Our 1 year Londonversary!

Josh and I officially celebrated our one year Londonversary on December 9th.  Funnily enough, that is the same day that we arrived back to London after our three week visit to the States!  Being in England has been a blessing,  Josh and I have met some really wonderful people and have had the opportunity to see and do some pretty amazing things.  Here's what we have been able to cross off our bucket list...

1. Visit Scotland

2. Eat Haggis

3.  Celebrate Hogmanay (New Years Celebration in Scotland)

4. Be a bridesmaid at my little brother's wedding!

5. Conquering my fear of heights!  Maybe...

6. Eating white fish bait...never again btw...

7.  Eating ice cream in Paris!

8. Kissing my husband on the top of the Eiffel Tower

9.  Riding the Eurostar through the Chunnel!  

10.  Visiting Stonehenge!

11.  Drinking Lambic beer in Brussels!

12.  Eat a real Belgium waffle in Belgium

13.  Take a Canal Ride in Amsterdam

14.  Do other stuff in Amsterdam that I will neither admit or deny...

15.  Visit the Anne Frank House

16.  Visit the Rhine river valley in Germany

17. Eat currywurst

18.  Ride in a cable car!  Very scary for me!

19.  Ate Kangaroo!

20.  Ate a scone with clotted cream and jam (much yummier than Kangaroo!)

21.  Swam in a sea of grass

22.  Visited the white cliffs of Dover

23.  Watched tennis matches at Wimbledon!

24.   Visited Venice and its surrounding islands.

25.  Swam in the Adriatic Sea

26.  Learned how to be a Gondolier! 

27.  Attended the Olympics, London 2012!

28.  Celebrated 10 years of wedded bliss!

29.  Enjoyed the Brighton shore.

30.  Attended the paralympics and visited Olympic park.

31.  Climbed a mountain in the Australian Alps.

32.  Sang "the hills are alive, with the sound of music" in Austria

33.  Ate a pretzel in Salzburg

34.  Celebrated Oktoberfest in London with our favorite Aussie's!

35.  Welcomed my brother and sister-in-law to England (and Hercules too!)

36. Visited the beaches of Normandy with my parents.

37. Went punting in Cambridge

38.  Used a hedgerow as a wind barrier!

39.  Rode on a car ferry!

40.  Visited Cornwall and Wales

This past year has been full of wonderful adventures and we have made some amazing memories.  I can't wait to see what the next twelve months will bring.  We have friends and family planning visits and Josh and I have a few "must see" places to travel this year!  Next up is the Holbrook/Baird Family Christmas at Samanda's in Chippinham.  I am beyond excited about going to visit, hopefully lots of fun and hilarity awaits us.  See you in 2013!

Rachel xoxo

Thanksgiving in the States

Josh and I had the privilege to spend three weeks back "home" over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We really packed in the fun and I'm so happy that we were able to see so much of our friends and family during our visit.  When we flew into Chicago, Josh and I parted ways.  I continued onto Springfield and Josh hopped a train to head straight to his parents house for a week of hunting.

I was greeted at the Springfield airport by my mom, sister and little Hazel.  Hazel literally squealed when she saw me...it was so cute!  Sarah put her down and she ran across the room to give me a great big hug!  It was a great feeling!  Hazel is getting so big and I hate that I am missing out on so much of her early years.  I'm just glad she still knows who I am, thank goodness for skype and facebook!

I look so tired!  Yikes!  Hazel gives the best hugs :)

The night that I arrived in Springfield, two of my aunts, an uncle and my Grandma also arrived in Springfield for a visit.  It was great to see them and we had a lot of laughs over the weekend.  We took a shopping trip to Branson where I found some cute boots and ate a delicious burger (they just don't know how to do it in London!)  

Coffee Family Picture!  My favorite group!

The girls shopping in Branson.

After a weekend in Springfield, I rented a car and drove the five hours to Josh's parents house.  They live about 30 minutes outside of Quincy, where Josh and I grew up.  I still have a ton of family in the area, so I spent the week visiting friends and family.  We had a wonderful dinner with a bunch of our old high school friends at 2Thirty4, a restaurant that one of our friends owns.  We also had dinner and drinks with our favorite Texas duo, Jamie and Ben.  I spent one night at my granny's and had lunch with some cousins, aunts and uncle.

Josh and Ben

Jamie and I

Josh and I spent Thanksgiving day with his family at the farm.  It was a delicious meal...mmm....turkey!  We had our Christmas exchange that night and took our annual family picture!  Josh and I got reacquainted with our little doggie Harley while visiting Josh's mom.  Harley is quite spoiled by Mary Ann and Jeff, they take really good care of him!  Harley has lost weight and gets long walks every day, not to mention the run of the house and lots of yummy treats.  What a lucky dog!  

The Baird/Henderson Family!

Josh and I on the farm.

Josh enjoying all the space!  Can't get this in London!  

After a week in Quincy, Josh and I headed back to Springfield.  Josh had only a few days in town before he was off to Seattle and Las Vegas for work.  I spent the rest of my time in Springfield with a little side trip to Bentonville Arkansas for a night.  The night after we arrived back in Springfield we Christmas with my family.  Josh and I got Hazel a scooter, she loved it!

Hazel is so excited for her new scooter and princess helmet!

Me and my sister!

Hazer and Uncle Josh

I used to have a Christmas cookie exchange every December when we lived in Missouri.  It was always so much fun and the array of delicious cookies exchanged every year was awesome!  Since we were able to visit somewhat close to Christmas, I decided to resurrect the tradition at my mom's house.  We had a great turnout of Springfield friends and we added a couple of cute little decorators to our invite list!

Some of the beautiful Christmas treats!

Our cute little bakers!  

 I also had the chance to visit with some of the kiddos I used to nanny and babysit for.  They are all growing up so fast and I am so glad I had the chance to catch up with them and their moms!

Amelie and Hazel giving hugs.  This was the best pic I had of them...they are too fast to catch on camera!

The Scarrow kids.  They are all so tall and grown up!

I took a short Hazel free trip with mom and Sarah to visit "Aunt" Pat and "Uncle" George in Bentonville (land of all things Wal-mart).  We had lots of laughs, especially over my "bowl" of soup from PF Changs...

This "bowl" of soup could have fed 4 people!  

On our last full day in town, we went bowling!  It was Hazel's first time and she loved it!  We could have used some bumpers...we were not good at all!

The girls table.

The boys table.

Me and my good friend Marla!

Love my mom and sister!

Hazel bowling for the first time!

While it felt like we were in the States a long time, it went too fast and before we knew it, it was time to head back to London.  Thanks so much to everyone who made our trip so memorable and enjoyable!  Every minute with our friends and family was wonderful!  Love you all and can't wait to see you all again soon!

Rachel xoxo

Us girls being silly!