More From Jolly Old England

One of the most fun days we have ever had was spent at Woburn Safari Park. I have been many many times and Jacob has been once before but lily had never been and she was thrilled with the place. You drive your car around the park and the animals are roaming free. It gets a little nerve wrecking when Rhinos start heading straight towards your car but once you get into the monkey area it is nothing but side splitting fun. Jacob happened to have the video camera rolling when the first monkey jumped on our car.


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We ended up with a total of 16 monkeys on our car and Lily was just as excited each time.

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Paddling the swan boats with Lily at the helm.......heaven help us.

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Another day we spent down at the river in a dinghy. This actual dinghy belonged to me when I was just a tyke. None of my cousins could believe it was still OK since we spent so many hours in it having rough fun. Thank you Uncle John for keeping it Lily loved it.
The temperature of the water was the same as the water here in the middle of our winter, needless to say we were frozen. I cannot believe that my little Florida boy of a hubby actually got in it.

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A family gathering minus my father who ran for the hills of Scotland for 2 days to catch us a salmon for our dinner.

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We went to the Cadbury Chocolate factory and look at this they even make shoes out of chocolate...I thought I had died and gone to heaven!

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Lily and Heather with the chocolate bean

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The crazy girls eating ice cream at the chocolate factory.

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Cadbury World as it is called was fabby as they gave out loads and loads of chokky the whole time.

Tomorrow I will post the nutty family shots and most of them will be of my brother who kept saying, take one of me to put on your blog. He will regret asking I assure you cos I have some taken at 2.00am and he not looky so good!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

The abslolute worst part of going to see my family is that we have to say good bye and that is just plain wrong. It nearly breaks my heart every time and by the time we get to security at Heathrow airport I look like someone has beaten me around the face with a good sized plank of wood! This time was only slightly different and the only reason I started to giggle is that we had so much luggage to control and we went the wrong way on the moving sidewalk.

Anyhoo, we are back and this was by far the best trip ever even if I do say that every time. I have a large family, I have aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters and of course my daddy and his wife whom I love dearly. Add to this mix Jeanne's boys and you have an instant party. Mike is Jeanne's middle son and is the one that we are closest too and he is so much fun and a truly fantastic father to Lily's cousin Heather. Fortunately they all live in close proximity to each other so it makes visiting very easy. Lily revels in the fact that everytime we go she spends so much time with,"even more family". I think it boggles her brain that there are so many of us. We are really lucky in as much as we all get along and just love being together. My father even made a comment one evening when we had a house full that there is something wrong with us as we all truly and genuinely love to be together.

I know that you are all waiting for photos but since we have over 200 I am not sure where to begin so I will do few today and some more tomorrow.

This will give you an idea of where my family lives. It is so peaceful and I just love it. I grew up doing all the things that Lily is able to do when she goes there and I think that the same antiquated playground equipment is still there.

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We spent many hours in the sunshine down at the river and Grandpa taught Lily how to fish. She was so excited as this was one of the things she wanted to do. Heather came with us and at the ripe old age of 8 I must say she is jolly good at it. At least she didn't catch herself unlike her cousin!

Lily and Grandpa.


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Lily's very tiny fish but she caught it herself, with just a little help from a pro.


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Nanny reeling in the big one!


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Some swans came to visit


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The Gruesome Twosome


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Lily learns to cast. Note her stylish outfit.



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An explanation for the not so stylish get-up



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Heather, loving the country life. This little one is in her element outside and getting dirty.


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Just as we were about to get in the car for the drive home Nannis noticed something on Lilys shoe.......



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Nothing Like a nice hot bath after a hard days fishing. Nanny, or as Lily has decided to call her, Nannis always made bathtime a riot by adding bubbles or crazy soap or just blowing magic bubbles at them. Bathtime is about to become a huge anti-climax unless Nannis shows up to save the day, preferably with Heather.


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All Snuggled up with Grandpa, after her bath.


