Our new favorite holiday!

Plas Cadnant on the Isle of Anglesey is now officially at the top of our list when Daryl and I think back to the wonderful places we've stayed at. If we lived closer to the area, i would be tempted not to even mention the actual name of our holiday cottage because there is always a temptation when you find a gem to keep it to yourself. (why do we do that???)

Anglesey itself is a beautiful area. Everyone who we've talked to says Northern Wales (and Scotland) are the most beautiful areas of the UK. The country estate that we stayed at is surrounded by soft green hills of bleating sheep. The whole gardens and estate are in the process of being restored. Originally built in the 1600s, the cottages combine old classic style with modern comfort and convenience.

I don't know if we'll ever be able to return to Wales, but if we do, we'll definetly be coming back to Plas Cadnant.

9 Rules to Remember when Driving in the UK

While we were in Wales Daryl got to try out driving in the UK for the first time. Here are some insights we'd like to pass along.

1. Do not start your left-side-of-the-road driving experience in London or any other big city. Start out in a smaller town or rural area..

2. 2. Watch out for Old People (Bless their hearts!)

3. After you turn left onto a new street and your wife says with increasing force, “Left…. Left! … LEFT!!!.... DARYL LEFT!!!!” then that probably means you should move over to the left lane and not for you to turn left again!

4. Don’t go into auto-drive mode, you WILL end up driving on the right side of the road. Driving requires your brain to multi-task and when you neglect to focus on driving on the left side, your auto-drive will turn you onto the right side.

5. Be ready for roundabouts. They don’t have many stop signs, at least I cannot recall any. Figure out the etiquette of turn signals in the roundabouts before driving (I still don’t get it.)

6. Even if you do figure out the etiquette of turn signals, you may not be able to apply it. Most cars here are manual and your left hand must multi-task with shifting gears and hitting your turn switch (a skill I have yet to learn.) I am not sure why the turn signal is not on the right side where your free hand is; maybe it was just the car that we had rented.

7. Do not forget, as we did, to ask for an automatic transmission car from the rental agency.

8. 8. Be ready for NARROW streets. If cars are parked on the street, be prepared to take turns with oncoming traffic to make it through. Even if there isn’t a car parked there you still may need to take turns getting through.

9.If you are out in the country and you see a sign that says “for narrow cars only” avoid it! Even though you are driving a very narrow car, the lovely bushes on each side scrapping against your rental car will cause nervous tension to exceed the pleasure of enjoying the beautiful countryside, as you stress about the £600 liability charge that you may have to pay.

Reflections on My First Visit to a Medieval castle.

The castle was in ruins centuries ago. Castles were outdated after gunpowder and canons came. Thus, most all the castles ceased as military powers well before the United States was even an idea.

I found it odd that there was a little chapel built into the walls of the castle. It made me think of having a prayer room built into an army tank. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in praying at all times. Nevertheless, the juxtaposition of a castle built to expand an earthly kingdom by ruling others against their will (in this case the Welsh) and a chapel made to worship Jesus, whose kingdom is not of this world, seemed askew.

The castle is a draw for tourists in this Welsh community but it also stands as a constant reminder that they (the Welsh) were defeated and ruled by the English. Most Welsh embrace the unity of Wales and England with its many economic benefits, while others despise the “occupation.”

From what I’ve read and seen of what it was like to live in a Castle when they were just built, I am inclined to think that my little apartment in Whittier is in many ways a far more comfortable place to live.

It’s hard to put into words just how beautiful Northern Wales is and in particular, the holiday cottage and gardens we stayed at over this weekend. For an early 8th anniversary trip, Daryl and I just returned today from 3 nights and 4 days on the Isle of Anglesey, arguably one of the most beautiful parts of the United Kingdom. We felt like little kids who’d stumbled into a sweet shop, overcome by the variety and beauty. Even the train ride from London to Wales was wonderful; we saw coastal towns, castles, farmland, little lazy rivers with those long canal boats ... it was great!

The whole trip would be too much to fit into one blog post, at least for the average person's attention span! So we decided that over the next several days, Daryl and I will take turns posting about several of the different experiences we enjoyed from Wales. If you look at our links on righthand side you'll see all our videos on youTube, one of them shows the place we stayed. you can also click here. more about it in the days to come!

(you can see the boats out the window!)

Market, Croissants, picnic, and more!

when we opened our blinds on Sunday morning, this is what we saw!

