As I stated in the first post, I could have organized these, but it would have taken me much longer and some of those nice stories would have been lost to history. Like how the kids basically survived on Twix and Digestive Cookies for a week. Ok, not all the kids. Just John.
Probably around the time we lost Jeff and Tracy after visiting Warwick Castle, Eric took a picture of this pub. When he should have been focused on driving. On the left side of the road. While following our friends. Though, I strongly suspect he had every intention to lose them all along...
But, back to the why taking this picture was important. The Dun Cow. It has special significance to our family because Eric will blare an Irish drinking song where The Dun Cow plays a significant role while the kids are cleaning up after supper. You may listen to it
here. I don't know why this particular tune caught their fancy, but they love it and the sound of Molly yelling "MacIntire!" at the top of her 5-year-old lungs totally makes the delay in bedtime worthwhile.
Many of these pictures are pictures I discovered on Eric's phone. Like Molly in a helmet. She had rushed down the steps at Warwick intent on not being late to her Princess Story Time. Eric caught up with her in time to snap this photo.
Friends of Eric's, from San Antonio, Jess and Paul, came to Warwick with us. They are much more knowledgeable on English history and I quickly would deflect all questions over to them. Don't worry, I still made up quite a bit to save face and they were kind enough to agree with whatever nonsense I spouted. Thanks, friends! Here Jess is talking to Will about trebuchets. I missed this, but Eric said the John kept pointing at the picture representation and then to the actual thing. As if to say: It's right there! Look! It is right in front of you!!! Sadly, we have no picture of the ball of fire flying through the air. I guess you will all have to go visit it for yourselves. You can only live vicariously through us for so long...
The above is my picture of Anglesey Abbey. It looks suspiciously like the one you might find on Wikipedia, but I assure you it is mine. It was a beautiful day as you can tell by the blue sky.
I missed out on visiting the guard house where a descendant lived after the house was turned over to the trust to be opened to the public. Though I did walk quickly through the gardens on the off chance that my family and friends had elected to stay there for the hour or so I was touring the house. They had not.
As I was not with them, I have no idea what Molly and John are laying in...but, it appears pretty morbid. Typical father activity...
A really great feature of visiting The Abbey is that they had binoculars and magnifying glasses for the kids along with scavenger lists. I have no idea if anyone found a single thing on the lists, but they all loved using the binoculars.
Eric thought it was great how you would be walking along and come across a statue. The last owner had quite an extensive collection of art. I cannot confirm or deny whether or not his statues on the land were included in this art collection or were just randomly displayed. But, they definitely gave the kids a landmark to race to.
You cannot really see, but I'm wearing boots in this picture. I bought these boots at a discount store around the corner from where we live (not the Dollar Tree). I purchased them thinking I would need them in rainy England...as it turned out, this was the one time I wore them. But, I'm sure I will get plenty of use out of them in rainy Florida.
We had a lot of downtime and plenty of room to spread out while in the country. One of Dom's favorite memories was racing down the road with Will to a bridge maybe a quarter mile away. (I'm horrible at estimates...I really have no idea how far it was, but it always felt a little longer than I thought it would be). I do not have a picture of it, but I have a wonderful memory of watching them jog along, matching pace, with their heads turning to each other every once in a while talking about something or other. Just made me smile knowing that my sons are friends and enjoy spending time together.
Or fighting. Which is spending time together...just not my favorite thing to see. I much prefer a friendly race down the lane.
Speaking of lanes, Eric and I took a morning walk before the kids had gotten up for the day. You can just see the house in the background. Full disclosure, I was and am still disappointed I do not look more like Elizabeth Bennett in this photo.
Ok...next stop: London!
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