Just a taste...

I'm working on a long post about our time in Germany last month. Here's a taste of what's to come (hopefully tomorrow)...

Yesterday we received a the following congratulatory greetings (thank you Jeff and Sharon---you totally made our weekend!!!!). I thought it posting it on here would be a perfect way to announce our next destination...

Coincidentally, Evan has recently honed his clapping-feet skills. He can clap them together exactly, and he produces great clapping sounds. I often say around him, "Evan, if you were an American Indian, then your name would be Clapping Feet!"

I've been MIA on this blog, but more is coming soon!

London

As usual, I'm so behind on posting! I've got so much to report about (Germany, visits from close friends, first foods), but first I want to finish posting about our trip to Great Britain.

We spent our last few days in London, generously hosted by Curtis, Maren, and Aella (Curtis and Mark are cousins). They did a fabulous job of showing us the amazing city that is London. Looking back at the photos, I'm still wowed by it! It left us wanting much more!

We loved this sign.

The Museum of Natural History (this place was amazing, I'm still speechless)

Evan and Aella, second cousins

Inside the Natural History Museum

First cousins holding second cousins (while the wives are shopping!)

British taxis are so cool!

Buckingham Palace



Entertaining Evan




Evan likes to take his lunch in spectacular places.

Evan still eating...

Houses of Parlaiment


Big Ben

Yes, Mark is making a real phone call in this phone booth.

Maren was a genius at entertaining Evan!

CJ and Maren babysat Evan for a night (THANKS GUYS!!!!!), so Mark and I had an evening to ourselves. We enjoyed a stroll along the river and a nice dinner out. It was soooooooo wonderful!

...ahhhh.

I haven't posted any current photos of Evan lately, so here are a couple:

This weekend, just after buying Evan his first winter coat (it got cold here very suddenly).

Taken just this morning...he's getting so big!

Up next, Germany!

Wales

We just came back from a wonderful trip to Germany, but I'm still in the middle of blogging about our trip to the UK. Hope you don't mind that I'm usually a month behind...

So, back to Wales. In short, WE LOVED IT! It really is as beautiful as in the movies and in our imaginations. See for yourself...

We visited a tiny town named Aberdaron, located on the tip of the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales. Many centuries ago, Bardsey Island, found just off of the peninsula, was dedicated by the church as a pilgramage site. Three trips to Bardsey was the equilivant of one trip to Rome. Aberdaron was the final town the pilgrams would see before making the treacherous ocean crossing over to the island. This cafe has been serving pilgrams for the last 800 years (it serves great sandwiches, scones, and tea)!

Ancient church in Aberdaron

Welsh is a challenging language!

The beach in Aberdaron

The church graveyard. According to the minister (a very nice man), said that, over the centuries, 1/3 of the graveyard had been washed away by the ocean.

Another old stone church, located just inland from high cliffs above the ocean.

View from the road by the church. You can see Bardsey Island in the distance. Bardsey is also a thought to be a possible location for the Isle of Avalon, named in the King Arthur legend. The remains of an old abbey can still be seen on the island (or so we read in the guidebook).



The Welsh countryside, as seen from the tiny church.

Grazing with an ocean view

The view, as we drove through Snowdonia National Park.

Ruthin, a small town in north central Wales, had some of the best vegetarian food we've ever had. We were quite surprised!

This building, nicknamed the "Eyes of Ruthin," is known for its many gabled windows.

Bell tower of Ruthin's church

Mark and both agree that this photo was taken in Rivendell.

A view into Evan's world...

As all parents know too well, naptime is really a race to get as much done as possible on a time clock (the time clock being that moment when your kid wakes up), only you don't know how long the clock is set for. On this particular occasion, Mark was trying to finish an exciting chapter in his novel. Evan woke up crying during the climax, and Mark went to fetch him from the dark, scary bedroom...

Evan was pretty groggy, so Mark hopped on the chance to read a few more lines...

...but it was no use.

#@!$%%#, Evan is crying and awake from his nap! Be back later...

A milestone...

Evan has been developing this ability gradually over the last few months, and I think we can safely say that he can sit up on his own now! Hooray!

...soon more photos from the UK if I can get a minute!

We might be moving in November...

We might be leaving France earlier than we thought... I will tell the story in more detail when we have our exact moving date (i.e. in the middle of October). For now, I wanted to post the address of our moving blog. I created the blog to show the list and photos of things we are selling or giving away. Most of you won't be helped by this blog, but I wanted to post it for the few of you that live here and might want to see it:

http://mkbutlermovingsale.blogspot.com/

Driving in the UK

Driving on the opposite side of the road was an adjustment that we survived (barely!). The most difficult part was that the steering wheel is also on the opposite side, and we both had a tendency to drift to the left because it changed our usual sense of the dimensions of the car.

Anyway, it was so difficult that we just decided to let Evan do it all...

More from Wales soon!...

Caernarfon, Wales

We rented a car and drove into North Wales for the next step of our adventure. The first destination was the town and castle of Caernarfon. This is a castle of fairytales if there ever was one! It was a step into my childhood imagination...

Evan practices his fancy footwork in the trunk of the car.



The King's Gate (a.k.a. the front door)

Caernarfon at night







I saw several fireplaces like this one. The floor is long gone, but the fireplace on the wall is still hanging on!


Mark tries to keep Evan asleep.


The view from the tower...