Our new house in England

We arrived in England early this morning. Our flights went well - no hatchets this time :)

Ken has been busy while he was here by himself and has found us a van and a house. He has done his work well. He has found a delightful 100 year old house in a little village. It has been modernized, yet still has its original charm. We can't wait to move in on Monday.

This is an interesting kitchen. They call it "unfitted", meaning that other than the island in the middle, the cabinets may be moved around however you would like. It is an interesting concept, but it works well in this house.

This little staircase leads to the bedrooms on the third floor, where Madison and Stuart want their rooms to be. I won't need to go to the gym anymore if I climb that staircase several times a day.

Our back patio.

This is the view out the window of the top floor.

Florida pictures

I'm still figuring out how this whole blog thing works. I'll try and see what I can do with pictures this time. This is the lake behind my in-law's house. I never tire of watching it. Lots of exotic birds hang out there and on the shore. Something is always changing. I also enjoy watching the storms come in and how the behavior of the birds change.

This is Brittany and her fan club. I can't believe how many birds show up when she goes out to feed them. There are wood storks, ibis, gulls, muscovie (sp?) ducks and those are just the ones I know the names of. They've gotten to the point where they come stand at the door or windows looking for her.

The kids have also been busy working for our friend who lives next door. This time they have been helping with landscaping projects.

The adventure begins

We got off to an exciting start when we flew from Salt Lake to Florida. The kids have made this trip many times so they know the drill. I asked the kids several times to check and make sure there was nothing in their backpacks that might trip us up. They all said they were good and because we have done this so many times, I didn't bother to check.

Fast forward to the Salt Lake airport. Things are going along fine until Madison's bag goes through the scanner. The red light goes on, everything stops. Guy number 1 starts squinting at the x-ray monitor. He beckons guy #2 over and they both squint and point. At that point guys 3 and 4 come over for a look. Guy number 4 starts to laugh and tells us they need to manually search the bag.

As they are searching, guy #4 asks Madison if he has been camping. They pull out books, stuffed animals and then........... A HATCHET! Fortunately they have a sense of humor and allow us to give the hatchet to my parents to take home. I wonder what the people in the airport thought as my dad is walking along carrying it :)

Needless to say, I have searched everyone's backpack myself this time. Somehow, I don't think the security people in Tampa and Miami will think something like that is funny.