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| Gloriana |
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The Spirit of Chartwell
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We are officially on the countdown to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration this weekend. England is bursting with patriotism...towns are sprucing up their flower borders with red, white and blue, Union Jack flags and bunting are being hung all over towns, homes and neighborhoods, and every pub is advertising for HUGE Jubilee parties all weekend long. Monday and Tuesday are bank holidays and half term break for the kids, so no school at all next week. On Sunday we are going to attempt to go watch the BIGGEST flotilla of boats, barges, punts, skiffs, and other marine vessels make their way down the River Thames as they follow the Queen's new Royal Barge, the Spirit of Chartwell. There hasn't been a flotilla this large ever on the Thames (1,000+ vessels) in over 300 years. Pete's cousin Sandy is town with her husband Don (aka Uncle What What) and daughter Dakota, so we are going to hook up with them and celebrate a job WELL DONE by the Her Royal Highness, the Queen! On Monday and Tuesday the celebration continues with a huge concert in Hyde park and local celebrations all over England. In Twyford there are several community events that we will hit up as well as several pubs we want to take Sandy, Don and Kota to visit.
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London Bridge aglow with England's colors
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After that hectic weekend, the other Queen, the Queen of Idaho is due to arrive on Thursday for a 12 day visit! We ALL are so excited to see my MUM, HRH Queen Gay of Idaho! Finishing up last efforts of unpacking, hanging photos and getting the house officially organized to ensure a royal welcome! It will be a busy 12 days as we try to cram in top London highlights, a trip to the Cotswolds, a visit to Windsor Castle, whilst (British word) all along showing her where we live, our day to day routine, the surrounding area, the kid's school and our hood highlights. I think Queen Gay is a little scared to come since we have so much to do...she thinks I am trying to kill her!
Immediately after the Queen's departure, Henry leaves for 5 days to attend his school's "residential" camp on Hayling Island. He wasn't able to go due to our late arrival in the year, but this week there was an opening and he is so excited, especially since he missed Sunny Hill's 5th grade camp a couple of weeks ago! So while my mum is here, we will be busy getting him organized to be gone for 5 days!
The last two weeks of June will be BUSY with Royal Ascot and the Royal Henley Regatta on consecutive weekends. The Royal Ascot is the BIG week-long horse races that the Queen attends daily. Think fancy dress and HATS GALORE! We are going to go on a Saturday with the Grimsteads and we will take the kids! Pictures of course will be posted of all of us in our fine and posh attire! The next weekend is the Royal Regatta in Henley, which is right next door to us. Similar to Ascot but think rowing, cute teams of rowers, preppy, stripey ties, Top-Siders, more HATS, and dress hemlines must be past the knee. This is an adults only day as I believe the champagne and Pimms will be flowing.
A quick recap of the month of May! We have stuck around and explored the area of where we are living outside of London. This past weekend was gloriously sunny and hot so on Saturday we hit the River Thames with a walkabout in Henley on the Thames. It is only a 10 minute drive and I go there quite a bit during the week to walk with a group of gals, grocery shop and explore. The kids scootered and we walked along the river, watching the rowers and all the beautiful wooden boats. They are setting up for the Regatta and all the crew boats were out practicing!
On Sunday, we went to the cute little village of Hurley on my friend Suzanne's recommendation. Suzanne was the previous tenant in our house and has been soooo helpful with everything! We stopped in at the Ye Olde Bell pub...quaint old pub with a big grassy area and gardens. You plop on the grass or at a picnic bench and they bring you a picnic basket with supplies and you order your Sunday lunch. Delightful newspaper reading, Frisbee and some American football goes well with a pint (Pete) and a Pimms (Jen). After lunch we walked down to the Hurley lock to check out all the boating action and white Brits (well now all sunburned actually) picnicking. Luckily we found an ice cream boat...that guy has a great job. Shirt off and serving ice cream on the river!
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| Practice boys-they were young! |
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| Great trail for the kids to scooter on! |
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| Pete was in love with this gem of a boat |
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| Getting ready for the Royal Henley Regatta |
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| Henley on the Thames |
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| Ye Olde Belle |
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| Very old tractor/steam roller thing |
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| Large estate on the river in Hurley |
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| Wearing Hurley in Hurley |
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| Ice Cream boat |
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| Chaos at the Hurley Lock on a hot summer day |
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| The Old Vicarage-reminds me of Pete's costume at the British themed going away party at Jess and Andrew's house! |
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| Waiting for the car...feet were not flip flop ready apparently |
A couple of weekends ago, Pete and Henry went to the Red Bull Champions of Dirt in London. It was the World Champions of BMX riding...it was right up Pete's alley being a past BMXer himself-bet ya didn't know THAT! Pete got some amazing pictures-these are just a couple.
