England 2012 (Part 3) A Day at the Zoo

Gosh, I can't remember the last time I visited the zoo - it must have been when I was 12 or 13 years old.  As a family, we'd always make the trek to Asheboro or Columbia once a year.  Hopefully Steve and I can carry on that tradition with our little family.

We made plans with one of Steve's good friend - Richard, his wife Vickie and their adorable little boy Matthew (almost 2 years old) before we left for England to take a trip to Twycross Zoo.  I was so pumped!  Lottie is really into books right now and almost all of her books have animals in them.  She absolutely adores BEARS (don't ask...) and thinks everything is a bear.  She points at all the animals in her books and says Bear!  BEAR - another one of her first words!  Hilarious! 

Unfortunately, there were no bears at this zoo!  :(  As I said in a previous post, the weather was pretty chilly while we were over.  Me being Mom of the Year didn't bring Lottie's heavy coat (Idiot) so we resorted to a lot of layering and blankets when we were out and about. 

We met Rich, Vickie and their son Matthew at 11:00 a.m. and from there we started exploring...............

When we first walked through the gate.......

Monkeys

Check out this little cutie!!  So sweet!

This Monkey was enjoying a cucumber!

I can't even remember what this was.......  some sort of strange breed.....

Lottie checking out the donkeys which I called mini ponys and got quickly corrected by a laughing Steve saying those are donkeys Tonya - come on!  :)

Bear, Bear, Bear

It's a Giraffe (in a cage), no but in a really small area!

Look Dada!

I'm not sure if it was just me, but I thought the elephants and giraffes were kept in pretty tight quarters. 

Family Portrait

Take two........

Lottie's future English boyfriend!!!  They were so sweet!

Yes, my child is wearing no shoes - pretty sure she ripped them off and may or may not have tried feeding them to the animals

Penguins

No Clue - Fox breed?????

Matthew and Vickie

HUGE turtles

After all the excitement, this little lady was tuckered out!

But she's back.........  Tea time at the cafe!

We had such a blast with Rich, Vickie and Matthew!  They are such a sweet family.  After a long day, we headed for the gift shop.  Steve bought Lottie an elephant toy!

I am so looking forward to another visit to the zoo - hopefully we can make it to Columbia later this year! 

Up Next: Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!

England 2012 (Part 2) A Sunday Afternoon in Whitwick

A Sunday afternoon in Whitwick is like going back in time........ the 1980s to be exact!  These folks are TRUE characters.  They all LIVE and BREATHE rock and roll!

Since I've known Steve, he has always been a rock fan.  He's probably seen every 80s rock band two or three times in his lifetime to say the least. 

While Steve has changed his look quite a bit from the 1980s (well, he's decided he will wear nothing but jerseys now), the Whitwick crew hasn't changed a bit. 

I so look forward to the Sunday afternoon drinking session with these people every year.  Honestly, it is like being at a rock concert.  Once the sun goes down and the jukebox gets going, it is a full on show.  Probably the greatest thing about these people is there is NO falseness, NO pretentiousness - they are honest, hard working, kind, generous and loving people. 

I can't tell you how much I've grown to love these people!

Steve with his grade school buddies

Aftershock - Warm!!!!!  Ugghhhh

(The English rarely do shots and when they do, they are warm and gross - I do my best to avoid them)

Johnny and I

Mackey, me and Stan the Man

Steve, Thiss and John

Lee and Emily

(Almost Newlyweds)

Me and the Big Guy

Sharon and I

Steve and Mr. and Mrs. Thistleton

The Crew before the sun goes down..........

And here we go......... 

Steve is feeling it........

Yep, that's it - clearly it's time to go home!

As always, we had the best time hanging w/ the Whitwick crew!!!  It is truly too bad this only happens once a year because it is one of our favorite days out! 

Up next...........Lottie's first trip to the zoo!!

England 2012 (Part 1) We're making Yorkshire Puddings

Our trip to England went GREAT!!!  As always, it is so nice to see and visit with friends and especially Steve's family.  I can't imagine what it must feel like for Steve to be so far away from his parents and only able to visit with them once a year.  Sure, there is Skype and phone calls every week, but that doesn't compare to spending quality time with them. 

I had sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much anxiety about the flight!!!  There is only one flight a day that flies from Charlotte to London (non-stop).  It leaves at 6:25 p.m. and lands at 7:30 a.m. (England time) which means it is 2:30 a.m. here.  Normally we are able to catch a few zzzzzzzzzz before landing but this time was much different.  I did the brunt of the holding and watching over Lottie.  She was a lap seat purchase which meant she sat on our laps.  Looking back, I think she did okay.  She definitely had a couple of melt downs and cried for a solid 30 minutes about an hour into the flight (awesome!!!) but overall considering the surroundings, etc., she did fine. 

Once we land in London, we have to get through customs, baggage check and finally get to the rental car area.  From there, we have about a 2.5 hour drive north to Steve's parent's house.  Under normal circumstances we are to say the least TIRED - and that's with a couple hours of sleep.  This time around, there was no sleep whatsoever!!!  About an hour into the drive, I thought for sure Steve was going to pass out at the wheel.  As soon as we reached the "services" I jumped out, bought him a chicken and mushroom pie, a 5 hour energy and the biggest red bull I could find.  Once he inhaled that, we managed to make it to Whitwick - our final destination.

Whitwick is a small village in Leicestershire, England.  It was once an old mining village.  It was also once in the Guiness Book of Records for having the most pubs in so many square feet.... (I'll have to double check w/ Steve on that). 

Once we arrived, the grandparents were outside and waiting to see their granddaughter.  They were so excited!  And we were so excited to see the looks on their faces.  When we went over last year, Lottie was only 7 weeks old, so as you can imagine, this time around was much different!!

Our first day there (Friday) was spent having fish and chips, napping, drinking lots of tea and playing with the g-parents.  I was too tired to even take photos!  After a long day, we finally got to bed and the three of us slept until 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.  Needless to say, we all had major JETLAG!!!

On Saturday, we took it easy and hung with Steve's parents, went out to lunch and came back for a much needed cup of tea!  You absolutely can NOT beat a cup of tea in England.  Steve and I must have 4 or 5 cups of tea a day.  I could do a whole blog on tea time!  :)

On Saturday night, Steve, his mate Rich and I all ventured out to the Nottingham Panthers hockey game.  They were in the play offs and well, we all know how much Steve loves his hockey!!

Yes, Steve in one of his many jerseys!!! 

My first pint in England (Carling is my fav)

On Sunday, Steve's mom made a "proper" English dinner which always consists of beef, roasted or mashed potatoes, veggies and yorkshire pudding.  Over the years, I have really grown to love it.  It is that perfect Sunday dinner you crave that you used to have as a kid after church on Sunday.  Steve's mom is the PRO at cooking yorkshire puddings.  She claims the longer you leave it out and not messed with, the better it will rise.  The most important thing to know about cooking a yorkshire pudding is once it goes into the oven, you MUST leave it alone - DO NOT open the oven door or it will never turn out right. 



The finished product

This is Lottie's plate - large enough for a 6 or 7 year old child.  Yep, this is what Janet brought in for Lottie.  I had to laugh!!

Ready for her Sunday dinner!

After eating that large dinner, we took a little walk around the village

I guess I should mention it was FREEZING while we were over!  I did such a poor job of packing for Lottie and I!

We couldn't not get Lottie an ice cream!!

Lottie enjoying her ice cream back at her g-parent's house

After our Sunday dinner and relaxing with Steve's parents, we walked to the local pubs to meet some of Steve's childhood friends he went to school with..........  I'll save that post for tomorrow!  It needs it's own post!  :)