England, England!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
We are back from our whirlwind tour of England (or "England, England!" as Chloe says it). We left on Wednesday morning and returned Tuesday evening. We also managed a flight to Glasgow, Scotland on Friday to see Matt's Grandad and to squeeze in side trips to Cambridge, Oxford, Henley-on-Thames, London and most importantly the Tesco's down from Matt's mother's house for some good old English grub you just can't get stateside.

The trip was a nice diversion from the everyday although it did begin with some drama. Apparently, Lizzie, our English Setter got kennel cough, even though she has been vaccinated, from the kennel where we boarded her when we went to Boston. The kennel wouldn't reboard her since she could spread kennel cough to the other dogs. This is rather funny since they let someone else's sick dog board and infect our dog. But, after some worrying and searching someone/somewhere to board Lizzie, our new vet stepped in and boarded Lizzie for us. I had gotten myself all worked up about this, but it was a stressful situation having a sick dog hacking all over the house and the prospect of one of us staying behind to take care of her. It just proved how nice it was to have family so nearby when we lived in Texas. But, luckily it all worked out and we are happy to report that Lizzie is back with us and doing much better (her cough is gone).

Everyone has asked how Chloe handled the time change. She did rather well. Sleep wasn't the issue with Chloe on this trip. Chloe has developed an independent streak and has now refused to ride in her stroller, instead acting like she is being beaten and tortured when you place her in it. Having Chloe walk through the small, crowded High Streets in England wasn't going to cut it so she had to go in the stroller with some coaxing (a.k.a. bribery). Chloe has a new fetish for pockets and loves anything with pockets in it. So, if she rode in her stroller and didn't scream we bought her a sweatshirt at the end of the day. Chloe made away with 3 sweatshirts and one baseball cap. She got sweatshirts from Cambridge & Oxford Universities and Harrod's.

Even though our trip was short in length, we enjoyed our vacation and visiting with Matt's mum and his grandfather. England holds many memories and connections for Matt but it also holds many happy times for us as a couple as we lived there for nearly 4 months. Sharing our favorite places with our daughter was great (even if she was asleep or screaming).

We are going to have to save our money for Chloe to attend Cambridge as she keeps demanding that she wear her Cambridge sweatshirt. When we ask her if she prefers Cambridge or Oxford, she replies, "Cambridge!", much to our dislike (we would prefer Oxford). It must be the independent streak. It is true in fact that she did scream the entire time we were at Oxford and was quite happy at Cambridge. We took some photos at King's College, Cambridge and after we were leaving Chloe yelled, "I want to run!!!" and ran around the interior courtyard. Now, for those of you who have watched Chariots of Fire you probably get why we would be amused by this. For those of you who don't get it, you need to rent the movie.

No comments