We had a wonderful Sunday this past weekend. Once a month the town has a farmers market, (conveniently located 20 feet from our flat) it was the first really warm day we've had ... so warm in fact that I started regretting any slight complains i'd voiced about the endless rain! The sun was shining brilliantly and the pure bright blue sky hurt to look at it. After visiting our first local church, we were drawn by the buzz of life coming from the stalls; jams, paintings, fresh seafood on ice, countless cheeses, a great selection of breads and pastry (oh la la), hand made knit booties, fresh honey, ostrich burgers sizzling on the grills, produce from local farms, oh man, how could i resist!

Ostrich egg! (equivalent to 24 chicken eggs!) this load of egg will cost you 15 GBP (about $27) Todd and Kristin, this puts your peacock eggs to shame!

oh mommy don't you want to buy some of these cute cupcakes?!!!

we picked out some loafs of bread, jam, and several quiches for our lunch!

my personal weakness: croissants and coffee ... a latte to be exact or a white coffee as they say here. (a coffe with milk)

Later in the afternoon we packed a picnic and walked to the common to watch a local cricket match. It was so nice out, eating our chicken salad pita sandwhiches, our summer fruit pie (also from the farmers market)

after this picnic daryl and i took the girls further in to the fields for a walk and we found a wooded area full of trees that drop lots of sticks we found a fort already contstructed and so started to build our own "lean-to" fort with the girls. they had so much fun romping around, playing house in the woods. Claire made us all "stick noddle soup" and we had a yard sale of various large sticks and logs. Daryl took the girls back to the fort later this week and they played there for a couple hours!

well, our next post should be fun, Daryl and i are getting away for a couple days while grandma and grandpa are here to watch the girls. we'll be in Northern Wales without much access to the internet.

Cheers! Becky

Good morning

ok, so the deal was that if i could get out of bed this morning in time to go out for an early walk then i could buy myself a coffee on the way home! pretty motivating huh? well the offer wasn't enough yesterday morning; i snoozed past my alarm and could not pull myself out of bed. Today however, it was different! Maybe it was the street sweeper at 6:45 am outside my open window beckoning me out of bed, but i like to think it was my resolve and discipline (haha! ) well either way i did it! i got out of bed, put on my red running shorts (i mean "walking" shorts) put on my tennis shoes, and stepped outside. i then promptly stepped back inside and got my jacket. Even though it was hot all night long (hence the open window) this morning the overcast sky made for a brisk chill in the air. I felt a bit silly with my red shorts and pink jacket, i'm sure it probably hurt people's eyes to look at the color clash walking down the street but frankly it was just too early to care! (it was quiet out anyways!)


It really was lovely this morning. I walked through this big park we have by our house, thinking and praying about my day/life. When I thought about moving to England for the summer, this was one of the images that came to my mind, walking out in the countryside. having quiet beauty around me. it was a wonderful way to start my day and i look forward to hopefully making this a routine! oh yeah, and the stop at the coffee shop on the way home was definitely a nice, well earned reward!

With the 125^th Wimbledon taking place while we were here in England, it seemed like a perfect match for us. Yet all the tickets had been sold out for

months and they were going for $3000 on ebay. Our friend Philip Massey learned that some tickets were released each day but people had to camp over night to get those.

(finding humor on our long train ride)

Thus when we set off on the 1 ½ hour trip to Wimbledon yesterday, our highest expectations were set on looking at the venue from the outside and getting a picture at the main gate. When we stepped off the train at Wimbledon station around 1 pm, a tournament representative informed us you could purchase same-day admission tickets for access to the outer courts. The only problem, he told us, was that the wait for admission was at least four hours. Since, our aim had not been to get inside we set out on the ½ hour walk to the venue.

It was not long into the walk when we found cones and signs marking where the queue (line) had backed up to. Yet as we approached the venue we could not figure out the length of the queue.

“Why not give it a try,” we said. “Let’s get in the queue and see if we can bear the wait?” So we settled down in the queue to see if we could beat the waiting game. After about twenty minutes they began letting in a big group of people. It turned out that

we were very near the front of the line and after swinging through security we found ourselves laying down twenty pounds a person to get into the tournament grounds. We could hardly believe our eyes. We were in and with access to all the outer courts we set out to see what we could see.

After my parents split off from us we managed to slip into some front rows seats to see a men’s singles match between Beck and Garcia-Lopez. We had never heardof either player but it was stunning to watch our first professional tennis match. The grass was beautiful, the ball girls/boys fascinated Natania and Claire, and the tennis was excellent. After watching most of this match we caught a glimpse of a men’s doubles match before going to a different court to watch Benesova and Strycova beat Cibulkova and Kyitova in women’s doubles. “Surreal, it just feels surreal to be sitting here at Wimbledon,” Becky and I kept saying to each other.

