Mon and Dad Come For a Visit.

 

 My mom and dad came to visit us in September and the one thing my mom said she wanted to do was to see lots of castles. So we decided to go on a trip up to Scotland to see some of their castles. On our way up we stopped at Alnwick Castle, which is on the border of England and Scotland on the East Coast. It is a really cool castle but what makes it unique is that it is an inhabited castle for half of the year. It is one of a few that are inhabited in England.  This castle is lived in by  Ralph Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland and his wife, and it has been his family's home for over 700 years.

 Aside from that little fact, the coolest part of this castle is that it was the castle used in the first two Harry Potter movies. The grass area is where Harry Potter first learned how to fly. At the castle they teach you to fly as well. It was so much fun seeing the boys flying all around!!!

 The boys loved these cool statues that were in the jousting arena area. We love castles in England because there is always so many things for the boys to do. They also try and recreate scenes and rooms from hundreds of years ago to try and give us an idea of what is was like to live in those times.

Grandma and Grandpa come for a visit- Sept 2011

 The boys were so excited knowing that they had a WHOLE month to play with grandma and grandpa!!!!

 The first week they were here Jakeb would be at school all day, Cole loved the opportunity he had to hang out with his Grandpa!!!!!

 They did plenty of wrestling, cuddling and playing on the playground in the backyard!!!!

 Cole enjoying watching some cartoons with grandpa during one of the mornings.

 Grandpa playing catch with Cole in the backyard and enjoying the nice weather.

 Jakeb, Cole, and Carson enjoyed being able to help grandma in the kitchen doing some baking.

 Jakeb and Cole kneading the dough for grandma while helping her make cinnamon rolls....  

The greatest thing about them being here with us was knowing that even though we have been thousands of miles apart, our boys cherish the moments that they have with their grandparents!!!

Cole Turns 5 - 2011

 It was Cole's birthday on the 12th of September. It was a special day for him, not only because he now gets to go to reception and be in the same school as Jakeb, but Grandma and Grandpa Pratt came to visit from Utah.

 He got his ninja sword he had wanted and had asked for several weeks earlier.

 Cole is a huge book lover especially when it gives you information about stuff. He got a really cool dinosaur book and immediately wanted us to read to him all about dinosaurs.

 He also loves Legos, and so while we took a trip to Legoland, we stopped by the gift store and picked up some lego sets for him.

Jakeb and Carson are also a little interested in what else the birthday boy will be getting.

Jakeb's First Day of School

Jakeb's first day of Year 1 at Houghton Primary School with Miss Dimalow as his teacher.

A summer day on Warren Close - August 2011

 Anyone that knows Carson knows that he is a total daddy's boy!!! He has to do everything with Daddy, which is ok with me, cause it makes it so I really only have to take care of 2 instead of 3 kids. haha  He was very insistant on helping daddy mow the lawn, and wanted nothing else, but some man time with daddy:):):)

 Here is James helping Cole learn how to ride a bike without training wheels(over here in England they are called "stabilizers'). We are very fortunate to have a large green area in front of our house, which makes it much easier to learn how to ride a 2 wheeler, especially when you fall.

 Cole got the hand of it very quickly.....

 Now it is Jakeb's turn to learn how to ride without training wheels, and please do not ask what he is wearing?!?!?! When James and I saw this we were asking ourselves, "Why would we let him out of the house in his ninja costume that is way to small???" Oh, well, I guess there are more important things to worry about.

 Jakeb caught on very quickly as well. We were a bit worried at first, cause it took them forever to even be able to ride with training wheels, but luckily they caught on.

 It is a tradition in our neighbrhood that they have a neighborhood BBQ on the green at the end of summer, unfortunetely we never let mother nature in on our plans. It hadn't rained in weeks and the one day it does we have our BBQ. We still went on with it, good thing for the large weeping willows, it did provide some protection from the rain.

 Carson wasn't too thrilled from getting wet, he just wanted to come on in and get dry.

 Jakeb and Cole along with some of the neighborhood kids could care less, they absolutely loved being in the rain.

 Here is James with a very wet shirt, and the meat we are about to BBQ.

 James decided to borrow Carson's umbrella since he was staying inside. At least he had the food covered.

All in all, there was some good food and some good company, even with the rain.

Legoland Windsor - August 2011

 Before school started in September we took the kids to Legoland for one last day of summer fun. We went with our friends Richard and Emma. It was so much fun, and the best part was Jakeb and Cole went on every single ride and loved them!!! We have two little boys that love adventure and fast rollercoasters.

 We had a very busy day, and because of the nice weather they decided to keep the park open an extra hour, and I am almost positive that the boys could have gone on for many more hours!!!! Although as you can see Carson just could not keep awake, he tried to stay awake as long as possible. Poor little guy is so used to his daily naps, so James had to carry him from ride to ride for a good hour or so. One of the kids favorite areas is the Miniland creations. Here we have mini replicas of Edinbourgh Castle, London Eye, Big Ben, Mount Rushmore, Buckingham Palace, Stonehenge, and Wembley Arena/Stadium where many of the 2012 Olympics will take place. If you look behind Buckingham Palace you can see people walking by, where you can get a sense of just how small these creations are. Each replica is made purely out of legos.

The day we picked to go to Legoland just had to be the hottest day of the year. We all came home with some sort of sunburn on our cheeks or necks. We ended the day by letting the kids play in the splash zone. They did not want to leave, in fact when we had returned to Legoland a few months later they wanted to do it all over again, even though it was really cold by then. All in all we had a great time with great company!!!

July 4th 2011

 This year we went to RAF Mildenhall for some good old fashion fireworks done on an American air base. We had a blast. We saw some pretty cool stuff. There was an air show done by England's version of the Blue Angel's the Red Arrows. It was amazing!!! We spent the day doing all the carnival rides. Then we ended the evening with a great firework show. We invited some of our british friends from church along with their families, which made for a fantastic day:):):)

 We are so glad we met you Alan and Richard, oh and we cannot forget their wives, Emma and Emma!!!

 Jakeb and Cole doing the big bubble on the water. At first it was a little strange for them, but as soon as they got a feel for it, they loved it!

 Jakeb and Cole are natural born climbers. They would climb everything if they could, and their little brother, Carson, is following right along in their footsteps. As soon as they got geared up for the climb, they were off. They did so good, and didn't even slip once. Our next adventure will be a big ropes course, which I think James is looking more forward to more than the boys:):)

 We also did a some extra rides, the boys favorite was the bumper cars. James and his mates of course ventured out to the really scary carnival rides. They did survive, although a few had some upset tummies for the next few hours. We also had many american favorites like corn dogs and funnel cakes.