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...
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| 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!
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| 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...).
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| 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...
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| 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!
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| 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...
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| 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...
2 comments:
The Band of Brothers guys, woooo. Someone I know has their own brother, who actually fought in a real war. Didn't see me getting asked for autographs. Amazing.
Of course, in my generation, we didn't sit in an autograph booth, playin' grabass, saying, "Look at me, I stormed a machine gun nest with a leg full of shrapnel." We went over, stuck it in, broke it off, then came back home, and didn't ask for anything.
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