Never Say Goodbye...

So here we are, back in Colorado... Been here just over a month now and are settling in little by little... Its been a rough road but we are getting there.

Let me just start by saying what a fantastic experience we had while living in the UK - I really wish there were words to describe how amazing it was... on sooooo many levels, it was so great! We grew closer as a family, learned just how far we can push ourselves (pretty damn far, btw!). We absorbed so much incredible history, learned how to live in a totally different way than we had become so accustomed to in the US, and best of all, we have made some lifelong friends who are from all over the globe! We brought home many treasures from our European travels, but the thing that means the most to me is all of our new friends...

Oh it was SO hard to say goodbye to all of our WONDERFUL friends in Northampton - I cried everyday after we returned from our road trip to Germany etc... it was one goodbye after another - parties for the girls, dinners with friends, and a night out at The George... I cannot tell you how much I will miss living in England - even for all the times that I winged about missing "home", in many ways Brixworth was home for us, and I think I realized it too late - DAMN!

Never say goodbye

Click on the photo above to see more pix


I think the hardest part about leaving in such a rush was the saying "goodbye" to the people... When we arrived in England, we were all about the go go go go, see, see, see, see, do, do, do,do... The first weekend after we arrived, we went to Warwick Castle and there were very few weekends subsequent to that where we didn't go to try and see something... Somewhere along the way, we started making friends... not just mere aquaintences, but real friends - and as we were making our preparations to move back to the States, we realized that we hadn't spent enough time with our friends... I so regret that - it really was so hard to leave the people, I just can't put into words how much I treasure the relationships we forged while in England - I promise to stay in touch and I guarantee we will be back as soon as we can for a visit!

As I said, we are adjusting to being "home" again - its a bit of a shock to the system to be honest, and we are hard pressed to find anyone who really understands what we are going through... In many ways its as hard readjusting to life in the US as it was to adjust to life in the UK! More on that later...


It is late, so I'll sign off for now - I know I owe a lot more details and pix - I just have so damn many pix and so much to say that I get overwhelmed and just actually do nothing...

Cheers!

News...

Oh we had such a great holiday! I promise to get some pix and stuff in here soon!

For those of you who don't know, we have recently learned that we have to move back to Colorado in Mid September and we are going crazy trying to get everything done!

Pat is already back in Colorado and will be returning to collect the rest of us on the 13th and we will be flying back to Colorado on the 19th - its all happening very fast and its incredibly overwhelming...

We all have very mixed emotions about going home - we are partly excited and partly devistated. This has been a brilliant experience for all of us, and we are very sad to see it end. We have met some amazing people and seen some amazing things - just can't believe its over and don't want to say goodbye...

Anyway, I'll try to get my act together this week with stories and photos from our fantastic road trip to the Continent - stay tuned!

Oh My God - things are going CRAZY!!! I'm sorry I don't have time to write much, but I wanted to post some pix real quick. Last weekend we went to Hampton Court Palace - the very famous home of Henry VIII among other monarchs - I had been dying to see the place, so it was good to finally get there! It is a MASSIVE complex and there are a few rooms which have been pretty well preserved from the Tudor time period - its particularly cool because it is the 500th anniversary of ol' Hank's coronation. Don't know if you all know about him, but he was a bit of a bastard... you should read up on it - fascinating stuff!

You can just click on the pix and go to the web album.

Hampton Court Palace Aug 09

Weekend before last we decided to have an overnight in London... As usual we crammed in as much as we could... we stayed on the South bank near Shakespear's Globe Theatre - a very nice area, loads to do and see... We visited the Science and Natural History museums - both absolutely FANTASTIC! Also went to Camden Locks to look at all the crazy people and check out the market - I LOVE that place!!!

London July 2009

Anyway, that's all I've got for now - I'll be back in a couple of weeks with more!

Your Local Sports Page + Zoe turns FIVE!

Sorry mates, I know it's been a while again... Not sure how I'm going to compete with Adrian's recent blog on the big Ainsworth 20 year reunion, but I'll do my best.

NOTE: Clicking on the photos below will take you to a web album with loads more snaps.

Most importantly, our baby Zoe turned five on the 23rd of June - I honestly do not know where the last 5 years have gone- Zoe is so proud to be 5 too - for her it means she is a big girl now, although I think she struggles a bit with not being a baby anymore. We've had more emotional outbursts from her in the last month than we have in the last 4 years! Oh well, either way we are so proud of her and the young lady she is becoming...

