Oh, yah - the drawing is mine! I've been taking art classes to help maintain my sanity as a work from home type... Its been a lot of fun and I have a few items that I'm actually kind of proud of (this isn't one of them...) ahahahaha
My first ever watercolor! From picutre of a poppy field just outside our village
Globetrotters unite - the Collins' at Heathrow's new Terminal 5
Pikes Peak from our Hotel
Yes there were 4 trips to Target for everything from toothbrushes to clothes for the girls to goldfish crackers to eyeshadow... Then there was a full day at the Flat Irons Mall (OMG, what a fab mall!!! Maybe I'll live there when we move back...), a trip to Best Buy, Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx. And that was all in the first two days! I bought so much stuff that we needed to get an extra bag just to bring everything back to the UK in!
Shopping with GrandmaAnd the food! Oh my - Three Margaritas, Pei Wei, PF Changs, Chik-fil-a, Outback, Red Robin, and even a few LOVELY home made meals: A mini-wild game feed (mmmm antelope and pheasant!) courtesy of Tom and Lorraine Thorson, World famous chili rellenos at Jeff and Sue Slavens', and lasagne at Kari and Josh's place - A HUGE thanks to you guys for your hospitality - we LOVED it!!!
Mexican Food with the "gang" - the spooky dude in the hoodie is actually my 12 year old nephew - Hi Kieran!We stayed in Denver the first 3 nights in Colorado to hang (read "Shop") with my mom and sister, then we cruised to Colorado Springs to spend time with friends and Pat's bro, Adrian - oh yah, and to work...
The Embassy Suites in the north end of town was fantastic! We got a smokin deal on a 2 room suite - it was nice because we could put the girls to bed and then be out in the front room watching TV or working without keeping them up (trust me, they needed their sleep!). We finally got over (I use the term "over" very loosely...) the Jetlag by the time we go to the Springs - the first 3 days we were in America we were all up, and I mean up and awake and ready to go at 3am - oh that totally sucked...
The pool at the Embassy
Eating out is EXHAUSTING (Zoe fell asleep before we got to our hotel almost every night we were gone zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) Andrea and I are enjoying ourselves and our VICTORIA FILET - oh, makes my mouth water just thinking of it - sigh... 
The all new Toyota Sequoia -Jawa Sandcrawler Edition Anyway, the hotel was fab - for $89/night we got the 2 room suite, indoor swimming pool and hot tub, free cooked breakfast each morning - PANCAKES (they do not have Ihop or anything like that over here, so we were THRILLED over the pancakes :)) AND free cocktails and snacks every evening- come to think of it, maybe I'll live at the Embassy Suites when we get back...ahahahaha
Having said all of that, my FAVORITE part of the trip was seeing all of our old friends... we invited everyone to happy hour at Old Chicago's on the Friday night and I could not believe the turn out! It makes me tearful just to think about it! I hadn't realized how much I had really missed our friends, and it meant the absolute WORLD to me that so many people showed up!!! It was funny because we had two separate parties going on - one in the bar upstairs (which is where we were originally ALL supposed to hang out) and another one in the restaurant downstairs for the folks that brought their kids (we thought kids were allowed in the bar til 8pm but we were wrong - I was very grateful to Old Chi's for accomodating us - they set up big table for us in the restaurant so the people with kids could stay :)) We did not bring Audrey and Zoe with us - I know they would have loved to see all of the other children, and I feel a bit bad, but in the end it was better that they weren't there because it was a late night, and I really enjoyed being able to focus on catching up with my friends...
Monkeying around at Fox Run Park after visiting the house - it was so weird to see other people living in OUR house! they are doing a great job tho - couldn't ask for better tenants!!
Pat at Palmus (Palmer Park - he knows the trails as well as the back of his own hand)It was interesting being back in the States for a while - the differences in the two cultures were really highlighted to me... like Pat kept saying, America is like bloody Disneyland! Everywhere you go there is a store or a mall or a restaurant - any of which I would be quite happy to go into and buy something... The old shopoholic in me sprung to life IMMEDIATELY, completely overthrowing the 12-step program I had struggled through to beat my shopping impulses (ok, it wasn't a 12 step program, but shopping in the UK is kinda like rehab - like going to a bar with no booze or a casino with no slot machines... It is no place for a shopping addict to be sure).
Other obvious differences? Cheap gas, food and booze, really good showers, no proper ale, fresh dry air (and I use the term "air" very loosely - my lord we ran from the bar to our hotel one night and my lungs were absolutely burning with oxygen deprivation! Its going to be hell getting back to aerobic condidion there after eating the air over here!!), blue sky, super bright sunshine ( I felt like I'd been living in a cave for the last year; the sun seemed SO very intense in Colorado!).
Its not really fair to compare the two places because they are both so totally wonderful (they both have their ridiculous bits too, btw...) in their own ways... I feel so extrodinarily lucky to be able to call both Colorado Springs and Brixworth "home". It was a relief to not feel like a total alien when we were in Colorado - everything felt just as it had before we left - I was worried I would feel like a stranger in a strange land, but it was fine! The thing that bothered me the most is how far away my memories of England seemed - I am more determined than ever to tuck as many English and European experiences under my belt as I can over the next year - I don't want this to seem like a far off dream when we go back, I want to keep it real and keep all of my new friends close - its been too cool of a thing to let it fade away...
The Peak from Quantum PPO facility
We got home this past Saturday, and the jetlag is sooooooo much worse coming this way - we've all been up til midnight every night and getting up in the mornings is such hell... We are desperate to get caught up on our rest though, because Pat's bro Adrian and Adrian's lovely girlfriend Andrea are coming for a visit this week! we will meet up with them this weekend in London, and then they are going to spend a few days driving around the English and Welsh countrysides, then they will come and stay with us in Brixworth!
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