Not Knowing

The month we spent in the cottage had it's ups and downs. Chris was busy right away with learning his new job and the kids and I were left to explore Whitby and what it had to offer. We did not have a phone or the Internet for googling or email or a car so we were left to our own devices. Blackburn's yard was the name of the alley where we were staying. There was 3 other cottages attached to us. Two of them were for holiday and the other was where a cute couple lived named Chris and Annie. They became instant family for us. Chris took Hayden under his wing as his new apprentice to help him in the garden and Alec made instant friends with the family that was on holiday next door.

Chris and Annie with the kids

Alec and Hayden with Alex and the twins

Since there was really no where to run the boys would hike up and down the stairs toward the abbey and do it over and over again. The family next door soon left and we would go to the beach when the weather would allow. The sea is very cold here of course which didn't faze Alyssa and Alec at all. 

We were pretty lucky that day to have so much beach. The tide comes in and out a couple of times a day and can do at a very fast rate. Not knowing a date of when and where we would be moving to made things a little hard and the kids started to get a little restless so needless to say we did do a lot of walking and hiking.

Starting over

Ok it has been a very long time since I last posted on our blog so I thought instead of feeling overwhelmed with thinking I had so much to catch up with that I would simply start over. I will try to feel in where I can but for now I thought I would update everyone on where we are and what we are up to now. On July 13th we boarded a plane to move to England.

 Chris and the kids before we boarded

The night before hand I could not sleep at all. I was nervously making sure that we had all of our paper work and items packed and my mind would just not go to sleep. I was thinking of England and how excited I was to see it while worrying about flying again after 15 years of not being on a plane, would the kids be alright, then I was feeling sad about the fact that I would not get to see my family for a while too. The thoughts just would not stop so when the alarm finally went off at 5am I started to panic to the point where I felt sick to my stomach. Our good friends the Anderson's followed us to the airport with our many bags (20) and we said our farewell's. It was hard to say goodbye. We will ever so be grateful for their great generosity to our family. We wheeled our luggage in the terminal and I was playing best friends with the restroom until we boarded. My stomach finally calmed down after we boarded. Thank goodness. It was fun to watch the kids and their reactions as we took off.

Chris and the boys ready for take off

The first flight to Newark was about 4 hrs long. Where we landed and had a bite to eat before boarding our plane to Manchester in England which was a 8 hour flight. We arrived in England around 7:30 am UK time. The RAF had a van to come and pick us up to drive us to our new hometown in Whitby!!!!! Needless to say we all slept except Chris who was trying to keep the driver company. We arrived to our  cottage that we would be staying in for a month 3 hours later.

 The bathroom which was on the top floor. No showering here.

 Alec and Hayden shared the loft

 This cozy room was for Alyssa

 Master bedroom

 The deadly stairs. there were 3 flights of these 

from the basement to the loft/bathroom

 Living area

 Kitchen which was in the basement

 The EVER HOT oven. Very intimidating!!!!!

The cottage was very quaint and had a lot of character. It was over 300 years old with short doors and creaky floors. Chris cut his head open several times walking in and out of the place. It was right in the heart of downtown Whitby which is very busy in the summer.

-Rochelle

moving

We have to move!!!! We decided to rent here in CO and we were getting ready to sign a new lease for this next year. Our property manager had said that would be great. Apparently that was to good to be true. We received a phone call last week saying that the owners of our home decided to have some of their family move in instead. We were sad to hear the news. We have really enjoyed being where we are. The kids are heart broken and want to stay at their school which who can blame them. They had to attend 3 different schools last year. We have searched and searched for a new home online and by driving around the neighborhoods that are within the area. We had decided to move in this beautiful home that we saw that was so well taken care of unless the home we were to see on the weekend was the one for us. At 11:30 on Sat. we viewed a home right around the corner from ours now and we knew it was where we were supposed to be. The kids get to stay in there school which is even a shorter walk now and we also get to remain in our ward. We are supposed to sign a lease this week and we will be moving around the 15th of FEB. We feel blessed and grateful that Heavenly Father was watching out for us.

