Baby Blessing

We had David's baby blessing yesterday at church.  Sadly we didn't have any family visiting to share the day with us but it was a beautiful sunny summer day.  David, of course, looked adorable in his little white suit, and Aaron delivered a wonderful blessing on our sweet baby.

Stone Circles

We've passed the one year mark of living here in England, but because of pregnancy and life with a newborn, we haven't done a lot of the traveling and touristy things that we want to.  So this weekend we took advantage of the nice weather and drove down to see some of the standing stones we have within a couple hours drive.

First up: Stonehenge!

At the visitor centre there is a large stone on a wood platform and logs.  This is how they speculate the stones were moved when Stonehenge was built. 

After we ate lunch in the café and looked at the exhibit in the visitor centre, we took a shuttle bus (you can also walk) over to the stones.  Yes, they are just a bunch of rocks, but it's so iconic and it's really pretty neat to see.

Surrounding the stones is a mound and a ditch, and around that is the roped off walkway where we could walk all the way around the circle.  (One part actually gets you quite close to the stones, but then you go over the mound and the rest of the time is outside of that.)

We learned that, if you stand right in the centre of the circle, a certain rock marks where the sun sets at Winter Solstice and there's an "arch" opposite through which you can see the sun rise at Summer Solstice.  Apparently on a normal day there are approx. 10,000 visitors to Stonehenge, but people also travel from all over to experience the solstices there.

After a stroll through the gift shop, we headed out, aiming for Avebury, which is basically on the way home from Stonehenge.  This is a much larger stone circle, divided into four sections by roads.  One key difference here is that you can go right up to the stones and run around among them. We stopped for a "snack picnic" under the shade of a large tree, and then headed back down the hill to the stones on our way to the little farm which now serves as a museum and café for the site.  There is also a manor and gardens, but we were too late in the day to fit it in.

*You can also view this post on our travel blog, Kimblers Abroad*

Three Months of David

This was a big month for David (and all of us!) that included an international, intercontinental trip with many hours spent on an airplane and his first time in the United States.

But we started the month at home, finishing out the school year for Andrew and finally starting the summer break with no school run!

We walked around the Cotswolds.  It was a 5 mile walk and took several hours, sometimes over very rough terrain, but David slept the entire time, until I took him out of the wrap when we arrived at the pub at the end for lunch.

And we're off!  David was a lap baby on the flight both ways and he did great! He slept, nursed, and cuddled the whole time.  While we were in California, David got his first beach day, theme park, and lots of time with his Kimbler relatives!

And back home for more of the baby's summer life: eat, sleep, play, and fill nappies!

Kimblers in California!

Every three years the Kimbler family (Aaron's parents, and his brothers and their families) gets together for a reunion! It fell on this year, and we all gathered in Southern California, except for Steve, who couldn't make it.  It was a long trip for us with our brand new family of five but it was great to see everyone again after a few years.

The flight went surprisingly well, despite the fact that none of us really slept at all the entire time.  The kids were obsessed with the screens and they were kept entertained for the whole flight.

After a night in LA, we headed down to San Diego to meet up with everyone else! But on the way down we had to make some stops at some of my favorite places: Chick-fil-a, Target, and Hobby Lobby.

We spent a day at the beach, which was great.  The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

The next day was spent at Sea World.  We had a lot of fun seeing all the animals, riding the rides, and seeing the shows.  Andrew and Brandon especially liked hanging out with their older cousin, Emma.

We spent a day at some tide pools, a light house, and the Mormon Battalion visitor center.  The kids loved touching all the creatures, rocks, and water at the tide pools.

On our way back to LA at the end of the week we stopped at the San Diego Temple.

The flight home was just as uneventful (and just as wakeful) as the flight to California.  We were all glad to be back in our own beds, but we were so glad we went!  Our kids don't see any of their cousins very often so trips like these are always great.