kirstinrosephotography: UK Vacation {Part 1}

Greetings! Starting today, I am working on a 4-part project. I was gone a month and a half in the UK, and took thousands of pictures. Over the past month since I got home, I have been organizing those a bit, and putting the best pics from our trips and life onto my private blog, for all who asked me by email, to view and read about. That was finally finished about a week ago, thankfully, and just now I have started selecting each folder of pictures and have been narrowing everything down further and further, picking the best pics to edit and post. So, without further ado, I will tell you about these 'parts'. We went to many different cities and villages in both England and Wales, but also spent a large amount of our time in the house the Vess family purchased and moved into 2 weeks after they moved to England. Each part will be on either life around the house, or on a few cities/villages at a time. Part 1 is focused on life in Tuddenham, a tiny, tiny village they moved to. It is really small, but is filled with sweet, charming British folk. I loved it there. It was so safe and comfortable to walk around on the sidewalks and down roads whenever, and mornings and nights were beautiful. I loved twilight and dawn. =)

This is the wonderful house they found perfect for their family. Most houses in the UK were really small with only like, 1 bathroom, and no closets, and in many cases, no garage. But they found this house with three bedrooms, lots of closets, a good garage (had to use a key and get to it from outside, which was okay), a large, fenced-in backyard and lots of rose bushes as well. It was perfect. =)

It even had a dining room, which they were not expecting, but were very glad to get.

Life in the house was a challenge, since we only had a kitchen and office table, temporary beds and couches, and a wall of toys, plus some clothes and towels. But we made-do with what we had, and learned how to use the water. We found that the tank got hot water around 7-10 in the morning, and then you had to turn the heater on if you wanted, say, night showers. So confusing. And to run the shower water, you had to hit a switch outside the bathroom door. lol

After-bathtime was really fun over there. The kids, especially Chesed, came out cute as a goose-feather.

And during bath, they came up with crazy things to do. Putting cups full of water on their heads, making the hair 'float', making the rags talk to each other, finding soap in the suds, etc. =)

Hanging out after bathtime was too fun. =)

So, during the day, you take a walk for one minute and wish you had brought your camera. Not joking. And my favorite type of weather, where dark grey or blue clouds fill the sky, and the sunlight peaks through here and there, lighting up tree leaves, roof tops, and cattle grazing on the nearby hill, was very popular. I loved it.

Thatched roofs were common over there, but they also had lots of tiled-roofs. And the wall textures varied lots, but you mainly saw bumpy textures, and walls that had lots and lots of tiny rocks, not large stones.

And naturally the driving there was different. Unlike MD driving, with everyone going at least 5 over the speed limit, cutting in rudely, honking all the time, etc. etc., they had 'traffic calming' signs all over, and people were very gracious over there with cars. Probably thought we (Americans) were crazy when we drove, though. haha But I got so used to people driving on the wrong side of the road, and riding on the 'passenger' seat, which over there is the 'drivers' seat, that when I started driving again a couple weeks back, I was driving on the wrong side of the road in my neighborhood! haha And I don't even want to talk about traffic circles....ugh, I got so tired of them! They had almost z-e-r-o traffic lights over there. And though traffic circles can be very helpful, especially if there are only like, 4 cars, when the heavy weekend traffic comes, it gets really, really scary. Yeah...But the really nice thing was they were friendly drivers, and the cars were too adorable. Tiny cars in bright colors like lime breen, banana yellow, turqoise, and sometimes even a lovely shade of purple, which my mom would love. =)

A famous telephone booth. =D

And this is like, one of my favorite nature pics. Why? I am absolutely clueless. But I really do love the focus on the closest branch and blurr on the farther ones.

haha The ducks over there in the neighborhood, let me tell you, were insane. And I loved it. x) haha But really, birds over in Europe are waaaay different than ones over here. Especially the doves and pigeons. The latter 2 are HUGE!!! I am not even over-estimating the size. They are like, 2 times bigger over there than over here. And they are not scared. Soooo.....yeah. Gotta keep a tight crip on that baguette. haha =D

Just wanted to show you a lovely bracelet I got that I couldn't take my eyes off of in the store over there.

Thought the parks over here were nice? Guess what? In the UK, they are SPOILERS!!! haha This red tower complex was only like, a fifth of the playground in one city. It was nuts. They had zip lines, a million merry-go-rounds, lots of see-saws, towers, rock climbing walls, and the best swings you ever saw. =D

And naturally the kids loved it. =D

I was longing like you wouldn't believe to ask this girl if I could get a pic of her. She looked a lot like Jemima from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Her outfit and accent were too adorable and amazing. =D

Aaaaaaaah, England, the country were it rains non-stop. Yeah, no. Not while I was there. lol Okay, so in the time I was there, being 6 weeks, I got maybe a week and a half of rainy days. The rest was mostly 80 degree weather, and what we experienced was something that hasn't happened in like, 10-15 years. So when it rained, we were happy. Especially the kids with their new 'buddy' umbrellas, raincoats, and rainboots. =) I loved those things. And you know those cute pics where a little boy and girl are under the umbrella? I tried to get the shot. It was sort of hard, since Chesed wanted so badly to join in and I had to eventually ask her to help me take the picture and convince her it was better than posing, but I did get this shot it. And no, I am not pairing up a bro and sis in that 'love' way. It was just a cute 'sib' picture. =)

The girls loved to combine outfits. One of the best combos was ballet outfits and rainboots. =D =D Sounds like something I would have done with I was 3....=)

Running in sprinklers when rain didn't come was common. Eden was the bravest girlie I have ever seen. She was literally on top of the sprinkler like, the entire time! haha I loved it. =D

Sooo, while over there, I got to document Chesed's first haircut. So looked SO cute with it!!! =)

We made cupcakes for a church picnic. That was nice. I like the vanilla over the strawberry. ;)

Fresh eggs from the farm were purchased one time. I love fresh eggs. Sooooo gooood....

Okay, these were the main items I purchased for myself over there. I bought an awesome messenger bag from the thrift store for like, 4 pounds to easily carry my camera and lenses, a beautiful bracelet (see picture from waaaaay above, lol), and some awesome shoes. I love those shoes.

These shoes are the CLOSEST I will come to chucks. I think...x)

We had several picnics, which I enjoyed very much. Kelly was so creative with the food. =D

I got some pics of a beauty-queen-in-the-making.

(btw, I wasn't looking when I shot the pic. Just pointed the camera while it was at my side at the tractor and snapped)

The Vess family lives like, literally a couple houses away from a farm. There are some benefits to this. And some not-so-cool things. The benefits? They could take walks down there and let the kids pet the sheep and pigs, and it was nice to get fresh eggs and milk every weekend. The not-so-cool things? Well, if you live in a country where there is no air-conditioning and you happen to be there during the time when it is really hot, and they have no screens on the windows that need to be opened, well, flies come in. By the dozen. Literally. If you want to be a good fly-catcher/killer, move to England next to a farm. haha We would each kill like, 30-40 flies a day, I think. And guess what? Nowadays when flies land in my food, I don't care. It just doesn't matter anymore. haha x)