The Little Sand Storm

We’re here!

Josh and I, and all of our passports, have safely made it to California.

And just so he knows someday, Josh was the BEST little traveler.

For the whole 11 hour flight, complete with turbulence which meant he had to stay buckled in his seat the last four hours, he was an angel. And even though he didn’t sleep a wink the entire flight, we had no tantrums; he was easygoing, listened to me and was just an all around awesome little travel buddy.

So thank you Josh.

I’ll have to try and remember this for when, on the return flight, inevitably it will all go horribly wrong and I will be tearing my hair out with a screaming two year old.

Then again, Tim will be there next time to hand off to, so perhaps it’s not so bleak after all.

But, as I said, we are here in California; jet lagged and enjoying the sunshine.

And since Josh continues to insist upon getting up at ungodly hours of the morning (one day it was 1:30am), we have gone out several days to the beach already, taking some early morning strolls.

Josh hasn’t really been around the ocean much, so I expected him to be a bit more hesitant walking near the water.

But he surprised me and did just the opposite, rolling around in the sand, reminding me very much of his Aunt Erin when she was little.

He just loved running around and throwing sand up into the air, rolling around in it, rubbing it onto his clothes.

This kid loves sand.

One surfer passing by laughed seeing Josh playing and called him a little sand storm.

I think I’d rather have a sand storm than a snow storm any day….

A Beach in Winter

Things have been fairly hectic around here lately.

Christmas is just around the corner and the holiday baking is in full force. Between decorating sugar cookies and icing the gingerbread men, it’s easy to forget that Josh and I leave for California this weekend!

Yup, sunshine here we come! Or rain; I think it’s raining in California.

Either way, it has to be warmer than England. It was minus five last night with snow supposedly on the way.

Also, we have had some wonderful visitors staying with us the last few days.

That’s right; Laura and Elle are back with us and what better way to celebrate the cold weather and being in Europe than three Californians taking a trip to the beach.

We drove down to Brighton and played in the sand rocks, which Josh especially loved throwing around.

Josh was thrown up in the air, his favourite, by Elle.

Elle is one strong lady.

I think Tim is the only other person I’ve seen able to throw him that high.

We went for a walk out on the pier.

On the pier, Josh, Laura and Elle had their very first Brighton rock from Brighton’s best rock shop, though I think they all probably say that.

Best shop or not, it was pretty yummy.

So, even though we weren’t in California, we had a great day.

Eating Brighton rock and watching an amazing sunset.

We’ll be seeing you very soon California!

A Perfect Sunrise

This last weekend I had a great idea.

Sunrise.

We should go watch the sunrise.

It would be perfect.

We would get all bundled up, take a mug of hot chocolate, go hike and see the sunrise.

The weather was even supposed to be perfect too on Sunday.

Crisp and sunny.

Sadly, the weather was just about the only thing that did work out right.

Despite Josh happily being woken at 6 am and bundled into the car, asking “where we going mama?”, the rest of the morning did not quite go as planned.

The drive took a bit longer than we thought and we got there just after the sunrise.

It was still a beautiful view though.

But it was cold.

About 30 degrees cold.

And despite all his layers, Josh wasn’t having any of it.

He cried, refused to walk and screamed “hands not working!” I imagine because they were so cold. Poor kid. He clearly has inherited his mother’s Californian weather sensibilities.

Tim, always one to look on the bright side, suggested going for another hike in the afternoon to see the sunset, which happens over here at about 4pm.

I took a bit more convincing, as usual, but we ended up going on another hike to see the sunset, and I’m so glad we did.

There was beautiful light for photos.

Josh was much happier, rolling around in the grass and being thrown up into the air by Daddy.

We even managed a quick family photo.

And, of course, we saw the sunset.

It turned out to be the perfect plan after all.

Autumn Leaves

Last weekend, it was just the right freezing crisp conditions that made all the fall colours really stand out.

We took advantage of this by pushing Josh in as many piles of leaves as we could find.

Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind too much.

In fact, he loved playing in the leaves, gathering up as many as he could hold and throwing them up in the air.

I think he especially enjoyed it when Mommy joined in and we threw leaves at eachother.

Now that’s something I can’t remember getting to do in California.

We were probably too busy going to the beach…

London’s World Famous Sea Life

Last week, Josh and I made our first trip to the London Aquarium.

I have been to every touristy place in London; multiple times.

But I had never been to the aquarium, which, every time I pass by it, is packed with tourists.

It just seemed so weird to me that tourists, coming to London, would take the time to go and visit an aquarium.

Is London known for it’s sea life?

No. They do castles here.

Castles and old places.

So I was a bit skeptical about going, but I felt that as a good mother, Josh should learn a bit more about fish, other than they come out of boxes in the freezer as fish sticks, or fish fingers if you’re British.

So we went.

And he loved it.

He had so much fun running around and seeing all the fish.

And turtles.

And penguins.

He loved the penguins.

