Our Dallas Adventure

Eve's 9th Birthday Party

2010-04-01T17:37:00.000-05:00

Eve had her birthday party at "Pump it Up", a big soft play area in Frisco. She had a crowd of friends mainly girl scouts and the Grizzly girls.
It was great fun and even we both got to play on all the stuff. We moved through two rooms and lots of the time was spent in races through the assault courses.

Eve choose her cake. The girls ate so much food at the end of the playtime, quickly demolishing pizza, the cake and lots of boxes of drinks.
Eve received lots of lovely presents.

Nov/Dec 2009

2010-04-01T17:21:00.000-05:00

This is Zoe dressed for Colonial Day at school. She made candles, learnt to cross stitch and quilting, and did stenciling; a fun filled two days. I was dressed in a similar outfit which we both worked out was totally impractical to wear.

Neil's birthday.
For Neil's birthday we had some friends round for a meal, we all ate and drank to much. This is Sue, Anne and JP. Anne and JP brought Neil some Irish whiskey glasses, here is his first attempt!

This is the Grizzly girls float for the Plano parade. They didn't win but they had fun giving out sweets and running along the parade route.

Dallas moterbike show Nov 2009

2010-04-01T17:10:00.000-05:00

This day was fun because we got to sit on and try out all the bikes! This is us on quad bikes. Daddy said that if we lived in the countryside we could get quad bikes...maybe! They had a different size for each of us!
This is us on a giant quad bike! It had a comfy seat but it was way to big and said '18+' on the lable. So we couldn't get it until we were 18. But daddy could! Mummy wouldn't! She wouldn't like the 'scariness' of the quad bikes!
More quad bikes! I would like to have a white one because then when it got mud on it it would look cool!
Eve is on a motor bike in this one! I had to hold it because it would have fallen over if I hadn't! I can really see Eve with a future of riding (and owning) a black motor bike. (although the top 3 pictures are of quad bikes most of the things we tried were motor bikes. Mummy just obviously liked the pictures of us on quad bikes more than us on bikes!

Halloween

2010-02-24T14:49:00.000-06:00

The kids all chose new costumes for Halloween. Felix went as a vampire, Eve as the devil and Zoe as a pirate. I did the face painting. Once they were all in costume, they played outside the house waiting for it to get dark and then headed to the street in our neighbourhood that is closed to traffic where we were meeting friends.

Here Eve is with her friend Keri.
All the houses are really decorated and lots have smoke machines and bubbles. The kids each filled a whole bucket with sweets. They were able to donate some to a local orthodontist, the next day, for dollars which we used to see a movie at the dollar cinema.

Zoe's 11th Birthday

2010-02-24T14:41:00.000-06:00

Zoe had a sleep over party at home this year with 9 friends. Felix was away with Neil and Eve stayed with a friend so Zoe and her friends had space. We did craft activities making headbands and decorating tea shirts.

I made three different pasta sauces and we had garlic bread followed by ice cream sundae's. Here Zoe is showing her creation.

The girls all then changed into pyjamas and watched movies eating popcorn. I thought I'd done well as the girls were asleep by 12, but they woke at 6.30 for a pancake breakfast!

Autumn 2009

2010-02-02T16:39:00.000-06:00

The kids are went back to school on 24th August, when it was still really hot. All three were pleased with their teachers. Eve was really pleased as her friend Keri was in her class.
As most of the sports had yet to start we had some time at the weekends to visit some of the state parks. Here we are at Mineral Wells State Park, where we had a nice long walk before playing on the lake beach. The day ended with everyone trying fishing.

Neil and Eve went away with the Y-princesses again see separate entry. During the weekend they were away, those left behind went to the Plano Balloon Festival. Felix and Zoe had a great time collecting freebies but it was too wet and windy to let the balloons fly.

Then soccer season started. I have taken over as assistant coach for Felix's team and Eve's team changed their name to the Killer Bees, complete with new lime green uniform.

England 3

2010-02-02T10:18:00.000-06:00

The rest of our England stay involved catching up with friends in Cambridge. The kids had a great time and i really enjoyed seeing everyone. The kids ate in Teepee's with Anna, played with pets with Toby.

The girls put on an amazing show of Mama Mia with Molly and Ellie, which had both Julie and myself laughing and crying. They spent 24 hours putting it together.

We also managed to go and see the bumps with Lucy and Daniel, even though the weather wasn't fantastic. We ended out time in Cambridge with a trip to the park which involved many friends and was great fun.

We then returned to Watford and enjoyed a trip to see Joseph with my Mum and Dad and cousin Hannah. we all had a good sing along.

England 2

2009-12-12T14:26:00.000-06:00

We then went to Angelsey to stay with Abi and Gary in a caravan. We had a great time. The weather was good, the kids even managed to get in the sea. We did some nice walks and totally wore out Abi and Gary.
The kids really enjoyed the walk down to this lighthouse but the walk back was really hard. It was very windy and the steps we steep. We also saw the lifeboat that had rescued Gary as a child and Felix was able to have a go at crabbing.

England 2009

2009-12-08T13:06:00.001-06:00

After our US road trip, I then took the kids to England for 3 hectic weeks. My parents had the pleasure of copying with us with jet lag. We started at my parents house and had a great time eating English food. We went to Knebworth House and enjoyed playing in the gardens and walking around. The kids loved doing gardening with my dad and watching TV. They also raided my mums art stuff and had a great time.
We then went to Bristol and stayed with Neil's mum. Marc was also visiting so we had a great time catching up. The kids loved going to pubs and walking in the countryside. Eve manged to have English sausages, beans and chips every lunchtime!! They also enjoyed the big museum in Bristol, here the girls are dressed as astronauts. They all said they missed being outside a lot in the summer, as it's too hot to do this in Texas.

Eve's Twilight Visit to Dallas Zoo

2009-11-21T15:50:00.002-06:00

(By Eve)

Eve went to the Dallas Zoo with her girl scout troop.

Eve saw all types of animals. This is a picture of a scorpion. they also saw bees and other bugs.

This a picture of a Fossa.It is a animal found in Madagascar. It eats Lemar's in the wild . But in a zoo it will eat small mammals. Eve loved this animal . She said " It is so cute and cuddly."

This is a picture of a three banded Armadillo. One of the animals that we got to touch.

Taos

2009-10-28T11:52:00.000-05:00

We spent our last night in Taos. We stayed at a great hotel that had a pool. A group of local native americans performed in the evening. They were local to the hotel and as the elder told us needed to perform to hold on to their traditions as well as practise for the Pow wows.One of the guys was amazing as were the clothes. All the dances told a story

The girls were really impressed by this little girl who joined in with every dance.

At the end we were encouraged to join in. As you can see Felix was a little reluctant. There were also members of another tribe staying at the hotel who joined in although there steps were slightly different. It was a great end to the holiday and we then spent the next day driving back to Dallas.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

2009-10-28T11:43:00.000-05:00

After leaving the house, we drove to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. These are amazing enormous sand dunes in the middle of the country side. As we didn't arrive until after lunch we knew that we would be unable to walk to the top of the dunes about a 2 hour hike but we thought we'd see how far we could get. We all carried water as it was hot, the sand temperature was 40 degrees. We had to walk through a small stream at the start; as a result Neil thought that flip flops were the best thing to wear. the rest of us decided on trainers!! We started to walk and decided that sand is a lot harder to walk on than we first thought. Also the dunes were quite steep. Neil was having big problems as eventually said he had to stop as he was burning his feet. Zoe and I walked a bit further but both Felix and Eve were relieved to be turning back.

The bit we all really enjoyed was running down the slopes, by the time we had finished our shoes were full of sand.

We ended the day paddling in the stream. Neil is sat here nursing his burnt feet. His advise would be that flip flops were not the best foot wear.

Trips in Colorado

2009-10-28T11:29:00.000-05:00

Whilst staying in Colorado, we took some great day trips. Our first trip was to visit Copper Mountain where we had gone skiing at Christmas. We had a great time reminiscing about the holiday and seeing how different things looked in the summer. This lake that Felix and Zoe are looking at is where they had gone ice skating.
We also visited Rocky Mountain National Park, we drove through the park on a road at 10,000ft, it is only open for 3 months of the year. We took a hike and we found some snow, a group of children were sledding and allowed ours to use there sledges. They had a great time. Neil was having a few problems as he was wearing flip flops.
We then moved along the road and took a hike up to 12,000 ft. Here we are resting at the end. The views were amazing.

We ended the day with a smaller hike to a lake, supposedly only an mile away. After walking for an hour we still hadn't found it and the kids were moaning, so we turn around and took the track back down.

Black Canyon and Colorado

2009-10-28T11:16:00.000-05:00

The next morning it was cloudy and wet. We had just heard that Micheal Jackson had died, which had led to some interesting conversations at breakfast. We decided to visit the Black Canyon National Park. We did a small hike and then the rain came down. We then drove to the house that we were planning to stay in for 5 nights in Colorado. After stocking up on supplies we found the house ( below) which was great.

We spent our first day there resting. The kids built a den whilst I read books and Neil cooked. The kids wanted to have a fire in the fire pit so we did. They spent the afternoon collecting sticks and Neil then showed them how to safely make a fire. We then sat there and chatted whilst watching the flames, I had the good chair.

Mesa Verda National Park

2009-10-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

The next day we drove to Mesa Verde National Park, which has loads of stone houses set under limestone cliffs. After a long queue to get tickets for a spot on one of the tours ( the only way you can see the houses close up) we went to the museum which explained the history of the people that lived in the area. Then after a quick lunch we waited to go on the tour of the "Balcony House". When I had booked the tour they had asked me two questions, firstly was any of my party scared of heights or claustrophobic. When we started the tour we discovered why they had asked us these questions.
The way into the Balcony house involved a climb up a 30 foot ladder, see picture. All i can say is the ladder seemed longer than expected but the kids had no problems. We then had a talk from a ranger who explained the history of the site. The talk was great as he aimed all the comments to the kids and Zoe really enjoyed it.