July 2009

July was full of fun and enjoyment! I went to girls camp with my girls in our ward. It was nice to be able to go to camp and not have to be in charge of the whole event. I had fun getting to know the girls better. They truly are a delight in my life. We were attending the Arapaho Stake University (ASU) and all of the wards were a different college. We had the chance to be the college of CHARITY! Our camp director had written a song that she taught the girls and we had a great chant that was a lot of fun. The stake kept us busy and when we had a chance to have time together as a ward we loved it. Some fun around the fire

All of us

The Smoky Hill Ward Leaders
Rochelle, Santa, Pauline,Heather,& Alice

We had so much fun. Our leaders were fabulous and we probably had more fun sometimes than the girls. I am grateful for them and the friendships that we have made. Chris had to work while I was at camp but he was able to help us get there and set up. Thanks to my wonderful mother and her willingness to come and watch my kids for the week I was able to engrave another wonderful memory of camp into my life and see the beautiful testimonies grow in myself and the girls.

GARDEN OF THE GODS

We decided to go to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs on the 24th of the month. It was beautiful! The kids had a lot of fun climbing on all of the big red rocks and we watched some men repelling and hiked for a while.

Aren't they so strong!!

Alec enjoying himself

Alyssa and Hayden sitting in the shade

After we visited the Garden of the Gods we drove up to Mueller State park where we had a picnic and then toke a 2 mile hike which turned out to be about 3 1/2 miles instead. The hike had a lot of steep inclines which the kids did not enjoy but the park was breath taking.

Chris and I before our hike

The kids near a pond on the hike

We love Colorado and all the things it has to offer. It makes our family happy to be outdoors and enjoying the things that Heavenly Father has created for us.

Rest of June 09

I could not get all the pictures for June to upload so here are the rest! At the beginning of the month Chris and I were both so excited to accept a new niece and nephew into our family. They were both born on the same day and only a couple of hours apart. The kids and I got to go see my niece when she was 2 weeks old. I was so excited to see her. We were able to see YaYa on the way to Snowflake as usual and we always love getting to do so. When we got to Snowflake we were able to spend some quality time with family. So here is Rilynn! She is beautiful!

Kera came to church with us and it was so nice to have her and the baby there!
My mom with our kids!

The kids with there cousin! They loved getting to hold her!

My mom with her granddaughters

She is so adorable!

While we were there we had a Bigler family reunion. The kids had a blast! They got to canoe, swing have a horse ride and run around. The boys kept asking Papa to take them out on the canoe which Uncle John came to the rescue. I felt so bad for him. Not only did he take out Alec and Hayden but he toke out his own boys and then he had to go out again to rescue Alyssa who was going in circles in a kayak. His arms had to be killing him. Thanks Uncle John!

Hayden would not get off of this swing! The trip was a lot of fun and we were very glad that we went! It was so nice to get to hold and cuddle my sweet niece!

June 2009

The kids really enjoy riding their bikes in our cull-d-sac. Hayden really wanted to learn to ride a 2 wheeler and he did it within a couple of hours. The kid has no fear and he was quite funny to watch because he never really would watch where he was going, instead he would turn and look at us and say " look I'm doing it" He is a little speed demon now and he just zooms around corners as fast as he can. It gives Mom a heart attack!

The kids did not get out of school until the beginning of June. Here is Alyssa and Alec on their last day !
Chris works a really weird schedule so any day that he gets off we like to drive to new places to see what there is to offer. On this occasion we went to Breckenridge, CO. It is so beautiful there. They had lots of little shops down main street and the rushing river ran right through town and the mountains were breath taking.

The boys loved this bear carved out of wood

This is Frosty the Tin Snowman. Alec carried a newspaper around trying to sell it. He has been watching the movie Newsies and thought maybe he could get some cash. Unfortunately I think $20 was a little to high!

THE AIRPLANE MUSEUM

A couple of times a year our museum here is lucky enough to have star wars items on display. In fact on Halloween they have a lot of people dressed up like clones, Darth Vader and so on for a party so we are looking forward to going to that!

Alec loves giving me faces like this for pictures!

We had a lot of fun in June and the kids were loving being out of school! July's updates will be coming soon!