Roller Derby

We tried something completely new this weekend and went to watch roller derby.

A friend who plays invited us to watch her game, and we thought it would be interesting to check it out. The first several minutes, we had no idea what was going on, and Matt had to look up the basic rules. After that it was so much easier to follow.

Here's the lineup of the team we were supporting. I like the clever names.

Now, I had seen bits about roller derby on tv, in shows like CSI. And the reality was high competition, but not nearly as violent as I'd expected. It was really interesting to watch, even only knowing the basics. Miles and Lily ate cupcakes and sat with their friends (who had electronics!), so they were happy. Clara actually paid attention, and she loved it. She clapped and cheered, and said, "Haha, funny!" several times.

Sorry for the blurry pictures

When Matt saw the following merchandise, he had to buy a couple of stickers (sorry Kat). Granite City is another name for Aberdeen, we were told.

Hometown shoutout

Overall, it was a fun time, and I'm glad we gave it a go!

A Short Trip to York

Last week, a friend (G) and I had a quick trip to nearby York. Her son is in the same class as Lily, so we had limited time to get there and sightsee before heading back for school pickup.

After dropping off the kids in the morning, we walked to the train station in the town center. The train ride was fairly short, and G shared interesting bits of information about some of the stops and areas in between.

York train station

Once we arrived in York, we made the short journey inside the old city walls. The city was established in 71 AD by the Romans, although most of the walls that are standing now are from the 12th-14th centuries. In fact, no other city in England has more miles of intact wall.

Here are views from the Lendal Bridge crossing the River Ouse.

Once we crossed the bridge, we stopped for a cup of coffee and a snack for the babies. Then G took me to York Minster Cathedral.

Although this location has been home to places of worship since 627 AD, construction of the current building began in 1220. I wonder if I'll ever cease to be amazed by just how old anything can be here. The entire cathedral is intricate and breathtaking. Inside, the ground floor holds church services, and you can wander around to see various artifacts. Downstairs, a museum with an historical timeline,contains items from when the Romans and the Vikings ruled the area, as well as much more. You can also climb the central tower, but there are restrictions due to health, mobility, and age.

Anyway, here are my random photos.

Statues of several of the first kings...

starting with William the Conqueror

These are seats for the high ranking church officials of the country

There are several tombs to see, although I was unfamiliar with the names I saw

There's a nice memorial dedicated to the women who lost their lives in the Great War. They have different panels to represent different countries.

We were allowed to take photos (without flash) downstairs, but the few I took didn't turn out very well. I think if we'd had more time, we may have opted for a guided tour, which I think would have been even more interesting.

After leaving the Cathedral, we stopped in a pub to have a quick bite before catching our return train.  Overall, I had a great visit, and it definitely left me wanting to see and learn more. It feels like we barely saw anything, but we didn't have much time or a structured plan (which allowed for a nice, relaxed pace). With such a short train ride, though, I'll definitely have the opportunity to return.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was yesterday here. Coincidentally, it was also the day we moved our clocks forward (which is bunk, in my opinion).

The kids took part in a Mother's Day assembly at school on Friday, which was adorable. They sang songs and presented little gifts they had made.

I received this decorative tile from Lily.

Butterflies, a tree, and sky

Miles made this lovely card.

During the assembly, Lily's class held up pictures they'd painted. We had supplied a photo of my face, and that's what she based it on. Here I am.

I was quite impressed!

Miles' class also painted pictures. Their theme was "My mum is good at..."  I have to admit, I was a little worried about what his answer may be. Yelling? Some household chore? No, I'm good at building Lego models. He's a sweet boy.

Check out the triangle hair

I absolutely love these types of homemade gifts. We didn't really do anything else to celebrate. I was unwell and on the couch the whole weekend, plus we'll just celebrate Mother's Day when the US does it. Matt has already made a reservation for dinner on that day in May. We normally don't go out on big holidays like that because it's so crowded, so I'm excited to be able to do it this year.

Happy UK Mother's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

And only one day late.

We didn't do anything special, and the kids' school didn't really celebrate either. Miles said they saw some things about St Patrick's Day, but that was all I got out of him.

I did plan a special meal though. Now, I've always known the traditional meal to be corned beef and cabbage, but that's not a thing here. It's difficult to find corned beef here, and I read that the Irish are more likely to eat bacon and cabbage. I wasn't feeling bacon and cabbage, so I made Guinness stew, and Matt picked up some fresh bread from a local bakery. It was all amazing.

And that was our St Patrick's Day. Well, it's not like we're going to take the kids on a pub crawl or anything, plus I hadn't heard of anything else going on around town. I hope everyone else had a much more exciting time!

Barcelona, Final Day (plus random city shots)

On our final morning, we ate breakfast on La Rambla. We sat down just as the restaurant was opening (around 9 am), and did some people watching as we ate. One thing Matt and I both commented on was how many American accents we had heard during our stay. There were several people out running, and the groups of tourists and locals slowly started appearing.

My breakfast- Parisian omelette (just eggs, really) and chips with coffee

Matt's breakfast- eggs, chips, and chorizo with coffee

On the way back to the hotel, we grabbed some churros for the kids.

Chocolate covered- tasted like Hostess donuts

Plain with no sugar for this one

Then we checked out of the hotel and wandered for a short time until our taxi arrived. The trip home was pretty boring (thankfully). We got home in time to eat and get the kids to bed in preparation for school the next day. Next time we will build a little more time in to adjust when we get home.

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That's all for the trip. I do have several pictures from when we walked around that didn't really fit into our stories from the past few posts. So here they are.

A terrible picture, but this was a rest area in the Amsterdam airport. It looked like a park setting, and had nature sounds piped in. The kids obviously loved it.

Every little alleyway had apartments or more shops

People would dry their laundry on the balconies, even putting up underwear where everyone could see

So many interesting buildings

Waiting for the Metro

La Rambla

La Rambla

Those last three pictures are of Palau Guell, another Gaudi-designed building, which was on the same block as our hotel. They do tours there, but we weren't able to fit that in.

I hope you've enjoyed sharing our first European holiday!