After the talk and a look round, we had to leave crawling through a small hole. Both our family and another with small children realised that there were a few larger adults in the group and we didn't want to get stuck behind them so made sure we went through the tunnel first, this proved to have been the right decision. As we were climbing up the last ladder with the ranger, people started shouting that a man had got stuck in the hole and the ranger had to go a rescue him. The kids thought this was really funny.

Here I am climbing up the the last ladder, this trip definitely wasn't for the faint hearted.

Goblin Valley State Park

2009-10-07T10:31:00.000-05:00

In the afternoon we decided to do a detour away from our intended route to visit Goblin Valley State park, we were told to go by a friend of Felix's dad who grew up in the area. It was amazing. The two valleys are filled with these strange rock formations The kids had a great time running through them and climbing over them. The only problem was the heat.
We walked all the way through one valley and then found a cave to have a drink and get some welcome shade. The car temperature was reading about 108, when we got back to it. Eve was a mountain goat and spent time leaping from rock to rock. We had the whole place ourselves and the kids later described it as one of the best places we visited during our whole trip.

When we left the park we had a long drive through a state forest towards the Colorado border.

Canyonlands National Park

2009-09-17T14:20:00.000-05:00

At the start of the day, we visited Dead Horse Point State Park, so named because this is the area where horses were corralled by Cowboys who then selected the ones they wanted leaving the rest to die. Dead Horse Point State Park overlooks the Canyonlands National Park. Here Zoe is enjoying the view. As she wrote in her diary this is an area of " Winding rivers in endless canyons, drilled deep in scorching desert lands."
We then drove in to the Canyonlands National Park, slightly too fast as it cost us a speeding ticket!!
We stopped to walk up to this arch. The kids meet a ranger and spent time answering questions and earning rewards such as pencils and things. We also saw a hummingbird which was amazing.

The View through the arch was amazing but this not enough for Neil who insisted on climbing along the top, whilst wearing flip flops!

Lunch involved a picnic sitting under trees enjoying the magnificent views.

Arches National Park

2009-09-06T14:47:00.000-05:00

We arrived at the park about 3.00pm in the afternoon and it was hot. The park is really strange but amazing. This is the Balanced Rock, it is massive.

The Arches NP is famous because of the fantastic arch structures.
The best part of the afternoon for the kids was a hike to Sand Dune Arch which involves scrambling through a gap and then walking through a red cavern like structure to this arch. The colours were stunning and the hike had shade which we all appreciated. Although we all decided it was hard work walking on sand.

For our last hike of the day, we decided to walked the 1 1/2 mile round trip to Landscape Arch, as the photo shows we did make it even though it was over 100 degrees. Neil took most of the photo's here while I walked the kids back to find shade. We enjoyed this national park although we did have a struggle to find a hotel, the area is quite touristy. Saying that after we had found a place to stay, we had a great meal at a Moab microbrewery.

Dinosaur Valley national monument and the drive to Utah.

2009-09-06T14:30:00.000-05:00

After leaving our ranch we drove again for whole day down into Colorado. It helped that we found a hotel to stay at with a pool so the kids could get out of the car and have a swim.
The next morning we got up and drove to Dinosaur National Monument. We then hiked about a mile and half along a track looking a various dinosaur fossils. In the picture below it is possible to see a preserved backbone.

We then drove towards Utah and the Arches National park. The drive was stunning, although the kids spent more time looking at DVD's rather than looking out the window.

Cody

2009-08-11T16:19:00.000-05:00

On Father's day, we decided to spend the day in Cody. Firstly we went to the old western town which has lots of preserved building and even has the graves of some well known outlaws.
We then discovered that Cody was hosting an Indian Powwow. Local native American tribes from the area come together and the best dancers from each tribe compete. Tourists are only allowed to watch from outside the inner circle as this area is reserved for the elders. It was amazing, the clothes, outfits and dances.

We then went for a drive over Beartooth Pass, the trip was great even with a the snow storm. The Photograph shows the view from the top.

We then went for a nice meal at the Buffolo Bill hotel. Unfortunately. Zoe was ill on our way back to the ranch but was fine the next morning.

On the Ranch

2009-08-11T14:08:00.000-05:00

After leaving Yellowstone, we went to stay on a ranch near Cody in Wyoming. The plan was to do some walking and take a riding trip. We had a really fun ride, we rode for two hours up into the mountains and then had lunch, burgers cooked on an open fire, before riding back down. Eve was on a mule call Sally, which suited her perfectly!

Zoe was on Ranger, who was a little wild and kept trying to kick another horse but Zoe handled things really well.

Felix was on a little pony called Dolly. Felix was eventually led after spending the first few minutes making Dolly go round and round in circles. But he loved that as he could take the whole time with our ranch hand Cristy. The saddles we used were the american style which were so comfortable and impossible to fall from.

Here is Neil on his horse, Simba. My horse was called Squirt.
The ride was fun through the trees with fantastic views from the top.

Animals we saw at Yellowstone NP.

2009-08-11T13:36:00.000-05:00

Big Horn Sheep.

Chipmunks.

Elk.

Here is a wolf, as you can see it is carrying something in it's mouth.

A ground squirrel, Felix's favourite.

A Moose and Calf, the rarest animal in the park.

Bison, kid became bored counting these.

Day 3 - Mammoth Hot Springs

2009-08-03T19:27:00.000-05:00

Having driven passed this area everyday on the way to our hotel, we were all excited about finally getting closer. This area was really haunting and the scenery was amazing. You are able to climb on boardwalks all around the edges of the vast area.
the whole area looks really beautiful but desolate. The area is full of bacterial pools and we were told they are still studying the area to find new species.

The hike around was fun and we did often find ourselves walking through very smelly steam!

Day 2 - Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

2009-08-03T18:16:00.000-05:00

After all the bear excitement, we continued to our destination for the day the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We decided that we would hike along the South Rim and then have a picnic lunch and hike through the fields back. The weather had other ideas. It was nice but cloudy when we parked the car and started. The views were fantastic and the colours wow!

We walked all the way to the falls and then found a nice picnic table and then the rain began, we ended up eating under a tree. The kids thought this was great. Then we started the walk along the ridge in a field and heard Thunder and realised that we were the highest point, i.e. above the treeline and decided that the walk back along the canyon was safer. Finally, we walked back past the car to view "Artist Point", which is what Eve is overlooking

Day 2 - Bears

2009-08-03T17:57:00.000-05:00

As Yellowstone is famous for bears, we were really hoping that we would see one. On our second day we decided to head towards the eastern corner of Yellowstone. Almost as soon as we had started down the road, we saw a group of cars parked on the side of the road and a Ranger who said that there was a bear. We all got very excited. This a the bear.
Then after a short drive during which we stopped and saw a fox and cubs (pictures not too good) we turned a corner and there were two bears quite near the road by this stage we were all getting very excited. Anyway we stopped so I could take some shots and the bears came close to the small row of cars until one was about 2 metres away. It was so fantastic and as we later found out not a common occurrence. We are still debating whether it is a grizzly bear ( the kids told everyone it was, we are not so sure).

Day 1 Cont.

2009-08-01T16:47:00.000-05:00

After lunch we visited another geyser area, we have loads of photo's. This one I like as the colours are amazing. The kids loved running around and were fascinated by the heat of the steam and the different smells, some worse than others.

We then had a little walk by a waterfall that the kids loved scrambling down to.

We then went to our Hotel just out of the park by the north entrance in Gardiner, Montana. This sign was on the road out of the park.

Day 1 at Yellowstone

2009-08-01T11:42:00.000-05:00

We started our day at Yellowstone with a visit to Old Faithful. We were really lucky, as we arrived 10 minutes before it was due to erupt. We joined the crowds on benches and waited, it is spectacular to quote Zoe " Geysers WOW". Then as most people headed back to their cars, we decided to walk along the boardwalk around all the other geysers about 1.5 miles.

We first walked up to Solitary Geyser which was a fun hike through trees. The colours, as this picture shows, were amazing as was the smell!!

Old Faithful erupts every 90 minutes so we we able to see it erupt again this time from behind, in fact this was a much better view. Zoe was not in this photo as she was busy trying to remove a splinter from her hand.

We then decided to head to the Old Faithful Inn for lunch, on the way "Beehive" erupted and was fantastic; unfortunately as these eruptions are unpredictable, every 10 hours to 5 days, some people standing nearby got wet much to the kids amusement.
This is the "Beehive" erupting.

Our Yellowstone trip - Grand Teton NP

2009-08-01T11:17:00.000-05:00

After spending two days ( 19 hours ) driving in the car from Dallas we finally arrived at the Grand Teton NP. The scenery was amazing. After lunch at the Jenny Lake lodge we decided that a hike was needed. We decided to take the boat across Jenny Lake and hike up to Inspiration Point via this Waterfall.

The hike was great and the kids loved it, here we are on our way down. We saw our first wildlife including this chipmunk, who was really friendly.

The Grand Teton mountain range was spectacular and as the snow had only recently melted we saw lots of wonderful wildflowers. That night we stayed in a Cabin at Coulter Bay.

Field Day

2009-07-31T13:33:00.000-05:00

Field day was a really hot day. Felix year got to play the water games first, Felix loved it and got very wet. The aim of one game was to move a puck using hoses, Felix decided this game meant getting everyone around him as wet as possible not caring if the puck moved!

Eve also played water games and enjoyed the bounce houses and playing tug of war her team won a lot.

Her is Zoe with her friend Meg, as you can see all the kids wore tee shirts of a particular colour which represented their year. Zoe and Eve both also ended up wet but no one cared as it was really hot.

