Alton Towers: Guy Fawkes Weekend

On the first weekend of November, the UK celebrated Bonfire Night which includes fireworks just about everywhere in the country.  Bonfire night is also referred to as Guy Fawkes night.  It's a celebration that began in the 1600s after Fawkes was captured in a conspiracy to blow up the House of Parliament and kill the King. It's quite a wonderful time to have fireworks because it gets dark so early that we can have fireworks at 7pm and the children don't need to stay up late.

On Saturday of the first weekend of November, we went to an Amusement park called Alton Towers and were able to see a beautiful fireworks display there. 

The interesting thing about Alton Towers is that the theme park was built around this centuries old Country home that is no longer inhabited, though recently has begun a restoration process. 

Because the park was extremely crowded, we decided to watch the fireworks from the parking lot...which made for an easy exit!

Rugby

I'm so proud of Avery learning to play Rugby.  He started off on the "B" team, as he is just a beginner, and has worked his way up to being on the "A" team of the U11 boys....he just turns 9 in 2 weeks!  He really loves playing.  He's gotten most of his thrills by being aggressive at tackling, but has scored for his team as well.  Since moving up to the higher level, he hasn't been quite as successful but that's to be expected.  He's probably the skinniest kid out there!

I think playing Rugby has really toughened Avery up.  There are no tears when he gets tackled, stepped on, or knocked heads.  You know, I really was hoping that I would never be a Football (American) mom because of all the violence, but now I'm letting him play Rugby?  With almost no protective equipment? 

It's fun to see him learning and being active.  He has games once or twice a week and they're usually during school hours (2:30-3:30).  He gets to represent his school, which is definitely different than in the US.  He's got a few more weeks left of Rugby and then after Christmas they switch to Hockey...in American terms it's called Field Hockey.  Keep in mind, it doesn't snow much here, so they play outdoor sports all year round.  And then in the Spring, he'll be playing Cricket.  All sports that he wouldn't have been exposed to in the US...all the better for Avery!

Pray for no concussions!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday.  Some of you have been asking how my guitar lessons are going, so I thought it might be nice to play you a song for Thanksgiving. Please understand, I'm still very much a beginner, it's hard to sing and play at the same time, my fingers hurt, etc....every other excuse that I can think of to explain why it's not perfect!  :-) 

Wish I could have shared some Turkey Day celebrations with you all.  Happy shopping tomorrow!

First Visitors from Home

Sean's Sister Nicki and her boyfriend Mike came to visit us this weekend after spending the week in London.  We were so excited to have loved ones from home with us...it was a great comfort for those of us who are missing home. 

We spent Friday touring Derby a bit without the kids, and then went to Chatsworth on Saturday.  Chatsworth is all decorated for Christmas on the inside, so it was neat for Sean and I to get a different view of the house than when we went last summer.  The rest of the weekend was fairly relaxing, with lots of UNO games and a short hike at misty, foggy Dovedale.

The kids sitting in a sleigh...Alexa holding the reigns.

Sean, Nicki, and Mike walking back to Chatsworth house through the gardens.

Treakcliff Mine

On Tuesdays, the American spouses get together to either have tea/coffee or go on a site seeing trip.  It's one of the comforting things that I have here, to be with other Americans in the same situation as me.  And exploring the country is much easier when you're with a group.  A few weeks ago we went to the Treak Cliff Mine, which is a Blue John Mine.  We had to hike a lot of stairs to get to the mine near the top of the hill, and it was a beautiful day...the picture above was taken from up on the hillside.  Those little white specks are sheep, which we find all over Derbyshire.  It's not a rare occasion to see one crossing the road in front of your car when on a drive in the country.

Blue John Stone is a rare, semiprecious mineral found at only one location in the world - a hillside near Mam Tor, just outside Castleton, in the Derbyshire Peak District National Park, England. The name Blue John derives from the French Bleu Jaune meaning Blue Yellow. It is a form of fluorite and was discovered as miners were exploring the cave systems of Castleton for lead. Because of the layered nature of the mineral, you can get a wide variety of appearances.  Some stones are more yellow, some more purple, some blue. 

There are two mines on the hillside for this Blue John mineral.  Jewelers will take this stone, strengthen it with chemicals, and then can work it into ornaments and, more commonly today, jewelry. Because of the varied nature of the stone, every piece of art created is unique.

