Uncle Joey, Aunt Kristen, and Troy in London

We had a Nascar load of visitors over from North Carolina. Uncle Joey, Aunt Kristen and Cousin Troy all came to visit us. Thy visited friends in Coventry before coming over to Cheveley for a few days. The kids were in school so they did the Cambridge sites and managed to sneak down to London one day and see the matinee show of Wicked. On Thursday, we threw Joey, Kristen, MJ, and Mags on the train from Cambridge and their Amazing Race quest was to find our hotel in London (since we all couldn't fit in a car together). M&V brought John and Troy in the car with all the luggage. In London, we did the whirlwind tour of the sites. The cousins were mainly interested in playing and would rather play tag around the sites than actually try to learn something. Here they are not paying attention at the Tower of London. They did enjoy Trafalgar Square since they could climb on the Lion statues that are made out of captured canons. We did the hop-on-hop off bus tour (which was great because we have never done it) and also took a boat tour on the Thames. We nipped into the Tate Museum because there was an exhibit that Uncle Joey really wanted to see. John and Troy decided that they would pass the time climbing in the cubes. Boys will be boys.

The weather was cold and a little rainy so the bus and boat were nice and dry but it was nice to see the colors showing that spring was just around the corner. The shot with Joey, Kristen, and Vivian is at St. Paul's Cathedral. The last shot is

from the warm and dry river cruise boat.

Skelton Family Reunion

On our trip to Devon and Cornwall, we were lucky to connect up with a cousin of Marshall's that moved over to the UK 7 years ago. Bobby is a cousin on the Skelton side of the clan. Marie was Arnold's sister and is Bobby's grandmother.

Long story short, Bobby met a wonderful girl in the UK and is now married and lives with Laura and her two girls. We were only lucky enough to meet Ellie as Jade was off to Euro-Disney in Paris. I'd like to say the highlight was walking up to the highest point in Plymouth or even touring the Abbey that was the home of Sir Francis Drake but I would be lying. It was almost the proper English breakfast that Laura cooked for us but that would not exactly be the truth. In all honesty, it was the biscuits and gravy that was the added bonus to the meal. You just can't quite find good ole southern gravy on this side of the pond and it was exactly what was needed to make me homesick for a grandpa Skelton's breakfast.

Tower of London and more

Decided to hit some iconic tourist spots on our passport trip. Of course, most would not count the vaults under the Hard Rock Cafe as a iconic but we decided it would be cool. There were things like Madonna's corset and Sting's guitar. The vault itself used to be a bank vault and the Queen kept her coffers there. Come to find out, they also kept Princess Diana's wedding dress.

We then hopped around other sites like the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. Both were most excellent. It is quite interesting to think that the Tower of London is one of the most famous towers that people think about. But compared to places like Edinburgh and Dover, it really lacks that impressive, hilltop massive size. The history is also quite dark and violent. Tower Bridge is a very cool tour. The engineering that went into it was quite impressive.

Hillsong London

We had to sneak off to London to renew passports and decided to go on Sunday and play the tourist game. One thing that has been on the list for quite some time was to attend Hillsong, a church in London. This is a church that started in Australia and has now planted churches in places like Kiev, Moscow, Paris, New York, Cape Town, and Stockholm. Some of the music we sing in our church in Cambridge and that we sang at PC3 back in Wilmington came out of Hillsong. We went to the Sunday night service at 6:00 PM. They have 4 services on Sunday's at this location and given the day was nice and sunny, we decided to go after dark.





The church meets in one of the West End Theater's where the musical 'We Will Rock You' is staged, which is a Queen musical extravaganza. It is a beautiful theatre that was built in 1928 and seats almost 3000 people. It was a really cool experience and the energy was through the roof. The message and outreach was exceptional as well.

Air Skelton - Chamonix France

Half term was all about shredding up the French Alps. Figured we'd share some shots of the kids getting air. MJ is first. Once we found this really cool place in the trees, this is all the kids wanted to do. Vivian was OK because the trails leading up to this spot were all green and that makes momma happy.










Maggie and Vivian started the week pretty but as the week progressed, Mags started leaving mom behind in powder trails. She was able to tackle some pretty tough red slopes with dad. Red is the color before black in the places we have skied.






