that a lot of Chris’s family is actually from that area.

It was another typical Sunday with Makenna trying to escape and Hannah on my lap. As we were leaving, Makenna was trying to run away from us and unfortunately she tripped on the gravel pavement and got banged up. She still has a habit of lifting her hands up in the air instead of using them as way of stopping her from getting really hurt. Thus the phrase came out of Chris’s mouth of, “Don’t use your face to stop.” So as you can guess, her face got a bit scraped up. I felt so bad.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t her only spill for the day. Shortly after getting home, she was sitting in a bar chair eating yogurt and she pushed her feet against the table thus knocking her self down for quite a fall. I think she was more scared than hurt. Everything else she did for the night, jumping off a small rocking chair onto daddy, jumping up and down on her bed, all came with strong warnings of what could happen. Chris wants me to get her into gymnastics when we get back in the states. I might actually look into it to see if she’s interested.

At least she bounced back from those and was quite happy in the evening to sing different songs of, “Yankee Doodle,” “Baa Baa Blacksheep,” and “Twinkle Twinkle Star.”

28Mar2009: Day 306: Longleat

2009-03-28T19:40:00.008-04:00

We went up to Longleat today which has a house and a Safari park, and a lot more that we didn’t see. We got a bit of a late start and it takes about 2.5 hours to get there. We actually drove right past Stonehenge. I took a quick video when we drove by it on the way home.

Longleat is a home that’s been in the Thynne (I think you pronounce it “thin”) family for over 450 years. The current owner is part of the 14th generation that have lived and owned the house for his family. The house is best known as an example of high Elizabethan architecture in Britain. It was built in 1541 and was previously an Augustinian priory that was converted in to a country house. I ask you, does this picture of the house look like a “country house?”

Although, the house that was first built was destroyed by a fire in 1567 and since then the house has gone under many different changes and renovations. Between 1914-1918 the house became a relief hospital in World War I. 1966 is when the Safari Park opened on the grounds.

Since we got there with little time to see all of what Longleat had to offer, we went to the Safari park first. In the first section, you are allowed to get out of your car and see the animals which were zebras, giraffes, camels, wallabies, and maybe some other things that we missed. Makenna enjoyed this area, especially the giraffes. Then we drove on and saw flamingos, a tapir, a glimpse of a warthog, and some white backed vultures, one of which was feasting on some raw meat.

We also saw ankole which looks like a cross between an ox and a cow. There were white rhino’s and different kinds of deer. In the deer section, you could buy the special feed and give it to the deer. Makenna was really, really excited seeing the deer come up so close to the car to eat. They wouldn’t eat out of the cup but I got quite a few around the car by throwing it at them and then closer to the car.

They also had pelicans which I guess is amazing because they’re the first bred and kept in captivity in England. Then it was off to the Tiger and Lion section. It was a bit frustrating as all these cars parked and just sat there to watch the tigers and we had to wait quite a bit to see them. After that, it wasn’t all that exciting to see. The Lions were pretty tame too. Unfortunately, the monkey area was closed, and when we drove past it, you couldn’t see even one.

We then raced to the house and it was huge! Overwhelmingly interesting and I couldn’t get enough. The ceilings were ornate and even the fireplaces were really interesting. Some of the furniture, especially this one cabinet was really neat. Unfortunately, no pictures could be taken in the house so you’ll have to look on-line at http://www.longleat.co.uk/ and look for the house link and then there’s like a mini-tour you can take and see some of the different rooms. Makenna became a handful in the house and Chris had to carry her quite a bit. When he tried putting her on his head, she’d either go rigid or just flop back off.

We finally got outside and went over to a petting zoo of sorts. We could see more animals, but the only animal that was really out for Makenna to touch was a spider. She started to really smack it so we had to walk away from that fairly quick. We quickly went through the area where the macaws were very loudly squawking and onto an area with small animals such as guinea pigs and what not. Makenna really enjoyed these small mice like creatures that were scratching at the cage. She thought they were hilarious to watch as they tried desperately to get out. When she saw the bunnies, she was more interested that within the bunny cage there was “Bob the Builder” trucks and even a mini “Bob the Builder.” I guess the bunny likes “Bob” too.

