Happy birthday husband!

Happy 25th birthday to my handsome husband!

I LOVE YOU

Iowa

We took a little side trip to Iowa when I was home visiting, and managed to fit quite a bit into those couple of days. We had get togethers with the Mason's and the Robinson's, celebrated my cousin Kasey Jo's birthday, went to a volleyball game, played lots of cards, and most importantly...ate some Scotcharoos ;) 

We really had a great time though, it was SO nice to see all of my family!

Dad brought his Iowa Hawkeye car magnets to put on our rental car :)

Quilt show in Atlantic, Iowa

Coca-Cola capital of Iowa! :)

(Some of) The Mason grandkids with Grandma Jan

Aunt Terri and the birthday girl, Kasey Jo

Me, Aunt Trish, and Kasey

We spotted some deer!

Meeting Baby Thomas

One of the harder parts of living so far from home is the evens that we miss out on. One of the biggest things we missed was our nephew, Thomas, being born last October. He was born less than a month after we moved to England, and although we get to Skype and see him, it wasn't quite the same as seeing him in person. I finally got to meet him when I was in the States, I was so excited! He is quite the handsome little guy, and so active, and so HAPPY all the time! 

He has beautiful blue eyes

Me and Thomas

Grandpa Louis, Thomas, and me - apparently we weren't taking the picture quick enough for him :)

WICKED

Before I left for my trip to the States, Thomas and I wanted to take a day trip into London. He'd been wanting to go to the aquarium there, and I'd been wanting to see a show, so we decided we'd do both! We went to London Sea Life Aquarium, which was pretty neat, even with thousands of kids running around everywhere. We checked out Covent Garden, which I'd been wanting to do for a while - it's just a loooot of shopping. I might have to take a trip back by myself to really explore there ;) Then we meandered over to the theater area, had dinner at a pub and went to see Wicked!! 

I've been wanting to see Wicked for a long time, so I was so excited we finally got to go. We had seats where the view was "partially obstructed" (aka: cheaper), but for us it just meant there was a wall two rows down from us that blocked the very front of the side stage - nothing major at all. It was such a great show, I loved it and Thomas didn't mind it at all. I thought that the Wicked Witch had the best voice, she gave me goosebumps. It was such a fun day/night, now I can't wait to see more plays!!

Thomas in the Shark Tunnel at the Sea Life Aquarium

I think the Walrus won this contest

Covent Garden

Thomas & I by Westminster Abbey

Cute little pub where we ate dinner

WICKED!

Waiting for the show to begin

He forgot his glasses, the little binoculars came in handy ;)

Joan Mann Sports Day

A couple of months ago, Thomas and I got a chance to be a part of an awesome day that RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall sponsor every year, it's called Joan Mann Sports Day. Hundreds of athletes get bussed in from all over England, each volunteer got paired up with an athlete, and then we got to play games all day! There was a parade, tons of games, food, and a medals ceremony at the end. My athlete's name was Jo, and Thomas' athlete was Allison. Thomas loved Allison because she reminded him of himself - she didn't like to talk too much, but she LOVED to play the games! We had so much fun, and Allison even won a medal at the end of the day!!!

Waiting for the athletes to arrive

Jo and the fire dog

Thomas and Allison

Me and Jo

They had a C-130 there for us to look at and go inside!

Allison got the GOLD medal!