Olympics

On July 7th we had the unbelievable once in a life time opportunity to not only see the Olympic torch, but to hold it and get pictures with it too! That is an experience that I will never forget. This all took place at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford.

We were half way to London when we were at the museum, so we decided to go have some dinner and see the rings over the tower bridge.

On July 22nd our tickets to a session of the Men's Beach Volleyball Quarter finals arrived!

On August 5th we went to London to see the women's marathon.

On August 6th we went to the men's beach volleyball quarter finals! Even though both of the USA men's teams were already out we still had a great time. Unforgettable.

We didn't get to see the Americans, but we got to see the German team who went on to win the gold.

Well it wouldn't be my life if something didn't go wrong right! Like I said before there were two teams representing the USA in men's beach volleyball. The defending Olympic champions Rogers and Dalhausser shocked the world by getting defeated before the quarter finals. If they hadn't lost we would have seen them play in the session we went to. But they did lose. We were so upset that we weren't going to see a U.S team. We decided to try and arrive before the first session of the day, which had the other U.S. team in it and see if could trade our tickets. I looked it up and we got there at 8pm. As it turns out 18:00 is 6pm not 8pm. So we missed it. Steven just laughed at me. But we still got to go to our session at 10pm and we had a great time! As it turns out if we had been able to get into the earlier session with the American team, we would have seen them lose, which would not have been very fun. So it all turned out for the best! 

Ireland

For an early anniversary celebration Steven took my to Ireland for a long weekend in June. It was a wonderful trip. Dublin was dripping in Irish flags since the Euro Cup was going on.

 There are many funny stories from this trip. As anyone who knows me knows sometimes I do stupid things. Well, this ones a doozy. We had a 6 am flight from London to Dublin, which meant we had to leave our house at 4 am. So of course we didn't have time to eat. We flew with a cheap company called Ryan air. They don't have assigned seats so it is first come first serve. Once they announce which gate you will be leaving from it is a mad dash to get in line. Steven and I won this dash and were first. After a minute no one else had arrived so Steven thought he had time to go get food. Leaving his passport, ticket and bag with me. As soon as he is out of sight everyone else from the flight has shown up and the line is a mile long. Five minutes later he is not back and they are ready to board. I am first in line and the stewardess is starring at me asking for my passport and ticket. A normal person would get out of line and wait for their husband. But not me, I stick his passport and ticket on the chair next to me, put his bag on top of it and give the lady my ticket and get on the plane. As soon as I do this I realize what a stupid mistake I have made and of course there is no phone service. I was so relieved to see Steven get on the plane, until I realized how angry he was with me.

While we were there we took a tour of the Guinness factory. I am not a fan of beer, but Steven likes it. The building is one of the coolest I have ever seen. The top level of the seven story factory is called the sky bar. It is a circular room completely made out of glass with the most amazing view in all of Dublin. 

We also got to see St. Patrick's Cathedral which was stunning.

Here is one of Steven's favorite stories from our trip. When we were walking back to our rental car after leaving the cathedral I stepped on something in the street. It was like it happened in slow motion. As soon as my foot touched it I closed my eyes and got a sick feeling in my stomach. I didn't even need to look down to know what it was. A dead rat. I don't think I have ever heard Steven laugh so hard.

On our last day there we drove an hour south of Dublin to a town called Glendalough. There is a very old cemetery there and a nature trail. At first we were disappointed because it was raining. But it turned out to be great! Because it was raining there was a ton of water coming down from the mountains creating beautiful temporary waterfalls. I cant even describe the beauty we saw during out two hour walk. Here are some pictures of what we saw.

On our way back to Dublin from Glendalough Steven decided to take a dirt road detour. In our tiny little Nissan Micra rental car. As soon as he turns down the narrowest up hill dirt road I have ever seen our GPS says "recalculating... continue five miles..." And we bust out laughing. No less than thirty seconds later we come into a clearing where we see one of the most beautiful views we have ever seen, and take our favorite picture of the trip.

As I mentioned earlier we flew with the cheapest company to Ireland. This company crams as many seats onto their planes as possible. And apparently people in Europe don't believe in showering regularly or deodorant.. It was a lovely flight home.

Belgium

The first trip we took outside of England was to Belgium over Memorial day weekend. When Steven said he wanted to go to Belgium first I was like "Belgium!? What? Why not Paris?" Belgium and Paris are basically the same distance from our house. But as soon as we got there I could see why he wanted to go, it was amazing!

We drove two hours to Dover and took a ferry over to France and from there we drove to Brugge, Belgium. When the ferry left dover we had the most amazing view of the white cliffs. It was very windy though, so don't laugh at my hair...

Ah, no make-up and crazy hair...

When we got to Belgium we parked the car and didn't use it again. We either walked or road bicycles the whole time, it was so nice. Somehow I got the forecast for the weekend completely wrong. I thought it was going to be cold and it was HOT. So my wonderful husband bought me some warm weather clothes, since I had only packed cold weather clothes (from now on I will be packing back up clothes). Also, because it was so hot and there is no air conditioning in Europe we slept with the windows open. In the middle of the night Steven woke up covered in mosquito bites, I only had one. I guess he tastes better than I do, I felt really bad for him. 

There was so much history in this small town it was so beautiful. In the two and a half days we were there we managed to consume 3 Belgium waffles, each! We always got ours with strawberries and vanilla ice cream. They were to die for! 

Mmm.. Delicious.

Here was our gorgeous view from our table.

We got to take a boat tour of the city also, which was wonderful.

This is my favorite picture from our trip, in front of the beautiful clock tour in the center of town.

Remember when I said it was hot but we packed clothes for cold weather? Well after we had already got back to England I realized we left our leather jackets in the wardrobe in the hotel. I was definitely freaking out. But after month and a hundred dollars worth of long distance calling later we finally got our jackets back in the mail. 

We had a few hiccups but all in all it was a wonderful and memorable trip. 

Welcome to the UK

We have been living in England for 4 months now. So I am a little behind on starting this blog. But my lovely sister-in-law Emily has inspired me to start this, and I'm sure I will be glad that I did this one day. Growing up I was that kid who wrote in the first page of the diary and then never wrote in it again, so we will see how long I can keep this up. 

We got to England on April 17, 2012. It has definitely been culture shock for me. We had a knock down drag out fight with the housing office on base about living on base, but after a month we lost. It has turned out to be a blessing in disguise and we love living on base now. The weather is usually gloomy and rainy. Except for today when I took a picture of the house for this blog. This is not an accurate representation of the typical english weather.

Here is the front

And here is the back

Yes that is Lizzy running around :)

I would post pictures of the inside, but we haven't finished unpacking yet. Which I'm sure comes as a complete shock for those of you who know us. 

Things we like so far:

• A pub/restaurant called Bird in Hand
• A french restaurant in Bury St. Edmunds called Cafe Rouge
• Hot Chocolate (They have raised the making of hot chocolate to an art form)
• Brother's strawberry mixed pear hard cider
• Traveling

Things we miss:

• Chick-fil-a
• Good sushi
• American food in general
• Being able to watch football and baseball
• Air conditioning
• Target (and believe it or not Walmart)
• Our family and friends (come visit!)

I think that is enough for now, I still have a few more posts to make to get caught up to the present!