As the place closes at 4:30pm, we only had a quick few minutes to race over to the “teacup ride.” Or as Makenna calls it, “teapot” ride. She seemed to really enjoy it and I found that my constitution for rides has greatly waned since my childhood. I felt quite dizzy and nauseous after this kiddy ride. I think it was because I was trying to film Makenna while we were on it and then trying to show her where Chris was so I was getting dizzy. If you listen really closely in the video below, of her on this ride, you can hear a bit of her English accent when she says "it's really hawt."

The last stop was one of many gift shops they had. I found another cute hat that I bought for Makenna. Not as cute as the reindeer hat but it’s still cute and it’s for a bigger size. I’ll be surprised if she can still fit into the reindeer hat next winter so I figured I’d get this hat of a lion. It has long flaps that hang down the side so it will really keep her ears warm. She doesn’t seem to care for the hat – yet.

We were disappointed that we couldn’t do more but our tickets are good for another time – for the things we didn’t get to. The bad part is that we most likely won’t get a chance to go back.

27Mar2009: Day 305: Gillingham Park

2009-03-27T19:10:00.005-04:00

Left somewhat early to make sure we got Jake to the airport on time. Traffic can be really bad, but there was hardly any so I was able to get him there in just a little over an hour and get myself back home in just over an hour.

I took Makenna to the park in the afternoon even though I wasn’t really up for it. It was a nice sunny day but a bit cool and windy. We really needed to get out of the house and I was glad I took her. I filmed some videos of her on the different things at the park so that I can have a memory of her here. I also added a picture of the house we live at. It's not this big as in the first picture on the left. this is actually two homes side by side. Ours is just this one pictured lower, on the right.

After the park, we went home and Makenna helped me to make brownies. She was really happy and excited by the fact that she could help me but more so that she could eat them later. We made them to take over to Hannah’s later as we were invited for a house warming party (they moved a few weeks ago). Makenna kept saying, “hap to share with Hannah, hap to share with Bethie.” This didn’t stop her from wanting the brownies NOW!

Actually Makenna has been trying to help me do a lot of things. Today, she helped me put away dishes from the dishwasher. The other day, she had a juice (sippy) cup and then it was gone. I was looking for it and repeatedly asked her what she did with it. I feared rancid juice in a week from now when I could finally locate it. I asked again and she finally said, “It’s in basket.” I had laundry all over the floor and the baskets right there. I looked in them and no juice cup. I looked around some more and then it dawned on me that she meant the laundry hamper. I looked inside and there it was. I guess she was just trying to help by putting it in there. I should’ve remembered that she puts a lot of random things in the hamper. She also is now using the washer/dryer as a place to put things. Once in a while, she actually gets clothes, whether clean or dirty. Usually though I find silverware, books, or toys. I always have to check before I do a load of laundry so I'm not washing some random item that shouldn't be washed.

We did go over to John & Madonna’s (Hannah & Bethany’s parents,) and there was another couple from church, Sophie and Alistair. We played some karaoke game and it was actually quite fun. You had to sing along to the song and it was more important that you hit the notes than the words. Sometimes you had to sing against each other and other times it’s was a solo. Then other times your team had to pass the mike around.

Makenna enjoyed the brownies that we brought, and also a doll of Hannah’s that she could dress up and pretend to feed. Hannah, enjoyed lots of food (no surprise there,) and she actually had a microphone and was trying to sing along too. I wanted to get her on video but missed it.

When we finally got home and put Makenna to bed, I did our usual nighttime routine and gave her kisses. I usually try to kiss her ribs and belly to make her laugh and tonight she told me, “Silly kisses” when I finished. There’s nothing better than to hear your child laugh at least once a day.