May 2009

2009-07-31T13:24:00.000-05:00

The end of the school year was really busy with loads of different activities. Eve's Brownie troop went to Scarborough Fayre. Eve's Brownie leader made all the costumes; the girls made there own necklaces at a brownie meeting. Eve had a fantastic day and the group's photograph may be use to advertise the fair next year.

Zoe had her ballet recital which went really well. The junior company dance was amazing. This is the dress she wore for her class dance. She also performed a jazz dance but hated that costume.

One weekend we decided to cycle at Ray Roberts State park. The ride was great with lots of wild flowers to be seen. The only problem was the heat, it was so hot saying that all the kids cycled well.

Rough riders game

2009-05-30T09:12:00.000-05:00

As a PTA fund raiser we all went to see the Frisco Rough Riders play baseball. This was our first experience of a baseball game. As you can see we were all given hats. We realised that American sports are designed for maximum consumption, with lots of breaks to allow you to buy Beer, popcorn etc. You don't even need to leave your seats as they come round and will bring it to you. The game wasn't that exciting as the Rough Riders lost 7-0 but it did help explain the game to Felix and Eve who are playing Modified T-ball and Softball respectively. It did get exciting when i almost caught a ball that bounced of the roof and into our area. We all enjoyed the bits were we had to get up and dance.
As you can see Felix enjoyed wearing his popcorn box on his head.

Here is Felix playing catcher dressed in all the gear. The joke was having dressed Felix in all the gear his coach then told him to let the helper catch the ball as it was slowing the game to much allowing the kids to catch. The dads hear take this game very seriously.

Felix's party

2009-05-30T09:01:00.000-05:00

Felix had his party a few weeks after his birthday, although we did celebrate on his birthday with cake and lasagna. He had his party at a big gym place. He wanted all the boys in his class as well as others from his basketball and soccer teams. They had a great time, most of the boys spent the time running around chasing the girls, some of Zoe and Eve's friends stayed and joined in the fun. The best thing was this giant pit which was full of foam that they could all jump in. They were also given water pistols and had a big shot out. The great thing was there were no restrictions about using the equipment so they all took turns on the beams and swung on the bars.

This is a group shot.
We then had pizza and Felix had a soccer cupcake cake.

Zoe's playoff final.

2009-05-29T17:57:00.000-05:00

Zoe's soccer team had a great season, they finished 3rd and entered the playoffs. The quarter final were really exciting it was 1-1 after extra time so it went to penalties. Zoe's teams goalie is great and saved three penalties so it was off to the semifinals. This match was against a much harder team but again the girls all played really hard, Zoe even stooped the ball on the line preventing a goal. Again Inferno ( Zoe's team came from behind to level the score 1-1. In extra time they scored again so it was into the final.
Due to rain this match was finally scheduled for 8.00am on a Saturday morning. Unfortunately Neil and Eve missed the match as they were away on Y princesses camp. But Felix watched the whole match and enjoyed holding up posters Zoe and the others made. Why waste team spirit?!
Zoe played really well as did the whole team but unfortunately they lost 3-0 ( the team, Angels, they played had won all but one match all seasons and had players in Select- A much harder level of soccer) The girls were disappointed but were pleased when they saw there trophy's. They were the same as the 1st place trophy's except Zoe's said 2nd, not 1st.

Here is the team minus a couple players. Inferno Rocks!!!!!!!!!

Seattle

2009-05-27T14:06:00.000-05:00

Later in April i went to Seattle to catch up with Lisa, after her trip to England. It was great, first we walked around Seattle( we saw this wall which is covered in chewing gum) and the market and went up the Space Needle. Kate and Zoe got on really well.

The next day we went to the San Juan islands. we hoped to see whales. One was spotted whilst I was in the toilet so we missed it. But we did spot seals and loads of great birds. During the trip we managed to go wine tasting. The scenery in Seattle was great really beautiful. It was great to catch up with Lisa, John, Kate and Lucy. I just hope next time we see them is when we all visit New Zealand.

Mum and dad visit

2009-05-27T13:50:00.000-05:00

My mum and dad visited in April. We went to the Arboretum and the flowers were amazing. Zoe had a great time pushing my dad around.

We also went to Granbury which as the photo shows is an old (by American standards) town.

We then went to the Dinosaur Valley State park. We saw the foot prints and the kids had a paddle. As we expected both Eve and Felix fell in and got wet and ended up sitting in the car naked.

We all really enjoyed the visit and I'm sure mum and dad have lots more photo's.

Florida (3)

2009-04-30T13:19:00.000-05:00

We did one day trip whilst in Florida and went to Wakulla Springs. It was great. We took a boat trip and saw lots of great wildlife. The man on the boat agreed to point out the first few alligators but said we would see loads and we did. Here one is enjoying the sunshine.
Here some terrapins are also enjoying the sunshine. We saw lots of different birds and even baby alligators. The kids enjoyed the trip although we did have some squabbles about who could use the camera.
After this went for a walk, great fun , although we hadn't prepared ourselves for ticks. Both Neil and Zoe had to later have one removed.

Florida (2)

2009-04-30T13:05:00.000-05:00

The beaches on St George's Island were amazing. We spent most days walking along the beach collecting shells. The kids loved swimming in the sea, especially when there were waves.
We also spent time playing cricket on the beach. All the cricket practise has helped Eve and Felix now they have taken up Baseball and Softball.

Here Neil is enjoying a beer, you were not suppose to take glass on the beach so he disguised the bottle with his hat! As you can see the beaches were virtually empty. This beach was walkable from our house.
The rest of the time was spent building sandcastles and digging holes. Felix was really pleased with this one.

Spring Break 2009 (1)

2009-04-22T14:32:00.000-05:00

For Spring break we decided to go to Florida via New Orleans. Whilst in New Orleans we caught up with some old family friends and had a really fun time. Felix had a great time with Jeremy and talks as though he is his new best friend. As it was St Patrick Day weekend, there was a big parade and even though it was raining it was fun to watch the floats and collect beads. As you can see by the end of the night we had loads, we even had cuddly toys.
We then left and drove to our house on St George's Island in Florida's Panhandle. It was great we spent the week making sandcastles and trying lots of different seafood's. Here Felix is trying an oyster he wasn't impressed.
Our house overlooked the bay and there was loads of bird life, the owners had left binoculars which were great for seeing our resident woodpecker.

January 2009

2009-04-22T14:16:00.000-05:00

The start of the school year was really busy. Zoe was entered in the school Geography Bee. She did really well as the only 4th Grader to make it to the final round. Most of the questions were about American Geography.
Here is Eve with her 2nd place trophy that she won for her Science fair project all about different kinds of water and seeds growing. She was really pleased.
At the end of the month we went to see the Harleen Globetrotters and it was great. All of us were laughing and the atmosphere was fantastic. Unfortunately it didn't improve Felix's skills.

Zoe's Ballet

2009-04-06T16:20:00.000-05:00

Zoe's ballet performance

Basketball

2009-01-28T11:02:00.000-06:00

Felix has started to play basketball this season. He is playing for team called the Raiders. Most of the team are made up from boys in his kindergarten. Felix is really enjoying it. This is the team.

The team trains on a Monday and has matches at the weekend. Felix enjoys trying to score and often forgets to pass the ball. They won on Saturday and the team was really pleased.

White Sands National Monument

2009-01-22T12:08:00.000-06:00

On the last day for our trip we went to "The White Sands National Monument" which is the world's largest gypsum dune field, headquartered in Almogordo in New Mexico. It was great fun and ideal before sitting the kids in the car for start the long journey back to Dallas. These dunes go on for miles. We started the day by walking a nature trail which showed lots of the footprints of animals that live here. All the kids spent time drawing prints in the dunes and then calling us over saying "look, look". However, we did see some real animal prints of a Kit fox.
Neil and I spent time trying to take lots of scenic shots. Whilst the kids run up and down the dunes.
I couldn't let them have all the fun and also spent time running down some, it's harder than it looks.
After this we started the drive back to Dallas. After a bit of off roading, the roads on my tourist map kept changing so we decided to let the Tom Tom take over and it seemed to think that every dirt track was a real road, we drove through Roswell, lots of shops filled with Aliens, before staying in Brownfield.
The next morning on our return journey Neil managed to leave me at a petrol station, he'd assumed that everyone had got back in the car after a toilet stop and drove off, the kids were screaming at him but he just told them to be quiet. Eventually he turned round and came back for me having finally understood that I wasn't in the car. In the mean time I 'd been standing at the petrol station where I was informed by one guy that "he'd have me if HE didn't come back", luckly Neil came back. Neil's mum found this really amusing and so spent the rest of our trip back giggling.

Guadalupe Mountains

2009-01-21T16:31:00.000-06:00

After the Carlsbad Caverns we then spent a day in the Guadalupe Mountain. We decided to walk the McKittrick Canyon trail. We had fun walking for 7 miles. As you see it included crossing a river.
We stopped for lunch of beer and pistachios in the Grotto area. On the return trip Felix walked the whole way carrying a stick, boys will be boys. The weather was great and we only saw a few people.
The scenery was amazing.

New Years Day 2009

2009-01-21T13:51:00.000-06:00

For New year we decided to go with Neil's mum to the Texas/New Mexico border to see the Carlsbad Caverns. Only an 8 hour drive from Dallas. They were amazing. We walked in via the natural entrance which takes a mile to walk down into the main part of the cavern. The caverns are vast and have been lit to show the best parts. The kids all enjoyed it and had fun pointing torches at the walls to highlight other parts.
After walking in, we then walked a mile around the cavern called the "Big Room" before taking a lift back up to the entrance.
After lunch, we decided to do the desert drive and stopped to walk into Rattlesnake Canyon. The walk was quite hard as we had to walk down a steep slope to the bottom of the Canyon, again we had to be careful about mountain lions but the amount of noise we make I am sure any lions would disappear long before we got close. The scenery was beautiful.