As far as the kids go, they are doing so great. I have said this before, but will say it again... I am so proud of them. They both have adapted so well here and are really taking it all in with grace. Of course, we have had some sad, teary moments of missing family and friends, but they get over it pretty quick. Luckily, with email, Xbox and Skype they are able to connect with their friends quite easily. I am hoping to get the kids to write the blog next week when they are on break so they can give you their point of view on school, the people and England in general.
Henry has jumped head first into the world known as Cricket. His mates, Jamie and Tommy, convinced him to play the "thinking man's baseball". Pete and I plunked ourselves down at the first match, looked at each other and had no idea what was happening. But some of the siblings and mums were able to explain it in bits and pieces so we get a general idea of what is happening on the pitch. Henry seems to know what is going on and we hope he knows what to do should the ball come to him-you throw it at the wicket. We need Cricket for Dummies stat!
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| First practice |
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| Henry and Jamie after cricket practice at the pub in Sonning |
After some agonizing nights of decision making, May has decided to continue on with her gymnastics. It was a tough decision...we all knew that if she quit now, the likely hood of her doing gymnastics in the future would be slim. I think what we all wanted was her to be able to keep her skills up and continue to compete so she had the option when we return home to compete in high school. Ultimately it was up to her. She was enjoying some time off from the intensity of 3-4 day a week practices and weekend meets, but in the end, she missed it. So we found a competitive club that was willing to accommodate our potential crazy travel schedule and cut her workout hours down to only 10 hours a week (they wanted 15 hrs at first and I said no way-5 days a week? yikes!). The coach is great and really knows his stuff. There are only about 8 girls so she is getting more one on one attention and they seem to practice much harder skills than in the States. May is enjoying it and is really progressing well.
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| Ready for swimming at Polehampton pool! |
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| Summer uniforms-love the gingham! |
With both kids at sports on Friday evenings, it has given Pete and I time to have a semi-date night while we ferry them around to their various practices. We have been very successful in finding some darling pubs, have met some great people in the pubs and have many quaint places to take visitors now! Check out the pics below!
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| After gymnastics at the Crown-new fav pub in Playhatch |
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| The Crown at Playhatch |
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| Gorgeous wisteria |
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| The French Horn-lovely spot for a cocktail in Sonning on the River Thames |
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| German Shepard eating crisps at the Bird in Hand pub |
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| Pint and chips at the Great House in Sonning |
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| May mirroring the dog portraits |
I continue to be Becky-Home-Ecky (as Amy would call me) during the week. No cleaning lady anymore-I am the cleaning lady! Keeping track of all household duties! Go me! I continue to walk/run/explore my new hood and the surrounding area. Below are some pics on some of my runs. I have met with a group of gals who do fitness walking in Henley so that has been nice to have someone to talk to while I walk and learn new places to go! Having the time to actually enjoy my run and not being worried about being back in time is nice...if I want to explore one more little foot path I can. And with our jam packed June coming up, it has been great to have the time to plan for all these royal events, plan a great itinerary for my mom's visit and get ready for the upcoming Olympics in July/August. Although, I did just apply for a part time job at the Polehampton Infant School (feeds into H & M's school and is for 4-7 year old) as a temporary Teaching Assistant. Morning only, 16 hrs a week and just from September thru December.
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| Fitness walk view |
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| Marsh Meadow Lock below Henley |
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| Huge oak tree outside Shiplake lock |
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| River Thames near the Sonning Lock |
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| Sonning Lock |
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| Running along the Thames |
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| Cows |
Lastly we were able to have a special dinner with our dear friend Gloria while she was traveling through London on her way to Istanbul and the Ukraine. Gloria is our good friend Paula's mother who graciously opened her home to Pete and I when Henry was born in Florida. My mom and I stayed there a week before Henry was born and then Pete, Henry and I stayed there for 10 days after he was born! Although Gloria travels frequently to Seattle to see Paula, we never saw her! So almost 11 years later, Gloria and Henry were reunited in Eton! We had a lovely dinner at Gilbeys in Eton and were fortunate to see the Eton boys coming out of Sunday dinner in their tuxedos and tails.
I also wanted to remind all the non-Facebookers or infrequent Facebooks out there: if you want to get an email of when I post a new blog post, enter in your email on the upper right side of the Good Old Chinwag and it will sign you up to recieve an email whenever I post something. That way you don't have to wait, with bated breath I'm sure, until I post something.
Cheers and raise a glass to the Queen this weekend!