Then after a rain break cleared the stands at another court we managed to get phenomenal seats to watch Flavia Pennetta beat a Russian by the name of Rodina. Having enjoyed watching Pannetta on the television in a previous major, we solidified our allegiance to her as fans.

We had some difficulty in re-connecting my parents in the teaming tennis grounds. Once re-united with them we were faced with a decision. Should we sit on the hill and watch the big screen or get in the massive queue (a queue is a line!) to see if we could get resale tickets to the Centre Court where Federer was to play. Becky, my mom, and the girls decided to head for home as it was already about 8pm, while my dad and I got in the queue. From the queue I had glimpses of the match where the American Isner was beat by Almagro. I also enjoyed the benefits of my Dad’s super-outgoing nature as a married couple (Irish Man and English woman who lived in Wimbledon) shared their pizza and strawberries with cream with us.

It was a long wait but we did eventually get two tickets at five pounds each to see what was left of Federer’s match. We got to our excellent seats at Wimbledon’s Centre Court in time to watch the last two sets where Federer crushed the Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.

To watch Federer in person at Wimbledon’s Centre Court was stunning. Yet, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the simple humanity of Federer and all the spectators at the venue. Everyone there will one day face their Creator and whether or not they won ten Wimbledon’s or owned box seats, what really mattered is if they knew Jesus. The experience was sur-real on several levels.

These meditations were quickly quieted by the harsh reality of life’s daily demands, as they often are. Becky, my mom and the girls had arrived home but without one critical piece of metal – a key. They were locked out on a dreary English night at 10:30pm and the only key (not in the house) was in Daryl’s pocket sitting at the Wimbledon railway station. After about 40 minutes of trying to break in through the mail slot they gave up and camped outside and the girls fell asleep in their arms. Around 11:45 our next door neighbor came home and insisted they sit on his couch while he made them tea until we got home at 12:15 or so! What an end to our day!

-Daryl

Can you guess where we got to go today!!!

We'll give more details tomorrow as it's too late and we are heading to bed now. This day did not go as we planned... mostly for good but also a little bad too! we'll share the story tomorrow!

The Spradley Grandparents are here!

or as my mom has said, "the reinforcements" have come! My in-laws Steve and Sherry arrived yesterday afternoon. They got a bus to get from Heathrow airport up to Luton Airport which is a smaller airport at the next big town north of us. Daryl and I thought it would be nice and hospitable to meet them there instead of leaving them on their own to figure out how to get to our appartment. As it turns out we should have just left them to figure it out cause we ended up having a crazy evening trying to track them down! Unfortunately we had a miscommunication and mom and dad thought they needed to be at the train station to wait for us. So while we were waiting at the Luton airport, they were waiting at the Luton Rail station! they left a message on our cell which we got just before our phone battery died! Honestly- it was a comedy of errors! Daryl and i took a shuttle bus, a taxi, a train and still we never found them. Finally he and i split up and i came back home while he went one more time back to the airport. He finally came home and a few minutes after he arrived, we spotted them with their 4 rolling suitcases walking down High street (They had finally given up on us and hoped on the train!) As it turns out, their bus had first taken them to the airport, but after not seeing us (we arrived literally minutes later!) they asked the bus driver if the airport was the main drop off and he said, "oh no, i'll take you over to the train station" so he droped them off at the Luton train station (which Daryl and i did go to although having never been there before, we didn't know there was a seating / ticket area upstairs and we only looked downstairs. But don't worry, even though it was a bit crazy, we were all in good spirits, happy to see each other. Man, now i know what life was like before cell phones and i'm happy to ususally have one in good working order!

Our House

here's our place on High street. if you look close you can see a couple of little ladies at the window!














steps up to our place

here is our entrance

Daryl' here!!!

Horray! Daryl made it safely yesterday! We were very excited to have daddy here. There has been a lot of hugging and cuddling over here!

now we feel complete!

don't get me wrong, I love having a couple days to myself. boy, i run around so excited about the quiet and all the things i can do, my mind swirls with ideas for projects and chick movies i've wanted to watch. but when you get beyond 3 days it's no longer as exciting. you start thinking all the time about your spouse and how much you miss him! This time we were appart for 11 days. (originally it was supposed to be more like 18! Praise the Lord for our flyer miles that let us change his ticket!) i'm so grateful that i've had my mum here for this time, as definetly going away with the girls in tow is not the same as a holiday by myself!

oh we are happy to have Daddy here. I'm running home now from work for my lunch break. so i don't want to write anymore because i'm eager to see him!

