Humorous

Heavenly Father still has a good sense of humor. I finished my morning prayer hoping for peace about a house and everything here. I grabbed the scriptures and couldn't remember where I was and thought no biggie, lots of people just open the scriptures and their answer is right there. I opened them and the first verse I saw I read..."And the Lord said unto Alma: Haste thee and get thou and this people out of this land." Yep, His sense of humor is alive and well.

Yogurt!

Andrew will survive here. There is much yogurt...and it's cheaper (and yummier) than it is at home. So that is a huge plus! A 4 pack that you buy at Walmart in the States would run us $1.38 ish...here that same 4 pack is 33 pence so it's 3 packs for 1 pound which is like 1.67ish...amazingly cheaper on the yogurt. Most everything else, especially meat and cheese, it more expensive. But eggs, bread, and baked beans are all pretty cheap!

Exploring

After the practice, the Mudgetts took us around the city. We talked with as many of the letting agencies that we could to see what houses they have available that we haven't seen online or to see if there were any coming up soon. Most were closed as it was Saturday afternoon, but we tried our best. It's different here house hunting from the States in that you can't just have one realtor who works with you and you see whatever homes you want. Here you have to contact each different letting agencies that puts that house up for let and set up an appointment with them individually. So, it's quite a bit more time consuming and not the easiest to do without a phone. But Kim and Drew hooked us up there. We bought a SIM card and are using one of their phones so we can at least call agents and try to set things up.
They took the kids over to Crepes and Cream to get something to eat while we talked with a few agents and then we met them there. It was delicious! I got a chicken, avocado, chipotle chili, and rocket one. So good! The kids all got ice cream and more ice cream. :)

Then we walked around and explored the city a bit. It's really quaint and lovely. Excited to get to see some more places!

Our first Family Picture in England!

While everyone in Colorado was having lots of rain, we had a gloriously sunny day in Harrogate!

Car Shopping

So we're looking for a new car. Unfortunately (for Rick) this one is a little outside of our price range and isn't quite the family car we're looking for.

First Walk in England

We made it to England yesterday! It was a very cloudy and rainy. This morning we headed over to the Harrogate church building for the Primary Program practice for the program tomorrow. It was a beautiful walk across the Stray to the church. Our temporary housing is only about a mile from church so it will be a nice easy walk for us until we get a car. Rick will be able to take the bus to work, so that will also be nice. The girls don't seem overly excited, however we did have a lovely walk. Got a bit lost on the round about trying to figure out which way was really Wetherby Road, but the Bishop, Bishop McKeown, saw us walking and hollered out the window asking us if we were the Lee family and sure enough we are, so he pointed us in the right direction, bless him.
After meeting some wonderful families, being invited over for dinner tomorrow after church, we headed out to explore the city with Drew and Kim Mudgett and try to find out about cell phones, housing, talking to relators, and getting a bite to eat. Next post will have more about this.
Needless to say, Harrogate is such a beautiful place and we are sleep deprived, but happy to be here after the LONG trip here!

Our Temporary Housing

Here are some pictures of our home for the next 6ish weeks while we look for a house. House hunting is giving us a headache already! The process is very different than in the States. Hopefully we can figure out something soon. But in the meantime, we do love this place. The owners live in Dubai and we are the first people to live in it, so here's hoping we don't destroy it! It's a great little townhouse just off of York Place which is right across the street from the Stray in Harrogate and just a few minutes walk into the city center. It's really a very nice and convenient place to be for us! HR found us a great place!

Here it is! It's been a beautifully sunny day today! 

They are doing construction on the unit next to us so no neighbors there but some in the units next to that. We have these 2 drives to play in as we are in an alley and a gated drive so not much traffic. So the kids can play outside without any worries.

Our dining room:

 

Kitchen

 Master Bedroom

 Bedroom

 Stairwell/foyer, it's not a very huge place, but big enough.

 Stairs up to the 2nd floor bedroom

 Master Bath

House bath

Outside patio kids like playing in and climbing on the walls

 Living room

Kitchen, storage room is the right door and powder room to the left.

Powder room

And there is another room that is an office/Lucy's room. She was sleeping so I didn't get a picture of that room. Everyone has a bed and some space-it's good.
The washer/dryer is in the kitchen in the cupboard under the microwave. It's going to take a few hours to get a load done I understand. We'll see how that works out.
The management company left us some yummy pies and bread/cakes as a welcome gift. It was really nice of them and the kids are really excited to try them.