Zoe's 5th Birthday

We also had school sports day (kinda like track and field day). Not exactly like I remember it - they do this thing with teams so that no one has to feel bad when the lose... I say when better to learn about disappointment and competition than in primary school?! Seriously - it was really lame... and it was so FLICKING HOT! Of course we all bitched and moaned about how hot it was and how they didn't have enough water for the kids, and oh, they really should have cancelled the event, and if there was just a bit of a breeze... of course the next week it rained every day and I was nearly suicidal due to all of the drastic weather changes, and my poor children did not stand a chance of surviving my mood swings - ughug!

Sports Day Brixworth Primary 2009

We've had a couple of very busy weekends with birthday parties and backyard barbecues, but in between those we went to a British motocross race - first time ever taking the kids - much fun was had by all! We spent the Saturday in Shrewsbury which was having a carnival and parade and stuff. While there we visited the castle and abbey, which were somewhat unimpressive compared to the other stuff we've seen here in England - one very cool thing about Shrewsbury is all of the half timber buildings all about (easily4-600 years old...).

Iron Bridge &Shrewsbury 2009

Spent the night in our favorite hotel chain Premier Inn and then headed out to the races on Sunday... it was a warm and sunny day and the track was in a great location - lots of trees and places for kids to play - it was also great because it was a relatively smallish event compared to the massive European races Pat and I have been to, so it wasn't crowded and annoying - people could actually go to the toilet without waiting in a cue for 30 minutes, and the rubbish was all in trash cans and not strewn all over the venue...

British MX June 2009

To be honest, I have no idea who the guys were racing, but I took the opportunity to practice taking motorsport photos - not easy - I have lots of blurry crappy shots, especially when I took the camera off of the "auto" setting... I have a few that turned out ok, but I still have a long way to go before being published in Racer X...

Over the 4th of July weekend we went to a local village which holds a Steam Rally and Large Horse Show - all kinds of fantastic old steam machines and gorgeous horses- made me think a lot of my grandfather - he was passionate about steam engines and horses - word up Gramps!

Also lots of classic vehicles of all sorts, cars, caravans and, of course, motorcycles... Loads for the kids to do too - bouncy castles, a fun fair, circus acts, etc. It was a wonderful day out - with good weather to boot - can't beat that!

Hollowell Steam Rally July 2009

This past weekend we were psyched for the Duxford Airshow - all WWII themed, it was amazing! I could not believe what I was seeing! First an American air museum full of American military aircraft - we were grateful for this museum as it was a bit wet as the day started out - we were all a bit worried because the "ceiling" was low and it was drizzly and crappy. But as the morning wore on it warmed and brightened up - perfect weather for an airshow! We saw Spitfires and P-51 Mustangs, B-25s, a B-17, some Piper Cubs, a Messerschmidt, and some other bad ass German fighter, then some Soviet military air craft, some aerobatics, bi-planes, tri-planes - it was really incredible. Another really amazing thing is that one of the stalls had 4 of the original Band of Brothers signing autographs, including Malarchy and Buck Compton! sosososososos cool - it was so surreal to see these real American heroes sitting there right in front of me - I was awestruck... Pat spoke to them and got their autographs - amazing...

Duxford Airshow July 2009

Yesterday we went to a Folk Music Festival in the village up the road from ours - it was another really nice day out - more relaxing (much needed!) I took in the music and a couple of pints of proper English cider - dang, that stuff packs a wallop - it was a spirtual experience drinking it... I think I even saw the disembodied legs of a woman with red knickers and black stockings floating above me at one point - weird...

CHUFFED!!!!

God, I've been wanting to say that since the first time I heard it! I am absolutely 'over the moon' (another favorite saying of mine) because I PASSED MY UK DRIVING TEST today!!!

And I didn't just pass - I aced the baby - no faults WHATSO-FLIPPING-EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

You would not have wanted to be around me these last weeks since I passed my theory test and scheduled my practical exam... Every driving lesson felt like a driving test that I was failing - just the thought of being judged on my driving made my heart race and my blood pressure rise - my lord I've been such a basket case I don't know how anyone has been able to put up with me!!!

Thanks to all of my friends who told me I could do it, and to my family for believing in me even when I didn't!

Now I need to get down to some details on our trip to Greece - but first, I have to crack open that bottle of wine from Provence that I've been saving for a special occasion!

Cheers!

A Little R & R in LOVELY Crete

From Mamma Mia- The Collins UK Experience goes to Greece

Sigh... after a week of sun and sand and eating my weight in tomatoes, olives and cucumbers, I am very relaxed and happy... yet sad because we had to leave one of the most lovely places I've ever been...

