At Home

Hard to believe we are now in our fifth year in the UK.  This place truly feels like home.  I don't notice all the differences so much anymore.  Driving on the other side of the road doesn't feel like the other side of the road.  I am weather obsessed just like all my neighbours.  I forget my American accent, not remembering I don't sound like them.  In fact I don't actually hear the accents anymore, it all sounds the same to me now.  On paper I am still an immigrant, but in my heart I am home.  I like this feeling.  I am still me, but I am me here.  I am at home with my family here.  

 As with every place we've lived I've tried to keep a record for the memory book of life.  I've so appreciated all the photos we have of every place we have lived.  We have been in our current house for over two years now.  It's quirky.  It's old.  It's drafty.  But we love where we live.  This collection of photos was taken over the course of our two years in this home, through all the seasons.

 Dining room

 Utility Room

 Guest Bath

 Entry

 Downstairs office/crafting room/travel planning room

 Upstairs

 Reception Room

 Bedroom

Familly Bath

Teenager Room

Girly Room

Bank Holiday

Bank holidays are the best days of the year.  Free days off work without dipping into vacation allotment.  There are 8 bank holidays throughout the year in the UK (well this part of the UK), and while most of them are associated with other holidays, like Christmas and Easter, a couple of them are truly nothing but "bank holidays."  So while we don't get Memorial Day in May or Labor Day in September, we do get bank holidays near the same time as each of these, which helps.  I still miss the 4th of July, and especially Thanksgiving, and there is no bank holiday equivalent for those.

For our summer bank holiday weekend (usually the last weekend in August) we enjoyed one last stress-free (school-free that is) weekend as a family.  In true UK fashion we had a wide range of weather, everything from freezing rain to warm sunshine.

On the Saturday we had a family day out in London.  We stopped off at Vauxhall (a station we pass through regularly) to first have a brief James Bond moment with a sighting of the MI6 building, basically the British CIA.

 MI6

 Kayaking on a cold rainy day down the Thames.

 After a visit to the Tate Britain Museum, we walked up the Thames towards the Houses of Parliament for some playground fun in the rain in the shadow (well you could imagine one if it were sunny) of Big Ben.

 Monday, the official bank holiday of this weekend would find us road-trippin' to the seaside with friends.  The weather couldn't have been more amazing (or in more stark contrast to the rest of the rubbish weather that weekend).  When you score with the weather in this country, you score big!  It was a perfect day on the beach with some wonderful friends!  Bournemouth Beach may now very well top my UK best beaches list.

 This post has officially made me summer-sick!  Until the next bank holiday . . .