Stateside 2011

Todd and I had a great time in the States visiting family and friends for the past few weeks. 

It was quite an experience to be in NYC for the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. We were a few of the lucky ones who got to see the memorial on the day it opened to the public.

Sept 12, 2011, WTC memorial

New WTC building, half way completed

I, also, wanted to see the new Gehry building that was completed this year downtown. It's one of the only residential buildings in downtown Manhattan. The Dancing House from our Prague trip (here) has the same architect, Frank Gehry. His idea behind the design was to introduce bay windows, where you can walk into the bay window in one of the apartments on the 70th floor (or any) and feel like you're standing in the air.

We were also lucky enough to be able to spend some time in NYC with the Larkins, who were kind enough to fit us into an existing New York trip. 

Doing what we do best with the Larkins- beer by the liter (notice mine is the tiny one)

Quinn and Jackson waiting patiently for us

And of course, the whole reason we were in the States in the first place- Chris and Kylie's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a fun reception.

Rehearsal Dinner

This is a pretty terrible pic, but the only one I have of Todd officiating his first wedding!

More signage

Oh England, I've missed your silly British signs!

Divine Hat

I know at home the last thing you're thinking of right now is winter hats, but here on the temperate island of Great Britain where we are still wearing long sleeves all summer long, I've begun winter crocheting projects. So I wanted to post pictures of the new hat I've just finished. I found the pattern here and though it took me about seven tries to get it right, I finally have a finished product that I'm very happy with!

Belle's breakfast

I think Belle was trying to tell us that she was REALLY hungry this morning!

My growing garden

It's been fun to let our back yard grow and see what interesting things appear. Here is some pictures of what has been growing this spring/summer in my garden.

Crocosmia Lucifer- my crappy camera doesn't capture the fiery reddness of these flowers!

Pic from April-Tomatoes and Peppers planted from seed

No veggies yet, but MANY flowers!

A tree in our back yard with beautiful flowers

Tiny little rose bush

These daisies pop up in the oddest places

Belle vs. The Garden Hose

A day at the beach

Today was a whopping 79 degrees! That is really hot here! So, since we have been lamenting the cool summer and lack of beach time (along with our translucent skin tone), we packed the pups up and drove to Seaham. Seaham is a seaside town on the North Sea with a long and stoney beach.

We were surprised to find that this quaint little town with gorgeous sea cliffs is only a 25 minute drive away from our house in Durham. We were even more pleased to find that the parking was FREE!! The pups were very excited to be outside running free and especially to have a vast amount of water nearby in which to swim.

Maggie started out overjoyed by the water and jumped in and swam and swam, but then later was scared of the waves.

Belle, however, was more fearless and would jump through the crashing waves continually. It was really nice to have such a beautiful day here and I even found a starfish that I was able to throw back into the ocean.

Here's a video of our fearless Belle riding the waves!




Here's one of Maggie fetching the bottle we threw and then being scared by the waves.



And here's one of Belle swimming after rocks Todd is throwing into the sea.