26Mar2009: Day 304: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Store

2009-03-26T18:24:00.001-04:00

I really need to take the digital voice recorder I gave to Chris for Christmas as I don’t believe he’s really using it and days like today I really wanted it. Coming home from swim she started singing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Store.” This is her English accent coming through. Our American NY accent of “water” comes out woter (same intonation as store). I really want to catch a lot of what she’s saying with her English accent before we come home and she loses it.

It was another day of rest, of sorts, for us here at home. I took Jake to the train station so that he could enjoy another day in London. He went to the Natural Science Museum and up to the Royal Observatory. Makenna and I hung out at home. I still have a stuffed up head and now my eyes are caked over in the morning. I did take her to swim in the afternoon though.

She was very anxious to play with the watering can and I had to threaten to take her home a few times as she was just being downright obstinate. She wanted to just sit on the steps and play. She would light up and get excited when the teacher took her and had her swim to me. She did really well too. She would go under a bit as she finished coming to me and she was always happy and ready to do it again.

I did get another eye roll from her today too. The teacher really emphasizes that her toes be at the edge of the pool and that she has to wait for me to count to three before she jumps in. Makenna, just wants to jump in right away and I had to keep insisting that she wait until I was ready and for her to come closer to the edge. She finally got fed up with me saying it and rolled her eyes and sighed. Look Missy, you’re only 2.5 (not even, yet,) so there’s no way that you should be allowed to start being fed up with me and my directions…yet.

25Mar2009: Day 303: How To Merge

2009-03-25T17:43:00.004-04:00

Jake initially wanted to go to Stonehenge but Chris convinced him last night that seeing a bunch of rocks over two hours away was not worth the trip. Jake agreed and decided that he would like to go to Dover Castle and also see the white cliffs, and then to Canterbury Cathedral.

So off we went and I was kind of glad that we were going here as it’s less than an hour away and I didn’t sleep well last night due to still having a cold. Just a side note…when am I not complaining about being sick? It seems like I get a week reprieve a month of not being sick and then the rest of the time I’m just complaining and whining. Okay now that’s off my congested chest and stuffed-up head.

I enjoyed this second trip to Dover Castle because I was able to see some parts that I was not able to see before. Namely, St. Mary’s Church and some of the battlement walks. We also went under the war time tunnels again. Makenna was really well behaved here compared to last time so I was able to hear much more of the explanation. She also found all the stairs around the castle grounds to her enjoyment. Unfortunately, the main keep of the castle was closed but we could still go on the grounds. The shop on the keep grounds had samples of different jellies and Jake and I sampled them. Some were pretty good and others were more like furniture polish.

This castle is up on a hill, as most of them are, and there are hills all over the grounds to get to different parts. Makenna found this one “ramp” of stone path especially fun as it put her into a tunnel and out of mommy and Jake’s view. Then when we went after her she loved running down it into our arms. You could hear her say, “ready, steady, go,” and then she’d run down.

We made it back to the car just before a major rainstorm poured down upon us and headed towards Canterbury. We got to the cathedral and Makenna again was off on her step-quest. I was surprised that she had any energy as she barely had a nap between the two places. Although, she was less inclined to listen to me so I had to put her in the pushcart at one point. We only spent about an hour here and it was a good thing as we were headed back to the car, the skies opened up again and started raining.

We headed home and it took a lot longer than it should have. Part of it was that we left during rush hour to get home but the biggest problem was that people just don’t know how to merge here. It was a long twenty minute crawl as two lanes had to go down to one just before a round-about. I just could not understand why people could not just merge and get on with it. In fact, one truck in the right lane was just moving very slowly and had no cars in front of it whatsoever. I was in the left lane (the lane that needed to be merged into,) and I could not figure out why this truck was moving so darn slow. He had a line of cars behind him who didn’t know they had to merge and he was holding everything up. It’s as if these people need lessons on proper merging. All these driving schools here need to not only focus on proper driving on the streets but take them and have them merge.

