More Holiday Photos

This is Shamu from Sea World, I can't recommend this day highly enough, it was brilliant. Photos are slightly out of sequence as below is the Grand Canyon looking grand....

Above is Tom while watching the dolphin show at Sea World - you can see how wet we got!
Lily earning her drivers licence at Legoland - she seriously thinks she can drive now and has offered to drive for me once or twice, what a crazy girl.
Tom standing at Pier 33 before our trip to Alcatraz.

Its great to have the camera back and see all the photos from the missing part of our holiday, it seems like a long time ago now. We haven't been up to too much since getting back, Nick is busy preparing to be a teacher at Maxwell and the children have been busy getting on my nerves. Not really, but it is a very long summer holiday, they still have over 2 weeks left before they go back to school. We are off to Ray & Kate's this afternoon for a BBQ and splash about in the pool so there may be a beachball challenge to enter!

Home, at last.

We started our holiday with a visit to Yosemite which, as you can see below, was 'awesome'. It really was very beautiful. Lily nearly got washed away by some white water rapids as we tried to cross the river to get to some toilets on the other side. We crossed at some stepping stones, I was holding Lily (luckily) but she slipped and then I slipped, we all got soaked (and the water was freezing) but luckily not only did I save Lily I managed to save the brand new super duper camera from getting wet too - what a hero(ine).
After Yosemite we visited the Sequioas National Park and saw some very large trees, although we were all a little disappointed with'General Sherman'. Next stop was Death Valley and then onto Las Vegas were we stayed with Amanda (thank you very much once again for the use of your laundry and the delicious meal you cooked us). After Vegas it was a brief stop at Hoover Dam (where strangely enough we bumped into Ray & Katie - how weird was that?) then onto Grand Canyon for 2 nights.
You may note a lack of photos here - thats because we didnt take the battery charger for the big camera (oops) and the little one broke and we cant get the photos at the moment. Luckily we were never actually without a camera as the little one didnt break until we were in San Francisco so we were able to buy a new battery for the big camera. Did you follow all that?
Anyway, after Grand Canyon it was onto San Diego and Sea World. This was my favourite day of the whole trip, it was brilliant, we got totally soaked at the dolphin show and all the other shows were just great, I would recommend it to you all.
Whilst in San Diego, we met up with friends of my parents (from way back in the late 1960's). So we kindly got fed lunch by Kasey and dinner by Bob & Donna (many thanks). It was so kind of them as I had never met any of them and just phoned up 'hallo, you don't know me but you used to know my parents' . Kind of weird but I'm glad I called and now they are all back in contact with each other - the magic of email...
Santa Barbara and 4 days at the beach followed and then finally we ended up in San Francisco.

This is us standing at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge and below is Tom on board a ship - as you can see he wasn't really enjoying himself!
Home last night, after many delays due to bad weather only to find our pool had flooded and it has trashed the lining (big oops). We are waiting on the 'pool guy' to come round and have a look at it. The most annoying thing about it is that if we had been home Wed night instead of Thursday night we could probably have saved it from getting trashed as we would have been able to pump the rain water out before it got too high. Hmm, never mind -s**t happens and I guess it could have been worse.

Are you up to the beachball challenge?

My Dad accepted the beachball challenge - jump off the diving board and keeping hold of the ball get it onto the ground by the side of the pool.
He managed to complete this challenge successfully, joining Nick, Rachel and myself - Caz I cant remember if you have done this or not - please let me know. Much to everyone's shock my mum had a go at the challenge, but unfortunately she did not succeed. Get the photo from my dad's camera - it is brilliant. This is from Sunday night, Ray another challenger failed but plans another attempt at some point in the future.

Happy Fathers Day

We had a massive thunderstorm yesterday and a surprise visitor at the back door! We're not sure where he came from or where he went afterwards as we went round to friends for a bite to eat and a few drinks.
Above is a photo of Deanna, my mum, Artie, Tim and me enjoying a good ole southern style dinner. Olivier, Nick and my dad are either hidden from view or taking the photo.


Its Fathers Day today so we went to Waffle House for breakfast, yippee - cheese n eggs for breakfast.
I've joined Facebook so have been busy working out how to use that and feeling very pleased with myself for doing so. tonight we are entertaining so hopefully we wont be rained on and can eat outside by the pool. Must remember I am working tomorrow morning so I cant drink too much wine!!!

Next post may not be for a few weeks as we are off on a 3 week holiday starting Wednesday, will bore you with details on our return.

Graduation Day

Mum & Dad arrived here last Thursday, the 5th and have been enjoying the back garden since, especially the pool. We have sent them away for a couple of days to the gulf coast to try and find some slightly cooler temps as it is unusually hot here just now.

Nick graduated from his course today, he came top of the class (of 482). Above is a gift from one of his mates on the course, Don Supon, it is obviously an American Flag but it is an American Flag that has flown above the US Capitol Building and comes with a certificate of authenticity and a presentation certificate to Nick..very nice.

Here is a video of Tom (assuming I have managed to upload it correctly) that we took with our smart new camera, unfortunately the arty photos I have tried to take so far dont look as good as the arty pics my friends take - could it be that I am just a crap photographer?

Forgot to mention

Should have said on yesterdays post that we have now been here for 1 whole year, can't quite believe it.

Backt to last night though, Nick and Rach ended up going swimming, Rach was moaning about how much weight she has put on during her trip and then proceeded to break the step ladder while climbing out of the pool...priceless....needless to say, poor Rach was mortified and is having to put up with much ribbing from Nick

Also meant to mention that while we were sitting out on Sunday night we saw a shooting star, which was amazing, I don't think I've ever seen one that spectacular before.
There was a big meteorite shower over Alabama in Nov 1833 which is why the number plates in Alabama have 'Stars Fell on Alabama' written on them. Little bit of trivia for you.

This is my number plate which Nick bought me for my birthday last year, I was really embarrassed about it at first but now think its kind of cool. talking of number plates there are many weird and wonderful ones about here, I wish I had a camera with me so I could take snaps of them when I come across them out and about, UNVRKNW - that one took me ages to work out, 4PSNAPD, MOMOF4, STJ MOM, PRAISIN, ATHEIST - which was pretty gutsy since we're in the 'bible belt' down here.

Schools Out For Summer

Well, the children started their school holidays last Thursday, the 22nd May and I have them at home with me now until Aug 13th when they go back to school. I'm sure I'll manage as we have a busy first half of the holiday with visitors and holidays planned.

Rachel is with us at the moment, minus her luggage which didnt make the plane, she has been on a round the world trip since February, caught 14 flights and didnt lose her luggage until here. We had a drive out to the shops this morning for a few essential items so she was able to use the pool - when she wasn't being pestered by Lily.

We are sitting outside drinking wine now so I will go before I type something incriminating..