Christmas Day 2008

2009-01-19T16:32:00.000-06:00

Christmas morning was spent getting up early and opening presents. Here Eve is playing with circuit set. They all loved there gifts especially the skiing holiday which was there main gift from us. We then got ready for a days skiing. It was quite cold on the slopes so we all needed to wrap up warm. The kids wore balaclavas under their helmets which were great at keeping there necks warm. Felix is wearing his second pair of goggles, he smashed the first set by landing face down after one spectacular fall.
This is Christmas dinner, Pizza, chips(fries) and chicken stripes with hot chocolate.
In the evening we went out and had a steak meal with our own crackers, and as you can see lots of beer. After 4 days of skiing we are all getting a little tired. We ended the holiday with no broken bones and the kids asking if we could go again next year. By then i expect all of them to be faster than me!

Eve's Birthday

2009-01-19T15:53:00.000-06:00

Eve was very excited about having her birthday at the ski resort. She woke early and climbed onto our bed to open her presents. Here she has just opened her present from Uncle Marc. She was really pleased with all her presents. The Panda family as you can see joined her for breakfast.
We then went skiing. Eve kept telling everyone it was her birthday so all the people supervising the lifts kept on saying Happy Birthday which really made her happy. We spent most of the day doing the same runs, mainly to try to teach Felix how to turn and stop.Eve also managed to speak with everyone in England who she wanted to call including Daniel.

Here Eve is enjoying chocolate cake

In the Evening we went into the town square to watch fireworks but after waiting in the cold by a nice fire we decided that we would get a better view from out apartment which we did.

Skiing - Christmas 2008

2009-01-19T15:07:00.000-06:00

For Christmas, we went to Copper Mountain which is located in the Rockies, near Vail. It was a great place to ski; the snow was wonderful, we woke one morning to 10 inches of fresh powder. The kids all went into ski school for the first two days and then they skied with us. Felix hadn't even learnt to stop as he'd been in the 3-5 year old group. The girls had a least learnt to do this and had gained a lot of confidence. Talking about confidence I love skiing on good snow, Neil was amazed the first day that I was going fast, I put it down to a lack of ice. By the end the week all the kids were going down blue runs and even went down a mogul field. They did find it tiring. This is Christmas day and three very tired kids.

The resort was very pretty with lots of trees. These were scary with Felix when he would just fly down the slope unable to stop or turn and narrowly miss things like people or trees. Eve and Felix on the last day managed to make a whole class of snowboarders crash by skiing right through the middle of them.
Here are a few videos to show the kids skiing.

Eve's Birthday party

2009-01-19T14:37:00.000-06:00

Eve had a party at WOGA gymnastics which was great fun. The only boy Eve invited was Felix, most of the girls are friends from Brownies and the Grizzly Girls. They were all allowed to use all the equipment apart from the high beam. Eve received some great gifts including a fish.
Here is a picture of her cake.

Eve loved going on all the equipment and found it easy to hang from the rings and somersault over the bars, she is very light.
Here everyone is playing a game which involved throwing foam blocks from one side to the other with the team getting the most winning, simple but great fun.

Rest of my parents visit.

2009-01-19T13:01:00.000-06:00

Later in my parents visit,. we went to see ICE at the Gaylord, Grapevine. This involved wearing big coats whilst walking around all these objects and statues made of ice. Even with the big coats we got cold. The display included an enormous slide which you could go down, i worked out that you went faster by lying down. All the photo's of that are a blur. We also went to see the trains at Northpark mall. This is a big train display that raises money at Christmas. All the kids got hats to wear. I don't know who enjoyed Felix or my Dad.
In the evening we went to the Texas Roadhouse, a fun steak house. We like it as they even have a 6oz steak on the kids menu, they also do great Margaritas.

Las Vegas

2008-12-18T19:33:00.000-06:00

After seeing the beauty of nature, we headed to Las Vegas. We drove through great scenery for hours (the Tomtom said it should take 9 hours we did it in about 6) and then we suddenly hit a traffic jam we had arrived in Las Vegas. Las Vegas was a strange experience, it all seemed too much. But, we enjoyed walking some of the strip to see the lights before eating. My mum then babysat so that Neil and I could play the machines, after about 1/2 an hour we decided we'd rather spend our money on a drink and have chat.

Early the next morning Felix, Buddy Bear (a school project that involved taking lots of pictures of Felix's weekend, developing them and putting them in a folder, harder work for me than Felix) and I went out to take some pictures. Felix really wanted everyone to know that he had stayed at the New York hotel. When when my parents had got up we decided to walk the strip and see inside some of the other hotels.

Here Zoe and Eve are watching the fantastic fountain show. The weather was great. We then went to the Venetian hotel to see the gondolas which was crazy before heading to the airport.

Our flight was a little delayed but it gave us time to eat. Felix met the pilot and enjoyed trying on his hat. There was more excitement at the end of the flight as I left my handbag on the plane and then left internal part of the airport. I quickly realised and had to go back through security, complete with explosive checks to retrieve my bag.

Monument Valley

2008-12-18T19:04:00.000-06:00

After a few hours dashing towards the Utah border we reached Monument Valley. We arrived late in the day and were one of the last cars allowed into the reserve. The colours were amazing. The kids loved scrambling over rocks whilst we took lots of photographs.

The photo above is of the "mittens".

Here are my parents, they really enjoyed the trip even at our pace.

The rocks and sky were really impressive.

We then saw this amazing sunset.

Grand Canyon

2008-12-18T17:38:00.000-06:00

The Day after Thanksgiving we got up unsure whether we would get to see the Grand Canyon; it was great although it was really cold the cloud had lifted and the views were amazing. We then drove to the airport to do our flight at 9.00am but it was delayed until 11.00 and not guaranteed. So we rushed back to drive some of the Hermit route within the National park and around each bend the views were stunning.

At 10.30, i called the airport who confirmed our flight would be leaving at 11am. We rushed to the airport all excited about the flight.

The views were spectacular, we flew across the Canyon and were able to see the north rim as well as the Colorado river, we took hundreds of photographs. Although the flight was a little bumpy everyone really enjoyed it and no one was sick.

The north rim was very snowy.

We all agreed at the end it had been a magical experience. We then drove back through the park after a quick lunch and headed to Monument Valley.

Thanksgiving Trip

2008-12-18T16:23:00.000-06:00

For Thanksgiving we went on a trip to Arizona with my parents who were visiting from England. We flew into Phoenix and drove to Sedona. We went for a nice meal at for my mum's birthday at a really good Italian restaurant. In the Evening we had not been able to see the beauty of Sedona but we woke to amazing views of the Red Rocks. We then drove towards Flagstaff through some amazing canyons. Here Felix is by a river, as you can see his mouth is really swollen. Felix had to have a filling (in his milk teeth) and thought it was great that he could bite his lip and not feel any pain. As a result he cut all the inside of his mouth. He had been told not to do this now he won't do that again.
We then drove in to the Grand Canyon National park where it started to snow. It was surreal, standing at the edge of an amazing view and only able to see cloud. The Canyon is behind Neil in this photo. The kids had fun throwing snowballs until Eve got snow down her back.

This is our Thanksgiving Dinner Eve had Nuggets and Chips.

Halloween

2008-11-10T16:07:00.000-06:00

Halloween is really big here, lots of the houses are decorated. One house near us had a complete scene from "Pirates of the Caribbean" as well as scenes from from "Star Wars".
The girls wanted their faces painted. Eve is dressed as a bad fairy and Zoe is a witch. It was a lovely warm evening. We went to a street near the school which is closed to traffic and has some amazingly decorated houses, before going to the street behind our house.
Felix choose to go as a Knight because he wanted a sword that made noises, he'd broken it before we left by hitting the tree outside our front door. Here is his pumpkin, all the kids made pumpkins with Neil. Eve went to a special pumpkin carving event at the YMCA and won third place for her scary face.
We met up with Eve's friend Keri and the two girls enjoyed running from house to house. We kept losing Felix as when it got dark he was impossible to see. Some of the adults even dressed up.

Zoe's friend Meg also came with us and as you can see we had quite a lot of sweets by the end of the night.

Zoe's Ballet Gala

2008-11-10T15:35:00.000-06:00

Zoe's ballet company had a fundraising gala. This took place the weekend Neil and Eve were camping. The night involved a meal, as shown the puddings were great.

We all had to dress up smartly, Felix loved his outfit and wanted to wear it to school the next Monday.

Zoe had to make a mask and was presented along with the whole of Junior Company on the stage. She is wearing her new dress which was a birthday present from Aunty Abi, as well as tights and a handbag from Grannie Kay.

The next day we took the braid out of the front of Zoe's hair, this was the result.

Indian Princess Camping Weekend

2008-11-09T14:28:00.000-06:00

Written by Eve.

I am in the Grizzly Girls Indian Princess Tribe. This is where Daddies and Daughters do cool things together. We went to the Autumn camp with our tribe of 14 girls and 14 fathers.

We drove about an hour to a big camp and stayed in a cabin with bunk beds.

In this photo we are looking at beautiful sunset from our cabin after a busy day.

We started first going for a walk in the woods and then we went geo-caching - where we had to find hidden treasure using a handheld GPS device. It was fun.

Then we did some archery and shooting. It was a BB (ball bearing) gun and I had a good score.

Then we went on a bike ride to lunch and had chicken nuggets, beef and mashed potatoes.

After lunch we went fishing and canoeing in a lake.

As I was a new member I had top get some face paints from the tribe leaders.

We then had a ceremony at a bonfire and Eve's tribe sang a song. There were 15 tribes and so maybe 120 people in total.