We Made It

After flight delays at Dulles which turned our 2 hour layover into 5, we made it to Manchester only 3 hours late. More than 22 hours of traveling, good times!

Joseph really liked being on an airplane. The girls slept really well.
Gratefully the driver who was picking us up didn't leave us. He was very patient and waited. We were quite the show carrying all of our suitcases and tired children off the plane to his big Mercedes Van. He wasn't sure we were all going to fit. Amazingly, we did. And off we headed from Manchester to drive to Harrogate. It was beautiful, green, foggy and then pretty rainy. He pointed out the highest point in England (for a highway I think) as we went over the summit. I kept trying to figure out how we are driving on the left side of the road and that it worked. It was just so foreign to me that everyone seemed to know how to do it. :) I know it won't be that weird in a bit, but looking and sitting there going the wrong way, it's the strangest feeling. It was really odd for Rick sitting in the front left seat and not driving.
It was a bit of a trick trying to find our temporary housing. I got nervous being on a busy street and not sure where we were supposed to be living, let alone how I was going to ever navigate myself around this place. He pulled over and gratefully the manager was out on the street and found him so we could pull in finally then our sponsor, Beau Neal, was also there and we got unloaded, settled up with the taxi and quickly got everyone changed so we could head out with Beau to Base and try to get settled in here. Beau goes to our church and he has 5 little girls with another coming any day. Can't wait to meet some of these girls for Lexie to make friends with!
Beau took us up to RAF Menwith Hill AFB where Rick will be working for the next 3 years. It was a crazy drive, no clue how I'll ever find it again, but crazier, they had no orders for him and weren't expecting him at the front so Beau just signed us on as visitors and then Rick went over to try and sort things out. That was easily fixed. But I was just ready to cry when the officer asked, "Are you sure they are expecting you to work here and you are supposed to be here today?" We were very tired! We tried to get some IDs for us but we need our SSCards, not just the #, so we'll have to wait on those now. It was all very disorganized and frustrating. But, we did get to go to the Commissary and get some groceries for the weekend. That was very nice and the kids liked picking out whatever they wanted (that rarely happens). Then we got a few other things taken care of and Beau took us back to our place and we started unpacking and trying to settle in yet keeping everyone awake as long as we could so we could start adjusting to the time change.

Drew Mudgett brought over a lovely taco soup that Kim made for us for dinner. It was heavenly and so appreciated! We ate it up! Then it was off to bed! And the kids fell asleep so quickly!

Cheerio! We really did it, we really moved to England!

We're Leaving On a Jet Plane...

And we're off...
Here we are with all our goods for the airplane. Here's hoping we make it though without any problems and that the kids are good for the flight.  Thanks, Becca for bringing us up to the airport!

It was sad saying all of our goodbyes at the school yesterday to all of the kids' teachers and friends that we've enjoyed over these last many years. We've been truly blessed to have amazing people in our lives. We also had a great dinner at my sister's house with her family. It will be sad to be so far from family for the next while.
Joseph on the airplane. So cute.

 And the little girls taking a good nap on the plane.

Next stop Dulles and then flying into Manchester, England. Farewell, USA. We'll be back...in 3 years!

Last Play Dates

We've been having lots of "last play dates" with as many friends as we can. I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures with them all, but I got some of Joseph and Logan today. We're so glad so many of the kids' friends have made time for each of them to come and play, even if just for a little bit. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends here.

I also was so lucky to have lunch with my friend, Kristin, today. I'm going to miss having her around all the time. And tonight, my friend, Michelle, took me to dinner and then she and Tiffany threw me a going away party with some other close friends. It was so nice to spend time with all of these amazing ladies who have influenced  my life so much for good over these last many years. I couldn't imagine my life without them and their friendships. I'm glad I got to spend (& that they took the time to spend) the evening with them. Makes me cry just thinking about leaving.
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

Lexie VIP

Lexie got to be the VIP this week in her class. (Actually Joseph and Andrew were in their classes as well.) She worked really hard on her newspaper for it.  There is actually quite the funny story about her Buddy the Elf picture. Maybe one of these days I'll share it. I still chuckle when I see it.

