Easter at the Grovers house

We have meet some great friends here in England and we were able to celebrate Easter with them this year.  Thank you to the Grovers for opening up their house to us on such a beautiful Easter weekend.  Below you will see all the fun we had.  You may notice a lack of pictures of the boy child.  That was because he was back at home with Daddy fighting a cold.  Alyssa and I still had a great time with our friends.  Please enjoy the pictures below...

A couple of beautiful pictures of Alyssa.  She was dressed in purple and ready for all the Easter fun.  

BEAUTIFUL!

(I enhanced the color on this picture)

Coloring eggs is lots of fun!

Alyssa and Carson making their eggs beautiful. 

Next we decorated bunny cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

We enjoyed eating the decorations before they even made it to the cookie. 

The Easter Bunny hide some eggs while we were decorating our cookies and here we are waiting for the moms to let us go find them. 

Lots of ground to cover.  It was a race!

The Easter Bunny got clever hiding those eggs.  Alyssa was very good at finding eggs. (I think she has done this before)

We filled our basket - Yeah!

Enjoying some of the goodies the Easter Bunny put in the eggs. 

Last we had a "egg on the spoon" race.  The kids had a blast although they didnt really get the idea.  (The eggs may have made it to the ground a time or two or five...)

A time where the egg was actually on the spoon.  It was funny how wrong they were doing this race but how much fun they were having. 

3 Diplomats & 1 Tourist (London / Hyde Park)

On Thursday, April 21st, we had to make our way to London to apply for our civilian travel passports.  We took our first trip on the tube (pictures below) and went to the U.S. Embassy.  

You may be wondering about the title of this post and this will explain it all.  We stood outside the Embassy to get called to the security check point.  The security guard asked to see our ID's.  At that time the kids and myself had our official passports and AJ only had his civilian passport.  When the security guard looked at our ID's he made the comment that the kids and I were Diplomats and AJ was a tourist.  The three of us were able to skip the security check point and take in my cell phone and camera (tourists had to check all electronics in).  AJ had to get scanned and they even handed me his car key because I was able to take it in and he wasn't.  They treated the kids and I like we were high profile people and AJ like a regular civilian.  It was the funniest thing I have experienced in the longest time.  Even when we left a security guard that didn't check us in asked if we had any items check and the other security guard was like "oh no they are okay, you have a great day".  LOL  The rest of the day I made sure AJ remembered we were better than him (even though we are here because of him).  

Below are pictures of our trip to London and Hyde Park, enjoy...

Had to start to morning trip to London with some London fog.

Alyssa acting like a local on the tube..too funny. 

Asher's first trip on the tube...not sure of it at first. 

Alyssa relaxing on the tube..it lost its "Wow" factor pretty fast. 

AJ and Alyssa enjoying some lunch under a tree in Hyde Park and Asher enjoying his afternoon nap in the stroller.  The day had the most beautiful weather. 

Playing together on the grass in Hyde Park.  Blending in with the locals .

Loving the brother.  Too cute.

LOL..doesnt need any explanation.  

I just love how he sits up so straight.  I hope to learn from him and stop slouching. 

Not sure if any of you know that we don't have a little girl we have a  doggie, kittie, lion, or any other animal she can come up with.  It is very rare that she is a little girl. 

Loving the Daddy!  One of the best pictures of them. 

Notice our boy doesn't have a shirt on.  Well lets just say we had a major BLOWOUT!! And of course us Americans changed our child right there in Hyde Park.  Once we changed him he decided he was empty and needed to fill back up with a bottle. BTW we had to throw out a perfectly good shirt :(. 

I swear our child can find a horsey anywhere we are.  She was so excited about this horse and was so sad when I wasn't going to let her ride it.  I tried to explain it was a dedication to all the horsey's that died during war.  

Brancaster Beach

The temperature was a warm 68 degrees so we decided to go to the beach.  After a 2 hour drive we finally made it to discover that it was much colder by the water.  Asher was not fond of the wind and cold weather but Alyssa was in heaven.  She loved every minute of it and has asked to go back every day since.  Below are just a handful of pictures from our first journey to the beach.  Enjoy!

The shore line view from the water.  Alyssa picking up seashells.

Alyssa and Daddy taking off their shoes to enjoy the COLD water.  Notice mommy is not joining them.  

For some reason I just thought this was the cutest picture.  

Enjoying the water and looking out to the deep blue.  

Being such a girl.  Its cold, its cold she keeps saying.  Do you think she put her shoes back on....NO. 

A boy and his dad enjoying the view.  

Alyssa liked it when their feet kept sinking in the sand.  They were having a good time.  

Enjoyed the beach a little more when Dad blocked the wind.  

Loved playing with the sand and kicking it around. 

Alyssa playing in the sand...and yes the horseys made it to the beach.  

Daddy and Asher relaxing on the sand.  Too cute. 

Mommy and Alyssa hanging out.  I love that little face. 

Dad and his babies.  Trying to get them to all look at once was NOT going to happen.  But cute picture anyway. 

Hamerton Zoo

Our first visit to a zoo in the UK.  It was a smaller zoo but a good time was had by all.  We went with our new friends the Grovers; Kurt, Mallory, Carson and Tacey.  Below are just some of the pictures from our first zoo experience.  

Daddy and Alyssa looking at the donkeys.  They are just as good as horses in Alyssas eyes. 

 Carson, Tacey, and Alyssa looking at the chipmunks. 

 AJ playing with the chipmunk...do you see something wrong with this picture. 

Carson and Alyssa found a new british friend.  Both her and her mom where wearing brimmed hats and dresses.  I will stick with my jeans and tennis shoes when going to the zoo.  

That lazy American :)

We paid good money to look at an ant.  They were so excited for some reason.

 Alyssa feeding the goats.

A little baby goat decided he didn't want to be pinned up. 

 The kids loved it. 

Mallory is a nice mommy.  She let Alyssa ride on her shoulders.  

 Just take a wild guess on what Alyssa is doing.  And we wonder why the brits don't like Americans?!

Random Picture (part 2)

Here are some more random pictures.  Some are taken at a bigger park on base and some are just a small taste of the landscape around here.  Right now there are yellow flowers EVERYWHERE and even though they are weeds I feel like I am in the Wizard of OZ walking through the field of flowers.  Hope you enjoy...

I am getting so big!

Mommy and Alyssa playing on the big playground.

Asher enjoying his mesh feeder and watching Alyssa.

Weee, she loves her slides. 

Now Daddy and Alyssa playing...

Mommy and Asher (could't get a smile out of him)

Still no smile...lol

Green everywhere...our view driving. 

Beautiful views everywhere..

Yellow flowers..

More..

and more..

Beautiful windmill