Back in England...

While I was traveling, Alex was holding down the fort.  Except they didn't stay home very much while I was gone.  They did a few trips while I was in Denver and Ireland.  Alex did well with the kids, but he also had to find someone to watch Savannah one day when she was sick.  About the only time anyone got sick last year was when I was gone - lucky me.  Not so lucky for Alex, who had a presentation that he had to give, which happened to be the day Savannah was home from school.  Alex had to pick her up the day before, because she started complaining about her ear hurting.  Since she went home sick that day, she wasn't allowed to return the next day (school policy).  So Alex had to rely on our neighbors, Bill & Jess, to watch her for a couple of hours.

The weekend I was in Denver, Nathan and Jared had a youth convention.  While they were there, Alex took Owen, Weston, and Savannah to see puffins.  Seeing puffins was the top of Owen's list of things to see while in England.  They got to take a boat, the Serenity III, to the Farne Islands to see puffins.  The picture with the name of the boat with the 3 kids standing in front of it was ironic - anything but serenity! 

On Monday, the kids didn't have school, so Alex took all of them to see Hutton's Unconformity, near Berwick-upon-Tweed.  

Then, the first weekend I was in Ireland (May 12th), Alex took the kids to the Preston Temple and hung out with one of his fellow missionaries that he served with as a missionary in Utah.  They did a hike nearby and then wandered around the temple grounds.  

The next weekend, the 17-20th, Alex took the kids out of school for a day and did a trip to Wales.  Jared's birthday was on the 18th - it was the first birthday of the kids that I'd ever missed.  When I scheduled the Ireland trip, I didn't realize I had scheduled right through his birthday.  I guess 46 out of 47 birthdays (combined) is pretty good... Alex made a cake for Jared, but didn't take a single picture of him with the cake or opening presents.  The only picture he took was Jared with the Lego set he got! 

They flew from Newcastle to Bristol late Thursday evening.  The first picture is Weston taking a nap in the airport - he was so tired! 

They had the beach all to themselves.

Alex parked the car at the airport on Thursday evening, and I found it when I flew in from Ireland on Sunday morning.  I headed straight to church when I got in, and then picked them up on Sunday evening.  It all worked out pretty well, besides everyone being all worn out after all the traveling.  But there were more travels yet to come in May...