Half-Term and a Six Month Update

Yikes!!! Hard to believe that it's been almost a week since the last post, and I still haven't uploaded the pictures. That being said, this week has been somewhat crazy for me - I went to Bracknell on Tuesday and Thursday, and Bristol on Wednesday. Bracknell is probably about an hour and a half on the train, while Bristol is about three hours. (That's one way, by the way.) That's meant that I haven't gotten home until late most nights, and other than work, I haven't had a lot going on.

Dalton has been on his half-term break this week, so he's been home with Michelle and Maggie, and they've gone around to visit friends a couple of times. Today, we all went to a birthday party for one of our neighbors at "Wacky Warehouse" - kind of a giant indoor playground - and the kids like it (they've both been before for another birthday party), so that was good. Afterwards, we went to watch Ratatouille at the cinema in Redhill, which was also quite enjoyable.

I did realize earlier this week that I've now reached (and passed) the six-month mark. It has now officially been over six months since I first arrived. I quizzed everyone this morning about what their five favorite things have been since we got here. Dalton named a few things, but then when we reminded him of other things, he kept saying, "Yeah, that too," until the list of his five favorite things was probably about ten to twelve things long. I think that the trip to Paris was definitely one of the big highlights so far, as was the Evensong service in St. Paul's (the first one, where they were singing), and Dalton even said he liked the pictures on the walls at St. Paul's. (I have to admit, this was a bit of a shock to me, although I'm glad to hear it.) Warwick Castle was definitely cool, as was driving through the Cotswolds, which we still would like to get back to explore some more. Michelle, of course, really enjoyed her trip to Dublin as well, and we also enjoyed our outing to Hever Castle. I think I've mentioned the Big Bus Tour a couple of times now, but we all really enjoyed that also. Personally, I've also liked when we've just spent time in the parks - I liked walking through St. James' Park this past Saturday, for instance, even if we were just on our way to somewhere else. I also want to go back to Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park to rent a boat for the afternoon.

So, anyway, that's pretty much it for now. I'll try to post a little more frequently in the future, although I will say that this next week isn't looking too promising... more of the same for me, I'm afraid.