End of school year

Savannah got her face painted a couple of times at end-of-the-year events.  I went to help Owen and his friends make a Greek temple out of cardboard, paint, and tissue paper.  Owen got some last playtime in with friends.  

These were the teacher gifts - their head teacher got an Amazon card, but there were lots of helpers as well, so they each got a chocolate bar.  Not much, but a small show of appreciation.  It was pretty sad to say good-bye on the last day (knowing it was very likely we wouldn't ever see any of these people again.)  I was disappointed I didn't get a picture of Owen with his head teacher, who wasn't there on the last day.  Owen had a male teacher.  I did get a picture with one of his other teachers. 

We got a picture with the head master (principal) and a photo from Savannah's Reception graduation.  I find it funny they have a graduation for that level (which is equivalent to pre-K).  Even kindergarten graduations are funny to me, since they're just beginning school!  They do look cute in their little caps and gowns. 

They all did well adapting to school in England.  Their last day was July 20th, which gives the students in England a 6 week break.  But we were headed out the end of July and starting school again the 3rd week of August.  So it seemed like a really short summer break for us - about a month, but traveling most of that time.    

Northern Wales

On the weekend of Weston's birthday, we went to northern Wales.  We bargained with Weston to use his birthday weekend for a vacation, and in return he would get a bigger Lego set for his birthday (when we returned to the states).  For the most part, Weston is a homebody and when he has to go out, he says, "You're ruining my weekend!"  Well, we wanted to take advantage of every weekend we had left in the UK, so we had to make a bargain.  We took the kids out of school on Friday.  

On Thursday July 12th, after school, we drove to Wales.  We stayed in an Airbnb for 2 nights.  On Friday the 13th (Weston's birthday), we had breakfast (french toast & bacon) and Weston opened a couple of presents.  Then went to Caernarfon Castle, which was pretty impressive.  It was pretty cool to watch the bridge open up for an incoming boat.  The kids had fun posing by the statues.  

In the afternoon, we headed to Snowdonia, where we rode a cog train up to the Snowdon summit.  It was a slow ride - it took about an hour each way.  When we got to the top, we wandered around the summit for a little bit.  Alex decided to walk down the mountain instead of taking the train back.  I just told him that we didn't want to wait around very long for him.  He ended up running most of the way (about 4.5 miles) and got down the mountain before we did.  He can now say that he beat a train down the mountain... Alex made it down in about 45 minutes, stopping to take some pictures along the way.  It was entertaining for the kids to watch for Alex on the path.  We did catch glimpses of him, but he was too far away to get a photo of him.  He was one of the specks in the photo with the path down the mountain.   

We had some cake in the evening and watched a movie.  

Snowdon summit

On Saturday, we went swimming in the morning (in the pool that was part of the complex where our Airbnb was).  I don't have any pictures from that.  Then we headed to the beach on Isle of Anglesey, where we took a hike to a lighthouse. 

It was pretty late when we headed back - we tried to drive through Liverpool to see a little bit of the city, but the traffic was really bad.  We also had trouble figuring out where to go.  We ended up paying a toll a couple of times in the process.  And it was already late - the daylight is deceptive - it was 8:00pm when we were going through Liverpool.  We still had 3 hours left to get back to Durham.   

Lakes District

The first weekend in July we headed to the Yorkshire Dales, Preston Temple, and Lakes District.  We took a short hike to Gordale Scar on Friday evening.

 On Saturday morning, Alex and I did an early morning 4 mile trail run, to Hampsfield Fell - pretty area.  

In the afternoon, we went to the Preston Temple for Jared's first time at the temple.  We took 8 names of ancestors to do baptisms for.  We ended up joining another youth group, so we did some of their names too.  I felt the spirit really strong when the boys were doing our family names.  Jared was proxy for John, our ancestor from Melksham, whose grave we saw when Aunt Jane was in England with us.  

We were grateful for a fellow ward member, Margaret, for watching Owen, Weston, and Savannah while we went to the temple.  

After the temple, we headed to the Lakes District, where we started a hike.  It was pretty hot though, and most of us didn't feel like doing the whole hike.  So we came back to the lake, hung out, and ate pizza.  The kids enjoyed watching the ducks and ducklings.  They definitely were cute. 

We had another long day, getting back home at about 11:00pm.  

Netherlands

Alex had a business trip to the Netherlands, so I joined him for one Saturday after he was done.  We left the kids at home for this day trip.  I had an early morning flight into Amsterdam.  I had to get up at 3:15am to be able to leave by 4:00am for a 6:00am flight.  Alex met me at the airport and we took a train to get (most of the way) to the Hague Netherlands Temple.  We had to take a bus and walk about a mile to actually get to the temple from the train.  It was interesting to participate in the temple work in Dutch.  I didn't understand any of it, but I was familiar with the work (so I had the English running through my mind as I was hearing it in Dutch).  

After the temple, we headed back to the airport, stored some of our stuff, and went into Amsterdam.  We did a boat tour through the canal, which was pretty cool.  By the evening, we walked through the city and had dinner.  We weren't very impressed with the city, mostly because of the stench in the air of marijuana or something in addition to cigarette smoke.  Also, there were tons of people - too crowded.  I have never seen so many bikes either!   

We had a late flight into Newcastle, which got in a little after 10:00pm, with a 30 minute drive, so it was late when we got back.  Long day, about a 20 hour day for me!  But we got to see another country and another temple (our 44th temple together).  

Outings

We had some family nights and outings in June and July to places not far from Durham.  Alex and I also had a lunch date at the Durham Botanic Gardens one sunny day.  

We went back to Hadrian's Wall, since it was covered in snow the first time we went.  We went to a different part of the wall, called the Sill, which is where the tree in Robin Hood is located. 

One of our more fun outings was the beach in Hartlepool.  I was just planning on hanging out for a bit, but we ended up playing soccer for quite a while.  I was surprised how fun it could be with just our family - the boys are getting pretty good at soccer, so we had a nice 3 v 3 going (Savannah didn't really play much). 

The same day that I took Jared and Savannah back to the Beamish Museum, I took the 3 youngest to Hall Hill Farm in the afternoon.  We had fun with all the animals, play areas, jumping pillows, mini golf, puppet show, snacks, and sheep race.  It was a great place for kids!   

The sheep each had a number, and we got to pick a number before the race and then see which one made it to the feed bucket first.  You won a small prize if your sheep won the race.  I think Savannah won a pencil for picking the winning sheep.  

They had some pretty creative names for the sheep:  Ewe-sain Bolt, Woolly Wanka, Jensen Mutton, Lewis Lambleton, and Ed Shear-am.  

We finally made it to Newcastle to sightsee, despite it being less than 30 minutes away.  We had been through Newcastle via train, but not walked around the city.  We loved all the bridges, particularly the Millenium Bridge and Tyne Bridge.  We went to the museum as well, which had some cool things.  

We took an evening outing to the Northumberland coast, near Alnmouth (where Alex was doing some work already).  The kids got to see some of the work Alex does.  We also went to a nearby castle, ate fish & chips, and played at a small beach.  The kids goal at that particular beach was to throw sticks and get them to stand up in the mud.  

The Bishop Auckland Castle wasn't open, so we couldn't go in, but we had visited a nearby art gallery and wanted to take a peek at the castle.  We wandered around the outside, which was pretty impressive in itself.  

We also went to see a Roman fort, which seemed exciting for Weston.  He was pretty disappointed when he got there and didn't find any Romans fighting... it wasn't what he expected, but he perked up at the armor and some of the more impressive areas of the fort.