Please note above that you can click on the link below the photo to view my Picasa photo album from our trip to Crete.

I promise to write more later, but I wanted to get the photos up for you all to enjoy.

Yamas (Cheers in Greek :))

Bloody Hell - How Did I Get So Far Behind?????

Good Lord! I am sooooo far behind! Between bloody relatives visiting (kidding!) and milestone birthdays and weekends away and just life, I haven't taken much time to collect my thoughts and make a posting... So sorry to those of you who try to visit the blog regularly :(

So here it goes - let me try to summarize the last couple of months...

Once we came back from our visit to Colorado, Adrian (Pat's "funny" brother) and Andrea (our awesome friend and dental hygienist - also happens to be "funny" brother's girlfriend) came out for a visit. We met up with them in London and spent a weekend hanging out with them, then the following weekend they came out to Northampton and spent a couple (thank God it wasn't longer than that- I can only take so much "funny", you know?!) of days with us.

Hello...
Tower Bridge

ahhhh the love

Chapel in Tower of London

Auds and Pops at Tower of London

The "Gherkin" from Tower of London

motor

Partying in Stratford on Avon with Andrea and Adrian

Seriously though, we had a great time with them - we all get on really well and it was cool having family out to see where we live and what its like for us here - I think they enjoyed themselves - they are threatening to come back again before we move back to the States...

The next weekend was my birthday and Pat surprised me with a weekend at Whittlebury Hall - a hotel and day spa. He kept the girls and me and a friend spent the weekend relaxing, getting massages, sitting in the whirlpool, reading by the swimming pool, drinking too much wine and doing it all over again the next day - it was a wonderful surprise - I loved every minute of the non stop pampering!

Whittlebury Hall - Hotel and Spa

Me and my friend Yvette having dinner after a lovely day of relaxation

The Spa

It's really weird being 40 - its like there is no room left to be considered "young" I mean, I know its just a number, and 40 is the new 30 and all of that crap, but still, it's really a milestone and it was a bit hard to accept. I mean at this stage, you aren't really "old", but you aren't exactly "young" either - I'm not exactly having a mid-life crisis or anything, but you do start to think about things differently somehow... anyway...
The weekend after that we traveled to Kent and visited a few castles (Scotney Castle and Bodiam Castle), went to the site of the Battle of Hastings where William the Conqueror killed King Harold and

Scotney Castle in Kent - LOVELY

Scotney Castle - the main 18th Cent house

Scotney Castle - the ruined 14th century Castle - like a dream!

Big tree and girls at Scotney


More Scotney

More Scotney
became the first Norman King of England - fantastic! We spent the night in Dover and visited Dover Castle the next day - we had a warm clear day and it was brilliant! Dover castle has its origin during William the Conqueror and was in use through WWII! There are all of these cool underground tunnels that the British used during the war to plan the rescue at Dunkirk as well as other important ops during the War. There was also a hospital located underground there - its the damnedest thing seeing windows right in the white cliffs of Dover!

Bodiam Castle

Attack of the killer ducks at Bodiam Castle - they heard Audrey crinkling a crisp packet and the lot of them came RUNNING! Hilarious!
From Dover we popped up to Canterbury and visited the cathedral there... Canterbury was a very important religious center for the nation for many centuries.

More Bodiam

Dover Castle

Medieval tunnels at Dover Castle

Medieval Tunnels at Dover

WWII Era tunnels at Dover

WWII installation at Dover Castle

There were also a set of Medieval tunnels at the other end of the castle which also have a very interesting history.


From Dover we popped up to Canterbury and visited the cathedral there... Canterbury was a very important religious center for the nation for many centuries. The Archbishop or Canterbury was historically a very powerful man - sort of the "Pope" of Britain - of course that was until the Tudor reformation of the church, when Henry the VIII became the reigning religious and secular leader of the country. The cathedral itself is stunning - when we went inside there was a service on and the choir was singing - it was a truly beautiful experience - even for a tremendously agnostic person such as myself, it was an unearthly experience - just beautiful...

Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury Cathedral

Elizabeth I in stone at Canterbury

Fan Vaults inside Canterbury Cathedral

The following weekend we stayed pretty close to home - only venturing out to Cannock Chase so Pat could go for a mountain bike ride - the kids had a play at the park and we hiked around while I played with my DSLR camera learning some fun little tricks - but, oh, I have so much to learn!

Then it was suddenly Easter weekend and my sister was on her way for a weeklong visit.

I'll make a separate posting about that visit as this one is getting a bit LONG!

I hope all of you are doing well - we think of all of you all often and miss you always!!!