First week of School

Hi Everyone

All has gone extremely well so far and we are on day 3 of school. The children are excited each morning, which is great, and the house is looking a lot cleaner! Jacob had to skip into first grade, or he would have been in with Abi. All seems fine. We have a back to school night for him in a week or so so I'll find out more then. I've included a photo of them on the steps from Monday.

Did lots of drive throughs yesterday. Not sure if you have all of these in the UK:
drive through bank, pharmacy, liquor store, Starbucks. I don't normally visit these all in one day so it was a bit strange!

Also Jacob was having a cuddle in bed this morning and said laying on me was like laying on a warm beanbag. Today I am off to the gym!

Labor Day here this coming weekend so we're trying to decide what to so. Have booked for Disney California in October. I will not be telling the children until we are in the car to go though!

Hope all's well

Rachael.

Our Visit To Arizona

Hi All

While Allen was away in the UK I decided to go to visit our friend Carrie. We first met Carrie in DC as Jake was in preschool with Jacob. They then moved to Denver and we visited each time we came out on holiday here. Then, as we moved here, they moved to Page, Arizona. We visited them last October and camped at Easter in Zion National Park. We all get on very well and once again the trip was great fun and actually quite relaxing (hope Carrie felt the same!). It was an 11 hour drive there which I decided to do in one go. Jacob and Abi were pretty good, mainly due to the DVD players and Mc Donalds stops. We spent most of our time at the beach on Lake Powell. Luckily Carrie has friends who own a boat so we had a day on the Lake - the Lake is about 400 miles long so we got to see a small part of it. I've included photos of Carrie and Jake with an arch behind called Rachael's Arch. Also one of Abi, Jacob and Annie swimming. We also did a hike to Horseshoe bend. A look out point that shows a horse shoe bend in the Colorado River. The children loved it, they generally ran there and back. I've included a photo to try and show the amazing scenery.

After 4 nights and three days we drove back. Unfortunately it took 14 hours to get back due to traffic and the engine of our mini van blowing up (a mini van is a people carrier). I dumped the car in Denver and luckily Allen was back and could pick us all up. The garage said it would cost between $3000 and $5000 to fix so we decided to sell it for scrap as it looks like we'll be leaving sooner than we thought for (maybe as early as Jan 09). I'm happy that Allen will be promoted but would like the children to finish the school year.

Speaking of school Jacob had a hair cut today - see photo. He's so excited about starting school. We've had to jump him a year as Jacob and Abi would have been put in the same class and that would have been a nightmare for all concerned. Academically he'll be fine, but emotionally it may be tough! Back to school BBQ tomorrow and first day Monday - hooray! Abi is strangely quiet on the school front. I'm not sure she wants to go full time so we'll see what happens next week.

So it's the end of the summer for us, very weird but we are really looking forward to Mum and Dad arriving. We have loads planned which now involves hiring big cars too as we're going to try being a one car family for a bit. Luckily our friendly neighbours have a spare 7 seater we can borrow.

Hope everyone's well and have also had a great summer.

Maybe seeing you in January

Rachael.

PS I will try a video clip again but if you can't view it go to Carrie blog at:
www.sweatlands.blogspot.com/ and you will see Jaocb and Abi on that.

21 again?

Hi

I had a lovely birthday on Wednesday. It started with Abi bursting through the bedroom door shouting 37 today! Closely followed by Happy Birthday sung by my three favourite people and at lastly a cup of coffee! Jacob and Abi had been to Colour me Mine with Allen and painted some pottery items. Jacob chose a heart shaped box and painted a transformer on the top! Abi chose a handbag shaped money box. Once I'd opened it she hurried off to put her money in it! They were great gifts. I'm getting golf lessons from everyone else so, perhaps, Allen and I can venture out on the golf course together without me trying to knock his head off with the club.

Allen and I dropped the kids at zoo camp and then went out for coffee and cake. I had a crappy magazine to read and spent the next 2 hours enjoying the peace and reading about the Jolie Pitt twins. Having picked up the children we then had a picnic followed by ice cream at a very nice place that makes it's own ice cream on the premises. Later we ordered Chinese Take away and I made raspberry champagne cocktails that were tasty. A relaxing day all in all. The photos are off blowing out the candles and flowers my sister sent - thank you very much Katharine and co.

All's well, Jacob's eyes are healing nicely, we can finally swim on Tuesday. Allen leaves for the UK tomorrow - Saturday. Jacob's in school camp next week and Abi does 2 days at ballet camp. It's a Snow White theme - the only outfit we don't have. She's very excited about it all. Next Saturday me and the children are off to visit Carrie in Page, Arizona. We can't wait to see them all.

Hope everyone's well

Rachael.

