Catching up...

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! I must say this last week could have been better. Poor Caleb had a temperature hovering around 102-104 degrees this whole Thanksgiving week. Not to mention I was sick-- as Caleb and I share everything and of course I can't resist his kisses! So I must say I wish I could have enjoyed my turkey dinner a bit more... being able to taste would have helped immensely! Hopefully everyone else had a fabulously great week and wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. I would have taken some pictures, but we looked rather miserable!

Because we have several people looking at the blog that have never seen little Caleb or us for a good long time, we thought we better do a little back tracking! The entries and pictures below will tell a bit about what's been going on these last few years. We may even have some new information for those that thought they knew everything! First--to follow up my previous post about Caleb loving to kiss his stuffed husky, I tried to capture him in the moment as the video shows-- I wasn't too successful!

Okay--Now it's time to share what has been happening in the last little while! Of course everyone likes to see pictures, so I'll post some pictures of John and I in England. We went to England a little over 4 years ago so I could pursue a post-graduate degree in International Development. I absolutely LOVED my experience in England. I loved my program and the variety of people I met. Out of 60 people, there were only 3 Americans, 3 Brittains and all the rest were from all other parts of the world. The degree forcused on sustainable development, which centers on non-profit work from the grass roots up. The experience was absolutely incredible, but went by way too fast!

The first picture above is of John and I in front of William Shakespeare's house. The second one below in of us again in front of a castle in Leeds!



Canteburry Cathedral--Gorgeous cathedral. We made it in time for sunset on a beautiful day.

Of course Stonehenge! We only lived about an hour away from the historic site! Mmmm, I haven't even said where we lived! We lived in Reading, about 30 miles outside of London.

Tintern Abbey to the left. Abandoned in 1536, we visited the abbey on our trip to Wales, a spectacular country. England, Wales and Scotland were absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. The rolling hills with sheep and the green landscape bring you back in time, as there are no bill boards along the major highways and sparse populations throughout much of the countryside. Tintern Abbey was very mysterious and beautiful!

The sail boat picture is in the Isles of Scilly, just off of Cornwall in southern England. The islands were gorgeous. The one we stayed on had a population of 60 people, crazy!

We went deep sea fishing during our week's stay. I don't think John will be going on another fishing trip like that though, he found out he gets very sea sick! --Someone on the boat caught a blue shark which was pretty cool. I am fascinated and extremely fearful of sharks! Seeing them up close was really fun.
Yes, the middle Bavarian looking picture really is England! A picture of my brother and I in the bavarian middle picture. Below is a picture of my brother and his wife.

England was a launch pad for visitng other places. Here is a picture of us in Normandy at Arlington cemetary. What an incredible feeling there is at the place. How blessed and fortunate we are for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

Below are pictures of Budapest, Munich, Vienna. We went to Austria, Germany and Hungary for research for my dissertation and for fun!

To the left, another picture of a castle in Wales. The castle in this country were so amazing! To think of all the history that has taken place in these areas... wow! Below are pictures of the underground catacombs in Paris and to the right of us in Versailles.

The top two on the left are of Scotland. My grandpa was so excited to go to St. Andrews golf course, the place where the game began. He was able to tee off onto the green, a great day for him! The top picture on the right and the bottom two are of our trip to France. We all traveled together in a Volvo, it was quite the adventure, especially for Kristen and I who were in the very back most of the time!

I have soooooo many more pictures I could put up of our England and European travels, not to mention so many stories of crazy situations we found ourselves in while traveling abroad. There were also situations where my English words meant one thing in America and something totally different in England! One of those examples is the word 'pants', which means underwear in England. I'm sure you can imagine how many times I created an awkward situation with such a common word! Especially when I was telling people at work that I had holes in my pants, they looked at me rather funny! The next couple posts will be about our last 3 1/2 years in Seattle, Washington and the arrival of Caleb!

November?!

Where did all the time go? I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week! I thought I better get going with some recent updates of what's been going on! Basically I can sum it up all in word word: CRAZINESS! Why? Let's see... I started a job as a Pre-school teacher part-time (babe comes with me), the hubby has taken the written portion of Boards for dental school (which means he has had some intense studying!), the hon is going to Georgia to interview for a 1 year residency, will interview in Utah for a residency in a few weeks, Caleb has been completely off schedule the last 5 days, and I have had to teach Gospel Doctrine 3 times in the last 4 weeks! So basically it has been absolute chaos! I'll post a few pictures and tell you a few more details about it...

Halloween!

The little one was the cutest monkey you ever did see. The costume was absolutely perfect for him because he really is a little monkey! He loves to climb on things--like up on the piano bench, stairs, couches, coffee table, chairs and even from the chair to the kitchen table! Once on top of the kitchen table he likes to do a little dance stomping his feet and laughing. He also loves to push the limits, seeing how close to the edge he can get whether it's up on the table or on top of our porch stairs. He makes my heart stop beating every time he pulls those little tricks! This babe has no concept of fear!

Stuffed Animals-

Caleb absolutely loves stuffed animals, most specifically ‘doggies’. Every time he wakes up from a nap, we have to line up all the stuffed animals along the edge of the crib, we do this over and over for about 30 minutes. During that time we take his stuffed husky (representing the WA huskies of course!) and give him hugs and kisses. We take turns-- Caleb will give the dog a kiss and then mommy. Next a hug and then more kisses. He is so CUTE with his little dog! He also likes the real dogs as well. Too bad Roslyn is crazy and won’t let Caleb get near her. She’s an excellent watch dog but not too good with anyone besides John and I. I have gotten a few pictures of the two close together, but not many!