We made it!

Ok, so that was the longest journey I've ever taken! Especially with a 10 month old, who did better than Mark and I, believe it or not. The flight went well despite the loud baby next to us, but we got the bulkhead seats and Rowan (after a little bit of fussing around, making the neighbors nervous) settled and went to sleep in the baby cot in front of us.... letting Mark and I enjoy some movies and food! It was weird being served breakfast at 2 in the morning though... yuck. We made it to London and Rowan was a champ, it was the long drive to Northern England in all the traffic being soo tired that was rough. It took another 5 and a half hours to get from the airport to Mark's parents' house where a nice hot England dinner (or "tea" as they call dinnertime here) awaited us!

It's been so nice to drive around (on the left, no less) and see where Mark grew up. It's such a beautiful area full of greenery and old buildings with such character and charm. The funeral was absolutely beautiful and it was so nice to be around Mark's family and see so many of them there. It was the first time Mark's immediate family had been together in almost 20 years. I just love Mark's sister here, Melanie. She is such a sweetheart and I fell in love with her instantly when she brought me flowers that her husband had picked out and then walked to the store to pick up diet coke for Mark and me!!

I am surprised that we have all adjusted so well to the time difference, Rowan especially. In 2 nights only, he was sleeping through the night here without a peep! He loves seeing all his English family and has been so happy and giggly here. He learned to wave today! He is very animated about it and holds both hands high above his head and with a big smile waves his little hand. It's so cute! Ok, so it's almost midnight here and I am exhausted, we've had a long day, so I'm headed off to bed, but here are some pictures to enjoy.

OH! It's freezing here, by the way. So cold, that after layering all the clothes I could possibly layer and buying a COAT at a discount store for 15 pounds, have finally warmed up. The heating here is nothing like our cushy central air we all enjoy so much, no. It's bricks inside these old radiators that take literally a day and a half to heat up! I've been sleeping with hot water bottles and 10 blankets every night. Even little Rowan was so cold one night, poor little boy, we heard him whimpering and found him curled up in a tight little ball in his pack-n-play. After putting a heavy blanket over him, he went right back to sleep and hardly moved the whole night... I'm sure afraid that if he did, he'd get cold again! I had to buy him all new clothes and pj's for this trip... all the long-sleeved winter stuff and footsie jammies, the real thick ones because I only had shorts and t-shirts in his size! He's been plenty warm now since we put a floor heater in his room....

Oh, and for those of you wondering how many watts of power a hair dryer needs, it's 1875. We had a 500 watt converter and blew it to smitherines the first day when I started to dry my hair.... not pretty and very smelly. So, for anyone traveling to Mother England in the near future, pack WARM and make sure there will be a hair dryer there for you, most converters can't handle the wattage! More to come....

This is Lund Moor Farm where Mark grew up. He was born here and lived until 17 when his family immigrated to Canada. Here is the entire Dunning family all together for the first time in almost 17 years.

This was the day of the funeral just before we left for the presession. That is Mark's parents' backyard! So beautiful. This was just before the presession started, the whole Dunning family. I loved this street. It had so much character and the buildings are so old here. It's such a lovely place. Amazing that many of the buildings and places that people live are hundreds of years old.

Little boy enjoying his Nanna.

I have lots more pictures! Don't worry, I'll post them soon, we just got wireless internet up and running tonight and I'm ready to drop dead from exhaustion. I'll download and post more tomorrow. Hope all is well in America!