We had to chant to get the fire going and someone did some good magic tricks.

It finished with a big firework display.

In the evenings after BBQ'ing burgers and hot dogs we then got a big camp fire going and then we blew up a variety of cans. The gallon can of beans cleared a tall tree, but the cans of hairspray and glitter were the best. With each explosion the embers blew everywhere and Neil's chair got a big hole burnt in in. The only injury was the chief of our tribe who tripped over and burnt his hand badly on the edge of the fire.

Here is a video of the Dads exploding things and laughing and listening to music. We had a pillow fight and at 1am I went to sleep on the first night. On the second night I went to sleep at 12:30.

It was one of the coolest camping trips I have ever had!

Zoe's 10th Birthday

2008-11-01T16:10:00.000-05:00

YAY! I'm 10. My birthday was really cool and I got an ipod nano- which is blue with my name and email address on the back, a Planet Earth Interactive DVD game, a hair braider, and many more gifts. We went to a Japanese place to eat after school.
For my party I invited (In order of picture 'left to right') Irene, Jocelyne, Darah, Rachel, ME, Meg, Phoebe, and Amy. (Felix is in the back- but I wish he wasn't). First we went swimming at a local pool with a drop slide and lazy River(I jumped off a diving board for the first time!!!!),then we went to Buca De' Pedro (an Italian place) to eat (the lemonade was good) where the the portions were giant.
When I got home I unwrapped my gifts from the party I got Squarey (a square cushion) from Irene, a dog webkinz (Doodle) from Jocylyn, a cat webkinz (Claire)from Darah, a pig webkinz (pinkey) from Rachel, a cow and panda (Molly and Stripes) from Meg, a T-shirt from Pheobe, and Littlest Petshop from Amy. IT WAS FUN!!!!!!!
Do you like my display??????????????????????????????

Soccer season - Zoe

2008-10-30T12:26:00.000-05:00

Zoe is still playing on her team "Inferno", they are playing in the B division this season but are winning so have now reached the playoffs. They even managed to win when they were a player short. On this Saturday, the other team were also in red so Zoe's team had to wear blue bibs. Zoe plays in the midfield. Zoe has scored this season but in the main she has been working on becoming more aggressive and dribbling the ball. The team has also been working hard at passing the ball.
Zoe really enjoys it and the team is really friendly, we have also been out to McDonald's and a trip is planned to laser quest. The team is mainly made up from kids in her year at school.
Zoe is fast but the thing she loves is that she is responsible for all the throws her side. This season one goal was scored straight from one of her throws. The coach is a really funny guy and insisted last week that all the parents danced at the end of the match to the team's theme tune " Disco Inferno". All the matches Zoe now plays have a referee and two linesmen. They are really strict about the offside rule and illegal throws.

Soccer season - Eve

2008-10-30T12:09:00.000-05:00

Eve is playing for a new team this year called the "Honey Bees", it is a nice team as it is made up with girls from different local schools. There are three other girls on the team from her Brownie pack. This pictures shows Eve moving towards the goal and then scoring. She loves to play as the main attacker. Neil is giving the kids $5 if they score a goal, so Eve was really pleased. Zoe wasn't as pleased as she didn't score this week.

At the end of the matches it is traditional for the girls to greet the opposing team usually through an arch way made by the parents. Eve's team is doing well and appears to be winning most matches. In one match recently they won with a goal scored in the last minute, very exciting.
Eve loves soccer, although I must say I get very tense when she plays in goal. But so far she hasn't let one in. All these pictures are taken on our new SLR camera which Neil and I are having great fun learning to play with.

Soccer Season Felix

2008-10-30T11:57:00.000-05:00

Soccer season has started and seems to have taken over our lives. Felix plays on Saturdays and trains on Sundays. Zoe is helping to train Felix's team for a leadership project. Felix's team have not been doing that well and we get excited if they only lose 4/5 -0. Felix did score on Saturday but as he was supposed to be taking an indirect free kick it was disallowed, a bit harsh. Felix really enjoys it and is one of the fastest on his team.

This is a picture of most of his team and his coaches, as you can see lots are pulling silly faces. It's great that at this age they play matches as this really teaches them how to play although I think Felix's team still has along way to go, but he's having fun which is the most important factor.

Texas State Fair

2008-10-30T09:50:00.000-05:00

We decided that we had to visit the Texas State Fair at Fairpark, everyone was telling us that we had to go. We went on a Sunday getting there early to hopefully avoid the crowds, we arrived at 10am and still had to queue. The first thing we did was go on the giant Ferris wheel, this enabled us to see the whole fair. We then went to see all the animals. They had an indoor area, great as it was hot, where we were able to hand feed loads of different animals. Zoe loved this baby Zebra.

We then visited loads of showrooms, getting lots of freebies including much needed ice cream. Lots of the stalls were not doing very well as most people have cut back on spending. The kids loved the the car show rooms, as they were able to sit in loads of different cars. They all loved the Hummer. Here Eve is standing next to the American " Green Car of the Year" !!!

Neil decided that he had to have a "Corny Dog" traditional State Fair food, even Felix refused a second bite, it looked disgusting. Neil had wanted to try the deep fried chicken bacon but the queue had been to long! Texas Ted is the background. We then rode the cable car back to the entrance near our car and left, we'd had a good time.

September 2008

2008-10-30T09:20:00.000-05:00

This is us all at the Plano Balloon festival, we are waiting for the balloons to go up and the kids were a little hungry so we brought them some popcorn "Texas Size". It was a really hot day. We went with our friends Rick and Sarah who have two boys and are due to have there third little boy at the end of November. They are all lovely. Neil plays tennis with Rick most weeks, yes since we have arrived here Neil has started doing some sports and exercise! As you can see here he is even drinking water and not a beer.
We were very close to where the first balloons went up. It was an amazing sight. On our way home, via an Indian restaurant, we were able to watch them come down again in various fields around Plano.
The next day we went the Dallas Arboretum, which has a lovely pumpkin display, again we went with Rick and Sarah. The kids had great fun running around the hay maze and splashing in the frog water fountains. Rick's boys have cowboy hats which our kids loved wearing as you can see they are all turning into true Texans. Eve can manage to talk in English and as soon as a friend comes round she speaks pure American, complete with the Texas drawl. Since we have been here we realise that there are more differences than you realise, sometimes Zoe has to translate what I am saying to her friends e.g they don't know what fortnight is or jumper.

Abi's Visit September 2008

2008-10-16T18:09:00.000-05:00

Abi and Gary came to visit us just after Alison had left. With them we visited the Nasher Sculpture Museum, Abor Hills Nature Nature Reserve and did lots of swimming in the pool. They then went to Big Bend National Park for a few days, which they loved. On their return, we planned a fun weekend however we didn't reckon on Hurricane Ike. Although it didn't hit Dallas we did get rain and some wind. We still decided to visit Grapefest, a wine festival in Grapevine. It was fun although most of the music stopped due to the weather and we all got a bit damp. Here the girls are messing in some saddles. As we were so wet we decided to leave and have tea at the rainforest Cafe nearby. Here is Abi enjoying a large Margarita, we even got to keep the glasses.
The next day was wonderful, although it was sad to see the devastation in Galverston on the news, a place we had visited at Christmas. We decided to go for a long walk. We saw loads of wildlife including river snakes. Here is Felix with a really friendly butterfly. This butterfly would happily sit on hands and was passed amongst us all.
We walked about 3.5 miles, Felix was tired at the end, we then went home for a swim. The rest of their stay involved shopping, eating , homework and swimming in the pool. It was sad to say goodbye but they did say that they had enjoyed Dallas more than they had expected to and that they would like to return to see more, especially the national parks.

Alison's visit contd.

2008-09-26T15:36:00.000-05:00

Alison and co left and spent a few days at the Grand Canyon and Death Valley whilst the kids started school. When they returned we spent their last weekend doing lots of fun activities. ( Zoe had been due to go on a Girl Scout camp but choose to spend the Weekend with Eleanor instead) On the Saturday we went to Fort Worth Zoo, it was great. The kids loved all the animals and the ride on the train. They especially liked running under the water in Texas town. It was a very hot day.
On the Sunday morning Zoe needed to do some activities for Brownies relating to self esteem this seemed to mean getting dressed up and doing fancy hairstyles. Even Felix ended up with gel in his hair. In the afternoon we went to Hawaiian Falls, a big water park which was great fun. Zoe and Eleanor had a ball going off by themselves to try all the big slides. We then ended the day with a nice big steak.
On their last evening we went to Buca (a great Italian) the portions are big and the wine plentiful. At the end of the meal we ordered dessert, this is a single portion! Zoe and Eleanor with a little help managed to eat the lot. It was sad to say goodbye the next day.

In Dallas with Alison and co.

2008-09-26T14:21:00.000-05:00

When we returned from England, Alison and co were staying with us. It was a great way to get over jet lag. Zoe was really pleased to see Eleanor. For the first few days the kids just played, it was raining. On the Wednesday we went into Dallas to the Aquarium. It was great. We then left to have lunch as we were walking to the Barbecue restaurant it started to rain really heavily, as you can see from the photo we all got a little wet.
After lunch we went to the fountain park and the kids got wet again. Eve unfortunately did not know the water was about to come up so stood right over a hole and got soaked. But it was good fun.
We then began to walk to the trolley bus but it began to rain so we stared to walk through the underground walkways and got a little lost. We eventually gave up had a Starbucks coffee and left Dallas as Zoe needed to get to Ballet.
On Thursday, the sun began to shine and everyone was able to get into the pool. Eleanor came to visit the school when the kids went to meet their teachers ans seemed amazed by the size of it.