Not to be left behind, big John decided that he was good enough to go off trail and ski the trees. He even got a dose of air himself. Least you not believe him, we can go to the super close-up spectra cam. As you can clearly see from the instant replay, there is definitely some air action going on.

Big Marshall would insert some pictures of him getting air but his was a little less air and a little more gravity so we'll just save the pain of those shots.

My Cool Ski Dad

For our February half-term, the whole family went skiing in France. Before mom and dad blog about the stuff we did, I thought I would take a turn at telling you how way cool my daddy is. We all now know how to ski (including mom) and on this trip, he taught me all kinds of cool things. So you know, here is a picture of me and dad at our favorite place to eat in Chamonix, it is called 'The Cave' and it is over 300 years old.

Lesson one: Be careful when you walk on ice in ski boots. Dad warned me that you have to be careful when you are walking. To teach me a lesson, he decided that he would fall on the ice in front of all the people at my ski school.

Lesson two: math and physics on the ski slope. For this lesson, he mentioned something about every action has an equal and opposite reaction. He then wanted me to do some calculations. I had to ask for more help. The story problem goes like this. If a 220 pound American is going down a red slope at probably 20 miles an hour and hits a 4 year old french girl that weighs probably 40 pounds. How far does she travel. Turns out this is a trick question. When dad hit her, she flew about 10 meters. Her skis flew 20 meters. Her poles flew farther. Actually, when you get down to it, the side of the slope looked like a yard sale for ski equipment so I really can't answer that question.

Lesson three: After you almost kill a 4 year old French girl, be nice. Help her pick up all her stuff and put herself back together.

Lesson four: Laughter makes people happy. To do this, dad decided he would fall down one day on the bus. He probably made people from 8 different countries laugh. I am glad he is so friendly and made people so happy. We had a side lesson where we learned about colors. To paint the picture, you have to imagine the color of the banana that you left uneaten in your lunch box. If it was a Friday and your mum didn't find it until Monday morning, it is nice and black and brown and mushy. That was the color of dad's bum after his fall on the bus. The whole family had a good laugh over it.

Lesson five: Independence. This was one of those really tough love lessons. Kind of like teaching a kid to swim by throwing him in a pool. Dad must have decided it was time for me to learn how to ride a chairlift on my own. He decided that he would pick the longest high speed quad we had ridden. It was just the two of us in lift line and he helped me on then as the lift was just heading out of the lift station, dad decided he would fall off so I would have to do the rest by myself. It scared me at first but then I saw the nice lift operator helping dad out of the big pile of snow and dad seemed OK. I then had to pull the safety bar down all by myself and then lift it again at the top of the mountain. Mom and dad were real proud of me.

I am glad my dad is so cool and taught me all these lessons. He said he hopes that he doesn't have to teach me any more skiing lessons because he is still sore from all the lessons from this last week. Plus, mom is laughing at his bum and dad said he doesn't want to practice lesson four anymore.

Maggie's 12 - will we make it?

Having a 12 year old is an experience that the parenting books don't prepare you for. Maggie wanted us all to nip into London for her birthday. It started with lunch at the original Hard Rock Cafe. Quite cool. Especially since one of the founders was from Tennessee. She had to stand up in front of the whole restaurant on a chair while everyone sang to her. Being Hard Rock, it was especially loud.

From there we went to the West End to watch Wicked. Most excellent show. John spent the entire show asking when the wicked witch of the west was going to turn bad. She kept being good during the whole movie. It really was a well done show.

Of course we are still in the middle of the ice age over here so it was quite cold all day. We had to dash from place to place to keep warm. Underground is really not a bad way to get around town in times like this. We nipped down to Canary Wharf but it was so cold, we lasted about 30 seconds and decided to come back in May.

In the last picture, note that we had Flat Stanley come to visit us from our Cousin Macy in Tennessee. This is the third time we have participated in the Flat Stanley youth hostel program.

UK Christmas 2009

Santa came to visit and left us all some nice gifts... We built a fire and enjoyed spending the morning in our family room together.