Car For Sale

We just put the car up for sale. Here's hoping it's sold by the 11th so we have it all taken care of before we fly out the 12th. It's been a great car and we're going to miss it. Here's hoping we find a good car in England.
*Amazingly, it did. We had lots of people call and the first person who was able to make it out to look at it bought it on the spot. Hooray. We sold it the 11th and she picked it up the 12th. Worked out perfectly for us timing wise.

Cheerio Party

Our dear friends, the Bowman's, threw us a "Cheerio" Party tonight. It's so hard saying good bye to people, but it's also so great to have the chance to have so  many people that we love all together so we can bid them farewell for a few years.
We moved hotels yesterday. (I had the pleasure of moving all of our luggage with Lucy upstairs as the room we started out in just had the carpets cleaned and they were still a bit wet and smelled really bad so we changed rooms. Not an easy task with a 1 yr old and lots of luggage-but I sure got a good workout it.)
At Church today, Rick and I gave "farewell testimonies." It's always tender to see him get choked up about life here. Our family is the 2nd "oldest" family in the ward. Only the Benzon's have been here longer (but they moved houses, but we still count them). We've seen many wonderful friends and families leave during our time here, and ward splits and next week the Stake will split. It was really hard saying goodbye, but at least we know it's not forever. I'm grateful for our Ward and Wards that we've been a part of here and the amazing people we've met and love and served and been served by.
We were getting ready to head out to the Bowman's and Joseph shut the door to our adjoining room and the other door was dead bolted so there was no way for us to get it. We ended up having to just leave and hope the custodian guy they had to call in to fix it could do it before we got back from the Bowman's. (Gratefully they got it.)
We had a delightful time seeing so many people. Wish we could have spent more time with everyone, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are so grateful to the Bowman's for hosting a wonderful party for us! We will miss everyone so much!

Hotel #1 Swimming

We moved back to Hotel #1 today. (4 moves in less than a week. I think I really don't like moving.)
We had a great time with the Barnum's swimming today. We're going to miss these cousins and miss having family so close to us these next 3 years.

Lucy also had a fun time climbing under the sink. She's goofy.

Sweet Sleepy Heads

Tastes Better Than It Looks

We've enjoyed being out at Park Meadows, our Hotel #3. We've gotten to hang out with a few friends at the Mall. The drive to and from school hasn't been terrible since I'm usually going against traffic. The kids have had so much fun at breakfast making new friends and being goofy. But, we'll be heading back over to the hotel in Southlands in a few days until we leave. But we sure love where we are, too, it just makes more sense to be closer to work, school, and friends. The kids have really been enjoying school and the chance to be with their friends so much before we leave. We've been so blessed!

Rick came up with the title. The rest of us sure thought it looked pretty good.
Rick's coworkers threw him a Going Away Party today and made him this cake. Pretty awesome!

Hotel #2

The view from Hotel #2. It's a Marriott, but not very well suited for our family. So we're just here one night and heading to another Marriott tomorrow. (Having a loft like bedroom upstairs is not very safe with kiddos. Not my favorite.)

Hotel #1

We left our house just as our renters were coming to start moving in. It was sad. But gratefully the hotel we were staying at tonight is in Southlands so just a quick trip over there, then we headed off to Church. Eliza really liked her picture she colored in Nursery today and really wanted me to photograph her with it. (Which is kind of a big deal since she has struggled so much lately to go to Nursery. So glad she enjoyed it today.)

It's nice being so close to school and friends here. But we'll be hotel hopping tomorrow. (Not always fun...)

We found out our Visas have been issued, so we be heading out to England on the 12th. It's coming so quickly! Ahhhh! I was sort of hoping for the 19th, but we'll try to figure this out.

Saying Goodbye to the House

The kids went around and said their goodbyes to each room and the views they are so accustomed to. This is the only house they really remember at this point, so it's bittersweet.

They also all got one last turn climbing the walls and then we did a last vacuum of the house, packed up, and handed keys over to our property manager and headed out.

They also wanted one last turn hanging out down in the basement.

Lots of good memories hanging out down here.

Playing hide and seek in the closet. 

Goodbye Colorado House. So many great memories over the past 8 years. You've sure been good to us.

 

Eliza was crying to go back minutes after we left. This is going to be a long few weeks in a hotel and possibly long 3 years...