What in the heck do we do everyday??

My sister was asking about our daily life here in England and what we do for food etc. So, I thought I'd take a few minutes and talk about life when we're not out exploring England. I have to say though that it's really not very exciting. It's pretty much like everyday life anywhere. So we just hang out here everyday, so we're getting kind of sick of this place. (Me and the girls anyway.) Garrett has offered that we take him to work so that we can have the car which is nice and all, but even if I were to master driving around here, I don't know what we would do. It's such a pain to take four little kids anywhere that the idea doesn't even appeal to me. So, we just hang out. I brought a few crafts for the girls to do and a few toys for them to play with. They watch movies and Garrett even surprised them with a Wii--which was really cool. The excitement on that has kind of worn off a little though. We go for walks and go to the park almost every day. They have a pretty cool park here that has a little zip line which the girls absolutely love. It's pretty fun, I have to say... I put Paige on my lap sometimes. The girls are really good about entertaining themselves...they have dress-up clothes and they do a lot of pretending that they're horses or whatever.


We've got a pretty good kitchen here with cooking utensils and dishes, so we go grocery shopping every week and I cook dinner just like at home. The trick is finding the same ingredients that you use at home. Sometimes we have to improvise or go without certain things in recipes, but it usually turns out okay. I do have to say that I miss salt. Their salt here (like as in table salt) is not like the salt we have at home. I'm not sure if we bought the wrong thing or not, but it just doesn't taste like salt at all. Add most of their food here that you'd think would be salty, isn't very salty. Just one example. Some of the food in the grocery store is kind of different. One thing for example is that they have waffles and pancakes already made up and cooked in packages to buy, which I thought was kind of strange. And we cannot find normal cheddar cheese anywhere. Here what they say is cheddar cheese is yellow and doesn't taste like cheddar at all. And we can't find normal macaroni and cheese anywhere. I think the girls are going through withdrawal. Another thing that's different is that their hot dogs come in a can. When I see them I think of those little vienna sausages that we used to eat when we were little. I haven't tasted the hot dogs but the girls said that they were okay.



We've only been to one nice, sit-down restaurant. It was a pizza place and I have to say that it was pretty good. The only other places we've eaten at are little fish and chips stands which have been really good. (Yes Tad, we ate them the correct way--without ketchup and with the vinegar stuff, but I prefer the tartar sauce anyway!) We've also done most of the American fast food places--McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut. It's just easier with kids to do something cheap and familiar. I have to say though that they are really stingy with their soft drinks. Usually with a meal, you can get a decent sized medium drink or go larger if you want, (in the states) but the standard cup that comes with the meal here is like a child-sized cup. It's tiny. I don't know how they're not dying of thirst! What's funny was that when we were at KFC the other night, we finished our drinks and were still thirsty, so Garrett took our cups up and asked for refills and the guy told us we had to buy another drink if we wanted more. Garrett was kind of surprised by that and the guy's like "Well, we're thinking of piping it up to the front and letting people just fill their cups up whenever they want." Garrett was like oh, that's cool, when are you doing that? And the guy was supposedly just kidding and thought Garrett was cuckoo for believing him. Garrett told him that that was how it was in the states and the guy just laughed at how crazy that was. I guess we Americans are way too into our soda!

I can't think of anything else to add right now, but if anyone has any other questions, just ask.


Paige playing dress-up

Paige as Sleeping Beauty. Sometimes Maggie hosts a "Spa Day" and puts lip gloss on the girls and fixes their hair and dresses them up--it's pretty cute.

Paige at the park riding a cow.

Maggie on the "zip line".

Lydia going down the slide.

Bella getting bigger.

Beautiful Bella.


The girls like watching the swans swim in the lakes here when we go out for our walks.
I just finished reading Breaking Dawn and would love to discuss it with anyone else that has finished it. I really liked it so email me so we can talk! If I don't respond back, it's just because we're going to Scotland tomorrow and we won't be back until late Tuesday night. I'm not sure if garrett's taking his lap top or not, but still try to email!