Getting in the Thanksgiving Spirit

What better way to start the season than a trip to the original Plimoth Plantation?

The Plantation is set up to start with a little introductory video about the English settlers and the natives living in the area.

Then, we walked over to the Wampanoag Village, filled with real, live "Native People" who showed us how to make a canoe,

I wanted to get one of those sweet loincloths for Rob, but he wasn't really interested.

how to weave/stitch/knit,

and how to cook a freshly skinned rabbit with beans, cranberries, and grains.

Then we walked down the road to visit the original Plimoth Settlers, all still alive and kicking.

We spoke with a blacksmith and his son,

I also wanted to get Rob some of these sweet bloomers but, again, he wasn't interested....wonder why?

we listened to a fiery sermon from the resident preacher,

played with some guns,

and then left to visit the Mayflower II.

It looks a lot bigger than it is!

We couldn't believe how small the Mayflower was.  There were over 100 passengers living below deck during the grueling 66-day journey across the Atlantic.  Then, the passengers had to keep living on the boat during the winter while they were trying to figure out where to put their settlement.

One of the crew on-board described that the Mayflower was the 17th century version of a U-Haul, and the pilgrims were considered to be cargo and were treated that way.  Life in Europe must have been pretty bad to justify taking that trip!

Before we could leave, we had to walk over and see the ROCK....

...which ended up being extremely under-whelming.  It's probably about the size of a small dishwasher.  So I don't really understand why it's such a big deal, but we can now saw that WE'VE SEEN IT.  Which is really what counts.

Five years later...

Christa and I first met five years ago today. Most of our family/friends already know the details of that fateful day in the library. (If not, you can see the link on the right). That day was the beginning of a miracle.

C.S. Lewis said "This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted."

I'm not extremely articulate (one of the reasons that Christa usually writes our blog) and I don't want to get all mushy. But I wanted to create this tribute for Christa:

Three little Wiggies came to Cambridge

Even though we're happy to be back on this side of the ocean, we've definitely been missing parts of our England life, like how we could just walk down the river and hang out with the Wiggintons!  

So, after a summer of missing this cute face,  Rob and I were thrilled to hear that the Wigginton's had booked tickets on the Fung Wah to come see us for a long weekend.   Once they got here, it felt like no time had passed...especially for Rob and Talmage.  They were still bffs, as usual!

 "Oh, hey Rob, old buddy!  What a funny coincidence meeting you here...inside this tunnel slide!"

And, since it had been over a year since we'd been able to go, we HAD to take the Wigginton's (and my sister, Katie, who was also in town) down to the North End for some pizza from Regina's...

...which really is good enough to fight over.

And then we forced them to make room in their stuffed bellies for my favorite italian treat: a cannoli from Mike's.

After one bite, Talmage was ready to dig deep and eat whatever cannoli was sent his way.

Here he's already had almost 1/2 of a big cannoli, and he's making the sign for "MORE!"

Because there is a lot more to experience in the greater Boston area than the excellent food of the North End, we also did some historical sightseeing.  We toured the Longfellow House, home to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (also, previously home to General George Washington while he was commanding the Union troops).

Later we drove out to Lexington and Concord to learn about the beginning of the American Revolutionary War...from the lips of Paul Revere himself.  Who knew he'd been aging so well?

We were so happy to see the Wiggintons again!  Thanks, guys for making that loonngggg haul up to see us!  We'll have to plan another reunion before too long.

From TX to MA via Gettysburg

To get from Houston to Cambridge (with our car), we decided to make a short stop in Dallas to see Matt and Natalie and their kids, meet up with Mark in the middle of Arkansas for dinner, go to church in Tennessee, then spend Rob's birthday visiting Gettysburg, PA, before finally ending the road trip.

View Trip from Houston to Cambridge in a larger map

So, about 1600 miles into our trip, we stopped for the morning and took a tour of the battlegrounds. 

If anyone is thinking about doing this (touring Gettysburg, not doing a crazy road trip), I highly recommend hiring one of the tour guides that will drive your car around and give you a personal tour of the sites.  For 2 people, it's about the same price as doing a generic bus tour, and for more than 2 people it's a steal.  

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1-3, 1863 and was the battle with the largest number of casualties (killed, wounded, or missing) in the Civil War.  It was really interesting to imagine how the battle progressed from day to day as we learned about how the landscape, communication (or lack thereof), and the different personalities involved shaped history.  

Our guide did a great job helping us understand and appreciate why these men were at war.  I'm grateful for their sacrifices, but it's so sad to think about the huge waste of life that was a result of that war.   Gettysburg is a very neat place.  

Spring Haven & Yellowstone

We're officially back up and running!  This summer was a really busy one for our photographer (Rob), which is my (poor) excuse for limited blogging.

But some definite highlights of the summer were our family reunions at Springhaven Lodge with the Ellis' and a few days in Yellowstone with the Schneiber/Allan side of my family.  

The whole Ellis crew (with a picture of Spencer who was still in Portugal)

In Springhaven we had fun catching up with all of the great family members we hadn't seen since last summer.  We spent time playing games (of course), cooking, watching Twilight III (most of the boys chose not to participate in this for some strange reason), and relaxing.

This summer's reunion was a KK/Stan child and spouse year, which means most of Rob's siblings got a week vacation from the normal parenting routine.  We did have 3 little ones join the party though: Teairsa (below) didn't have a good place to stay for the week so Mark and Aup brought her along, and Cosette and Nora were too little to stay without mom.  We loved having them there!

After our week at Springhaven, Rob and I drove up to Yellowstone to catch the tail-end of my dad's family's reunion.