Watford (end of our trip)

2008-09-23T19:41:00.000-05:00

We returned to Watford and my parents for the last few days of our trip. Neil went straight from Luton to Heathrow (my mum managed a quick hello/goodbye at Luton airport)
On the Wednesday as it was raining my mum took the girls to see Mamma Mia which they loved, after a bit of shopping i needed teabags to take back!
On the Thursday, I returned the car to Cambridge, Zoe didn't come as she was ill but Eve and Felix enjoyed time with Max and Toby. The kids then spent a day out on the Friday with my parents whilst i enjoyed the Olympics. I also manged one last trip to a pub with Gisele and had a good catch up.
On the Saturday my Tina and Nigel came for lunch we had a nice walk in the woods. Felix enjoyed playing in the garden with Nigel.
On our last night we went for an Indian the girls dressed up and we had a good time. Everyone was sad to be leaving.

We had an uneventful trip back to Dallas.

More More Switzerland

2008-09-23T19:26:00.000-05:00

Our final day involved taking the boat back to Yvedon, as you can see Felix is now an expert at driving the boat.
We then had to clear up all the cardboard that the kids had used to make houses for their bears over our holiday; under supervision the kids had a big bonfire. They also wanted to visit the top of the wine cellar, here Marc is trying to help Felix up.
I included this shot as it highlights how magical the mill is, especially when the sunshine's.

More Switzerland

2008-09-23T19:01:00.000-05:00

Here is a "loir" ( dormouse). They live in Marc's mill and come out in the evenings to feed. They are really friendly and the kids love watching them.
Pat came to join us at the Mill. As Marc was having a big party lots of time was then spent getting ready. Here the girls are cleaning Anatole which Zoe insisted needed doing. The girls also enjoyed shopping for the party and we all had fun getting everything ready.
The party was a big success and everyone had a good time. As usual a few people decided that leaping in the millpond was a good idea. As a result the kids decided the next morning that they would attempt to swim in the millpond. As the millpond is very cold (8 Degrees) we didn't really expect them to succeed. Eve had a different idea and jumped in by the fountain. She got out saying she would never do that again. As she had done it Zoe had to as well and finally Felix, we have great video footage. After this they spent the whole time trying to persuade me to jump in as I have never been in ( Neil foolishly went in a few years ago). I am therefore a "Scaredy Cat" again!!
As the weather was so nice we decided the afternoon after the party to go to a nearby beach and sit and have a beer and a swim whilst the kids fished. Marcus who was with us actually knew what he was doing which helped and Felix was really pleased that Johnnie caught a fish.

Switzerland

2008-09-23T18:37:00.000-05:00

We met Neil at Luton Airport. Everyone was really excited to see him and chatted loudly about our trip around England. We all agree when we arrived in Switzerland that we were in need of a holiday. On our first night as it was the 1st August (the Swiss National Day) we went to Concise and joined in the parade. Marc had brought some lanterns. We watched the bonfires and the fireworks.
We spent the first weekend relaxing, this involved lots of rowing in Anatole on the millpond, as well as cleaning the fountain and just sitting and chatting. The weather was wonderful.
We were also lucky to be able to use Marc's friend's boat. This involved going to Yvedon by car and then driving the boat back to the mill. All the kids got to have a go.
The next day we used the boat to go for a picnic at the point. All the kids had be brought fishing rods and they all had a go at fishing. Both Zoe and Eve decided that it was quite boring and preferred to swim.

Cambridge 2008 (2)

2008-09-23T11:43:00.000-05:00

On the Friday Night, I went out to "the Castle" with some of my friends, we all drank too much, but had a crazy night. Neither Lis or Storm are going to thank me for this photo but the rest were worse.
The next day we went with Lis to have lunch with Tim and Ania, it felt strange being back at our house but Heidi seem pleased to see us. The kids had a great time playing in the garden especially when Tim organised a piece of plastic covered in washing up liquid at the bottom of the slide. Here Zoe and Lucy are soaking the plastic. We ended the day with a Chinese takeaway and some wine.
On the Sunday night, we went to stay with Phil and Jen, Ben was enormous. They had organised a barbecue and it rained unsurprisingly. It was great to see Annabel and Antonio as well. Felix had a great time playing with Anna.
On the Monday Zoe had a sleepover at Eleanor's and we stayed with Gill. We spent he afternoon at Cherry Hinton Park and it was great. I had forgotten how nice it is to just sit in the park and chat to a mate whilst the kids played, hard to do in Dallas when it's a 100+. On the Tuesday we went to see Lynne. Felix adored Jack, we cycled and scootered to Midsummer Common. In the evening I managed another night at the pub and spent the evening gossiping with Sonia,Lynne and Juliet.
We ended our Cambridge trip where we had started back at Lis's. By now I was exhausted a few too many late night sat up chatting and drinking wine. I also had a cold. We went out and took the kids to see "Walli", a fantastic film and stayed up late drinking more wine.
We had all had a good time in Cambridge and everyone had coped with constantly changing location. We had all enjoyed seeing friends but it did make us realise that you can go somewhere else and things are still okay when you come back. We left Cambridge after the kids had a quick dip in the school pool and i was able to admire the new changing rooms. It was sad to leave and i can say we all shred to small tear on the way to Watford. We stayed with my parents again before going to Switzerland with Neil.

Cambridge 2008

2008-09-23T11:14:00.000-05:00

After leaving Liverpool we headed for Cambridge. We arrived on the Sunday and went straight to Histon Road Rec, which was having a community event. It was a great start to our Cambridge stay. We were able to catch up with lots of friends, many of whom hadn't know we were back in England. Eve was delighted to see Daniel and Zoe went off with all her school mates to chat. It was really like we had never been away.
The next day the we went to school and all the kids spoke to their classes about their school in America. We all then went back to the park for class picnics it was great.
Tuesday (the last day of school) we had coffee with Elaine before visiting the new Grand Arcade. We then went back for another get together at the park. Eve had a sleep over at Daniel's and we stayed with Alison.
The next day we had lunch with Yaa, Aliya seemed to have changed so much and appeared really grown up. Lunch was great and then we headed to stay with Charlotte. It was great to watch the kids catch up with their friends and i really enjoyed catching up with mine. The kids all really loved Alex's garden especially the tree house. It was also great that the weather had turned into summer, finally!!
We then moved on to stay with Julie. She had prepared a wonderful treasure hunt in the garden. The kids immediately settled and were quickly busy playing and chatting. I managed to get out to see Mamma Mia with Julie which was a brilliant film, I laughed so much I cried.
The kids were very sad to leave but we had to move on to see Giulz for lunch. Again the kids quickly settled and played in the garden. Here the kids are all lined up in age order, it highlights how tall Felix is.

Chester Zoo

2008-09-23T10:54:00.000-05:00

On our last day with Abi and Gary we went to Chester Zoo, it was a little wet. The zoo was great and we had a great time exploring everything.
We also spent time impersonating all the animals here Abi is trying to be a Camel.
Felix fell in love with this Orangutan.
At the end of the day everyone was exhausted but we'd had a great time.

Visiting Abi and Gary in Liverpool

2008-09-05T09:09:00.000-05:00

After leaving Bristol we drove to Liverpool in the rain. On our first afternoon, we went to the Liverpool museum which was great fun. We looked at lots of different things and the kids all spend ages in the hands on archaeological area. But the best bit was an exhibition called the "Beat Goes On", all about popular music. The kids loved listening to the music, dancing and here they were all dressed up as a band.
The next day we went to the docks to see the Tall Ships. While we were there we saw a Beatles super lamb banana. Lamb banana's are these things that are decorated and placed all over Liverpool, the kids loved playing who could spot the most. At the end of our stay, Eve had won much to Zoe's annoyance.
The tall ships were amazing, we also visited a house set out for the Blitz. After this we went to a red squirrel sanctuary, however the squirrels were ill with squirrel pox so we only saw one. We then went to the see the Anthony Gormley statues on Crosby Beach. The kids loved running up and down the sand dunes but it was rather cold!!

Our trip to Bristol

2008-09-03T14:22:00.000-05:00

On 13th July I return from London and collected the kids from my parents and drove to Bristol to stay with Neil's mum, Pat. We had a great trip. On the Monday we went to Cheddar Gorge which was amazing, if we were becoming Americanised I would have said Awesome! We all enjoyed looking round and hearing about the history of the caves. We also visited the museum which talked about the Cheddar man. We walked up all the steps to see the view and went into the second cave which has scenes from the "Lord of the Rings". The kids were a little scared and everyone refused to touch the Chrystal. Even when someone did it failed to work and had to be activated by the stewards. Later Zoe said that she was only pretending to be scared!
On the Tuesday we went into Bristol and visited the S.S. Great Britain. It was great, although we all decided that the beds were too small, even in first class. We then took a boat into Bristol. In the afternoon we played on the common in Felton and the kids loved running through the bracken. We quickly popped into see Jan and Pete and the kids ate loads of raspberries from the garden.

On our final day we went for a walk on the Mendips, it was a lovely summer day. We walked for about 5 miles before having a nice pub lunch. In the afternoon we walked beside a lake before going back to play in the garden.

