we're back!

we arrived safely in seattle last night around 5pm. the flight was really good, i was dreading it, but it was fine i was comfortable in our upgraded seats ;) it's now 430am sunday morning and i can't sleep any longer because of the time change. hopefully this won't last long! today we're heading to our house to unpack our stuff in storage and move back in. it will be so nice sleeping in our bed tonight, hopefully it's as comfortable as i remember...

leaving do

Last night I had my leaving do at work. One of my co-workers always bakes fabulous cakes for everyone's birthdays. For my birthday she made a cake with an American flag on top! The picture above is the cake she made for me yesterday. It was sad to say bye to everyone, but the night was very nice. I got loads of lovely presents, all for Parker, which I know we/she will enjoy.

It's unbelievable that we're flying to Seattle tomorrow with no return ticket to London. It will be great to be in Seattle again with so many friends and family but sad to have left. It's been a great experience that I wouldn't change for anything. I never imagined that I would live abroad, and for two years at that. Andy and I have been so fortunate to have traveled to so many places, made some wonderful friends and experienced such a great time together before having babies (just barely!). We have missed home and all that comes with it, but have grown so much individually and together from being here together.

Coming Home

Well, no pictures on this one, but some exciting news. I've accepted a new job in Seattle that will be bringing us home. Even better, though it has taken a while to get everything in order, the official paperwork came through today and things are now moving rapidly. The relocation company has every confidence they will be able to get us packed by Friday the 13th (scary!), and on a plane for Saturday the 14th!

That everything that we've been thinking about and planning on is a reality today is both really exciting, and just a little bit...melancholy? However excited we are to move home (and we are quite) it is the end of a wonderful experience and means saying goodbye to a number of great friends.

So, who's free on Sunday the 15th to help pack and unpack a U-Haul?!?

Our last trip in the UK

The American Couple in Edinburgh Castle

So one thing to note about Edinburgh - it's pretty darn windy, especially on higher ground. We just took our last trip while in the UK, a long weekend in Scotland. It was a stunning train ride up, especially the stretch between Newcastle and Edinburgh. You end up along the coast, lots of little towns. Pretty amazing. Another great thing about the train - 4.5 hours vs. an 8-10 hour drive!

So, while in Edinburgh you might have heard that Katherine was feeling a little sick. So there were some adventures on my own, and a few adventures together. Even with Katherine not feeling great we still managed to make our way around much of the old town and the new town, all the way out to the Botanical gardens (no pictures, it's still winter :), and the Stockbridge neighborhood. We also checked out Edinburgh castle together on Sunday, where we got the picture above. It was pretty awesome - it was the first castle I saw going on 13 years ago when traveling with Sean, and was great to see again.

On Friday I had to venture out on my own. So, the first thing was to do a scotch tasting at the Scotch Whisky Experience. It was informative and tasty - and also quite small drinks, leaving me functional for the rest of the day. After that I made my way down the Royal Mile to Holyroodhouse and then into Holyrood Park, and took up the challenges to heading up to Arthurs Seat - sticking up just about a kilometer above Edinburgh. It was quite a hike - I am pretty sure I took several wrong turns on the way up, and on the way down ended up going down a rain-gully. But I made it up and back and was rewarded with some amazing views. Check out the link to the pics on the right to see some of the views.

The last thing going was 6 Nations - again, I'm a huge fan. And on Saturday Scotland played Italy, in Edinburgh. We did not go to the game, but watched the game in a pub. It was a blast, Italy got beaten thoroughly as they do, and the Scots celebrated all through the night. I watched the following England-Ireland game (which Ireland won). Not a great envirnoment to be an England fan, but again a lot of fun.

View back across Edinburgh toward the castle from Arthur's Seat

Self portrait up at Arthur's Seat - just a bit windy

Katherine from inside Edinburgh Castle

we've been so lucky

as our time in london is quickly ticking away, it's nice to reflect on parts of our experience here. i feel very lucky to have had so many fabulous guests and visitors while we've been living here. it's made our time here more enjoyable to be able to share first hand with our friends and family how we live here and for them to experience this great city the way we do.

our great guests and visitors have been: lisa & dave, my dad & kathleen, rich, beorn, my mom, paul & gwen, ben & stephanie, rich & clara, my brother & christina, tim & michele and lisa - it means a ton that you all made the long trip out here to see us if for an evening or a few weeks!! can't wait to see more of you all very shortly.

12 hours no eating!

i haven't been feeling very well since wednesday afternoon. i won't go into details of what's been going on as to not gross anyone out - let's just say it's not pleasant...somehow i made it to scotland and back on the train (4.5 hours) but wasn't able to actually enjoy edinburgh all that much. i spent a lot of time in our hotel room. because of this i am going to leave andy to post about the trip! i have been speaking with my doctor (from scotland) and today now that we're back in london and she has advised me not to eat for 12 - 24 hours to help what ever is bothering me out of my system. i'm going to wait 12 hours to eat, if i can even make it that long. at this point it's been about 2 hours since we spoke and it's already difficult. i'm not sure how people fast, i guess it helps if you're not sick as well, and pregnant! she said the baby will be fine. parker is bouncing around a ton and doesn't seem to mind that i've been feeling like crap. hopefully this passes quickly.....

Happy Birthday Andy!!