I hadn't seen most of my aunts, uncles, or cousins on that side of the family since we've been married, so I couldn't believe how grown-up all of my little cousins have become.  It was so much fun to reconnect and get to know everyone again.  We sung crazy campfire songs, had an incredible talent show, and played a great game of scrabble.  

We also lucked out and had absolutely perfect weather, so we had to try to see as much of the HUGE (or "massive, massive, massive") park as we could find time for.  

Luckily some of the wildlife cooperated and came to us!  This bison caused a little bit of a traffic jam but we didn't mind because we got front row seats.  Those animals are proof that you can be incredibly funny looking AND incredibly cool....so the next time you're having one of those days, just think of the buffalo and remind yourself that you're not really doing all that badly.  :)  

We didn't get a picture with our camera of the entire crew together, but we did get one my family all together for the last time before Erik left on his mission.  

WHAT A GREAT SUMMER!!!!!!  

Minneapolis and my Studly Little Brother

A few days after our (awesome, upgraded-to-business-class) flight home, Rob and I were on the road again, driving to visit my family at their new home: Minneapolis, MN! 

We managed (thanks to Rob's amazing all-night driving skills) to get to MN in time to spend 2 full days with the entire family before my sisters had to go back to school and my dad had to go back to work.

This is not our dog...

When Katie, Jacqueline, and my dad had to go back to real life, Mom took us out on a boat they've rented for the summer. 

And Erik, happy to have Rob and me as an audience, went to town on the wakeboard! 

When did he get so grown-up??

I guess he should get in all of this fun-in-the-sun while he can, because pretty soon all of his fun will involve studying and teaching about the LDS Church as a missionary, in Germany!

The Final Hoorah: Wales

Before saying goodbye to Jolly Old England, Rob and I figured we could still fit in one more quick trip.  We rented a car, convinced our friend Verlan that he needed to come with us, and drove out for the weekend.

We left rainy, cloudy Cambridge on Friday morning and arrived a few hours later at sunny, quaint Snowdonia National Park in Wales.  After some friendly advice from Wales' best tourist office employee (and possible relative?) Anne Ellis, we decided to do a little warm up hike, watch some World Cup football, and then go find our hostel.

The view from our hostel at the top of the steepest driveway I've ever seen.  Our little 2-hamster engine almost didn't make it!

Saturday morning we woke up early and got started hiking up Mount Snowdon, the tallest mountain in England and Wales (a staggering 3,560 ft above sea level).  

The weather was absolutely perfect, and the hike to the summit was challenging but fun.  I fell in love with my trusty Crocs all over again...they totally make up for what they lack in looks with sheer usefulness!

We also saw a lot of sheep that looked like they had been somebody's paintball targets.  But it turns out that all of those paint splotches are actually a legitimate way to keep track of which ewe is the most popular; more paint splotches=more baby-daddies.  You learn something new everyday!

The view from the top was spectacular.   

And we had just enough time to stop and see Conwy Castle on the way home.  We've definitely become more and more efficient trip takers this year! 

Pomp and Circumstance in Cambridge

A Big, Fat Congratulations is in order for Rob graduating with top marks from the University of Cambridge with an LL.M., or Masters of Law.

Graduation morning started with pictures at Queens' College in their full get-ups.  (Again, I felt like I had stepped into Hogwarts!) 

Then, Rob and the rest of the graduates processed through Cambridge (with the college porters, dressed to the nines, stopping traffic) on their way to the Senate House where the ceremony took place. 

 I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, but the ceremony involved Rob and 3 classmates holding on to the fingers of the praelector who presents them to the Vice-Chancellor in Latin, saying "Most worthy Vice-Chancellor and the whole University, I present to you this man whom I know to be suitable as much by character as by learning to proceed to the degree of Master of Law; for which I pledge my faith to you and to the whole University.”

Then Rob had to kneel before the Vice-Chancellor, put his hands between the Vice-Chancellor's, who then says (in Latin), "by the authority committed to me I admit you to the degree of Master of Law in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."  

Tom, Steve, Rob, Prof. Fentiman, Jane, Yueying, Barbara, Sarah, Konni, Jeff

Just one more graduation to go....Way to go Rob!

Windsor Castle

As we're rushing to cram in as much fun as we can before we leave, we had to make time to see Windsor Castle: the oldest, largest continually inhabited castle in the world.
Luckily, our friends Steve and Lisa hadn't seen the Castle either, so we got to tag along with them for the day.
Windsor dates back to the time of William the Conqueror (around 1070) and is currently the favorite residence of Queen Elizabeth II and her family. Apparently, if we had been there about 1 hour earlier we would have seen the Queen walking down her driveway, on her way out for the afternoon. Bad luck!
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but the castle was full of beautiful furniture and tapestries, valuable artwork, impressive weaponry, and lots and lots of history. In the chapel a friendly warden gave us an up-close view of the plaques and personal choir seats of members of the Order of the Garter, the British Sovereign's personal order of chivalry. We saw Henry VIII's seat and I had a hard time imagining him squeezing his big body into that narrow choir seat! He must have encouraged very short meetings.
At the end of our beautiful afternoon at the palace we noticed some people playing the quintessential British lawn game: Bowls. As far as I can tell, it's a mixture of shuffleboard, bocce, curling, and maybe some croquet. But the important thing is that it's a game you can play while dressed all in white, drinking tea, and saying things like "Smashing play, old chap."
I've also noticed that there seems to be a minimum age of about 65 at most matches, so one day when Rob and I retire to England we'll work on our posh accents and join in the fun!