24Mar2009: Day 302: What's That Noise?

2009-03-24T17:53:00.005-04:00

At the end of last week and into this week, Makenna’s phrase is “What’s that noise?” She hears something, purses her lips into an “o” with eyes open wide in curiosity, and says, “What’s that noise?” I then explain what the noise is and where it’s coming from. Sometimes she’ll ask about the noise and then tell me what it is.

She’s also still wants to help me and today’s “help” was with laundry. It was actually a good thing because a couple of times I was able to divert her from being upset by asking her to help me pour in the fabric softener into the washing machine.

Jake went into London on his own and saw the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and Tower Bridge. Chris had told him that he’d get a lot more done without Makenna tagging along and since he and I went into London on Saturday, he felt he could get around on his own when I dropped him off at the train station. Plus, I’ve seen all those things except Tower Bridge. Although I’d definitely love the chance to see them again before we leave, but not sure if that will happen. That meant that I was able to take Makenna to nursery and since I’m still stuffed up, I passed on the gym and ran to the library so I could pick up some new books to read to Makenna

I thought I’d add a couple of pictures from the flowers that have popped up in our yard. I took these last week and since then, more have come up in other colors. Plus the trees around town are starting to have white buds on them. I hope, at some point, to start posting pictures from around the house that we live in here so that we have a record of our living arrangements here. I meant to do take the pictures last week after I cleaned the house but I forgot and now the house needs to be cleaned again.

Here’s where I need some help. I have a little girl who has found her nose with her fingers and hard as I try, I can’t seem to get her to keep them out of there. I realize it’s a thing kids do, but I try to somewhat ignore it when we’re home alone, but also remind her that she needs to use a tissue. When we’re in public I kind of do the same but insist more on the tissue. Today, as we were sitting on the couch, I again reminded her about using a tissue and she looked at me, said “bye” as she waved (like leave me alone,) then got up and went over to the bean bag sat down and sighed. I felt like the “un-cool” mom who needs to leave her teenager alone. So who out there can give me ideas on how to translate to a 2.5 year old that sticking her finger up her nose is not the “in-thing” to do?

23Mar2009: Day 301: Royal Airforce Museum (RAF)

2009-03-23T18:43:00.003-04:00

We actually started out at Leeds Castle. This was my third time going and second time in the castle itself. I enjoy going as it’s a nice walk through lovely grounds and I brought crackers for Makenna to feed all the various birds with. The peacocks were actually getting quite forceful and coming right up to Makenna to get the crackers.

I was also able to take pictures inside the castle this time. I’m not sure why I wasn’t before, but all I could think of was that maybe they don’t allow it on weekends. Or maybe because they had a tour bus of kids from I think either France or Germany (it sounded more German when I heard them speak,) that they allowed it. I didn’t take too many pictures inside because at the time, I couldn’t remember if I had pictures from before or not.

Makenna was fairly well behaved but she wanted to constantly feed the birds, or go up steps to wherever. She did get asked to get off a couch that she shouldn’t have been on. That was my fault as I was reading about the room and had my back to her. Then I heard an attendant asking her to get off the couch. He was nice about it and said he understood how little children don’t know any better.

We went back to the car and ate a quick lunch and off we went to RAF. It was opened in 1972 and has over 100 aircraft from around the world including some very early aircraft designs. They had this wall of year by year starting with the year of Kittyhawk up to 2002. Each year had a little tid-bit about something major regarding flight for that year along with some other interesting things that happened that year. There were lots of steps here so Makenna had a grand ‘ole time.

Not only did Jake get to see how Makenna loves steps, but also saw her love for water. While at RAF, there was this display that was set up as if a French machine shop had been bombed and had broken a water pipe. Makenna walked by it and said, “Beautiful water.” It was as if she was seeing a sunset with the way it came out.