We went on a tour of the mine though, unfortunately as you can imagine, my photos were not very interesting or recognizable due to the darkness.  But it was a very interesting tour.  When the miners dug into the hillside, they discovered caves with their share of stalactites and stalagmites, though not as impressive as those in Howe Caverns in New York.  You could see veins of Blue John Stone in the walls of the caves.

After our tour we went down to the nearby village of Castleton, did a bit of shopping and had a delicious Carrot and Parsnip Soup lunch at a local Tea Room.  Then we had to rush home for me to pick up the kids.  It was a beautiful day for the drive, which took about an hour and a half from home.  There's lots more to see up that way, so I'm sure I'll go back with the family.

Halloween in the UK

This year Halloween was a little bit different for us.  We had been told that Halloween is "darker" here...more witches and devils, evil characters...less cartoon characters and princesses, etc.  We were also told that Trick-or-Treating is not as common.  It does exist here, but there are many that don't want to participate, and it's not for religious reasons.  I heard one person say that they consider trick-or-treating a form of begging. 

Since the kids don't dress up in costumes at school and we weren't sure about the trick-or-treating, we didn't do costumes this year.  I can't say I really mind, it's always been a bit of a chore for me anyway.   On the Saturday before Halloween, our church held a Krazy Kings night, which was a Halloween alternative event.  The kids got to dress up as Kings and Queens if they wanted to, played games, made crowns, and got to do some of the messy things that often happen at Halloween parties (i.e. fishing candy out of buckets of Goo, sticking their faces in jello to grab candy with their teeth, eating donuts off strings, etc.)  They also got to learn about the wicked King Ahab and his wife Jezebel.  The kids had a great time!

On Halloween, we carved some pumpkins and  lit them in the front garden.  We noticed that some of the other households had done the same...that was kind of the sign for each house that Trick-or-Treaters were welcome.  On a street that has many young children, none of them came trick or treating.  We just had 4 Trick-or-Treaters and they were all probably at least 12 years old.  The costumes were all bloody and dark as expected. 

The only child that was sad about not trick-or-treating was Alexa...but she was happy to learn that the remainder of the 4 bags of candy that I bought would be for us to enjoy!

Now that Halloween is over, the Christmas shopping season is in full swing.  The Christmas displays started coming out in Mid October actually.  Remember, there's no Thanksgiving here, so there's no reason for the stores to hold back on putting out their Winter Wonderland displays.  It's funny.  And we thought Christmas came early in the States.

A Gift from Friends

I never mentioned previously that the Shepherds Moms, the daytime women's Bible study in my home church, gave me a bracelet before I left.  It was intended to be a shared gift that will be passed along amongst us as time goes by and we all go different places.  The gift was a bracelet that was engraved with words from Psalm 33:5:

The earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord.

I've had this bracelet with me for our entire adventure.  I don't wear it every day, but I did wear it on this last trip.  I thought I would share a little story that this bracelet reminds me of.  I know that our European adventure was amazing, we got to see so many beautiful places, but there were definitely some challenging and stressful times over the course of the week. 

One of those times was when we arrived in Rome.  We had returned our rental car and were told that getting into the city was going to be challenging.  We had planned on just taking a cab, but the guys at the rental agency told us that since it was a busy time of day a cab would take too long and be too expensive.  So they suggested taking a bus.  We bought our bus tickets from a guy at the airport who said the bus was coming in 5 minutes.  About an hour later, the bus arrived....that was fun! 

Anyway, we finally made it to the City Centre and then we had to find our hotel on a map and walk to it.  So we were tired, hungry, carrying all our luggage, with 3 children, and trying to read a map in the center of Rome, not knowing how long it would take to get to our hotel.  We stopped in a plaza to look at a map and get our bearings.  A moment later a man came up to us and asked...."Do you need help?" And he spoke with an American accent!  This man and his wife were so pleasant as they tried to help us.  They really didn't have any information to help us, as they were tourists as well, visiting from Vancouver.  They mentioned how they had been in our situation in the past, traveling abroad with children. 

Though they didn't help us much, their friendliness and kindness totally turned our moods around.  God sent us someone for comfort at just the right moment....someone who we could talk to, could understand, and was genuinely nice.  We chatted for a few minutes and then wished each other well, before moving on. 

So this bracelet reminds me that there are kind people everywhere, even in places I might find scary or lonely.  Thanks so much ladies for this gift.  I can't wait to pass it along to one of you.  Miss you.