Home for Christmas

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted here. A few reasons for this- firstly, my Mum and Sister came out to visit us at the beginning of August so I spent most of my time enjoying the company and making sure they had a good time here and secondly, I was a bit down when they went back home. It's now been 3 weeks since they left and everything is back to normal and although I still miss them it's not as bad anymore.

I will try to keep up on here as much as I can. At the moment we are in the process of applying for our Green Card to live here in the United states so I will be posting a bit about that. We have had our vaccinations done and the next step is for us all to get a check up which we are trying to get booked soon. 

In other news we have booked our trip home for Christmas. We were planning to wait a bit but the flights seem to be going really fast so we decided to jump on and get everything booked early. I am so happy to be visiting home, especially at Christmastime. I can't wait for everyone to see Calleigh again and how much she has grown. And I'm very excited to catch up with all my friends. 

It's still a good while away yet though, we have a few things to look forward to before then. I am most looking forward to experiencing Halloween out here with Calleigh. There are already tons of Halloween stuff in the shops and I have started thinking about what I want to dress Calleigh up as. 

There is also Calleigh's birthday and Thanksgiving (both on the same day)!

Until then though, I will be counting down the weeks until I see you again England! 

Day Two: Still Travelling

At 6am on Friday morning we caught the bus back to the airport. After checking in we got rid of the mountain of suitcases and made our way to security. 

As Calleigh woke up at 4 she was very tired and fell in to a deep sleep right before. I will tell you one thing, it's not easy trying to manoeuvre your way through security with a sleeping baby in your arms. But we made it and with plenty of time to spare before our flight. 

So we set ourselves down and had a nice breakfast before making our way to our gate. Whilst we were waiting (the plane was delayed a little bit due to broken wiper blades) Calleigh woke up and had a banana for breakfast. 

The flight went well again and before we knew it we touched down at our final destination- 

Our new home- 

St Louis. 

We checked in at the Wildwood hotel and conveniently my Mum's room was right next door to ours. 

We spent the next few days couped up in a hotel room eagerly awaiting our move in date- the 17th of April. 

More to come soon... (when we finally get the Internet in our house!)

Day One: Leaving Day

We left the house on Thursday 11th of April at 6:30am after a sad goodbye to my sister, Lana. 

We somehow managed to squish 4 large suitcases, 1 small suitcase, several large bags, a pushchair, a baby and 3 people into the car. One thing I will say- most uncomfortable ride ever!

Once we arrived at the airport it was all a bit of a rush, it always seems to be that way with Calleigh beans. So we quickly checked in all our luggage and managed to get a quick breakfast and before we knew it we were boarding the plane. 

We waved a little goodbye to England as the plane took off and prepared ourselves for the journey ahead. 

Unfortunately we couldn't get seats together on the plane, so Paul volunteered himself to sit with Calleigh, while I sat and kept the mother company. 

The flight went really well and 7 hours and 20 minutes later we touched down in Newark, New Jersey. 

The flight actually landed 25 minutes late which meant we missed our connecting flight to St Louis- Ahhhh and we were unable to get a direct flight until the next morning- double Ahhhh.

Luckily, the lovely lady at the service desk gave us a complimentary hotel for the night and $120 in meal vouchers. 

We left our bags in the room at the hotel and after freshening up we made our way down to the bar for happy hour, after all, missing your flight and being stuck in an airport hotel is a perfect excuse for a few beers. 

We turned in early that night so by 4am the next morning we were all wide awake getting ready to go back to the airport and start all over again...

London- Day Two

After the early finish at the Embassy we had the whole day left to explore more of London. 

We decided to start our day at Buckingham Palace. The flag was flying which meant the Queen was at home, I was hoping she may come to the window and give us a little wave, but no such luck. 

Looking at the massive building I found myself thinking about how hard it would be to clean and how many staff work there. I find it hard enough to keep on top of my house and my house would probably fit in her bathroom. 

Next we took a walk through St James Park on our way to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. That's when the most amazing thing happened. Walking past a few seagulls, the biggest one there suddenly opened it beak and meowed at us, yes, meowed. I instantly though I need to take this home to Calleigh, but instead decided on a video. Unfortunately the seagull was a bit shy and as soon as I got my camera out it turned away. 

We walked a bit further and finally Big Ben came into view. Around the same square was Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. All the buildings were so beautiful. We wanted to go inside the Abbey but decided against it as time was short and we still had so much to see. 

I managed to convince Paul that it was important to go and see the Twinings Tea Shop. So we headed off to  the Strand. On the way there we walked through Trafalgar Square. It all felt very much like I was in a game of Monopoly, apart from I wasn't cheating (Paul wont play Monopoly with me anymore because I cheated, in my defence I don't  like losing).

After buying lots of Tea we headed back to the hotel via the tube. Our little feet were too tired for the 45 minute walk back. We packed up our stuff, checked out and headed for the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Our last stop before going home.

We then picked up some gifts from the gift shop for family and stopped for a cup of tea before heading back to the car.

Our journey home was not the greatest. After taking a wrong turn the Sat Nav redirected us through the centre of London so it took us an hour before we even got onto the M1.
When we finally did we saw warnings of slow traffic a couple of Junctions up but decided if we have a stop for something to eat it should have cleared up by the time we reach it.
Oh how we were so wrong.

4 hours later we finally made it home. 

London- Day One

We arrived at our hotel, Doubletree by Hilton Marble Arch, at around 3:30pm. At check in we received a free cookie each and then quickly got to our room to dump our bags. 

First thing we needed to do was a test walk up to the Embassy (so we didn't get lost on the day). Surprisingly it was very easy and only took about 5 minutes, which means we have more time for breakfast before we have to leave tomorrow morning. 

Next I wanted to go to Harrods so I got my phone out and used my handy City Guide app I downloaded to point us in the right direction. It didn't do us much good as we most definitely went the long way. It wasn't so bad though as I got to stand next to an Aston Martin Vanquish in a showroom and walk through Hyde Park (obviously avoiding the swarms of crazy people on bikes determined to run me over!). 

We finally made it to Harrods and then proceeded to get lost between the rooms of expensive handbags and even more expensive bling before finding ourselves in the sanctuary that was the room with chocolate and tea. I brought some overpriced chocolate and then headed to the toy department to find something for Calleigh. After looking for far too long at a pair of glittery Cinderella shoes (that also came in my size) and being told by Paul that we would both look silly in them, I decided on a Harrods bear dressed as the Queen. 

Our next stop was the Hard Rock Cafe shop to pick up a T-Shirt from the London store. 

I now own St Louis, Copenhagen and London Hard Rock T-Shirts. 

As it was getting later and was already dark we quickly moved on to the Ice Bar, which I have wanted to do for ages. There was one in Copenhagen when we went but we couldn't go in as it would have been far too cold for little Calleigh. 

It was a bit expensive (£14 per person) and Paul had a little grumble but we did get a free cocktail once inside and it was super cool. We were dressed in silly snow coats with gloves attached. The gloves were a must as the glass was made of ice and would of been impossible to hold otherwise. It was really good, I though it would of had a bit more seating but I suppose you can only have so many ice chairs. 

Starving and knackered we headed back to the hotel for some hot food, a nice shower and a warm bed.