Our Travels

Today we went on our First Adventure since Mat had his Test for Msgt. We had been stuck in the house for many weekends to allow him time to study and prepare for this test. Tuesday he tested and so this weekend we are spending as much time as we can out of the house and enjoying other parts of England.

Our first stop was Snettisham Park. There we enjoyed seeing the baby lambs, feeding them, and learning more about how they use the sheep. These little guys will not be kept. It is sad to know that each of them pictured will be sent to supermarkets for food. It is just how it is here. We also learned that the markings on the sheep's backs tell them how many babies each momma is carrying. They had Singlets with no markings, they have twins that are marked with Blue, Triplets with Red and Quads two red dots. They keep them all grouped together in the barn and wait for the births. If they have triplets or quads, they have to be bottle fed because their mother's only have enough for two.

After we met and fed the lambs, we went into have lunch. I had a sausage roll, Mathew and Mat had Venison Burgers... they were out of buns so they had to improvise but the boys did not seem to mind at all and Paige had Butternut Squash Soup which was delicious!

Once lunch was over we went on the Deer Safari. This was very funny to watch. The Males wanted to keep their heads inside the Range Rover. They were very bossy males. The Females barely came to the windows because the males were always there. There is a very dominate male that circled and kicked everyone else out of the way to get food. The other guy thought that Mat should give him his undivided attention and when he stopped to talk to the guy taking us on the safari ride, he was nudging Mat with his head to get his attention. I know this will not be the last time we go there!!!

After we finished with the farm, we headed out. We were going to visit the Castle Rising but we passed a sign that said Snettisham Beach... so we turned around and headed to the beach. We arrived at the beach walked up the berm and looked over... NOOOOOOOOO water for as far as we could see. where it looks like water, it was really just wet sand. The tide was so far out that we could not even see the edge of the water. But that gave us a great chance to look for seashells and other sea life. We found plenty of shells, sponges, and even a star fish.

It quickly became to cold for us to stay any longer and so we headed to our original second destination, Castle Rising Castle. What a great place to visit and check out. The castle has a lot of history behind it. Most of it is just walls but there are a couple rooms that are still well put together. The view from the castle was beautiful. Seeing a moat around a castle made it more like a castle you would think of as a child. I hope that we are able to see more castles like this while we are here.

We did try to take another visit to see Sandringham where the Queen stays sometimes but we decided we would do that another time and enjoy it more.

It was nice to get out of the house today. Even though it was rainy and cold, we all enjoyed every part of the day. It is England, you have to suck it up and just do what you want to do when you can do it. Rain or Shine!

It has been a while since my last post and things have been pretty busy in our house. We have had GS event, Half Term, Mat studying for his test, Birthday Parties, Valentines Day,5K run and Lent.

The kids have continued to do well, They have been completing their work at school and at home and still enjoying being in England.

Mathew's school award and Courtney (She is their special friend they earn to take home from school)

Mat's seems to have found his niche here with work. I still have a hard time pulling him away from work on his days off. I have come to the conclusion if we go to base, we will end up at work because he needs to check on something. Usually this checking can take an hour or longer! He is working hard at studying. He stays out in the other house for hours just working on getting the books read and questions answered. If he misses one, he is quick to look it up and figure out why. I pray that he does well on this test because not only does he deserve it from his day to day actions, he has studied more than I have ever seen him.

I'm continuing to try to keep the fort clean. It is a constant battle and some days I feel like I am losing it. The dust that gathers in this house is horrendous. In one day I can sweep the floor and I get a pile of dust all over again and we do not have any animals. I guess it is just England!

Paige enjoyed Archery with the girl scouts over half term. She was able to hit the bullseye 3 times which made her happy! They also finished their cookie sales for the year and were able to sell all but 17 boxes of cookies. The girls used their breaks from school as selling days to get rid of the last of the cookies. They were dancing around and making up cheers while it was cold and snowy. Mathew went to Paige's leader's house and played with her boys while we were out selling away. I was glad to be out there with her and that Mathew was able to go and play with someone else. He feels like he is left out some of the time and I think this made his day!

Half term was last week and the kids kept themselves pretty busy. It was also the start of Lent and so we attended Mass on Ash Wednesday to kick it off. The kids have given up candy as well as TV time. I think it was something that was hard for them due to the fact that they were on half term and would have really enjoyed sitting and just watching TV but instead we played games and put together a puzzle. The kids played outside and inside. They fought a lot less with the TV off than they have been with having TV time! I am enjoying it. They found that playing with each other is more fun than arguing and fighting all the time.

Valentines Day was a nice day for mom. The kids had planned the entire day for me and Mat. Unfortunately Mat had to work so most of the day was for MOM... GO ME!!! I was made breakfast in bed in the morning followed by games with the kiddos then a yummy lunch together, Some puzzle time and trip to the store. Once Mat arrived home the kids were quick to get out their presents they had made for us. We were showered with cards and crafts that they had worked hard on. Mathew had screwed together a contraption that held letters for us and our cards were screwed into the side of the box. He spend hours on these to get them just right. Paige had several drawings for each of us as well as a card. Dad showered everyone in goodies, I made Pot Roast, we ate, and then we had movie and snack time at night.

On Saturday the Family got up and started moving and getting dressed to run the Sweetheart 5k run on base. This was Paige's first big race. She bolted off the starting line and I thought for sure she would not make it too far down the road before stopping and taking a break but her and Mat booked it off into the distance while I stayed with Mathew. He was not into this run at all. From the start, he did not have his running shoes on and about 2 minutes in if that, he was complaining that his legs hurt him. I made him grab my hand and we ran most of the race holding hands. It was sweet but boy were my knees yelling at me afterwards. The sideways run and pull must have tweaked my left knee because it hurt to walk. But we all made it to the finish line. Paige ran the 1st two mines at about a 10 minute pace and the third was a bit slower. Mathew and I were only 4 minutes behind them for the finish. Paige won a second place certificate and will be able to claim her prize once we head back to base. I was very proud of her effort! Now we have March's St Patty's Day run to complete and we will have done 3 since coming to the UK. Go Team Butler!