Summer Highlights

Even though it's still 90 degrees outside, by most accounts summer is over. As usual, the summer went way too fast. Here are a few of our highlights:

Family Visits

Both sets of grandparents and one aunt came to visit us this summer! We missed Aunt Bradi, but are excited to see her in a few weeks.

The Beach exhibit at the National Building Museum

Rehoboth Beach

We celebrated my birthday this year at Rehoboth Beach. Zahara LOVED jumping in the waves and playing in the sand. It was such a perfect, relaxing weekend.

Annapolis

The capital of Maryland is only 45 minutes from our house, but we never seem to make it up there. We spent a day up there this summer though and it was fantastic! A boat ride around the bay, fresh blackberries from the farmer's market, and an ice cream to finish...what could be better?

Hanging Around DC

There are tons of fun things to do all around DC, including the National Zoo, the splash fountain in Silver Spring, and chilling at our friends' pool.

Phew...as you can see, it was a busy, fantastic summer. Bring on fall! We've already gone apple and pumpkin picking, so we're ready!

Tour de Harrogate

The years of planning, and months of decorating finally paid off last weekend when Yorkshire hosted the 2014 Grand Depart for the Tour de France. It is already being hailed as "the Grandest Depart," and Members of Parliament are recommending the British organizer for knighthood. The world's top riders cycled 118 miles from Leeds through the Dales to finally finish in Harrogate. And I was there!

It is amazing to see your town broadcast to millions of people worldwide. Harrogate really did itself proud. Everyone got in to the spirit. People painted old bikes yellow and hung them on top of buildings, outside their houses, and on light poles! Yellow; green; and red and white polka dot bunting blanketed the city. And volunteers knitted thousands of tiny jerseys. 

The stray was turned into a giant fan park with huge screens, live music, carnival games, and delicious food.

The finish line was right near Betty's--how fitting. There were so many people that Harrogate was hardly recognizable. 

We walked from our house to the finish line, passing a ton of cyclists who were coming directly from the race opening in Leeds. A couple of different friends were hosting barbecues, so we flitted in an out as we explored the events in town. We watched the actual finish from our friend's house who had a view of the stretch just past the finish line. It got to be too crazy outside (especially with Zoey on our backs), so it was much better for us to watch on the TV. 

I'm so proud of my little town. Way to go Harrogate!

Color Me Rad

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a huge fan of running. I completed one 5K last year, and ran a bit through my pregnancy, but it's generally not my go-to exercise. However, there was always one type of race that looked so fun that even I wanted to join. I'm sure you've seen these too...color runs! This is a race that is purely about having fun. It's not even timed.

Participants wear white shirts to start, and through the course of the race get pelted with various color bombs so that by the end they are covered in a rainbow of colors. The bombs are made from cornstarch, and are completely safe for all ages. Since the race is just for fun, we decided to bring along Zahara and make it a family outing.

We could not have asked for a more perfect day on the spectacular grounds of the Harewood House. We put on our brightly-colored sunglasses and temporary tattoos and made our way to the starting line. The plan was to have Zoey in the stroller with the rain cover on. Around 1K into the race, she decided she did not want to be in the stroller but wanted to be held instead. Good thing the race wasn't timed! There was very little running while carrying our 20-pound baby up giant, grassy hills!

The color stations were set up so that you could avoid the color if you wanted. Dan and I took turns running through the gauntlets, and then bringing Zoey to the edge of the color station so she could get a little bit without it getting in her face. She loved it!

By the end of the race, we were covered in purple, orange, green, yellow and pink. At the finish line, we got blue and red color bombs to throw on ourselves or each other. That was pure chaos! It was an orgy of colors, and we were covered head to toe. 

It was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again when I'm back in the States.

A Day at the Farm

Happy Passover and Easter to you! Dan, Zoey and I spent last week in Paris with my parents and I can't wait to tell you all about it. But first, let me tell you about the day we spent at a working farm a couple of weeks ago.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, springtime in Harrogate just can't be beat--the gorgeous wild flowers on the stray, the almost-neon-yellow rapeseed fields, and of course the spring lambs. Every year the Heartbeat, a charitable organization with which I am involved, sponsors a trip to a farm to bottle-feed the new lambs. I missed it the first year, and last year I couldn't go because pregnant women can't be near lambs. This year I was determined to be there, and I'm so glad I was!

We saw tons of chickens, sheep, cows, rabbits, and of course lambs! We were able to hand-feed the sheep and lambs. Some of the lambs were literally only an hour old.

Zoey wasn't too sure about it all, but she did like the bunnies--especially Betty, who was easily the biggest rabbit I've ever seen.

Just another great day out in Yorkshire!

Winter Visitors

Living abroad has been an absolute dream come true. The only downside is being so far away from family and friends. Dan and I are incredibly lucky to have such great friends though. Over the winter holidays four of our friends come and stay with us. Two couples each stayed a few days, and they overlapped by a day. It was a crazy, super fun time having six adults and one infant running around our house. It was truly joyous.

 

Our first visitors were Jeff and Steph, whom you may remember from our trip to France last Christmas. We caught them just before they moved from England back to Canada, where Jeff got an amazing work opportunity. We spent Christmas in our pajamas, watching great movies (It's a Wonderful Life; A Christmas Story; Elf) and eating delicious food (homemade peking duck!).

We spent Boxing Day touring Fountains Abbey--still one of my favorite places around here. Can you believe the local high school kids use this as their graduation venue?

We sent Jeff and Steph off in the true Yorkshire way...with tea and scones at Betty's.

This was Dani and Brian's first trip to Northern England, but not to Europe. In fact, Dani and I met in Paris for a girls' weekend a couple years back. While in England, they wanted to see castles, so we went to the ruins at Knaresborough, Durham and Skipton. Unfortunately, Durham castle was closed for the holidays, but I was really impressed with the Skipton castle. I can't believe it us so long to visit. It's pretty close to home and is very well-maintained. Though the castle was closed, Durham was still worth the visit. It's such a great little town. And the  inside of the cathedral is absolutely stunning.

Knaresborough; photo courtesy of Brian

Durham; photo courtesy of Brian

Skipton

We also took a hike through Malham Cove. Dan and I have been there once before, in May 2012 when Dan's parents came to visit. I remembered it being a nice walk across fairly flat land. I wouldn't have even described it as a hike--more of a walk. How wrong I was. Not only did I completely forget about the very steep climb up to the top, but I didn't think about how the weather would affect the landscape. All the winter rain made the grass so slippery! Thankfully we all made it--muddy boots and all. It's a gorgeous day out and I would still recommend it, but just approach it with a little more sense than we did.

Photo courtesy of Brian

Photo courtesy of Brian

Photo courtesy of Brian

We had such a great time with our friends. Be sure to read Dani and Brian's write-up on their blog. Thanks so much to Jeff, Steph, Dani and Brian for coming to visit us!  Hope to see you again soon!