Catch Up!

18 April 2012

 Looks like I need to do some catching up on this lil blog of mine. Most of you know we took a five day road trip to Scotland over spring break last week. We began our trip by taking off on Saturday the 7th and proceeded to drive 140 miles north to Hull, England and even passed by the original city of Boston.  We thought Hull would be a nice place to stop for the night, but we thought wrong. On the outside Hull was a cozy little seaside town that any newcomer would enjoy with it's inexpensive city centre hotel conveniently located to shopping and attractions, but come sundown hooligans came out to run the streets outside our hotel until 3 am! I should have known when three locals in the lift (elevator) picked up on my American accent and asked me why on earth I decided to stop in Hull! To which I cleverly replied, "Oh, we are just passing through on our way to Scotland." We had planned on seeing this massive aquarium the next day, but took a word from the wise and got outta Dodge!

Dodge-This picture gives Hull too much justice!

 On our way to our next destination, Darren decided he would like to begin taking pictures of cathedrals throughout our journey in hopes of having some masterpieces to hang on the wall some day. We found this lovely in Beverly on Easter Sunday. Very fitting.

 When we saw Scarborough we were disappointed we didn't book a room there instead of Hell, I mean Hull.  We spent a few hours walking on the muddy beach and admiring the view from the boardwalk then enjoyed a pint with delicious fish and chips! Poor Bradyn was stuck in his stroller for most of the trip because it was freakishly cold and windy outside. He was snug as a bug and slept as soon as we were in the car again.

Scarborough Castle-top right

 Alnwick Castle, or Hogwarts as many of us "muggles" refer to it as, was our next stop. This castle was in all of the Harry Potter movies and both Robin Hood movies. It is the second largest inhabited castle in England today, with the first being Windsor Castle. 

 The castle grounds were a site to behold and the weather was perfect. I was able to get a quick picture with Hagrid during his performance with Harry at the castle. We spent a couple hours here and then decided we would get on the road again so we could reach Edinburgh, Scotland by daylight.  

I wish we had stopped a little more to take pictures of the coast on our way into Scotland, but it's not very easy to just pull over here and Darren said we would be back because Scotland is so gorgeous and pictures really don't do it justice. 

 Once we were in Edinburgh, we had to find a hotel room for the night. We didn't plan in advance for this one, but figured there were plenty of places to stay in the city centre. We noticed a queque (line) out the door of a Travel Lodge, so Darren dropped me off. Once I made it to the front, they told me they were all booked. No big surprise there. They have the cheapest rooms around. So we scurried to next place and decided to live it up for one night at the Radisson Blue and paid double the price. We would have gladly called it home it was so nice!

Edinburgh Castle

 Since I had already been to Edinburgh with friends, I showed Darren around town for the remainder of the afternoon and then we crashed. The next morning we woke up to snow! We didn't get pictures the day before, so we toughed it out and got some ok shots. Luckily, I have plenty from my trip there with friends here.

 My favorite cathedral of the trip we found in Carlisle, on the border of Scotland and England. If you look very closely, you can spot Bradyn and I! I definitely want to frame this one.

We found a quaint hotel in Carlisle for the night. Very close to their castle, which was just ok, so we didn't venture inside. Darren loved his monochrome setting!

 Again the weather did NOT cooperate and we spent most of the day in the hotel room staying dry. Well, Darren and I stayed dry while Bradyn had a bath!

Rubba, Dub, Dub Bradyn in the Tub-sink

 From Carlisle we drove further south through the Lake District, stopping in  Keswick and Windermere. This is God's Country! We couldn't stop taking pictures of this place, it's just beautiful! 

  We made it back to Lakenheath on the 12th. Thanks to Grandma Rachel for the Easter package! Unfortunately her package made a small detour to Sri Lanka before arriving in England. LOL!

Bradyn's First Easter

13 weeks!

My Last Week

4 April 2012

                     This week marks the last of my loungin' around with Bradyn days. 

11 Weeks New

I can't believe how fast 11 weeks have gone by. Luckily for me, I am working half days to start and go in on Friday for an adult only work day to get my feet wet and then have a week off for spring break. Haha! I did this on purpose so I could get paid. So it works out in my favor! I do intend on getting a lot done, but we'll see how that pans out. I have a feeling I will be dragging my feet, but I'm taking the afternoon shift, which is by far the easiest part of the day for me. Plenty of time to get lesson plans in place and wrap my head around the 100 emails that are overloading my inbox right now.  I hope to continue keeping you all posted on the happenings around here. Now I have my handy new iPad 3, or iBad 3 as I call it, so I can take cute pics and record even cuter videos of "B-Rad". (That's Darren's newest nickname for our little chunky monkey. :)

 We had a great birthday dinner with friends Sarah, Cale and Patrick last Friday in Bury St. Edmunds. Then a weekend in London where we shopped at the Westfield (expensive) Mall in Hammersmith. I opted for my usual GAP and H&M shopping sprees. I'm a mere 3 pounds away from my pre-preggy weight, but of course the hips aren't the same, so I'm having to buy new pants. (All worth it!) I came out with one pair of pants from GAP for work.



 My previous post was of the Easter card I sent out to immediate family. Shutterfly has been a great site for me to use and share pictures with all of you. They gave me $10.00 off my next purchase for posting the card to my blog. Hope you all have a great Easter weekend! This family just might go up north to Scotland or the Lake District since Darren took some time off. I better start packing now for Bradyn. This kid needs more bags than Darren and I combined for an overnight! Wish I could take the new swing along. He loves it!