Our First Visitor!

Jan 23-Feb 7 Grandma "Honey" visits

Jeanne's mom was able to obtain cheap tickets and come to visit us! Flying to the UK during the winter months is pretty cheap compared to the summer flights! We enjoyed her visit and the kids enjoyed her wonderful hot breakfasts!

We were able to try a couple of quaint pubs for lunch. Just for clarification...pubs here are non-smoking eating and socializing centers for villages. They are usually in older buildings with plenty of charm. Their menus consist of local traditional recipies and of course tea and coffee. They typically have a "bar" section but it isn't seen as a primarily drinking establishment. The hamlet that we live in is so small that it doesn't have a pub and is therefore considered by many to be a hamlet instead of a village.

We were able to take a short trip to London one weekend with Bonnie. It was our first trial run at going down to London. We drove to Potters bar train station since we had a car full and then rode the train from there into downtown London. We were able to ride the subways and see alot of the sights...Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The London Eye. We were hoping to catch a theatre but found that we need to plan ahead. We were however able to see some of the British museum. Jeanne was quite excited to see the actual Rosetta Stone! It is the archaeological find that enabled the hiroglyphic writing of ancient Egypt to be understood. It is very exciting to see such an important item in history!

Jeanne's mom said that her most favorite thing about visiting was driving and seeing the countryside. But she also enjoyed watching the British real estate shows that show a lot of the home styles.

Her first flight home was cancelled so

we were able to keep her one more day! It really worked out well as she was able to catch a better flight out the next day. The kids were able to say goodbye when we dropped them off in the morning at school.

Grandma loves their uniforms!