Stupendous Stourhead

For years, I've heard about the glorious Stourhead estate from JT. On Saturday, we made a family day trip out to tour the beautiful grounds and mansion, which are partly owned by the National Trust.

We started with a picnic lunch, which we ended up sharing with some friendly ducks.

 It's been lovely spending time with Euan and Olivia, who is an absolute doll.

 After lunch, we went to see the house, which was originally built in the 1720s.

The Hoare family, a London banking giant, collected amazing pieces of art from all over Europe, so part of the tour felt like going through an art gallery.

Inside an interactive children's room, we all tried on old-fashioned clothing.

 After exploring the house, we went out on the grounds, taking a walk around the lake and watching the waterfowl. We saw a few babies, including a few cygnets with their swan parents.

 It was lovely to be together, and we all had a great time on our walk in these beautiful surroundings.

Delightful Dunster Day

 After a few days close to home, once we recovered from jet lag, on Friday we went out to Dunster Castle on the coast of the Bristol Channel.






















Parts of the castle date to the Norman times, while the main home has been the residence of one family for the past 600 years.











After picnicking on the beautiful grounds, we explored the main hall and then went on a guided tour of the kitchens. We learned loads about the history of the castle from the very interesting, funny docent.

Then, we looked at the rest of the rooms and played games in a sitting room.

Another room was filled with dress-up clothes, such as this knight getup.

Nan and Violet channeled their inner Medieval ladies.

 Outside, we spotted an English robin; Stace had always remarked on how much larger American robins are, so it was nice for me to see the English version.

 The walks around the castle included gardens and this old stone bridge over a stream.

On our way back, we stopped in the seaside town of Watchet for fish and chips, which we ate huddled under a shelter because the rain had started up again.

On our way home, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and found a place to pull in to enjoy it. On the Somerset levels, swans had gathered on the River Parrett in Muchelney, just down the road from the Abbey ruins.

Day One

On Day One, we relaxed at Nan and Pop's new home in Kingsbury Episcopi, and enjoyed for the first time having two bedrooms for our foursome. The girls loved having their own room, with bunk beds.

On Tuesday morning, our first morning after arrival, the girls slept until 4:30, when jet lag (and a bright morning, courtesy of the England's northern position on the globe) woke them up.

Stace and I, again thanks to jet lag, hadn't gone to sleep until 1:30 a.m., so we encouraged the girls to quietly look after themselves.

Oh, the wonder of traveling with older children! They did so, very successfully, with an art book and crayons. We didn't hear a peep until nearly 8.






Later on Tuesday, we all took walks to the shop in Kingsbury, and the girls helped Pop clean out the fish pond.

Sue and Gord's garden is gorgeous, with these foxgloves just one example of the many flowers blooming. Their new home, inside and out, is just lovely, and all their remodeling work has come together beautifully.

Cora had fun on Euan's toy, a battery-operated "motorbike."

Stace, Cora and I went for a little walk through one of the fields of Kingsbury, where she had fun practicing gate-vaulting.

Gate-vaulting - just one of the many country girl skills our Cora Rose is picking up.

Meanwhile, jet lag meant naps all around, except for Cora, who adjusted the best of all of us.

Arrival into London

Our flight to London Sunday night-into-Monday was as easy as it could be. The only thing that could have made it better would have been upper-class reclining seats to make sleeping easier, but we'll content ourselves with quiet, happy children who slept half the flight without any persuasion.

I will always appreciate my brilliant little travelers, as the memories of those difficult flights with toddlers remain crystal clear.

We met up with Nan and Pop in the terminal and loaded the girls and luggage in their car. One piece of luggage we didn't bring - a stroller! For the first time in over nine years, we had no need of a stroller, not even at the airport, as Violet was plenty awake to run ahead with her carry-on case.

Stace and I took the Tube into Covent Garden, where we found a coffee and cake at a fancy, old-fashioned French bakery.

We sat a few minutes to listen to a street performer playing his tunes. The coffee hit the spot, as of course we were tired after spending the night in an airline seat.

From Covent Garden, we took the Tube to Waterloo Station to sort out our tickets for the Southwest Train to Yeovil.

With a half-hour to kill, we went out to take in the London skyline - the Eye, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben were in view from the bridge over the Thames.

Our train journey home to Somerset was great, and the girls were tucked into their new bunk beds when we arrived to kiss them goodnight.

Schoooooool's Out For Summer!

After the year-end picnic on Friday afternoon, Cora and her girlfriends couldn't bear to see the fun end. They plotted for a playdate, and since we had a free afternoon, Elaine came over with Violet and Vivian.

The four girls (including our Violet) played for a couple of more hours in the pool before we said goodbye for a couple of weeks. Cora is now old enough to be quite sad at the thought of not seeing her school friends for a while.

Regular school might be out for two months, but Home School is back in full swing. With Teacher Cora and Pupil Violet, the learning never stops.

Cora is working with her sis on spelling tests, addition, and beginning multiplication. Violet takes it all very seriously, to the point of thinking she needs to finish her test up before she can get ready for bed.

On Saturday, Stace got some gardening done, including weeding and mulching the flower beds. They look so much nicer.

I worked on going through Violet's clothes and other household chores, and the girls picked their clothes out for our trip to England.

On Sunday, we finished packing and prepping the house for our trip. Looks like Seb wants to visit Nan and Pop, too. Saying goodbye to our boys is one of the hardest parts of leaving!

Grandpa was on his way to Vegas when we needed our ride to the airport, so Keith stepped in. Many thanks, Keith!

Our flight  was on British Airways, out of the newly revamped Tom Bradley terminal. It was much improved, and the children's play area kept the girls occupied for some 40 minutes. Then, it was time to make our way to our gate for boarding.

Next Summer Stop: London!

Farewell, Friends

This is, sadly, turning into the Summer of Moving for our friends and family. Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty are going back to the Seattle area, Emily and Brad have moved back to Dallas, and now Sara and Tony and their three girls are heading east to Iowa.

Sara and family moved to Valencia three years ago, and jumped right into our lives, between Mom2Mom, the girls' school, and church.

Emily is two years older than Cora, Alli's a few months (and one grade) older than Violet, and Megan is in junior high.

They hosted "Popsicles at the Park" on Wednesday nights in the summer, and we've exchanged girls for sleepovers over the past year.

Tony accepted a job offer in Iowa a few weeks ago, and they are now in the scramble of selling houses, buying houses and organizing a cross-country move. We'll miss them a lot, and we know the feeling is mutual.

Since their move date will come while we're in England, we went out for a final family meal Saturday night.

The girls started plotting extending their evening together, and somehow Stace and I ended up leaving the restaurant childless. We went over to my dad's to help him with a wiring issue.

We then got an overnight bag packed for Violet and took it to Sara and Tony, and then went back to our house with Cora and Emily. The timing worked out for one final sleepover.

Violet made me laugh when she showed her new doll to Allison, who has an American Girl. "This is my doll - it's a My Generation doll. It's not an American Girl, but it is similar," she said, sounding so grownup.

Emily and Cora had a great night too, falling asleep quickly and then getting up early Saturday to play Minecraft and chess.

Then, Sara came over with Violet and we all said our goodbyes. They promise to come back to visit, and we have another spot to stay in quintessential small town America.