This year we spent pretty much the whole of July in Britain. It was really great to see everyone but it was also a hectic and exhausting month. I calculated that I'd had slept in eight different beds, and that was just me. Rob travelled with work at the beginning and end of the month, the boys camped, and the kids had various sleepovers at different friends houses. Plus a night on a plane.
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| Stuff of dreams: Sunday Roast |
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| They raced Grandad up Billy Wynt |
We spent the first week in Wales, staying with my parents, eating them out of house and home, and visiting friends. On our first weekend, Rob and the boys went camping in Abergavenny on the annual legendary Dads and Lads camping trip, whilst I went out for dinner with a group of girlfriends (special thanks to Danny for letting me sleep in his very comfy bed) and Alice had a sleepover with one of her friends.
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| Dads & Lads camping, Abergavenny |
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| Beautiful Brecon Beacons |
The following week we were thoroughly spoilt by our wonderful Marshfield
friends. The Martins hosted a curry night - ticking off part of our
British food bucket list - and put us up for the night. The Mauds held
a BBQ,
in which we were incredibly lucky with the weather, having spent a fair
amount of time looking out of the window at the rubbish weather and
wondering what to do with ourselves.
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| I miss these lovely ladies! |
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| BBQ at the Mauds |
Whilst in Essex we continued our gastro tour of the UK, being thoroughly well fed with a big barbeque and even a proper pub dinner for Rob and I. We managed to fit in a day trip to London, the boys went on the Emirates Stadium tour whilst the girls shopped on Oxford Street, before we all met up and went to the London Dungeon, which was superb, once you got over the expense of the tickets!
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| Fishers in the Dungeon |
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| Cousins commentating for the Arsenal |
Then we headed to Warwickshire and spent four days with Rob's parents. We had a day out at Warwick castle, which was awesome, visited the motor Heritage Museum at Gaydon, and the Hatton flight of locks which I went up as a child on our family canal boat. Rob and I also managed to have a night in Stratford-upon-Avon, we went to see the merchant of Venice at the Royal Shakespeare company theatre. Along with a golf lesson, numerous games of 'Uno' and an evening at Cafe Rouge where Rob, Alice and David sampled the escargots, it was an action packed visit!
The next stage of our tour took us to Kent to stay with the Lairds: my friend Jane, who I lived with for 6 years through University and afterwards. Jane and I managed to squeeze in a cheeky Thai dinner with our other best friend Jenny, who lives close by. It was so lovely to catch up properly. On Saturday, the rest of our university gang came to spend the day with us and have a barbeque. It's been over a year since we have seen most of them, when we camping together last summer (http://taff-to-texas.blogspot.com/2014/06/camping-in-uffington.html), but that never seems to matter, they're the next best thing to family. We played games, a never-ending rounds of football and tennis, and ate and drank too much. We spent Sunday relaxing and taking the kids out on the Laird ponies, Millie & Nutmeg, which they loved.
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| We've made a lot of people since we graduated! |
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| Riding Mille and Nutmeg |
Back to Wales for our last week. Rob had to work, so he spent three days at the office in London. I visited friends and enjoyed another night out at Jamie's Italian in Cardiff with girlfriends, whilst the kids had various playdates and sleepovers with their old school friends. A quest for proper 'fish 'n' chips' took us to a windy Porthcawl, the epitome of a British seaside town complete with fun fair and RNLI life boats. We even managed to visit Rob's uncle, Roy, which was quite an achievement as we rarely saw him when he lived just 15 minutes away from us in Marshfield, he's the busiest octogenarian I have ever met!
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| Jamie's with the girls |
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| Porthcawl |
The plan for our final weekend was to visit my brother, Rich, in Maidenhead, as Jodie had finally been discharged from hospital. On Saturday morning, as we are due to set off, Jodie was admitted back in to hospital as a precaution following a small bleed. We were keen to get the cousins together, our three with our niece, Anya, before we went back to Texas so we decided to stick with the plan. Seven of us set off for Maidenhead taking both a car and my parents motorhome for extra beds. We took the kids to the park and had a barbecue. The kids had lots of fun together, though we were disappointed and worried that Jodie was back in hospital again.
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| Fun with Anya |
I woke at 6:30am on Sunday morning to my phone ringing, it was Rich. He was already at the hospital. Jodie had had another bleed in the night and the doctors had decided to go ahead and do a C-section. In the meantime Rob left for his flight back to Texas, he was going to work on Monday. By 8am I had a new nephew, four weeks early, and two days before we're due to fly back to Texas!
Mum, the kids & I had to dash back to Wales, leaving Dad with the motorhome and Anya. We pack all our things and return the hire car before heading back to Maidenhead on Monday morning with the hope of seeing the baby before I go back to Texas. On Monday afternoon Mum, Alice and I were allowed into the neonatal unit to see little Adam. We couldn't have been more delighted to have had the chance to meet him before we flew back to Texas, we didn't think we would get to see him on this trip, it was the icing on the cake!
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| The little man, Adam. |
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| Wetting the baby's head |
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| Cousins in the pub - one missing now! |
Everywhere we had been we were treated like royalty, celebrating our homecoming with much food and drink at every stop on the tour. Landing back in Texas, we felt the need for a diet and a 'dry' spell, our livers had worked hard enough! My Texas British friends had the same experience, a cup of tea being the only drink we were interested in.
As much as we enjoyed our trip, it felt like we had been away for a long time and we were glad to get home. 'Home' has become a term that we seem to use for wherever we aren't: Britain when we're in Texas, and Texas when we're in Britain. Going home (I'm writing in Texas) can be strange. It's a reminder of all the things we've left and all the people that we love and miss. But it also reminded me how much better life is now, not because of the lifestyle or the Texas weather - as much as I love it and talk about it - but just the fact that, excepting the odd trip away, Rob now comes home every day, sees the kids and we have dinner together. A simple normality that for many years we didn't have.
