Mom & Dad Visit

My mom and dad came to visit one last time before we left England. We had such a great time going around to all of our favorite places with them. We all tried to soak in all the beautiful places and wonderful sights as much as we could.

Matthew had his 9th birthday while they were visiting. We had a fun day together and sure love our big boy!!

I took my parents to Dublin for a quick two-day visit. We had a wonderful time exploring the city and walking, walking, walking! Our favorite thing was all the incredible live music at all the pubs. We could have listened to them forever!

The food in Dublin was delicious and the buildings with flower boxes hanging all over were adorable. We had such a good time together, and I'm so glad we could make those wonderful memories!

We had a lovely day in London, jumping all around the city and seeing lots of sights. It was hard knowing that was the last time I'd visit London, at least for a long time!! We also took them to Waddesdon Manor, Oxford, on lots of walks in the countryside, and to our favorite food spots.

They helped out with a lot of our moving stuff, had to be okay with visiting us in a mostly empty house, and tagged along with us to lots of events and activities. But it was wonderful to share our last couple of weeks in England with them!

Cinque Terre, Italy

We spent spring break in Italy! It was our last big trip as a family here, and it was probably our favorite one! The weather was gorgeous, the scenery was beautiful, and it was so relaxing.

We rented an apartment that had the most incredible view of the beach. It was so wonderful waking up to this every morning!

We stayed in Monterosso, but also visited the other small towns in Cinque Terre. They were so colorful and vibrant, and we loved walking around and exploring all the cute little streets. We hiked from Riomaggiore to Manarola and had so much fun!

We spent the afternoons at the beach, soaking up the warm sun. The water was freezing, but the kids still had fun splashing around a bit.

We went shopping at the farmers market and ate delicious food and gelato every chance we got.


We had such a fun time in Cinque Terre! We were sad to leave our amazing view, but we headed to Pisa to spend our last day in Italy. We loved walking around Pisa with all the cool buildings and fun markets. We made our way to the leaning tower and enjoyed the beautiful view!
 
We are so grateful to have had such a wonderful trip together! We love Italy!

Changes

We really tried to appreciate our "home sweet home" this month, since we knew changes were coming up quickly! Last week all of our furniture and household goods got packed up and shipped off to the states. Since it takes so long for the shipment, we'll be without these comforts for two months!

We have temporary furnishings to get us through, and there are some really nice things about living without much stuff. And it will feel like Christmas when we open everything up again in our new house! :)

We've really been trying to get out and enjoy all our favorite things about living here while we still can. We've gone on lovely walks and visited Jane Austen's house and spent time with our wonderful friends.


Now that things are in motion for our move, it finally feels real. We are excited about the changes, but that doesn't lessen the sadness about leaving a place we love. We are going to make the next two months the best ever! :)

Norway

We spent a few days in Bergen, Norway last week. I've wanted to go to Norway for a while now, and I'm so glad we made it happen! It has such a unique look to it - different than anywhere else we have traveled. It was pretty cold there, but we still enjoyed walking around and exploring the city!


We rode a little funicular train up the side of the mountain to this gorgeous lookout point above the city. The buildings are so colorful and it was such an amazing view from up above! The kids loved playing in all the snow up on the mountain.

We explored the city one afternoon while the sun was shining. There were lots of cute shops and colorful buildings and interesting things to see. We ate fish and chips and walked along the famous Bryggen street.

We took a fjord boat cruise and saw the most gorgeous snow covered mountains and lovely homes tucked in among the hills. It was so peaceful and majestic and we loved it so much!


We all fell in love with the houses and water and lovely views everywhere you looked. It was such a great trip, and I'm so glad we were able to enjoy it together!