Summer trip to England

2008-09-03T13:58:00.000-05:00

We (Tasha, Zoe, Eve and Felix) went back to Europe for about 6 weeks this summer from 7th July to 18th August, Neil joined us in Switzerland for 12 days.
We had a bit of a difficult journey as our flight to Chicago was cancelled at the last minute and we had to wait for another flight which was an hour late. However with some running we made our connection and had a good flight to the UK. When we landed as expected it was raining. First job of the day off to buy some wellies.
We stayed with Grannie Kay and John for the first few days. To help the kids with jet lag we had lots of trips out and long walks. On the Wednesday while I traveled to Cambridge to collect my car, the kids enjoyed a long walk in the woods with Sue and her dog. They all got very muddy. On the Thursday we visited St Albans. Zoe really enjoyed learning about the Romans at the roman museum in St Albans. Here she is visiting the amphitheatre.
We also visited lots of our relatives. we travelled on the Friday to Northampton to see Jen, John and Grannie Wyn, the kids' great grandmother. This picture shows four generations of our family, Grannie Wyn looks good for 92.
On the Saturday we visited Auntie Doll, 96, who lives in London. The kids spent the day in London going to the London Museum and seeing the sights whilst I meet my college friends for a night out.
It was really great to catch up with Jo, Jennie, Hannah (pictured) Liz and Julie. We spent the afternoon in Covent Garden (eating, drinking and shopping) before going to Southwark to our hotel. We had a great meal out and apart from all our chats about our kids, it was like being back at Portsmouth.

Snokeling in Belize

2008-06-24T13:37:00.000-05:00

We went snorkeling twice in Belize both to the Hol Chan Marine reserve. It was amazing. As you can see we saw Turtles, Eels, Shoals of snapper, rays and sharks. The photo's don't show how clear the water was. On our first trip Felix was a little cautious and mainly rode on Neil's back. But the second time he had a great time wearing his swim vest and was face down for the whole trip, sticking close to our guide Alfonso. Eve was great and loved it.
Zoe loved it and at our second place, Shark Ray Alley she spent a lot of time diving down to the bottom and stroking the rays and sharks.
Neil was sensible and wore a tee shirt and didn't burn. I did even though I wore factor 50. I think this was because I had to tow Eve along as her flippers had rubbed her feet.
Here is a picture of Zoe cuddling a nurse shark. Our guide caught it and then passed it to Zoe so she could hold it. This was one of the highlights of her holiday. I held one as well.

Canal Pech and Cave Tubing

2008-06-24T13:21:00.000-05:00

On our day out in Belize we also went to see a Mayan Ruin, Canal Pech. It was beautiful. It's amazing they are finding ruins all over Belize. Our guide was very knowledgeable and talked lots to Zoe about Mayan history. Eve and Felix just enjoyed climbing over all the rocks and through all the passages.
After this we had a traditional lunch of chicken rice and beans, it was really tasty. We also had giant tortillas. Eve was unimpressed but enjoyed the Sprite. We then went Cave Tubing. This involves getting changed into swimsuits and walking through a rain forest area to some old Mayan caves, carrying inner tubes. The walk was amazing we saw leaf cutter ants and loads of different palm trees.
We then jumped into the river got into our inner tyre and floated through the cave in a long line. We all had torches on our heads and the caves were beautiful. It was really funny especially when we left the cave and our guide looked after the kids whilst Neil and I free floated along.

Day trip to Belize Mainland

2008-06-21T15:25:00.000-05:00

On the Friday of our holiday we went to the Mainland. We flew into municipal airport in Belize City and meet our guide Eva who was lovely. Firstly we went to Belize Zoo. This zoo was not big and had been started after a filming company left 19 animals, which could not be return to the wild these included various big cats. The zoos aims to educate people about looking after the native species of Belize.
This is a tapir. It is the national animal of Belize. As the zoo only keeps animals that have been rescued or donated from other zoos this tapir was blind. It was funny because it kept bumping into the tree.
Eva was a very good guide as he explained each animal to us in detail.This is a picture he took of the family at the zoo.
There were many big cats at the zoo, most of which were sun bathing. This jaguar was lying on a platform enjoying the sun.
Zoe took all the pictures on this blog post. The one she was the most proud of was this picture of a parrot. She was very good at making the animals pose for her.

Activities in Belize

2008-06-21T14:44:00.000-05:00

One day Neil hired a Hobbie Cat took the kids out the weather was perfect for this as it was quite windy, they spent ages whizzing around. Felix enjoyed trying to drive the boat whilst Zoe and Eve sat at the front getting really wet. I spent the time lazing on the beach reading my book.
Felix's favourite game all holiday seemed to involve trying to build a river for his canoe. He would take water from the pool and move it to the rocks at the side but usually by the time he had finished his river, the first part of it would have dried up so he had to start again.
The kids also spent ages looking for wildlife. All around the pool were little hermit crabs and here Felix is chasing the resident Iguana. We have better pictures but i can't fit them all on the blog. We also spent time spotting various lizards and killing the odd mosquito (not too many mainly due to the sea breezes that kept most of them away).
One afternoon the kids got out their kite and spent time playing on the pier with it again the weather was perfect. As the picture shows the kite went really high. Another day we snorkeled of the end of this pier which has a little man made reef. We did go snorkeling at the main reef twice which was amazing but that will be a separate blog entry.

Eating out

2008-06-21T14:22:00.000-05:00

The food on the island was great lots of fresh fish and even pizza and Chicken sticks for Eve!!
One night we went by boat to the "Blue Lotus" restaurant, which as you can see is in a lagoon. This restaurant was great not only did it have amazing views it also served really good Indian food. The kids had a great Chicken Tikka Marsala and we had a variety of great dishes. The people were so friendly and even gave the kids some food to feed the fishes, although we had one emergency when Scruffy fell in and had to be rescued. Luckily this hadn't been at the restaurant we were at the night before where the kids had been feeding enormous snapper, these would have just eaten the poor bear.

Most days we just wondered along the beach and ate at some wonderful restaurants most were happy for the kids to play on the beach outside and then wander in to eat. This is the view from one restaurant.
The kids had a great time both Zoe and Felix tried lots of new dishes and Zoe really enjoyed all the fresh fruit juices.

Xanadu Resort

2008-06-21T14:02:00.000-05:00

We stayed at the Xanadu Beach Resort near San Pedro in Belize which was great. Initially for the first 5 days we stayed in the 2 bed roomed condo with the balcony on the first floor which you can see in the photo. We then moved for the last 2 nights to the 1 bed roomed condo on the ground floor to the right. Both were really nice and when I say we moved, i mean that all our stuff including the beer in the fridge was moved for us.
This is the view of the property and as you can see there are lots of palm trees. One day to Felix's delight a man was climbing up them to get down all the loose branches and coconuts.
Below is the little beach where the kids spend ages trying to make sinking sand. It is also where we left when we took out the sea kayaks. That was fun paddling around but also hard work as the waves were quite strong the day we decided to try it. The kids spent most of the time in sunsuits as the sun was really strong.

Often the kids had the pool to themselves except to the resident Iguana and the hermit crabs.

Relaxing in San Pedro

2008-06-20T14:12:00.000-05:00

To get about the Island most people either walk or use little golf carts. We hired one for a few days to explore the Island. It was great as you could drive along the beach. The only problem was a lack of seat belts and a little boy who refused to sit down. Yes, he fell out the back as Neil accelerated, cutting his knees and elbow. He was very lucky. He then sat down and hung on!
The holiday was very relaxing with afternoon siestas, here Neil is trying to rest helped by Felix and Scruffy, who was to have a few adventures this holiday.
Felix's cuts didn't stop him swimming but he walked everywhere with a limp. As you can see the resorts was really busy when we were there. Most of the time we had the pool to ourselves.
We spent a lot of the holiday by the pool either swimming, reading or just chatting. Zoe and Eve spent ages planning swimming routines in the pool.

Belize Trip June 2008

2008-06-20T13:55:00.000-05:00

The first week of the school holidays we decided to take a last minute break. After lots of researching we decided to go to Belize. We had to fly via Miami to Belize City and then take a small plane to Ambergis Caye (pronounced Key) We stayed near San Pedro. Felix loved the small plane, as you can see we had to sit in the seat at the back.
We flew over clear turquoise seas to the Island. We stayed in the Xanadu Resort which was great, very low key with condos by the beach. The staff were wonderful, it had a pool and a pier which led to a small snorkeling reef. San Pedro has a very relaxed attitude, there is a saying " no shirt, no shoes , no problem", this summed up the whole holiday which was so relaxing just what we all needed.

Felix's Field day

2008-06-06T12:26:00.000-05:00

Felix's Field day involved trying lots of different sports. Here he is trying basketball. He is next to his friend Kavari. Felix loved doing this and has asked to try a season of basketball in the winter.
The next thing was soccer. Felix had insisted on wearing an England shirt and shorts for the day.
This is Felix completing the assault course, he was really fast. He also had a go at American football. Felix was a bit sad about leaving this school as he has had a great time here but he is excited about starting school which his sisters.

Zoe's Field Day

2008-06-06T12:18:00.000-05:00

As Zoe is demonstrating it was hot and in the water area this seemed to mean get as wet as possible. The game was supposed to involve passing buckets of water over heads but what usually happened is that the kids just got a bucket and tipped it over themselves or each other. But they quickly dried.
They also had a go on these bikes riding around the car park, not as easy as it looks.
In another area they did a relay involving wearing flippers whilst carrying a plastic pig between your legs, as shown Zoe looks very silly. The whole day really involved the kids having fun as opposed to competing against each other, which was not what I had been expecting as all the other sports the kids have been involve in whilst being here have been very competive.

Eve's Field Day

2008-06-06T12:09:00.000-05:00

Field day is like a sports day. There were lots of activities to try. Eve had a go at tug of war and the sack race. The best bit was the water area which involved getting as wet as possible. As shown Eve managed this. As it was in the 90's she quickly dried.
Here she is trying the three legged race with her friend Keri, lets just say they weren't the best but is was very funny especially when Eve fell over and Keri kept on going.
Eve loved this bouncy slide.

Zoe Ballet Recital

2008-06-05T13:48:00.000-05:00

Zoe performed in her Ballet Recital. She performed her two dances with the junior company and her class dance.
We then went to the Bavarian Grill for a meal. Neil enjoyed the Beer, he tried to convince Felix that it kept evaporating. All the kids were up and dancing to the Chicken Dance ( Birdie Song).

