There and back again

I am home.

Finally!

I have spent the last month travelling, and I think this might have been the first time since moving to the States that coming back to Tulsa really and truly felt like coming home. I think that going back to England will always feel like going home ... but it's nice to know that coming back to the States does too.

After Anna and I had been in England for two weeks, Mark joined us for the last four days of the trip. Then we flew back to Tulsa and had four days at home to unpack, do laundry and repack before heading out again for another week.

England pictures first :)

Anna loved going to Marlow to feed the ducks and swans on the River Thames




She got lots of attention from Gramee and Grandpa!




Family picture sans Mark :(




Picnic on the Rye with Steph, Adam and his sister Laura.
(note the absence of rain in any of these pictures...!)



Anna's first baby doll!




One couch, four generations! Grandma was able to fly in from Canada for the wedding




Going for a walk through some of the gorgeous English countryside near where my parents live. Pushing Anna's stroller was a fought-after treat!



What would a trip to England be without going to the pub...? Matt and I went to watch England play one night. I love getting some good brother-time in :)




And good sister-time - Steph's hen night! (English for Bachelorette party)




Fun times had by all, especially Steph! :)



Decorating her wedding cake the night before the wedding, eek!



The Big Day! Beautiful Steph, proud Dad.




The wedding party outside the church. It rained all morning, but just as their wedding ceremony started the sun came out :)



All the girls!




The prettiest flower girl ever. In my humble opinion. She walked into the church holding Mark's hand. I didn't get to see it, since the bridesmaids came in after her, but everyone said she looked very cute :)

Well, that's a little glimpse into our time in England. I think I'll save the rest of my catching up for later!

Sugar and spice and all things nice

This post title is in reference to my sweet baby girl. I am posting from England - woop! - which means we recently flew here. On an overnight, 9-hour plane ride. Without Mark. And got hit with monstrous jetlag which Anna is still not over. And are living in a house smaller than ours at home, with 5 other people (6 when Mark gets here) and only one shower!

But Anna has been such a trooper. She is inundated with new people and foods and environments every day, but is still a bundle of chubby happines and (for the most part!) good moods. She isn't sleeping very well at night; we're sharing a room, last night was the first night in two weeks that she slept through the night, and she's been waking up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning. So we regressed to a 3-nap-a-day schedule, which is working well and she's taking three really good naps every day.

She is such a blessing to me. It is hard being away from Mark. Even though it's only two weeks. We were laughing at ourselves for having grown soft in our five years of being married; when we were dating, we wouldn't see each other for 6 or 7 months at a time, and now two weeks apart feels almost unbearable! I think part of what makes it hard is that I'm living as a single parent in my own parents' house. There is inevitable conflict in this, which I did forsee and kind of prepare myself for, and which we experienced last time we visited. But it's pretty different when Mark's around to back me up and rub my shoulders when things are stressing me out!

We're having a lot of fun, though. The weather's been gorgeous, we've gone to a lot of my favourite childhood haunts, we're getting wedding stuff accomplished, Steph had a rockin' hen night that came together really well even though I was planning it from Tulsa, it's been AWESOME to get to hang out with Steph and Matt, I've gotten to go watch England play from the comfort of the pub down the road with a pint of delicious cider in my hand, I've caught up with really good friends... life is good :)

We've skyped a couple times with Mark, and Anna gets SO excited to see him. It's hilarious. She tries to poke his face and share her juice with him, and she jabbers away at him and says hi ... and every day she goes and finds this family picture with Mark in it, that my mom has on the mantle, and points at his face and waves at him. Super-cute. [See? Sugar and spice :) ]

So all in all, England is awesome. Predictably :) Pictures coming soon..........!