celebrating + a bit of travel

Celebrating Father's Day was such a fun family day for us this year.  While it's customary to send cards in England, it definitely did not seem to hold even a sliver of importance as it does in the States.  Andrew greeted several friends with "Happy Father's Day" and most of them seemed surprised and often no one in their families had even remembered.  But at our house, we made a day of it! One of the things Andrew and I both value is finding things to make life fun and making traditions for our family for worthy things.  Well, Andrew himself and his fathering are definitely worth a noting.

 

Because of busyness and travel plans we made Saturday our Father's Day.  Andrew has been wanting to run this park 5k for nearly a month now, but it's either been raining or we've had plans every single Saturday morning!  It's at one of the bigger public parks and is held every week in the summer.  You get a chip and timed, but there are no fees (reaping the benefits of other's taxes, I guess!).  Andrew was also determined to run with the boys! We got there a few minutes before the start time and he lined up.  I felt like we were getting the same looks as when we get on an airplane...no one wanted to be near the massive double jogging stroller!

At the start...

...just before finishing

Gray enjoying a lemon during at brunch...proof he's got some of my genes!

Anyway, the race course was smaller so I got to see him and the boys 3 times throughout the race.  It was really fun to watch.  Despite the on and off drizzle (and zero training!), Andrew pushed through and ran it in under 25 minutes.  I was happy to watch and cheer them on from the sidelines.  After the race we headed to a favorite breakfast place and had a big brunch complete with Belgian waffles.  While the boys (and I mean all three of them) were napping, I made magic cookie/7 layer bars for Andrew.  They're his favorite.  I had been looking at American ex-pat blogs for how to use English ingredients for a few things.  They don't have any graham cracker products, no butterscotch and no sweetened flaked coconut.  Anyway, we made it work and they were so good! Then we headed over to the park next door for an all day festival.  It was hilarious to people watch.  We felt so out of place because it was a total hippie-fest.  The park has set up a "healing area," yoga tent, bar tents, lots of bands in different tents and people everywhere.  With the pot wafting in the air and the tie dye shirts, long hair and unique hair colors, we felt suddenly very straight-laced.  Anyway, we spread the blanket and enjoyed some ice cream, but let the boys run around shirtless and they were LOVING it! So at least our kids were a little hippy-fied for an hour or so.  Anyway, we were thankful to be able to spend time together and enjoy a nice, mainly sunny day outside.

at the park

our free spirited two!

The next day, we packed up and after we got back from church and had lunch and the boys quickly napped, we headed to the train station.  We hopped on a made it to Birmingham an hour later.  It was fun to change up our normal routine and get our in a different area. The boys loved running on the balcony of our hotel room and jumping on the hotel bed.  They opened every drawer and door they could- I love that they naturally want to explore everything!

the best part about hotels for these two!

Monday morning Andrew was out in meetings and I got to meet up with a friend Jane.  She has two boys and her husband pastors a local church there.  We enjoyed some tea in a play area so we could actually talk while G and J played.  Then we met up with Andrew for some delicious burgers.  It was crazy, but the hostess actually had family living in Dunwoody, GA.  Wow, small world.  

Anyway, Birmingham is a beautiful and much bigger city than Sheffield, about 1 million people, I think.  We were staying in the "city centre" aka downtown and it was bustling.  It was an incredible mix of old and new buildings.  Modern meeting centuries old with a beautiful hills around it as a backdrop.

Later that night after we grabbed some dinner and explored a few more areas of the city, we stayed up until 1am to watch the USA vs. Ghana soccer/football match.  We never would have even sat to watch it bad we not come here, but the sport is obviously much bigger here.  Plus Andrew knows of the players and he wanted to support him and watch the game.

Oh, and in between A's meetings, he also bought us a temporary car (since getting around has been difficult).  Its a beautiful '99 Ford van! But really, it will help out a ton.  So he drove it back and I took the boys on the train and met Andrew back at our place since we didn't have car seats.  I'm so thankful train rides aren't bad with our guys! So much less hassle than flying! We've just arrived back in Sheffield and are getting settled back in.  I think we're all feeling grateful for a refreshing past few days and all the lavished grace we're gotten.