A Dream Come True.

We're back from the British Isles. It was a magical ten days. I've been using one of our boarding passes as a book mark and when I pulled it out this morning, it made me cry. Tears of gratefulness for the time we had as well as sorrow for all the friends I'm missing.

It would be laborious to go into great detail on all the things we managed to see and do while we were there but here are a few highlights:

Embracing at the airport

Picnicking in Windsor

Cream teas in Bath

Church on Sunday

An icecream by the river

A whirlwind tour of London

Pub lunches and so much laughter

Standing on the field of my old school

Sweet shops

Late night conversations

Incredible curry dinners

Coffee and lunch with dear old friends

Sitting in the bath in our bathing suits at the end of a long day

Scones at the Dobson's

Watching 3 Men & a Little Lady for old times sake

Country drives

 Eating as much duck, sausage and cake as I liked

Feeling beautiful at a beautiful wedding with beautiful people

Dancing my heart out in the best of company

Gorging myself on delicious food

Sitting on the floor of the Bridal Suite with my best friends

A glorious day in the Cotswolds with my parents

More cream teas

A beautiful evening dinner with my favorite people...

....dreaming of the future.

My heart is full with thanks for the gift we were given in this trip and to everyone who made it happen and provided along the way - you know who you are. Why God chose to bless us so abundantly with friends who love us so very much, I will never know. But I'll happily receive it all again and again.

What a dream come true.

Truly. 

Indianapolis

Last weekend we traveled to Indianapolis to stay with Tim's sister and brother-in-law. We've never been to their house and a visit was long overdue. It was a five and a half hour drive, as long as it takes us to get to my sister's house in Canada. Thankfully the drive there was not nearly as painful as the drive back, but more on that later.

Katie and Dustin live just outside of the city, near a town called Zionsville which is clean, picturesque and home to about 20 mega-churches - literally. Here is the one Tim decided to check out while were there. It's called "Eagle Church" which is just strange to me. Anyways, this is a picture of their building. Yes, that is the church. They own the whole thing. And trust me, it's huge.

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Considering the humble beginnings of the early church and their desire to live and worship in simple intimacy, I feel like Church in the Biblical sense is no longer mirrored in what North Americans experience as "church" today. But that's a whole 'nother post for a whole 'nother time.

Anyways, Friday night, Katie and Dustin treated us to an amazing dinner at a fancy restaurant. Moses wasn't wearing pants (just a onesie) but no one seemed to care. In fact, a number of women stopped to tell him how handsome he was. You go Moses, you go.

I feel like Indy is one of the most under rated cities in America. It has everything and is surrounded by lots of beautiful neighborhoods. There are carriage rides, TONS of restaurants, an incredible Children's Museum (rated best in the country, I think), a massive football stadium, a canal with gondolas, cool hotels, is home to the Indy 500...the list goes on. And yet, you never really hear about it. Or at least, I hadn't. Anyways, it's a great city. We did a quick tour of it but spent most of our time at The Children's Museum.

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Considering Jack woke up at 5:30 a.m. (!) that morning (Saturday), we had braced ourselves for meltdown city in the face of so much over-stimulation.  But God looked upon us with mercy and Jack was actually a total dream the whole time and even lasted through lunch without causing a scene. PTL. By the way, for as amazing as it was I didn't take many pictures while we were there. We bought a new pocket camera about a month ago because our other one died and it's just not awesome at taking pictures in low lighting. And I hate using flash. Anyways....here's some of the better ones:

All together, the weekend was a total hit and we loved every minute of it. Except for the part where both the boys scream cried (scream cried) for the last half hour of the drive. It was mental torture. I kid you not, I was brought to tears but also laughed a little too because I felt so hysterical and out of my mind all at the same time. Needless to say, we were thankful to arrive home and collect our sanity.

Hello, Canada

We just got back from a 48 hour trip to Canada. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing so it went fast and felt too short. But it was so needed! It felt freeing to get out of Cleveland and have a change of scenery. At first it took some convincing because gas is so expensive. But then Allie and James offered to cover the cost which was such a blessing. James also promised that we'd "eat healthy" if we agreed to travel up. As if junk food was the main reason I was hesitant. "Oh is there going to be unhealthy food involved? Oh well count me out then. I won't be visiting until you've purged all saturated fats from your cupboards." It was a nice thought though. We basically just ate the whole time. Not really, but it felt like it. After a healthy vegetable stir fry Saturday night Allie commented that she felt really "clean" after eating it. I agreed.  It was quickly countered by sifting through a bucket of new and old candy that made me feel sick.

It's funny that when you have kids, your vacation activities always center around what they'd like to do rather than what the adults are interested in. There's never any talk of what the majority (the parents) would prefer but rather what the smaller, pickier, more likely to get bored minority would like to do. So off to Waterloo Park we went to see the animals - most of which were no where to be found because oh, it was about 40 degrees farenheit (4 celsius) and totally freezing.

We did witness a peacock trying to woo a female counterpart.
This is what's happening here:
Male: "I'm amazing"
Female: "Meh"

Since nobody was having fun standing out in the cold, we decided to make our rounds at the Superstore. Now...for those of you who aren't Canadian, Superstore is on par with Target (and in some ways...better. Don't tell me to take it back. It's true.) Superstore isn't called Super for nothing. It's a fully stocked supermarket with not as many home goods as Target but amazing Joe brand clothes. Tim and I agreed that if we lived in Canada we'd probably shop for our wardrobe exclusively at Superstore. We'd be Joe brand models.  That said, $20 for a shirt is still out of our price range so we settled on a clearance pair of slippers for Jack that cost us $4. Worth every penny. Oh, and we got a bag of bulk bin corn nuts because its just what we do.