The sharks…

Not so much.

After the scare of the sharks, Josh spent most of the time, pulling my hand and dragging me toward the exit, waving “bye bye” to all the fish, saying “we go now.”

At least he was polite, telling them we were leaving.

I think the fish were sad to see him leave though.

I mean, I swear this fish looks like it’s smiling at Josh.

This fish must be from America.

Landscapes and Service Stations

This weekend, despite the rainy weather, we decided to get out and explore a bit more.

England is full of these gardens/parks/etc. where people pay money to go in and walk around enjoying nature for a few hours.

Usually in the rain.

You can see then, how as a Californian, it took a while for me to get used to this idea of paying money to go walk around in a forest, cold, wet and miserable.

But Josh seems to enjoy it and it gives me a chance to play around with my camera, so there you have it.

On Saturday, we went to Painshill Park, an 18th century English landscape park.

There were lots of beautiful landscapes.

And, unfortunately, lots of rain.

I might have been disappointed if that had been the main reason we had gone.

But it wasn’t.

We had heard that there was a Mexican place to eat at in a motorway service station on the way to Painshill Park.

For all of you back in America who don’t know what a motorway service station is, think of those truck stops we have along the freeway, out in the middle of nowhere, where people stop to use the restroom.

That’s it.

That’s where we ate for lunch.

But what a lunch it was!

There is little to no Mexican food in England, and here, at this motorway service station, was something straight out of Chipotle.

They even had churros!

It’s not weird to eat at a service station several times a week, right?

In Search of Fall

Fall is here; though honestly I think it’s been here in the UK since August.

Since I am trying to enjoy life in Blighty and embrace the changing of the seasons (i.e. cold to colder), the other day Josh and I decided to go in search of some fall colour.

We ended up going to an arboretum, something which I am ashamed to admit, I had never heard of. “A garden for trees? Must be a British thing!” I laughed.

Turns out they have them in California too.

Which makes me really curious what they look like in the fall.

Do palm trees change colour?

Between the rain and the cold, we wandered around and as you can see, some of the trees are starting to change colour. I can only imagine how lovely it will look once they all turn.

We recently bought Josh his first pair of proper fitting wellies; a defining moment in every British child’s life.

He wasn’t too sure about them.

He came around eventually though.

We actually had more fun then I thought we would, just wandering around the place for a few hours, taking photos and splashing in puddles.

I even managed to get a photo of myself and Josh, which, even though it’s not great, I am determined to take more photos with me actually in them after reading this wonderful article called The Mom Stays in the Picture.

Happy Fall everyone!

A Little Bit of Barcelona in London

My family is very close.

Insanely close.

We all grew up living about five minutes from one another and it was amazing.

Imagine how happy I was then, when I found out my cousin would be moving to Barcelona for a year.

And imagine how happy I was this last weekend, when she came to London to visit.
Turns out Josh was pretty happy too.

It was the best experience, seeing Josh run to her and jump into her outstretched arms for a big hug.

He sure loves his Aunt Laura.

We had so much fun this weekend, showing them around London and taking in some of the sights.

I told Laura having her here made it almost feel like home…

If only for a weekend.

Come back and visit soon Laura.

We’re missing you already!

Apple Picking

In an attempt to enjoy whatever “warm” weather there is left to this year (remember, I’m trying to be more positive?), Josh and I have been going a bit ‘pick your own’ crazy.

We did strawberry picking last week, which was fun.

So I thought we should try a different crop, as we now have about five pounds of frozen strawberries sitting in our freezer.

Little did I know just how many options there are for picking your own fruits and vegetables in England.

Apparently there are numerous farms and/or garden centres in our area which each have numerous pick your own crops.

I’ve been wanting to make some homemade applesauce, so this week, Josh and I went and tried our hand at picking apples.

It was fun but I’m not sure how easy it was for Josh.

Poor guy. All that effort and I don’t think that apple was even ripe yet.

Don’t tell him, will you? He was so pleased with himself.

We ended up over in the raspberries eventually. I think Josh found those much easier to pick.

And of course, much easier to eat.

Strawberry Picking

On Monday, Josh and I tried something new.

We went strawberry picking.

Having grown up in California, right in the middle of loads of strawberry fields, it seemed a bit odd that strawberries are still in season this late in September. I think the season is over in June in California.

Either way, a friend had told me that the strawberries were at their best now, so Josh and I decided to give it a try.

We had a blast.

It probably helped that it was sunny and we were the only people there, which meant Josh had full run of all the fields.

Well, him and the tractors.

There were lots of other fields full of other fruit and vegetables, including corn, or sweetcorn as it’s called here in the UK.

We made our way to the strawberry field and set about picking some strawberries.

It was really fun to show Josh how to pick strawberries.

He got to be very good at determining whether a strawberry was “not red yet” or “too old,” by the time we were done.

He also got very good at tasting the strawberries when I wasn’t looking.

I guess picking strawberries is hungry work.