Thanksgiving in Belgium

We got to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Belgium! It was such a fun trip, and so exciting to make our first visit over to Europe.

We rode a ferry across the English Channel from Dover, England, to Calais, France. We had beautiful views of the white cliffs of Dover as we sailed away. It was a nice way to break up the drive.

Then we drove through France and into Belgium. The countryside was really pretty, and Joseph did a great job switching back and forth between driving on the left and right sides of the road! :) We spent a day in Bruges enjoying the waffles, Christmas market, and great views of the city. It was such a cool place.

Our hotel was just a couple blocks from the beach, so we visited a couple times but it was freezing cold and windy. The kids were such great travelers and had a fun time running around and exploring. It was a great trip, and so neat that we are only a few hours drive away a different country!

So Far, So Good

The days have been passing by, and now it is the middle of November! We have been keeping busy with school, work, and church callings, and sometimes not much else. One of our cars was in the shop for over a month, so that kept us stuck at home a little more than usual. We've also been spending a lot of time at the church recently, and we try and get outside as much as we can when the sun is shining. We finally hung the first thing on our walls and are still really loving our new home. It has been a wet fall, but we've had a lot of beautiful days. Here are a bunch of pictures from my phone from the last month!

Village Life

There are beautiful little villages scattered throughout the countryside here, and one of our favorite things to do is to pick one to visit and spend a while walking around. A few weeks ago we followed a little footpath in one of the villages and it took us through horse pastures, over little fences, and through fields of crops.


There are public footpaths like this all over the area and I can't wait to explore some more of them. It was a perfect morning.

A lot of the villages also have published historical walks you can take through them that show buildings of interest and dates, etc. I can't get enough of the thatched roofs and flower boxes on all the little cottages. It is so fun to be surrounded by so much history and so much beauty.

Visitors

My sister, Robin, and her husband, Darren, came to visit last week! We have been so excited to have family come and stay with us. We finally got our shipment of our household goods just two days before they came, and one of our cars broke down the week before they came and still isn't fixed... so we might not have been the best hosts, but I think it was still a successful visit! :)

We took them around some lovely little villages in our area and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. One thing we are good at doing is walking, walking, and walking!

We visited Warwick Castle and really enjoyed it, even in the pouring rain.



A few of us spent a day in Oxford, and I loved it even more than last time. The architecture really is amazing there. We ate lunch at the pub where Tolkien and CS Lewis used to get together to talk, visited a lot of the University buildings, and let Anna lead the way with her little map.



Robin & Darren spent a day in Ireland, attended a Manchester United soccer game, and hung out in London for a couple of days. It was hard to say goodbye, but we are so glad that they could come and visit and we had such a great time with them!