What was nice about this place was that there were hands on things for kids to do. Plus, she could sit in the mini-plane or helicopter. I had a hard time getting her out of it. I had to tell her that there was another ride that she could go on to get her to move on. There were also other types of things for her to do and she liked the exhibit where she could push a button and a little thing would raise up to take a “cargo” load to the plane above. When it was finally time to go, we had to pick her up and drag her out.

We headed home but it was during rush-hour traffic and the RAF is right outside of London, so it took us a bit longer to get home. When we did finally make it back into town, I took Jake to the grocery store so he could experience the shopping carts that I complain about. He thought it was pretty neat at first until he realized that it was hard to just push them straight on. Plus, as you add more things to the cart, the harder they get to maneuver. Kind of like a two year old.

22Mar2009: Day 300: Uncle Jake, Uncle Jake

2009-03-22T19:03:00.006-04:00

Day 300! Only 65 more to go, it's hard to believe. There's so much to cram into those last 65 days that we need to do!

So....we all slept in, well, almost all of us. Makenna did wake up at her usual 7ish am. This just indicates to me that she’s feeling better. I on the other hand, barely have a voice. Which I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t complain about.

We went to church and Jake was really able to hear a lot of Makenna’s English accent. He also got to spend a lot of time with her as she sat on his lap where he placed his spell over her and she promptly fell asleep in his arms. Chris and I on the other hand got the mess we call Hannah. She was eating her lunch on my lap, as usual, and promptly spit out her half-chewed piece of pizza onto my lap. Yuch!~ She also had a runny nose which got over my clothes and Chris’s clothes, along with bits of chocolate from a “mother’s day” gift that the church gave the women which was boxes of chocolate. It was more of a present for the kids. We just got the mess part of it. I don’t know what it is but I don’t like runny snotty noses on Makenna but I really don’t like them from other kids. At least Makenna’s fluids are from family. I was constantly wiping Hannah’s fingers, nose, and mouth. So much so that I was almost out of wipes.

After church, I took Jake to a nearby castle and cathedral in Rochester. It was nice to go back and see these things which are a couple of sights that Chris, Makenna, and I saw the first week we were here back in May 2008. I felt like an expert as I was showing and telling Jake a few things. I didn’t take many pictures yesterday or today since I already have way too many from the first visits to these places. What I did notice in Rochester Cathedral was these carvings that were in the ceiling before the organ. I thought they were “interesting” in that they look devilish and to find them in a cathedral seemed a bit odd.

We then took a walk down the main street in Rochester and I showed Jake some of the old-time architecture of some houses and also showed him the summer house of Charles Dickens.

We got home and got dinner going. I had Jake get Makenna up from her nap and he came down and said that when he went into her room to wake her, she looked at him and said, “I’m napping.” She is always asking for him when he’s not in her sight..."Where'd uncle Jake go?" Then tonight we did a Skype session with my Aunt Lori & Uncle Richard, and Makenna combined it and started asking for Uncle Lori.

I had to add these last couple of pictures as they are just adorable. I bought her this dress from Costco back on Tuesday and I was shocked to find that even though it’s a size 3-4, that it’s just long enough for her and it was almost too tight on the top! This girl is just growing way too quick!

21Mar2009: Day 299: Repeat

2009-03-22T18:19:00.006-04:00

Did our usual Saturday morning routine which is make pancakes and make lunches for our trip for the day. Then Chris decided that since tomorrow is Mother’s Day here, that he would give me a present of going to London with Jake and he would stay at home with Makenna. It was definitely a thoughtful gift as it meant that we could hopefully get to see more.

Hope was the word but not so much the action. Chris dropped Jake and I off at the train station and we found out that the train was not running from this station as they were doing maintenance work. They had us take a bus to a different station where we then took the train into Victoria station in London. From there we needed to take the Underground to the British Museum. Of course, with our luck so far, the underground subway we needed was closed. We had to take another route to get there. We finally got to the museum at 1pm!

