June 15 2012

The last blog!! We have only 3 days left of our travels which is both sad and exciting. It is difficult to leave family and friends in England, a bit daunting to return to life by pager, exciting to soon catch up with family and friends in Canada, exciting to get catching more babies, difficult to leave the excitement and freedom of life on the road and we will miss spending so much time with the boys.

Over the last few weeks in England we have packed it full of family time, we have seen some friends here and there, spent a lot of time playing soccer (football) and enjoyed a few pints in the cozy English pubs. Silas celebrated his 9th birthday this week so we rented a car and drove across the bridge to Wales and took him to the best castle I have ever seen. Raglan castle, now mostly in ruins, had a moat and stairs everywhere leading to dungeons and lookouts. We had a great game of hide and seek there. Then nanny and grandad took us out to dinner and we surprised Silas with a sundae and singing for dessert. He was so full before it even came out so his reaction was a mix of excited and horrified!

The Queen's jubilee was a big event here of course. Banners of the English flag here and there, lots of community events and things to do. I can't even count how many times we heard the national anthem.  Interestingly, the kids here didn't know the words and some of them didn't even recognize the tune. They don't play it at the schools the way we do in Canada. We spent the day at a large park where we listened to various musical acts and participated in lots of free activities for the kids.
Another day was a graffiti festival where we could wander the streets and appreciate all the work done by various artists. We missed the day where the boys could give it a try but maybe that is for the best...they could transform our house in a flash if they became too confident!
At the moment there is a green festival in the city. As part of this tomorrow night Martin and I have a date to see a folky band called Seize the Day and earlier in the day we will take the kids to a farm celebrating the festival with music and food.  There has been no lack of things to do here in Bristol but I must tell about Butlins, thus the name of our blog!

Butlins was a crazy 3 night holiday place full of families with kids. Put together the water park at the Great Wolf Lodge, the rides at a large fair, tons of casino games, 4 or 5 bars with stages, continuous entertainment (really good quality I must add), bowling, pool tables, bingo, ropes course, and self catering trailers and apartments to hold up to 10,000 people.  It really was insane. We went here with Martin's aunt and uncle, just about all of Martin's first cousins and Silas and Orrin's 2nd cousins. We had a blast and will always remember this time together. Everyone was very sweet to take notice of Silas's birthday and we shared a lunch and one of Mandy's famous cakes in the trailer. We had no idea when we called the blog Bali to Butlins how fitting it really was, but these two worlds are about as far apart as possible and we loved each one of them.







The day we left Butlins I met up with Gwawr, a good friend from my years in England. It was a perfect afternoon at a children's play area, a good come down for the boys after Butlins. We said bye to each other racing through the train station carrying her 4 year old and bags just in time for her to jump onto the train as the whistle blew. True adrenaline style travel that I have experienced many times too often!

So that about sums it up...we really appreciate the time people have had for visiting with us and Martin's welcoming family to have us stay for so long. xx







Thanks for reading!

May 30 2012

We have been visiting Nanny Jo and Grandad Tony for the last 2 weeks now in England. We are using the library down the road for the internet so it is hard to get a time booked and be efficient with what we need to do in the short time on the computer...thus, a lack of blogging.

When we left Andrew and Anna's house in Como Italy we stayed the next night in Venice to see the streets filled with water and to think of my mom and dad as a young couple taking a boat around the block for the best price they could find.  Personally we didn't even ask the gondola guys the prices, at this point we were trying to get our next 2 meals for 4 people for no more than 25 euros total. Silas and Orrin tried busking with no luck but it was amusing to me none the less!

We are having a great time now seeing family and friends in England until we return home. Nanny and Grandad took us on a ferry ride through the Bristol harbour, cousin Alfie leant the boys scooters for our time here, uncle Frank leant us bikes, cousin Gareth showed Silas and Orrin some rugby and cousin Grant showed them some boxing and martial arts! We have also spent time with Martin's only sister Georgina, her husband Malcolm and their kids Jack and Leanne. Jack and Leanne were the only first cousins our boys had until baby Lexie came along last September. They have grown up so much now and are young teenagers but still play so well and make Silas and Orrin feel right at home.
Another thing to mention is the Olympics of course. This summer with them being held in England there is a buzz about the place. We went downtown Bristol with our friend Dan to see the torch as it ran past us and Martin was so excited with the perfect video he took just to find out later that the camera showed nothing taped at all!

(Martin writing) It has felt so good to be home, not just seeing family and friends but just stopping and staying still for while. We have been really enjoying  the local park with its amazing playground, forest and streams. The weather turned from cold to beautifully hot last week just in time for a trip down to the south coast of England to some of our favourite places and to catch up with friends. It is always a walk down memory lane for us for this is where Cathy and I lived the whole time she was in England. We even sat at the table in the pub where we first met ( The Bermuda Triangle), but this time with two lovely boys in tow. (Over to Cathy) Seeing friends from Bournemouth was a great day. We sat in the park for 8 hours while we slowly gathered the people we hoped to see and met their children. We spent the day with a picnic, playing baseball and frisbee and lots of talking till the sun left us at 10pm. Thanks so much friends! We have missed seeing you all.

A few of my favorite places in the south are pictured here, Durdle Door and the New Forest. At Durdle Door we walk for about half an hour over high hills on the cliffside and as we come over the crest we see beautiful white cliffs stretching out and we then clamber down to an amazing beach of tiny pebbles. The water is icy though so no swimming here. I love how you can be up on the edge of a cliff in the wind with no fences and see the footpaths stretching over the land as far as you can see.
The New Forest is a large area of wooded land and small villages where the animals roam free. Horses, ponies, cows, pigs and donkeys go anywhere they like, forage for their own food and are often seen in front of shops or on sidewalks just standing there. Not afraid at all. Another thing I like about the New Forest is you can just walk randomly and find horses at streams or a swing hanging over a stream to play on.
On our way back to Bristol we stopped at Stonehenge mostly for Silas because he is really interested in history and these sort of things at the moment. He asks so many questions, I don't know how many times a week I say "hmmm we will have to look that up" because I have no idea!
Now we have only 2.5 weeks before returning home. England has been a perfect transition back to the familiar and is making us think of all the things we appreciate about home again. In this next couple weeks we will celebrate the Queens diamond jubilee, Silas turning 9 yrs old, and spend a weekend with all the cousins at Butlins (thus the name of our blog) which is a weekend away with lots of water fun and entertainment.

 We are missing people in Canada and will see you soon, then we will again start to miss the people in England.