Music to my ears!

Our trip to England was very nice. I don't know how many times I was grateful to be surrounded by English... granted, sometimes it was English and I still couldn't understand it through the accent! We were in the grocery store and when we wanted to know what time they closed, or where are plastic utensils... we could just ask! ANYONE!!!

Our flight to England wasn't so great. We thought we had timed it perfectly with Lydia's nap, but it backfired. She screamed for a majority of the flight. Yes, we were THAT family. As the people deplaned, they were scowling at US. What can you do?

Since Brandon worked Thursday and Friday, Lydia and I scouted out a little playground nearby, wandered through the shops in Durham and went swimming in the hotel pool. It really was a nice break. On Saturday, we drove to Northern England where there is a castle on an island called "Holy Island". You are able to drive on to the island during low tide, but if the tide comes in, the road is covered and you cannot go on or off the island. Thankfully tide did not come in until 6:00 pm that day so we came and went without incident. We didn't even tour the castle since Brandon had already been there and said it was a bust. Apparently, someone was living there as late as the 70s so it was decorated in 70s style. Since Lydia isn't much for castle tours anyway we just spent time exploring by the old monestary, looking at sheep and having a nice lunch.

We flew out on Sunday morning and things went downhill from there. Upon returning home, we realized that my cell phone had been stolen from our checked luggage. It was then that we realized that the same thing had happened to our video camera on the way to England... Brandon thought he had just forgotten to pack it, but it is nowhere to be found. So, here I am without a phone... again. And I think the video camera still had Lydia's birthday on it. Quite sad. And THEN... about 9:00 pm, we lost water. We still don't have it this morning and aren't quite sure what the problem is. It seems like it may be a neighborhood thing, but no hint at when we might get it back. Thankfully we have 3 toilets, because we get one flush in each one. So far, we've used 2... 1 to go and it has to last the rest of the day! As Brandon says... "It's all part of the game. And we're in the game."