We looked around for a couple of hours and it was nice that I didn’t have to rush through the exhibits chasing after Makenna. I was here before back in October but to be able to read some of the displays and take the time to look at the artifacts was a nice change. The couple of pictures were from the Mayan area of the museum. The one has turquoise over a skull. From there we took the subway, once we found it, to Trafalgar square. We finally found some place to eat as we walked to Parliament and Big Ben. We then walked back to the train station and headed home.

We again had to go into a train station to be bussed back to the one in our city. We were able to sit up on the top deck in the front seats and it was quite nerve wracking. It looked as though at every turn the bus was going to hit something. These guys know how to maneuver these things!

We got home and ordered some Indian food. The place too forever to deliver! I think it’s the last time we order from this place. They always take a long time to deliver. Makenna was grateful to finally get food and she ate down rice like there was no tomorrow. She picked out the peas and ate them too. I just can’t figure this girl out. I tried buying rice with peas and she wouldn’t touch it. I guess I have to buy this yellow-looking rice.

I went off to bed early. I was wiped out. Today was a repeat of sights for me but it was nice to see I could get myself around. Unfortunately, it looks like I’m having a repeat (a tenth time repeat) of being sick. I just got off of antibiotics last week and bam I’m hit again. It’s not a sinus infection but just a cold but it was wiping me out. I only hope that I can get over it quick to enjoy the rest of the week with Jake. We are all sick. Jake came with a cold and Chris is also fighting a cold and we already know Makenna is sick so it’s a real fun household.

I guess Chris and Makenna enjoyed the day by going to the park and playing in the backyard. I was glad they could get some alone time as he doesn’t get to spend that kind of time with her very often. She seems to have really enjoyed it too. Let’s hope that they can have more repeat days of today.

20Mar2009: Day 298: Um, Well

2009-03-20T19:25:00.001-04:00

I woke up frantic as it was 8am and I was supposed to be leaving about this time to pick up my brother Jake from Heathrow. His plane was supposed to be getting in around 9:30am and it takes around 1.5 hrs with no traffic back-ups which would not be the case I’m sure. There were no messages from him and I hopped in the shower while Makenna was still asleep. I got ready, got Makenna up and was trying to shoot for getting out of the house by 9am. I figured by the time he actually landed, got to his luggage, and got through customs we probably would be timing it just right. I then looked on-line to see what gate his flight was to be coming in at and found that the plane was supposed to be arriving at 8:30am or so. Great, now I was going to be really late!

Well, as luck would have it for me, Jake had sent me a text to let me know that he missed his connecting flight in NYC and wouldn’t be in now until 9:15pm! I then had to decide whether or not to let Makenna go to nursery. I did take her as she didn’t have a fever and having her stuck inside for a third day just didn’t seem productive. She was a bit clingy when I tried to leave but I was able to come home and relax. I felt guilty about not going to the gym but I had already taken a shower and didn’t feel up to doing it again. I figured I’ll be doing a lot of walking this next week with going places with Jake.

When I did pick up Makenna, she was in this “um, well” mood. She kept answering me and Madonna (Hannah’s mom,) by saying, “um, well” and then going on with whatever she needed to say. I found it quite cute. I would’ve never thought to find language and mannerisms so interesting.

We had a harder evening after she woke from nap. I think her head is so stuffed up that she’s just miserable. It doesn’t help that she’s missing daddy who she hasn’t seen since last Monday. When he finally got home today, she was excited and happy and calmer. She did her “um, well” to him a couple of times.

After Chris returned, we had to leave shortly after to go up to Heathrow and pick up Jake. Timing wise we got there pretty well in that he didn’t have to sit outside too long. He told us of his horrible time in getting here and the whole missed flight ordeal. His body clock must really be off as he left around noon yesterday and after spending a night in JFK he’s now here at our humble abode at 11pm. Makenna was really excited to have him in the car and chatted away for the first 15-20 minutes after he got in the car. Then the sickness and tiredness hit her and she was whining and having a hard time. We made it home and hopefully decided on plans for tomorrow and got our chatty Makenna off to bed.