England Part 1

This post was supposed to be just about Cambridge because I took a ton of pictures on my friends camera to prove I was there! However, I only have 2 that uploaded to blogger and after many many attempts over the last 2 days; I am done trying :) Soooo, here are pictures of our time in Bury St. Edmunds a very cute town not far from where my friends live. The base where they are stationed is about an hour and a half northeast of London (I think)...I got some pics of their villages too, but those werent uploading either...sorry!

We got a babysitter one afternoon for all the kids and had 'girl time' in Bury. We went to Harriets Tea House and had traditional tea & scones..it was soooo good! I had no idea how to do it the 'English way' so Julie was showing me......and now I am British!!

While we were out shopping, they asked us to be a part of a local commercial...feeling honored; we agreed. They just asked us to look natural and I think we accomplished this very well; don't you?

A whole area of ruins near the church...don't remember all the details but long story short...there were troubled times and no money...this compound was set aside for the monastery. When the townspeople needed supplies and didnt have the money to buy things they started stealing from the compound over several years and these ruins are all that is left of it today...above you can see a door way.

The boys didnt pay too much attention to this...they just spent the whole time chasing the ducks and feeding them bread

Walking through Bury St. Edmunds

Saturday market

The smallest pub in England...it's only the bottom part.

Cambridge...I have a ton of great photos and bummed you cant see more of it.

We went punting through all of the universities. We had to bring a change of clothes for the boys knowing they would want to splash on the side of the boat...it didnt take long before they were wet :) Cambridge is a beautiful city. I think there are maybe 12 universities there? (Don't have time to wikipedia it right now :))

Janell and Chase took us to "Rock Tots" at their local library. She takes Chase here once a week for a 20 minutes of singing and dancing just for toddlers. It was so much fun and Tyler had been practicing some of the songs that Chase taught him...he picked 'em up pretty quick because he loves music. I already checked around here in Germany and no rock tots for us; looks like we'll have to keep doing our dancing at the Korsmo Casa :)

"musical instruments" (20 Toddlers=LOUD!!)

Mildenhall Air Base has the most AWESOME indoor playground for toddlers up to age 5. Three levels high; fully padded, and not a worry in the world. They have seating surrounding the whole thing and a couple treadmills too. I must say the best part about it is that the coffeehouse is also attached to this so we grabbed our coffee and sat for an hour and a half and let the kids play. It was so nice, because most playgrounds in our area arent toddler friendly so I am still 'hovering' as he's climbing; but not here....I got a chance to relax a bit with a very tasty raspberry white mocha...mmmm

End of a long day...time for a bath!! Next up: LONDON!!

Visitors Part 2

We spent a beautiful day in Bernkastel-Kues, which is one of many adorable villages along the Mosel River in the Wine country. It's only a 45 minute drive from home so it made for another great day trip. We walked the town, had a picnic, got ice cream, took a river cruise and I took TONS of pictures (this is only a fraction of them!) We had everything for the picnic but forgot the blanket.
The ruins of Burg-Landshut Castle on the hill

You can see all the vineyards but without all the grapes...it was still end of May. Now that we are in June, this same picture would be entirely green in the background

Most German towns have a 'Walkplatz' where no cars or vehicles of any type are allowed in...just pedestrians for all the shopping and cafe's. I just love it!!

If any of you love Rick Steve's as much as I do (basically the guru for European travel); one of his tv shows showed this exact building in Bernkastel...almost like the German 'leaning tower of Pisa'

For some reason I couldnt get Ty to eat the ice cream...I mean...c'mon! Who's kid is this? Surely he isnt mine if he's rejecting chocolate of any sort!! Looks like the boys behind me had no problems, though :)

We took an hour long river cruise along the edge of Bernkastel. It was fun, but it was also the end of the day and the kids were getting tired and hot...not quite as relaxing as we had hoped :) But still beautiful!

This is how Ty would watch the boats go by

Some mommy snapshots...I promise Julie was here too with her kiddos but we had to take turns watching all of our stuff while we went to the upper deck to get some pictures

You can see the castle ruins on the upper right. Absolutely idyllic!

The vineyards starting to grow some leaves

One night, Julie was so kind to stay in while all the kids were asleep and Janell and I went to a Crud tournament. For those of you who are military; this is a big deal!! Its a game you play on the pool table and only the wives play. There are usually bruises, scratches, and pulled hair in each game (maybe not the pulled hair but wanted to give you the elusion of a cat fight!!) Each squadron builds teams and plays against each other in a tournament about twice a year. I didnt play in this one but you can bet I'll be playing this fall :)

Some guy went around and handed out free jello shots. I've never had one before, and its pretty obvious becuase it couldnt get it out of the cup to even try it!There was a mechanical bull outside and I've never been and was soooo excited to try it. If you click on the picture above to make it bigger you can see I am pretty much yelling out the world's loudest "yeeee-haaaawww" to get him started :)

Janell's turn

The night before we left for England, we had friend Brooklyn come over for dinner and cake to celebrate her birthday. Tyler was not impressed, however, once he realized the presents werent for him

Mint chocolate chip ice cream cake...her favorite!! Not so glamorous but homemade with lots of love...happy birthday! Next post: ENGLAND!!!