Glorious Sunshine!

Cleaning, cooking and general responsibility were all put on hold for a few days in May.  This was due to the fact that the sun was shining.  I didn't feel the least bit guilty either.  I learned fairly quickly after moving to the UK that warm, sunny days are a rarity and not to be wasted.

Just before the sunny spell, our family spent an enjoyable day in York.

We visited the Treasurer's House near Minster Abbey. 

It was beautiful inside and apart from Nell being a bit of a terror, we really enjoyed the tour.

That staircase was just too attractive to Nell.

We then visited the Castle Museum, or at least part of it.  We saw a recreated Victorian street as well as the old prison and learned more about how the legal and prison system worked.  I never realized how many "criminals" were sent to America as part of their sentence.  Hmmm…

Aside from visiting our favorite crepe stand, Clara's most memorable part of the day was seeing this family of geese.  We all loved it but Clara kept remarking "I had no idea we would be seeing baby geese today, how exciting!".

The following week was full of glorious sunshine.  I walked around town quite a bit with Nell, enjoyed York with Elizabeth and Wes (and was properly introduced to Betty's fruit tarts - it's a good thing I'm moving far away soon), and met Devin for a sunny picnic at work.

We also made a trip to London for the weekend.  We enjoyed the Royal Mews where we saw the Queen's horses and carriages.  Very impressive.

Here's a birds eye view of Nell's favorite stroller position.

It happened to be a week before the Diamond Jubilee so everything was decorated including all store windows.  I think this was my favorite - a soldier out of flowers.

In addition to the window displays, most of the streets were lined with British flags.

Windsor Castle was another stop on our visit.  The castle gardens were beautiful.

My favorite section of the castle was the elaborate dollhouse fitted with plumbing, lighting and original artwork done on a small scale.  No pictures were allowed but it was incredibly amazing and detailed.

Devin was most intrigued by the flight path directly over Windsor.

As we were leaving we saw a soldier on duty.  Jonas has such an obsession with soldiers we thought it would be nice to get a picture.  Clara and Nell obliged.

Jonas however did not agree.  At all. After 10 minutes of convincing, Devin was able to get him out of the stroller but he would not get any closer than 15 feet without crying...loudly.  It is one of those times for him where he gets very overwhelmed and I don't think the large bayonet/gun helped matters.

At least he faked a smile for me!

The day after returning from London was Memorial Day.  Clara and Jonas had school so we took Nell on a hike to Asgarth Falls.

It was so much fun and Nell enjoyed the freedom to wander around.

She is so funny with strangers.  As soon as someone unfamiliar approaches she freezes.  She looks down and will not move a muscle until they are gone.  You are guaranteed to lose the blinking competition with her!  We had a few of these incidents along the pathway which were half entertaining/half embarrassing for us as parents.  She's her own person!  We finished our day out with a pub lunch and the BEST sticky toffee pudding I've ever had.  It was pretty much a perfect day.

Our good luck ran out soon enough and the cold and rain came back but the sun was so nice while it lasted.  Sightseeing in the cold is just not the same but we did spend some time in Durham admiring the cathedral and meeting up with a former mission friend of Devin's.

One of my favorite colorful doors.

We are trying to make the most out of every free day we have here and having almost two weeks of beautiful weather made it even harder to imagine leaving the UK.  Probably a good thing it doesn't last forever. :)