Ello, From England!

We've been hanging around England! If you thought London is where the good stuff is at, you are sadly mistaken.... BATH is the place to be, and that is exactly where we have been hanging around with Our Family from Across the Pond! It was been just wonderful meeting the family that we have been talking to through the internet for some time now. I have more pictures with the family, but they are on the other disk that I do not have at the moment.

At the Roman Baths. This place is absolutely beautiful. It really is spectacular, and well worth a visit of your time. It was actually open for swiiming until just a few years ago when a young girl caught a virus of sorts. The problem has been fixed, but for safety- they no longer allow any swimming.

Here - I am at the Roman Bath- but behind me is an old church that is just beautiful.

We had to stop and see the GEORGE - one of the oldest and lopsided pubs in England. BOB gave us a wonderful history lesson, and showed us where the men were taken out and hung. This is actually an church behind Chris, but he is in the parking lot for The George.

Yes, we HAD to go see Stonehenge. They've blocked it off so you can't next to the stones anymore, so Chris didn't get the chance to see if he could knock them over like CLARK in European Vacation (lol seriously- he would never had done that!) Not sure what we expected, but it was pretty much exactly what you see in photos and movies, though the audio makes the tour so much more interesting.

We also drove out to Salisbury - and toured the Salisbury Cathedral. The craftsmanship is just ridiculous when you think about how long ago it was all built. BOB - told us about the mason's and we searched and searched for a mason's mark on the stones, but we never did find one.

This is MOM and ANN inside.

It is rainy and cold, so K and I stayed at the hotel in London while Chris and mom got everything ready at the train station. Share more later.

Being an Aunt & Uncle

Let me be honest – There are a million things I have aspired to do, but not many have given me the joy that being Aunt Lulu/Aunt Lala has. Chris and I love each of our nieces and nephews as much as we love our darling Katelyn, and it has always been important to us that we be an active part of their lives even though we live several (or 16) hours away from them. The past two weeks have been a great blessing for me. Being a stay-at-home mom has provided me with an opportunity to spend quality time with both of my sister’s children while they were on Spring Break from school.

  

Last week had Rachel and Ashley. We took them bowling, swimming, to watch Hunger Games, and to a Japanese Steak House. Unfortunately, the weather was too cold that week to do much outside, but we managed to squeeze in a few hours at the beach. The water was freezing, but we all (minus Katelyn) put our feet in at least, and the girls built a castle and mickey mouse in the sand.

We drove them to Casi and Shane’s house where Grandma and Grandpa took them home after we celebrated Austin and Casi’s birthdays.

This week we have Austin and Devon. We have taken them to the beach to run in the sand, played in the yard, went out for lots of ice cream, and to several parks to play. We also planted a Vegetable Garden in the back yard with the starter plants Chris had going in the kitchen. We toured Barker Mansion and learned quite a bit about the history of Michigan City in the process, and the boys (plus Katelyn) sat at the table and worked on building different inventions from a kit we bought at the store. Tonight, we plan on going on bowling (but may work on Devon's Chemistry experiment), and tomorrow we will be dropping them off at Grandma’s house. We may or may not make a stop in Chicago on the way- we’re going to see how the day goes before we decide.

It is the best feeling in the world to know that Chris and I are a positive influence on our younger family members. All of the children have been a big with help with Katelyn this week. The girls loved on her every second she was awake, and the boys play with her often - giving me time to get on the computer or clean the house. We love these rug rats sooo much, and can't wait to spend time with each of them again this summer.

...now to get our hands on Makenna, Matthew, and Andrew..... (Robert and Jenny are teenager teenagers...maybe we can get them to Kings Island this year.)