Eye Surgery

Hi Everyone

Jacob had his eye surgery today. I took a before and after photo. Allen went down with him to the anaesthetic as I thought I'd cry! The hospital were excellent and did lots of explaining to Jacob and us. I thought Dundee were good when we went in before but this experience was much better. It took longer than we thought for so we were a bit worried but they did call from the OR to tell us things were going fine. All went well, he's now very blood shot in both eyes and a bit swollen but he can see and is merrily watching TV to his hearts content.

Abi turned into a bit of a madam, I'm sure it's due to the extra attention her brother is getting. Off to the lego shop tomorrow to go and get the promised Star Wars lego set Jacob wants as he's been a very good boy so far.

Hope all's well

Rachael.

A summer visit to DC

Hi

We have just returned from our 3 week trip to DC. Allen Had 2 conferences and actually flew to LA for a week while we stayed in DC for the 3 weeks. It was great to see all our old friends. We began with a 2 night stay on our old street - Jane Way. John and Mary, our neighbours on Jane Way, kindly put us up and spoiled us for 2 days. It was the annual BBQ on the street so we managed to catch up with everyone from the street. We then moved to a hotel and had days out with Ceri, Owen, Kathryn, Nicholas, Christopher and Claire. Jacob remembered everyone, Abi was a bit hit and miss! Allen went off to LA and Ceri, me and the children went to Ceri's mum's, or Nana's, for 3 nights. Everyone had a brilliant time. The best bit for the children was the lake and sand. After that we stayed with Kathryn and co for 3 nights. We had a day at Burke Lake park and there's a photo of the troops on the train. After trips out and swimming we retreated for some rest at the next hotel. Allen flew back in and we visited the Air and Space museum out at Dulles. All of us thought it was good fun - there's a photo of me and the children by the Enterprise space shuttle.

We moved to another hotel - very nice as it was in a shopping centre and spent the last week meeting up with old friends in different locations around the area. The final photo is of Jacob, Owen and Abi as Superheroes. It was sad to say goodbye again to everyone but we did have a great holiday. Thank you to all who gave us beds on our trip, I hope to see you in Denver at some point!

Back to a very hot Denver - a record breaking spell of hot weather apparently. Jacob has his eye surgery tomorrow. I am worrying already. Will let you know how it goes. Allen's off to the UK in August for 10 days and again I'm not looking forward to that either!

Hope all's well

Rachael.

Vancouver Island

Hi

I've just downloaded Allen's photos from our holiday to Vancouver Island and Seattle so I'll add some more here. The first one is of us on the ferry out of Seattle. You can see the famous tower in the background. The next one is of the shell collecting on the beach on Vancouver Island. They are now washed and sitting on the front doorstep, not smelling anymore! The final photo is of Jacob and Abi in a play park that was a great hit. Allen even found a swing thing that he went on a few times.

Allen had a good week in the UK. He did a few days of work and then went to Andy's stag weekend. Sounded like they had a great time and nothing too bad happened! Allen missed Fathers Day as he was en route back here that day so we did it the next weekend. Allen also flew straight off to Ohio for a week of work so we were busy with play dates. Jacob had a week of school camp and he loved it. It was mainly older boys there so they were good with him - building lego planes and playing games with him.

This last week they were both in zoo camp. I though it would be a resounding success but little did I know! Jacob and Abi were in the same group and it didn't work at all. In the end I got out of Abi what the problem was and Jacob switched groups. The final 2 days were good. They did lots about the environment and recycling. Great but now Jacob it picking up all the rubbish he finds anywhere to recycle!

Off to DC on the 4th July. Hoping I can update this while we're there as we're there for 3 weeks. Looking forward to seeing everyone. We're staying in Jane Way with Mary and John for our 1st 2 nights and then a hotel for a week. Will be seeing Ceri, Kathryn and Juli too plus their respective families.

Hope all's well

Rachael.

Seattle and Vancouver

Hi

We had a great time away. Flew into Seattle and toured the Downtown area. Went across and back on the ferry ( the one you see in Greys Anatomy). Walked around Pikes Markets and went to the first Starbucks. It was an easy city to negotiate and we could have easily spent more time there. There weather was damp and drizzly - it was like that most of the week but it didn't bother us too much.

Met up with Marion in Vancouver. There's a couple of photos with her. The cruise ship she was going on looked fabulous but unfortunately we couldn't go aboard to see inside. Hope she took lots of photos. Had a lovely evening with her and Lorna and then the following morning too. We saw her off onto the boat - or ferry as Jacob and Abi said! We then left for 3 nights on Vancouver Island - photo of my lot on the ferry. VI is much bigger than I expected - larger than Cyprus. I should have done a bit more research before going. The children loved collecting shells which are now stinking out the laundry room! Didn't see any whales but had a good look round and a relax.

Allen flew off to London and I returned to Denver with the children. Off to the zoo tomorrow and various local activities over the next week or so. Hoping it'll be hot enough for the pool at the weekend as it's very windy at the moment. Our plane was extremely rocky but I kept calm!

Hope everyone's well

Rachael.