September 1st

Well, we made it. Kudos to British Air for the easiest check in and flight we have ever had! Aaron did an amazing job driving on the left hand side. We rented a car from London to Liverpool--stopped at Oxford just in case we never made it back to visit the place that inspired C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkein. The adults were in heaven, the kids were not that impressed :). Partly, we couldn't go inside many of the grounds or building b/c you had to pay--oh, well.

One funny story on Emma Shae. We go through security at the Houston airport and up the escalator. She looks around and says, "I LOVE England! Can we stay here? Can we buy something?!" Classic. 2 days ago we were at a park around the corner from our apartment and she went right up to a mom (or mum as they say) and introduced herself and told her all about us! Nice. It really touched Aaron--just seeing her boldness and freedom.

So, we live in Waterloo, basically a suburb of Liverpool. It is north of the city and parallels Lake Marine, which is right next to the Irish Sea. It is freezing cold already! At times very windy. The sky is amazing--this sea worthy, cloudy, intense sky with brilliant colors at sunset, although we can't see the sun set--just the reflection in the clouds. It is a quiet residential area and we are sandwiched between 2 shopping streets, with restaurants, pubs, butchers, bakers, green grocers and Home and Bargain a tiny version of Target! Wal Mart is apparently here, incognito called Asda (with the give away moniker Always! We know who you are, Wal Mart!) The description on the Internet is mostly food items. Back to our neighborhood--it's very quaint and postcard like--I did not expect that at all!

We can walk anywhere we need to--which is a blessing considering we don't have a car. The kids school is a 5 minute walk, with the public library right across the street from that! It looks like they have a spot for Micah and Emma Shae. They do have a preschool (or nursery), but it is private and opens next week, so we'll see if Mallory will go, depending on cost. It looks wonderful, and the area seems full of families and lots of kids are bike or walk around in pairs--a good sight for us as we were wondering about the safety. Micah and Emma Shae start school tomorrow and will wear uniforms--red and grey. It's a public school called Waterloo Primary.

So, we have toured around a bit, bought mobile phones that only work in Europe, successfully washed clothes (although we don't have a dryer and it is very damp here--even after 3 days of hanging up, the clothes were wet!) working on getting a dryer from the landlord and Internet access in the home. We'll get pictures up soon. We haven't eaten anything very nasty yet (despite the British infamy of bad food) and Aaron admitted last night he would be willing to try Chinese and Indian food here. We heard it rocks! He would not have done that in Waco--so, go Aaron on the flexibility.

Yesterday was a Bank Holiday, not sure what they were celebrating, but we tried to go to a castle. The kids are doing a great job with all the walking, so much so, that we accidentally walked 5 miles yesterday! We went to Chester and tried unsuccessfully to go to a near by castle. Chester turned out to be great as it is a medieval town with a wall--so, we charged on to the wall and learned all kinds of things about the former Roman garrison, the defeat of King Charles during the civil war of the 1600's and accidentally walked 5 miles in the process! The kids were up to it, although we have had to carry the girls quite a bit at times. It's good for us, because we do not have the YMCA anymore :). Micah was really stoked about the Roman ruins because he has studied Rome at school.

So, that's a little peak of the start of our short stay in Liverpool! More later!