St Albans

We still don't have internet at our house and i just found out today (which i thought would be the day that our internet is installed) that actually now that our phone line is installed (which did happen!) our router can be sent to us. So in 7 days.... that's right another whole week!... We should have internet. All that to say, i'm sorry i haven't done more posts and pictures so far. it is hard to me to post to much regularily cause i'm ready to run home at the end of the day and not sit longer at the computer, uploading all my photos.



well without further ado, here are some lovely photos from a trip we did last week into St. Albans, a near by town that has a beautiful old cathedral that dates back to about 1250. Crazy! It was very beautiful and there just so happened to be a boys school choir practicing. the town is also really nice, it's bigger than Harpenden with more shops and more cafe/restaurants too.


















here we are on the bus to St. Albans!
















the Cathedral (from the side, for better view, click here)















from inside















after our long walk around town and shoping, we found a nice place for lunch and tea!















hm... here is what i call the perfect end to a day!

A day in London!


We took the train from where we are into London yesterday (to help us stay awake) and had a nice day exploring the city a bit! there is way too much to see in one day. we enjoyed taking a boat tour up the River Thames and ended in Greenwich; "where time began"

here are a few pictures!

Some pictures of our place!

the water closet


















The small modern kitchen. Fridge is disguised by closet doors!













View from living room into tiny kitchen... see it is very tiny!












View from kitchen to living room and front windows overlooking the main street in town. Don't know if you can read the store title out the window, but that is the grocery store literally across the street!

Safe and Sound

We made it saftly to England! It's 3 in the morning and i've been up with the girls since about 12:30am... so i guess we can also say that we are officially on jet lag. I could easily have slept all night long, but their little bodies are wide awake right now, showing no signes of tiredness. I've already had to explain why we don't go out for walks at 2 am ("girs, the middle of the night is not the time we go on walks!")

Everthing went smooth with the fight other than that after we boarded the plane (9:40pm) and got all our excitement out and finally "laid" down to sleep (10:40pm) the flight attendents turned on the lights and started serving dinner! I had just started dozzing off when i was offered the girls kids dinner, and if i wanted curry chicken or cheesy lasagnua. Honestly, didn't they know what time it was? we passed... and slept instead! so one of the most exciting things about a long plane trip- getting to eat on the plane, we had to forgo! they did have breakfast too, but it was only a little boxed meal. Although this still excited the girls since they didn't know anything different.

We arrived and got out of the airport quickly, with no problems. My colleague was there to meet us and he drove us back to our flat and then on to his house to have dinner with his family. we had a nice evening in the English countryside! it was overcast and drizzling and has continued to rain throughout the night. Our place is really cute, we are right on the main street going in town. We have three grocery stores less than 100 feet away and my office is also less than a block downt the street!

Well i'm feeling pretty tired now, as evidenced by my spelling mistakes that i'm feeling too tired to go back and fix right now! i'm going to see if the girls will go back to bed for a few more hours! when the sun comes up i'll try and take some pictures of our place!

much love to everyone!

Cheers!

First and Last Summer BBQ

Two nights ago we had our first BBQ of the summer complete with homemade pie and ice cream too! Two nights ago we also had our last BBQ of the summer complete with all of our dear neighbor friends who we will miss terribly this summer while we are away. I can't believe our trip to England is right around the corner. But all thoughts of packing and "to do's" were far from my mind on Tuesday night when we had a special dinner outside with our neighbors.

Tuesday nights have traditionally been our "community dinner" night. we sometime split up and take turns rotating each tuesday to eat one on one with a different family, but now that the weather has turned warm enough to eat outside again we had a big potluck dinner.

Ever since last summer, Ben W. and I have been talking about doing a pie bake off; apparently we are both pretty confident about our pie-making abilities or actually i think we just really like eating pie!

We ended up making our pies- blackberry for him and

blueberry peach for me. In the end, it was too hard to make people chose between two delicious pies so we called it a truce.

Kelly also made the best homemade vanilla ice cream... so creamy! It was so good, it didn't really need pie, it could definitely stand on it's own. But as good as pie is on it's own, you really need that soft cool bite of vanilla to fully enjoy a good pie.

(Blueberry / Peach )

(Ben and Kelly, go together like blackberry pie and vanilla ice cream!)

Empty plate, full heart!