Grandparents Visit - Food

Why yes, I am going to do a whole post about the food we ate during my parents' visit.

Of course we wanted them to get a taste of England (at least our favorite English food). And we had several other amazing meals out.  Here are some highlights.

I didn't get pictures of the fish and chips, but we did test two different places to see which my parents liked better. I don't remember if they had a favorite, because both are really good.

On my birthday, Matt and my dad took Miles to a birthday party while my mom and I took the girls to afternoon tea. We had the traditional tea with Prosecco, and there was a ton of food.

This was the reaction to receiving the children's tea

This was what my mom and I shared. We couldn't finish it all, but it was all great.

And Clara ate the ham off of the sandwich

After that, I don't know how we even thought about dinner, but we did. We went to a wonderful little Turkish restaurant to celebrate some more. I don't remember what everything was, but I think this was one of our favorite meals.

Turkish coffee and Turkish Delight. The one thing I remember.

Next, we hired a babysitter and had an adult dinner out. We went to one of our favorite restaurants (which has a Michelin star), and it did not disappoint.

Of course there was wine!

Oops, forgot to get a picture of the dessert board

A bit of traditional food in Knaresborough...

Ploughman's lunch

Sausage sandwich with chips

Fish fingers, beans, and chips

I'm pretty sure this was some kind of quiche

Here we are at a restaurant in York. It took forever to get our food, so we ate quickly and forgot to take any pictures.

And last, our final meal together before my parents left. We did make them try black pudding here, and they liked it!

Bangers and mash

Mom face

More mom face. Probably why my pint was empty.

Grandparents Visit

Just before school started, my parents came for a two week visit. In the weeks leading up to the visit, the kids could not contain their excitement (okay, so Matt and I were a little excited, too).  And finally, after not seeing them for more than a year, they arrived.

They stayed for about two weeks, and we had a really nice visit. I'll be honest, I've forgotten much of what I wanted to say here because of the broken computer issue, so I'll be very general and mostly post pictures.

I'll be posting more about their visit, including the quick trip we all took to Amsterdam. It really was a whirlwind, and I think the kids started school two days after they left. Living so far away is hard, since we don't get to see family very often, but I guess it did make for a really exciting trip.

Technical Difficulties

I have a lot to blog about, since my parents came to visit a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble uploading photos from my phone, and it looks like our PC is completely dead.

I'll keep trying, and hopefully we can get a working computer soon!

One Year

Yesterday was the anniversary of our arrival in the UK. It really has been a whirlwind at times, and seems like it has been much longer than one year. Here are some highlights (and some not so fun parts).

-Moving around 6 times in 6 weeks before we found our apartment.

-Having the kids start school a couple of weeks after we got here. Not knowing the unspoken details on uniforms (although the school was very forgiving), and just the huge transition for the kids starting school in a different country.

-I heard from another expat about moving to England from the US, that you're in a place where everything is just slightly different. That's spot on for me. Things are largely the same, but it is an adjustment. Converting measurements and temperatures, different words and phrases, and trying to find your regular ingredients at the grocery store, just to name a few.

- First holidays. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Bonfire Night, Christmas, etc. Learning new customs (especially from the kids) and trying new things.

- Adjusting to not having as many visitors as we had in Colorado. Matt's mom visited in the fall, and we currently have visitors (yay!), but that's it so far. I think it's been rough on all of us to be so far away from friends and family.

- The beginnings of travel. So our only big trip so far has been Barcelona, but we actually have a couple more trips booked, so there will be more coming soon.

- Starting to make friends here. As an introvert, it's easier for me to stay in and do nothing, but I have worked on pushing myself. I'm taking it slowly, but it's coming along.

There's so so much more that has happened than just those things, but I wanted to keep it brief. It has been incredibly difficult at times, but if I knew then what we would have to go through, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'm so grateful for the opportunity we have here, and am so glad that we can share this with the kids. Now let's see where this next year takes us!