Saturday markets in Ely

We've narrowed our choices on where we want to live, so after hours in the car for seemingly days on end looking at houses and getting to know the area, we decided to enjoy the surroundings a bit. We went to the weekend market in a charming little town of Ely, home to a massive cathedral and the birthplace of Oliver Cromwell.

An aerial view of the town...

Morgan in her element, but no bargaining here...
Can't wait to see what it looks like with Christmas lights!
Our first British scones...
And our first Fish & Chips! Tally made Tim laugh by asking, "If the British call French fries... chips, what do they call their chips... French fries?" Who says the Queen's English isn't a foreign language?
Couldn't have asked for a better autumn day...

Pack my bags... all 14+ of them

The time has FINALLY come... after knowing for over a year that we were moving to England, it was time to pack the bags... 12 suitcases, 2 boxes, 4 carry-ons, and 1 over-sized bunny!

A good-night's rest before the big trek...
And then it was on to our own 747 to London!
Ok, it wasn't "ours," but when each of the five of us had our own row to lay down on, it just about was our own plane...
Tim thinks Ryann dreams of touchdowns...
We arrived in one terminal and had to schlep our baggage to another terminal to catch our bus... what do you do when you have over 1,000 pounds of luggage that fits (barely) onto four push carts? Did we mention a bit of jet-lag as well? Start pushing girls!!
Tally and Adayla each pushed one of the carts, while Ryann pulled a small suitcase on wheels the entire way. We navigated through two elevators and four ramps, necessitating that we split the team at times... Adayla & Tally would wait at the top/bottom of the ramp while Mom, Dad and Ryann pushed their carts through the ramp, then Tim went back for one of the two remaining carts, then the other cart and the two girls.
The bus came an hour after we arrived at the platform and we were on our way to our new home... now to find the house we'll call home!

Happy Birthday, Morgan!

Happy Birthday!We love you!!

Watching the World Cup... Four Years Ago

Watching the Women's World Cup Finals this afternoon, I couldn't help but to think back to four years ago when the tournament was hosted in Shanghai...
We had been living in Shanghai for about three months before Morgan's sister Josie came out to live with us. Josie plays soccer, and as we traveled from the airport back to our place, there were several signs about the World Cup. I asked Josie, "this 'World Cup' is being played here next month, is it a big deal?" She said that it was the biggest deal, but that he hadn't known that the tournament was being played in Shanghai. I said "too bad I didn't know earlier, we could have bought tickets"... not telling her that we had purchased tickets to the several games already... :-)

After a couple of weeks, we broke the news to Josie that we had tickets!
A couple of pictures from the various days we went...

Josie outside of the stadium:

Josie in her Abby Wambach shirt!

A rockin' stadium where we watched the U.S. win the consolation game and where we cheered Germany to victory over Brazil for the championship.

Links to the original blog posts from four years ago can be found clicking here and also here.

Mercury poisoning...

I'm sure I've been sprayed with mercury from thermometers that have been exploding here in southwestern Oklahoma. I've been here for three weeks and the high temps have been over 100 degrees every single day... Today was 24 straight! And unfortunately, no relief in sight:

So what the heck am I doing here in 100+ temps? This is where I'll be for training until October, re-learning how to fly my plane... the KC-135 air refueling tanker.

Morgan and the girls will eventually make their way here before we move to England, but with weather like this, they'll take their time getting here!

No matter the weather on the ground, it's always cool in the air... Really cool!

With traffic jams like this...

... and office views like this:

It's all just a day's work!
NKAWTG... Nobody!

Ryann's a Diva

Family night out in Shanghai... took a taxi to get the girls' hair cut. During the taxi ride, the girls practiced singing the song "Love at Home" in Chinese to perform at church. The girls finished the song as the taxi was stopped at a red light. The video shows how they made some new friends! (Note the lack of seatbelts in the taxi - not by choice. When in China... )

We then made it over to the beauty shop. This was Tim's favorite place to get his haircut. He actually never cared how his hair was cut, after an hour of getting his hair washed and a head & neck massage, he didn't have a care in the world. The video shows the girls at the beginning of their hair wash (just a glimpse of pure pleasure - if you watch this video, watch until the first minute (1:08) to see Ryann really enjoying the treatment).

The young ladies all loved the attention...

Each hair wash takes about fifteen minutes... and there are two of these!

The owner ("laoban") spent quite a bit of time with the girls as well...

Who knew life could be so good??

Ryann loved every bit of this...

Little ham...

There's Tim in the background, oblivious to the world in his comatose state of relaxation!
Tally's looking pretty relaxed as well under the blow dryer...


Here's Tally's hair before meeting the humidity...
After the haircuts, it was off to the Jin Mao skyscraper to get our favorite fruit smoothies. Along the way there was a lady selling one of Tim's favorite street snacks... a fried egg wrap.
Yes, it's dark outside and yes, that's Diva Ryann still wearing her shades...
Here's Tally's hair after a half-hour in the humidity...
Tim went ahead to see if the juice shop was still there... it was. Not only that, but the lady at the register recognized him before the kids were even there. What a memory, it's been two years since we were last there!
As usual, pictures with tourists passing through to go up to the 88th floor observation deck of Jin Mao.
And that's a wrap...

What a fun evening it was for us!

To the best....

Daddy

Happy Father's Day! We wish you didn't have to leave us half way through, but we had the another amazing month in Shanghai. Thanks for the outings, Guilin, parks, shakes, pizza, and fun! You are the best dad and husband I could have ever wanted. We are grateful to have you and can't wait until we see you again!