Hey Tim, if you read this can I just say that the cd you made for the car ride was uh-mazing? Seriously. Good picks babe. Track #76 - Great is Our God by Young Oceans is what we're listening to now (we're on the road, somewhere in Ohio) and its making this whole post feel really epic as a backing soundtrack.

Wow am I ready to be out of the car. Jack has dropped his pacifier and juice down by his feet a thousand times. And I don't think it was always "on accident." So now he's crying because I reached my limit of neck-craning, arm-straining, body-contorting attemps at getting them back. Ahhh car rides.

Anyways,  it was a good trip - despite my still feeling a bit sick from the strange mix of foods we ate. And that nerve racking moment at the border on the way home when I couldn't find my permanent resident card so we pulled over to the side and put on the hazards while I scrambled to locate it and one of the scary border police started moving towards us ready to shoot us for loitering. Not really, but maybe. Don't worry, I found it just in the nick of time. Otherwise I'd be writing this from jail. Not really, but maybe.

We started training Jack to be a Canadian Mountie at an early age.
Our plight continues.

Ranunculous.

Such is the name (I think, anyways) of the unknown flower from yonder post. Quite a mouthful. Seeing as I haven't posted in almost two weeks, this must indicate some sort of busyness in our lives though I can't think with what. The more probable culprit is laziness.

We did go to Ontario again last weekend for a family visit. We're trying to make Canadian ventures a more regular part of our life as it nicely serves as a welcomed change of scenery-mini vacation-fun diversion sort of thing. It's also mainly in want of seeing cousins and sisters and so forth. This trip proved to be a success on all accounts, though I can't say any of us had a good night's rest while we were there. Jack was a peach in the car both ways which was an answer to prayer (this gives me hope for future road trips) and once there not only discovered the joy of Kamut Puffs, but also found a runny nose to bring home as a souvenir. It seemed inevitable as every cousin he encountered was willing and ready to share their own runny noses with him, and he was happy to oblige with the holding of many hands.

In other news, we're going to be starting a crazy radical new lifestyle as of April 1. I'm really praying its not a fad and that we stick to it because I truly believe its going to revolutionize our health for the long run. But more to come on that later!

For now, here are some pictures I snapped of Jack with his cousin Lydia (notice the hand holding):

Back from the North.

Our trip was much smoother and more relaxing than I anticipated. Traveling long distances with a 7 month old can certainly have its challenges, but Jack proved to be a better traveler than we gave him credit for. Having two weekends in a row with Allie and James was wonderful and something I don't think has ever happened in the history of all our visits.


I should interject here with an explanation about my anticipation of passing the state prison on the way up (as mentioned in a previous post) and my hope of seeing some prisoners outside in the yard. I realized this makes it sound as if I get a thrill from witnessing people being kept behind a barb wire fence when in reality I just find it fascinating to get a glimpse into what seems like a whole other world of which I'm not a part. This is also the case when entering Amish country.

Anyways, now that we've had a fairly positive experience of taking a long car ride with Jack and not arriving home too worse for wear, I feel our future in taking more trips to Canada is a bright one. Something interesting that we, or should I say Jack, picked up along the way was this seemingly unidentified object - which could easily be mistaken for squished poop - is actually a piece of plastic steak. It's only too fitting that the son of a formerly dedicated vegetarian mother and a proudly carnivorous father would develop an attachment to a fake piece of meat. It's from a food play set that his cousin's had for their mini diner and after watching him chew on it all weekend I asked if we could take it home with us. They graciously obliged and it is now our go to object for when Jack is in need of something to do. Aside from chewing on it, he also occasionally enjoys scratching it lovingly over and over with his little thumb nail.

Here are a couple more pictures from Jack's busy visit up North:

Eating a rice husk and being a Cowboy

Packing and Unpacking

I love packing for trips. Carefully picking outfits for each day your gone. Making a list of everything you need. Toothbrush? Check! Books for the car? Check! Hundreds of thousands of bibs for drooling baby? Check! I love the folding of the clothes and then neatly placing them in your suitcase, tucking everything all snug. Fitting it all into the back of the car just so, like a game of Tetris. I especially love the packing of the snack bag with all its special "car food" - the sandwich halves, the crackers, the fun drinks and other assorted varieties of deliciousness. Flavors are always boosted when eating food in the car on a road trip. Or in the car period. Tim always teases me because when we go to the grocery store I always have to open something in the car to eat on the way home. This whole concept of not waiting till you get home to break into the snacks was new to him, and I think he thought was weird at first, but is now warming up to this awesome tradition.

That all said, I have the exact opposite feelings about coming home and unpacking. Packing to leave for home never involves careful consideration for me - it's mostly just an annoying hassle where clothes get thrown into the suitcase haphazardly, all crumpled and shoved in there, and they usually stay "packed" for at least a week after returning home. The drive home is also never exciting and more of a drag. The only thing to look forward to is passing the jail - which gives me the same thrill as passing an Amish buggy on the road. The anticipation builds as soon as I see those orange balls on the phone wires and the signs that read "Correctional Facility Area. Do Not Pick up Hitchhikers" as I'm always hopeful the prisoners will be out in the yard. Since it's winter, my chances are slim. These are the things that keep my life interesting - prisoner and amish sightings.

Isle of Man.

You haunt my dreams in the most beautiful way.

Were you a dream?

Our time together seems as though it were but a fleeting breath.

Then, now and always at the mere thought of you, time stops. I have peace of mind.

Oh, how I miss thee.