September...

In September, we had visits from Grammy & Papa, and Aunt Melanie, Madelyn and Rebekah. The cousins had a wonderful time playing together, and we saw more of England.

Dear Family and Friends, Christmas 2007

We wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season and Happy New Year! As 2007 comes to a close, our family is counting our blessings. We have truly enjoyed this past year in England! Some of our highlights include:

Stan has finished his year at the UK Defence Academy and completed JSCSC (Joint Command and Staff College). It was an academic year – completing paper after paper, listening to lectures, and spending hours studying. But mostly, he enjoyed playing rugby for the Defence Academy team and making some amazing friendships with other military members from all over the world. While Stan was working hard, I spent the year hoping it would never end! I kept busy with an Int’l Cooking Group, Bunco, and other social activities. It was a fun year. We learned some new things – Stan learned how to slice cheese the proper way so that he didn’t horrify the entire room (Hint: don’t slice off the tip of the cheese!), and I learned that I could eat all different types of food and LOVE them! What a great year, and we are thankful for the friendships we made!

In July after Stan’s completion of the course, we moved to our new house located in the outskirts of London. We moved in the middle of terrible rainstorms & flooding, but everything made it okay. Stan started his new job working with the Royal Air Force with a deployment to Malaysia, a 3 week exercise, and it hasn’t slowed down much since. He will go to Kenya in Jan. and various other locations next year. It will be interesting for him, and he’s looking forward to the adventures (hopefully they don’t include being eaten by a lion!). The children started school at ACS Int’l School, and absolutely love it. Blake is in grade 5 and involved in tennis, swimming, and running, Wade is in grade 2 and playing tennis and soccer, Kathryn is in Pre-K. and is in gymnastics and ballet. Academically they are doing wonderfully, and it is a great experience for them. I am keeping busy with a computer course & volunteering. This fall we have enjoyed a full round of visitors from both our families and friends, and it has been fun to explore England with them. London is very accessible from our new house. Our plans for adventure this next year include Normandy, Ireland, Norway, skiing in Germany and our first visit back to the U.S. for Easter.

We always welcome visitors to our Lawrie B&B! Please keep in touch!
Love,

Stan, Karen, Blake, Wade & Kathryn

Galleries Lafayette, Paris, France

Rock of Gibraltar, Gibraltar, UK

Hall of Mirrors, Chateau de Versailles, France

La Sacrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

Tour Eiffel, Paris, France

Sacre-Coeur Cathedral, Paris, France

August Travels...

We were happy to have visitors in August - Stan's brother Joe and Stephanie, their children and her family, all came to visit us for 2 weeks. We had great time traveling around England and Scotland with them! Here we are punting on the Cam River in Cambridge. One of the nicest days we had this summer! We had 2 boats, 7 children, and 8 adults - YIKES! So much fun...the boys got to help with the punting. Good thing no one fell in!

Stan and Joe were excited to visit their "homeland" (Scotland!). We had to stop and take this picture of them at the Scottish border! We drove up from near London to Scotland, and spent a week enjoying the beautiful mountains and lakes (lochs).

We did a lot of hiking, and found a great ruined castle and lots of waterfalls. It was amazing scenery, and even more amazing, we didn't lose a single child! haha... Stan was the only one to almost fall in...

We spent a day in Edinburgh and toured the Edinburgh Castle, shopped, and lost Wade for about 10 minutes (the longest 10 mins. of my life). Luckily we found him wandering at the bottom of the hill, and he didn't leave my side the rest of the day. Here he is trying to climb up a guard shack, while Kathryn and cousins, Josie and John, pose for a photo outside the castle.

We took a tour of Dewar's Distillery which was pretty close to where we stayed in Killin. Very interesting, but no children were lost or fell in the whiskey vats. A good ending to a fun vacation!

Bodium Castle

After unpacking everything, we took some much-needed breaks to LegoLand and to see Bodium Castle. Finally beautiful weather!

July 2007

Stan finished his course at the Defence Academy on July 19, and received his certificate from the Queen's reprensentative.

This is the front of our house in Watchfield. We moved at the end of July to another house closer to London.

Blake's 10th Birthday was celebrated with a few friends at the base bowling alley.

June 2007

North American BBQ - In honor of 4th of July & Canada Day, the N. American students & families hosted a joint BBQ for the college. It was lots of work and crazy weather that day. I don't have very good photos since we were SO busy!

Buscot Park - On one of the few nice days of the summer, we went for a family outing to see a local manor house.

Royal Ascot - It was so exciting to go to the Royal Ascot horse races. We went with a group from Watchfield to experience this English tradition. I felt very "posh" with my big hat! We had a nice catered lunch outside the track, then went into watch the races while drinking champagne. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the Queen any closer than on the big screen.

Stan and I went to the Purple Ball, which was the college's end of year social event. Even though the weather was terrible (the raised flooring was under water in many areas), we stayed all night. The Ball included a wonderful dinner, entertainment in the form of a military band, singers, Cirque du Soleil, a casino, dancing, and Dodgems (bumper cars to us Americans). Another amazing night! I didn't want to go home -even when the sun was rising!

This is a photo of my Bunco group at our 4th of July Bunco right before we all moved. We are from 9 different countries, and most of the ladies had never played Bunco before. It was an amazing group, & we had a wonderful year getting to know each other!

More photos from Spring/Summer 2007

Watchfield Primary School had a Fun Run & Sports Day for the kids. They had
a great time! Kathryn's class did a relay - so cute!

Kathryn learned how to ride her bicycle without the training wheels in May. Stan removed them, and she took off without any help or falling! She was so happy. The timing was good since we rode our bikes everyday to school, and she loved the independance!

Highlights 2007

New Year's Eve 2006 - We went to Warwick Castle when Judd & Wendy & kids were out to visit. The kids went on the ice slide outside the castle, and we had a great time exploring all the towers & dungeons of this medieval castle.

Kathryn started in the Foundation Stage at Watchfield Primary School. She loved painting, gym, and especially the little group of friends she made!

In February, we had some snow. School was closed, and it was a day of snowball fights with children from all over the world many of whom had never seen snow. Kathryn went to a birthday party for a friend from India, and she got a henna tattoo. Stan and Blake went skiing in Germany for a weekend. They had a great time with a group from the Defence Academy.

Easter Holiday - We took an overnight ferry from Plymouth to Santander, Spain for a long holiday traveling through Spain. Our cabin was tiny and the kids had a great time. Unfortunately, I was VERY seasick! We spend a few days in Barcelona, rented a villa with friends, the Stowes, for a week, and finished up in Madrid before going back on the ferry to England.

On the top of Gilbralter. We had a breathtaking view, and the famous Gilbralter monkeys were fun to watch.
Easter Sunday - We watched a procession from the church in Benalmadena, Spain near our villa. The men carried these immensely heavy floats through the narrow village streets. We watched the parade, had an Easter Egg Hunt and a wonderful Easter dinner with the Stowes.

Stan played for the Defence Academy Rugby Team. He made 3 great friends - Steve D'Arcy from Australia, David Orr Ewing from Scotland, and Stephan Vales from France. They had a great time together. This is the rugby dinner after beating the French staff college in a game.