As this picture proves Felix can now ride his bike, not being in Cambridge means that this has taken longer but he is now confident so we are all set to cycle to school.

A weekend in Dallas (May 08)

2008-06-05T13:37:00.000-05:00

Zoe and I went to the Dallas Art museum with her friend Darah and Darah's mum. We saw the Turner exhibition which was great. We then rode on the trolley bus into downtown Dallas for lunch. The trolley bus is free and a lot of fun.
On the Sunday we went to the Wildflower music festival which was great. We heard lots of good music and it included a Pink Floyd "Dark side of the Moon" laser show. We all had 3D glasses. Felix managed to fall asleep through it much to the amazement of the people sitting around us. Afterwards we went to Joe's Crab Shack for tea, where the kids played and ate loads. For pudding the kids had ice cream sandwiches which they could dip in chocolate.

Soccer and socialising

2008-05-19T18:32:00.000-05:00

This is Eve's soccer team that were unbeaten this season, Eve had a great time and was really good in midfield, she also scored a few goals.
Here is Eve playing in her last match.
This is Felix's team receiving their trophies, they did not do as well but they all had a good time. Felix was quite the star of the team. All the kids received trophies, stating which league they were in and the season. We could end up with a big cabinet full.
This is Zoe after her night at a party at "Sweet and Sassy", a spa for girls. The evening involved decorating Flip Flops, having nails, hair and make up done. When I arrived to collect Zoe she was busy freaking out on the dance floor.

Grannie Kay and John visit

2008-05-19T15:28:00.000-05:00

My parents visited from the England at the end of April, We had a great time going to the Arboretum, visiting galleries and eating out.
We also went to an Art Festival in Fort worth which was good fun, this is the kids showing off their artwork. The weather was good for their trip and my dad spent a lot of time in the pool with the kids and everyone went to watch various kids soccer matches. I didn't take lots of photo's as my parents took many.

Felix's 5th Birthday

2008-05-19T14:31:00.000-05:00

Felix had a great birthday. His cake was chocolate and vanilla, made not by me, but still tasty. He had his party at Jump Town, a room full of enormous inflatables. Basically the kids run around, bounce and slide for an hour and a half. Then they had cake and ice cream.
This Felix going down one of the big slides.
The cake and ice cream were in a little party room on the side. Felix had a great time and got lots of great presents. Here he is with two of his good friends Rafe and Kaveri.
At school Felix had to bring in a snack and was given a crown to wear. He insisted that he wanted to have fruit kebabs, these went down a treat.

Zoe's ballet performance

2008-04-09T10:05:00.000-05:00

Zoe appeared in the Plano Dance festival with her junior company. They performed a scene from Alice in Wonderland, Zoe was part of the Caterpillar.
Zoe really enjoyed the performances and coped well with the two performances and a soccer match in the morning.
We did have a bit of a crisis at the end as Zoe left her costume at the theatre, but luckly another mum picked it up.

More Disneyland

2008-03-29T16:12:00.000-05:00

We went to see a great 4D show about insects. We all had to wear silly glasses and we had water squirted at us the kids loved it. Felix was a little scared by the spiders falling from the ceiling. Felix is looking a little tired but as we had been at the parks for about 10 hours by this point it's not surprising.
The best thing were the parades, we saw the parade of "1 million dreams" twice and really enjoyed the electric parade. We managed front row spots for each one. Unfortunately the Pixar parade was cancelled both days.
Felix wants to be a pirate and enjoyed roaming around the pirate island. This is his Jack Sparrow impression, he was trying hats on in the shop. We did see a Jack Sparrow double but as is wasn't Johnny Depp I did not join the crowd chasing him.
Zoe was insistent that we had a picture in front of the fairy castle. The kids enjoyed Disney and all had their favourite bits, Zoe like the Indiana Jones ride, Eve like Astro blasters and Felix Nemo. We all got wet on the water rides especially Zoe but as it was 92 on the Saturday we coped. We returned to Dallas on Easter Sunday and now need another holiday to recover.

Disneyland

2008-03-29T14:52:00.000-05:00

We had a great time on the Friday and Saturday in Disneyland. We got there early both days to get on all the rides we wanted to do including the new Nemo submarine ride. On the first day Eve and Zoe were given a special pass to go behind the scenes and meet two of the Disney princesses. Felix of course wanted to go to and but when they meet them all three were shy and quiet.
It was very hot but we managed to keep cool by going to see the Aladdin show in theatre and with a refreshing beer for us and ice cream for the kids. Neil had had enough after about the first 4 hours, but the beer helped. This was the kids meeting Goofy.
Zoe insisted that we sat in the sun for half an hour to make sure that she was at the front for the High School Musical Show and both girls enjoyed getting up to dance. Felix refused but has been singing the songs ever since. Zoe was moaning that the routine was different from the film but they still enjoyed it.
The kids also got to meet Pluto. Every time we tried to meet Mickey he was rushing off to another parade.

Sequoia National Park

2008-03-29T14:35:00.000-05:00

On the Thursday we went Sequoia National Park. We drove though some wonderful valleys and then started heading up hill. On Our way we saw deer grazing, they were really happy for us to stop and look at them.
We went for a long walk in the snow through a forest of these big trees, this photo shows the scale, what was really nice was that we were alone as we walked and the kids had a great time running and sliding.
Although there was snow on the ground it wasn't really cold. Zoe did some sledging using her coat.
In the distance is the biggest tree General Sherman, it was enormous. As we were walking around I slipped on ice landing on my bottom. Neil and kids thought this was really funny as I was the only one taking things slowly. We had a nice lunch in the lodge that we were supposed to stay in the night before which was really pretty. In the afternoon we drove out of the park through some of Kings Canyon NP to Los Angeles, hitting Los Angeles in rush hour !!

Death Valley 3

2008-03-29T11:15:00.000-05:00

The first walk in the morning was around a board walk looking for rare Pupfish. I managed to spot one, admittedly it was very small.
We then drove to the Ubehebe Crater, which is in a volcanic area of the park. The kids wanted to walk down to the bottom but we did not get very far because it was a scree slope and all the shoes were filling up and Felix kept getting stuck. Neil stayed at the top and took photographs of our efforts.
We then decided to drive to the Racetrack, an area Zoe wanted to see as the rocks move by themselves. We had to go off road down a very rocky track. We had been going for about 40 minutes when a sign in the car announced low tire pressure and yes we had a puncture. So Neil and I changed the tyre whilst the kids ran and played by the road looking out for snakes and scorpions. The very few cars that drove past all stopped and offered assistance but we were fine. We decided after this to turn around as it was at least another 10 miles to the Racetrack and we didn't have anymore spare tyres. When we stopped for lunch Our Waitress informed us this road was notorious for punctures!
These are the sand dunes at Mesquite Flat. After our lunch we started our drive to Sequoia NP but due to snow in the mountains and closed roads we had to make a detour only another 3 hour drive(we decided at this point that we should look more at maps when planning trips). As a result we had to stop at a different hotel and stay a few hours from the park.

Death Valley 2

2008-03-29T10:52:00.000-05:00

This is the lowest and what felt the hottest part of Death Valley. As you can see we are below sea level on a dry salt lake called Badwater. We were able to walk out on the salt and look up at Dante's view where we had been earlier. It was HOT!!!
We then went and walked over the Devils Golf course named due to the golf ball like crystals that form there. It was hard to climb around and there were signs warning against injury.
We then drove round to an area where the rocks are amazing colours. We walked up a hill to look at the view, the kids at this point had almost exhausted our water supplies.
This is the artist palette, the photo does not highlight the brightness of the colours of the rocks. We then spent the night at the Furnace Creek Ranch and had a great steak meal with a very nice bottle of wine.

Death Valley 1

2008-03-29T09:52:00.000-05:00

This is the view from the South of Death valley, the scenery was amazing.
After driving off road into the park we drove up the hill to Dante's View. This is the view from the top.
We all sat at the top and used a guide to point out all the different aspects of the view. The view includes both the highest and lowest points of Death Valley.
These are borax hills in the Twenty Mule Team Canyon on the drive down into the valley, they are really strange. Felix kept asking if this was what it was like on the moon.

Joshua tree to Death Valley

2008-03-28T15:42:00.000-05:00

We left Joshua Tree on the Tuesday morning and traveled to Death Valley. The scenery was amazing, this is a dry salt lake that we crossed.
We also travelled for a short while on Route 66. We passed this tree, Felix is now convinced that all shoes grow on trees and has asked if we can grow one in the garden.
The spring flowers were great and we took some unpaved roads to get into Death Valley.

Joshua Tree 2

2008-03-28T14:18:00.000-05:00

We started the next day with a hike, it was great there was no one around and we really felt that we were in the middle of a wilderness. The kids all like walking especially if it involves running down a few hills, you may be able to spot Eve and Felix off in the distance.
This is an Indian Cave which we were shown by a local visitor, the drawings are authentic but the colour was enhanced during filming by Disney in the late 60's. The kids were shown this cave during this 1.7 mile walk and they were able to climb to the right through a hole in the rock.
This was taken just after lunch. Neil went to take some photographs and the kids followed. I will admit to shouting be careful and as a result the kids spent the whole holiday calling me 'Scaredy Cat", Zoe even made a rhyme about me
" scaredy cat, scaredy cat, sitting on the door mat, sitting in her basket eating quail, too scared to go to the sale, to scared to walk, to scared to run, this sounds very much like my mum."
This is the kids by a large Cactus. A short while later, i heard screams Felix had picked up a baby cactus and it was stuck , he'd then tried to remove it from one hand with the other hand and this was now also stuck. The spines were barbed, the only way to remove them was to pull hard using my sweatshirt. he was not happy, but he won't learn this was his second cactus experience and he did it again at Disneyland.