My fabulous husband's birthday is today, we are heading to Scotland this morning for further celebrations and for our last trip while living in London. It's hard to believe this experience is coming to an end in a matter of weeks. I can't think of anyone I would rather have spent this time with than Andy. Have a great birthday!!!

updated looks for all

here's how i'm looking, almost done with the 2nd trimester:

here's how andy's looking after shaving his beard off today:

i have a problem...

i'm totally and completely addicted to sweets, especially anything with chocolate. on saturday lisa, andy and i went to the camden market after wandering all around had some lunch, after lunch i HAD to have a donut from this stand.

after much debate i decided on a triple chocolate donut - chocolate icing, chocolate sprinkles and chocolate filled. it was perfect ;)

Big Sports Weekend

Though we are getting ready to move home soon it doesn't mean that things have stopped here! In fact, this is a huge weekend. The 6 Nations Rugby tournament kicked off on Saturday and today is the North London Derby (a match between two local, arch-rivals) featuring Arsenal vs. my Tottenham Spurs. England kicked off with a 36-11 win and an okay performance against Italy yesterday, and I'm hoping the Spurs can follow up with more of the same today.

Football season is over, baseball season hasn't quite started again but over here in the UK we've got all sorts of sport to be excited about. Good times :)

middy's back in america!

i slept with our US phone by the bed last night waiting for a call from my mom after she had collected midnight from the cargo area of the airport. she called around 230am to say that midnight was doing great, very happy to see her. i'm so glad she got there safely, with the cold weather, long waiting time, and delayed flight i was worried for her. the first big part of our move home is done, now we just need our flight date and the rest will fall into place...

another fun day at the park

andy and i took middy to the park again this afternoon - since we both couldn't make it to work seemed like the right thing to do. she had a great time running around in the snow, was much more into it than this morning!

winter wonderland?

yesterday day it snowed off and on, but nothing really stuck to the ground. i woke up this morning to this:

i checked with work to confirm they were opening before i took midnight out for her morning walk at 645am, at that point everything was as normal. but by 8am it was clear i wasn't going anywhere. none of the buses in the city are running and most of the tube lines are at least partially suspended if not closed all together. the city is basically at a stand still.

i wouldn't be bothered as much as i am by the snow if midnight wasn't scheduled to fly to seattle tomorrow. as i watch the news the airports all seem to be closing down. hopefully things will get better later today and tomorrow, but looks like more snow is coming in wednesday and thursday so we'll see. she might be here for a bit longer...

middy's last weekend in london

middy is scheduled to fly back to seattle on tuesday. we are sending her to live with my mom until we're back. it will be sad to have her gone, but nice to know she's safely in seattle and to have this part of our move taken care of.

we took her to her favorite london place this afternoon, a park near our flat. paddington rec is a huge park with dog parks, a track, a field, tennis courts, cafe, rose garden, etc. most people let their dogs off leash throughout the park - something middy just loves. she loves the freedom to run around and play with other dogs. we took a tennis ball and she had a great time chasing it all around.

tiny sweater

I started knitting this tiny sweater before we knew the sex of our baby, trying to pick a color that would work for either a boy or a girl. It's the first sweater I've attempted, I'm pleased with the results. It will look so cute on baby Parker ;)

it's a girl!!

Andy and I went to the hospital this morning for my second scan. Everything with the baby is looking good, normal or average so seems great at this point. So far the baby's head is growing normally compared to it's body which is a good thing, am worried since we have large heads in my family!

This is me today:


This is Parker today:
We are both very excited about the news, and Middy is excited as well - to be getting a sister ;)

Tim, Michele, and Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Sorry we have been so incommunicado - it's been a busy couple of weeks with a trip back to Seattle, a trip to Amsterdam, some guests arriving, and, oh yeah, back to work.

We've been having a great time with Tim and Michele being here. They arrived New Year's Eve from Rome (jealous!) just in time to help party down. We spent the New Year in a similar way to last year - amazing dinner and drinks at Alison's place. It was a great evening with friends, old and brand new.

Just a couple of days later on Saturday morning the 4 of us flew off to Amsterdam. This was the first time any of us had been there though we had all heard great things about the city. First impressions? It was freakin' cold. The next impression was Holy Cow - this place is stunning. The buildings, the canals, people on bikes, just amazing.

We got settled into the hotel and then started to explore the city. We were hard core. A brief summary -
Flower Market
Van Gogh Museum
Red Light District
Canal Boat Tour
Heineken Experience (we got turned into bottles, and free samples!)
Coffee Shop

We also had an amazing Indonesian meal. I wasn't aware that they had a large Indonesian population but there you go. Food was delicious - a big rice table with a bit of everything.

Anywho, that's what we've been up to. We've got another couple of days with Tim and Michele and some great plans. We'll let you know all about it.

Tim, Michele, and Katherine at the Heineken Museum

Tim and Michele enjoying a nice Heineken

Happy New Year!

Wait, what? It's the 8th already? Shoot. Well, as you can see in the post above we were in Amsterdam and I guess we just plumb forgot.

In all seriousness, we hope the new year has started well for everyone. We are planning on a pretty great 2009, and we hope that all of you have a wonderful year as well.

Thanks for checking in on us -

American Couple

happy xmas!

we are still in seattle, and sort of snowed in. our plan was to be in bellingham the past few days visiting andy's parents and sister but with all the snow and ice on the roads we decided to play it safe and stay put. we are both very sad that we didn't make it up there, the only good thing about it is we will be back so soon and will see everyone then.

we hope everyone that celebrates xmas has a great one this year!!! i'm looking forward to a good 'ol american spread tomorrow ;)

We'll shortly be in Seattle, well in about 12 hours. Just waiting for the taxi to get us and heading to the airport. I'm very excited to come home for the holidays, and hoping the weather doesn't keep us from our plans too much. See you soon!!!