That afternoon, we went next door to the Downings for a Christmas dinner. We had champagne and appetizers while we played the "Who Am I?" game. Marshall was Jimi Hendrix, MJ was Michael Jordan, Maggie was Hannah Montana, John was Dr. Who and Vivian was Bill Gates. You must ask everyone a question to figure out who you are. Your name is taped to your back so you can read everyone else's name but not your own. This was fun for everyone! Dad was the last to figure his out and his hints were that Uncle Lawton liked him and JJ's dad was a hint as well. Alison prepared a delicious meal for 14. We all had our Christmas crackers which are opened before the meal. They include a crown that must be worn throughout the meal, a joke that must be told during the dinner and a small gift. We came home with a snowflake ornament and a small silver photo frame. The meal included beef, roasted potatoes and gravy, brussel sprouts, broccoli, carrots, red cabbage, butternut squash, and yorkshire puddings. After dinner, we played another game called the Airport game. Each of us was assigned a starting place and we had to fly all over the world and land at Stansted Airport (our nearest airport). The first one who made it to Stansted won the game. The different airports were all over the house and we were all scurrying around trying to figure out our route...Most of us traveled to 13 different countries before arriving at our final destination...A few of us got mixed up and spent more time in the air than the rest of us. John was quite diligent in writing down names of places he'd never heard of and he wanted to play again but with partners next time. It was a fun game and a great way to work off our dinner before dessert...

Dessert consisted of chocolate mousse, amaretto cheesecake, Christmas cake, and Christmas pudding that is lit and you must sing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" while it is flaming.

Then we came home to pack for our trip.....

White Christmas 2009

We awoke to a snow-covered village on Friday, Dec. 17, the last school day before the holidays. Marshall & Maggie missed school that day but John had to walk to school and was NOT very happy about it. We were even tardy because we kept thinking it would be closed...we weren't the only ones and many children didn't come to school that day.

On Christmas Eve, the adults walked up Cheveley's High Street to our local pub, the Red Lion. We met other friends for a few drinks around lunch time. This is a tradition for many of them and we were thankful to be included. Our local pub has been remodeled and it just re-opened this week. Everyone is excited to have a pub serving real food in our village and not just a workman's pub.

Later that day, we gathered the children and walked back up the High Street to St. Mary's Church for the crib service. It is a family service and the children fill the crib throughout the service. John was asked to bring the angel to the crib (manger) and he was the first . The Christmas story was read and we sang a Hymn and then something was added to the crib. Many of John's friends participated in the service. Here is a picture of the crib at the end of the service. It was a beautiful service and a great way to spend Christmas Eve.

We all gathered around the tree and opened one present that evening....Maggie says "It's a tradition that we get to open one gift on Christmas Eve."

Brussels - New Years Eve 2009

Brussels was the last stop on our journey. We just planned one day and would then grab the Eurostar home for the 1st. The building behind us is the Town Hall and they had a spectacular music and light show with all the lights flashing and the colors changing. Dinner was comprised of Belgium waffles from the Christmas market just off the square. While they were not quite on the diet list, they were good.

We made our way towards one of the more famous tourist sites: the Manneken-Pis. It is quite funny the sense of humor here as you would imagine.

We walked past many restaurants and there were multiple displays like this one. Just teasing you to come inside and dig in. From there, we made our way to a festival area where there was a Ferris wheel, ice skating, and all the trappings of a proper Christmas Market.

The most unusual find was one particular street performer that is shown here mid-trick while MJ and John watch. John helped him with some tricks during the show and he struck up a conversation with us as the crowd broke. The funny part was that he was from all the way across the pond in Kentucky. He was an hour and a half from where we lived in Indiana. My how small the world was.

As we tend to be a family that rocks and rolls harder than most on New Years Eve, we figured we would stay up till breakfast and would dine on some most excellent Belgium Waffles. Instead, we were home by 10:00 and Maggie was the only one that actually saw a firework at midnight. She tried to get Vivian up to see them but mom decided she would just stay in her warm bed and could watch the lights reflect off the ceiling. This lasted about thirty seconds and she was back in dream land.

The waffles did get dominated by the Skelton family but it was not after a wild all-nighter in Brussels...