A Room for Jellybean!

As we wait the arrive of our daugher we have gotten her room ready. While living overseas we feel like we are on an adveneture so we went with an "UP" theme, with two key things we kept in mind.
1) Adventure is out there
2) Never give up

 

60 miles on a bike!

 This morning Brendan left the house about 4:30 am to ride to the center of Cambridge to catch, as his boss called it, "a cyclist's natural enemy," a bus. The bus took Brendan's company team into London, England. After a long ride on the bus Brendan and countless others began this journey from London back to Cambridge for the  London to Cambridge Bike Ride for the Cure. (Note: it was not a race, there were stops along the way, to encourage cyclists to tune up bikes, enjoy a drink at the local pub, and just enjoy the day.)

By the time Brendan returned to Cambridge he had spent less than 5 hours on the whole ride with stops. Brendan was delighted that he beat his own personal goal he set before the ride.

Given that technology does not always work the way we would like it to, Stephannie missed him crossing the line, as the map system they were using said he was on the other end of town, but here is Brendan post race! Well done!

 

After the ride there was a smoothie station, which was really awesome as it was peddle powered!

Thank you to everyone who supported Brendan and company team!

Dino-delight!

After our busy Friday and Saturday of moving and cleaning the old and new space we helped our friend Richard into London with his many bags as he prepares to return to Canada after his year of studying in Cambridge.

Once the bags were delivered we went on a dinosaur hunt, as rumor had it Jamie Oliver had opened a pop-up diner with a dinosaur theme!

Yes Stephannie did try the ribs, with a side of avocado fries and they we dino-icious!

 

We even had a dinosaur join us for dinner, the sign says not to feed, but he looked so hungry!

 Here is one of the great posters that was around the restaurant, for all my tea lovers.

More boxes again!

Sadly we had to move, so even though our front door is not blue we are setting up our new home in Impington, which is just North of Cambridge city center.

Side trip to Texas!

After only being back in Canada a week we took a side trip further south to Brenham, Texas to take part and celebrate the wedding of Trevor & Magen. While there we saw some interesting wild life. Armadillos, buzzards, and tarantulas oh my!

Stephannie and Brendan had the honour of standing up as part of the wedding party on Trevor's side as grooms-matron and best man.

Congratulations Magen & Trevor!

Once back in Canada we spent more time with family and friends, and then we were off and back to the air port to fly back to jolly old England.

Oh Canada....it had been 6 months and we missed thee

So 6 months after we moved to the UK we flew back to Vancouver Canada to see family and friends. We had a laugh that the day we landed in Canada this was the Google Doodle.

OH CANADA how we <3 you!

We celebrated a late Mother's Day with our mothers, and  had some cake.

Many breakfasts, lunches, teas, and dinners with friends and family. So much great North American food.

 

(Left) At Pachamami Sabor Latino with Stephannie's parents. Best Bolivian food in Surrey! Stephannie counted the days until she could have one of her favorite dishes, saltenas! (Right) IHOP with Josh and Sam, yay peaches and pancakes! [There are no good places to get pancakes in Cambridge to this was a great treat]

While back in the lower mainland we got to enjoy some of the local wild life....mind you depending on who you take to they are more of a pest, but Stephannie thinks bunnies are just wonderful. 

A Weekend in Scotland

As a treat to ourselves we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in Scotland for the long weekend. Frommbly and Muzzypug joined us on our adventure, in hopes that they could be our tour guides.

On our first day we played tourist and hoped onto a "Hop-On-Off" bus to see the sights of the city. First stop...

Edinburgh Castle                        

We were dropped a the bottom of a hill and hiked up to the castle  gates, what a great view of the city could be seen, but with being so high up we worried we might be blown away by the high winds. Even though it was cold out, there were ice cream trucks and people walking around with triple scopes of ice cream.

Once inside we thought it best to fuel up on some good traditional Scottish food. Brendan was so excited to have haggis!  Not only did he have it for lunch, but then he had for breakfast the rest of our stay.

 While Brendan enjoyed his haggis pot pie, we shared a table with  a lovely couple from Canada. We were delightfully surprise by the one o'clock cannon. That is right the cannon fires everyday but Sunday at o'clock, during our trip we hear it sound again, good time reference while out in the city.

With in the castle there are many mini museums, which cover the history of the military and events of the castle and surrounding city of Edinburgh.

Near the end of our exportation of the castle we went to the Great Hall, where we watched a talented man who explained and played traditional string and wind instruments found back as far away the 14th century He explained how the bow from an archer's bag became what we know now a days as a  violin and guitar. Another instrument he played sounded like a bumble bee trapped in a jar, which was known to be played following the even mean and as a result had bits of food that got stuck in it. Over time the rackett would become plugged, so it was taken to a repair shop, where it would often sit on a shelf continuing to rot from the inside out, if exposed to heat they would on occasion explode! The most fascinating instruments he played was called hurdy-gurdy. "The hurdy gurdy  is a stringed musical instrument that produces sound by a crank-turned rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents (small wedges, typically made of wood) against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board to make the vibration of the strings audible." (wiki)

The castle was great, it even had it's own little chapel which is a hit with father's of the bride as it only seats 20. When we looked at it we were not sure how you would even fit 20 in there, but very cute none the less.

Palace of Holyroodhouse                                                     

Our second day in Edinburgh we explored an the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is where the monarchy stays in the summer months. We enjoyed walking around the grounds as we listened an audio guide.

No photos were allowed to be taken inside the place so here are some of the grounds, which were lovely in the spring.

 

After the tour we had tea the palace, we all know how much Stephannie loves afternoon tea.