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One of the highlights of this trip was meeting up with some other little girls from China. This little girl lives in Olney and Nannis and her mum are good friends and so we were able to meet thiem. Lily is very proud to have China sisters in England as well. It was very nice to meet the family and amazing how the girls just hit it off. They have a connection that is so very special. They were asking each other what province they were from and all the usual questions. I loved every second of it.


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I have only covered one small segment of our trip but this post is plenty long enough for one day so I will end with one last snap shot that I took purely for Connies entertainment.We all went out for dinner one evening and printed loud and clear for everyones to see was Connies favourite dessert, SPOTTED DICK. I didn't indulge but my cousin did and said it was lovely. I was going to bring you a piece home Connie but I refrained and with that awful aroma emitting from your blog I would have to say it is a good thing I didn't. Spotted dick and the smell of rotting fish needs one good summers eve....ha ha I crack myself up.


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Hello, from over here

We are here and having an absolutely fabulous time. Jacob arrived on Sunday and Lily was very pleased to see him. She loves every single second that she spends with her grandparents and I have to say I am not surprised since they truly are the best.

The shoe shopping here is amazing!!! Only 3 pairs so far but I have my eye on some more and they will be purchased in the next 24 hours. I had to slow it down abit as I didn't want to throw Jacob into complete panic mode with all my latest acquisitions. Apart from trips to Ikea and many other shops we have spent lots of time outdoors in the fresh air teaching Lily to fish. She was really good and actually managed to catch herself with the hook...yepper, only the Lil could do this! We went to a farm the other day and Lily and her cousin had a ball. They looked at the animals for all over a second and then took off for hours and hours just running and playing in the field and sand pit. Yesterday we took her ont he longest walk of her life through the meadows to a nearby village where we met up with my step brother Mike and then walked home again. Lucky for all of us heading home was all down hill and Lily literally rolled!

Tomorrow we are off to a safari park where hopefully we will not be eaten by the lions and on the way home we have to stop and pick up a stroller for Chopstick which I cannot wait to get as it is not only gorgeous but funky too.

I know that you really want photos but I cannot get blogger to cooperate this evening so you will have to wait. I will post again shortly. I am going to sneak a few minutes now to catch up on everyones blogs as Lily is fast asleep and Jacob is downstairs yipping and playing wiht his.....Laptop.

We Are Ready To Go

I think we are almost ready to leave. It has been a while since we went on vacation for 3+ weeks and quite frankly, I cannot wait. Like many others in the adoption community we kept saying we should only take a quick break and save like mad for China but as we have all seen we have plenty of time to save so we are going for it. Today was spent running some last minute errands and getting organised. Since I detest packing I shall do that about 40 minutes before we need to leave for the airport and swear like a sailor the whole time. The weather in the UK isn't very nice so we will need all types of clothing which makes packing even worse.

Here are some Lily pic's as she prepped for a visit to Nannie and Grandpas.

Yes, it is official she is spoiled rotten



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This girl does it right and was not about to leave until she had been under the dryer just like everyone else.



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After getting my pedicure we went shoe shopping. There is something about a pedicure that demands new sandals. (that's my story and I'm sticking to it)
I really do have way to many pairs of shoes but I love shoesies.



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I shan't post tomorrow because it will be such a nutty day and I do have to pack(just typing the word makes me gag) so this is farewell until we meet again.
I do plan on blogging but not daily.
Have fun.

P.S Lily wants everyone to know that she has a surprise, on her head but she cannot share it because she wants to tell Nannie and Grandpa first. (those were her words I only typed them for her.)

Dodging Thunderstorms

After spending such a great afternoon with our friends at the beach on Thursday Jacob and I decided to go back again yesterday. The weather report called for afternoon storms but it usually does at this time of year but we thought we would have at least a couple of hours. We barely sat down on the sand and unpacked all of Lily's "necessary" gear when the sky went black. We ignored it for a while but when an enormous clap of thunder happened we headed for the car.
All I want is a little colour before heading to the UK but it isn't going to happen.


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Look At Those Clouds

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Lily, Wearing Her Lunch

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Later in the day. Lily is very proud of the car seat that she made for Bunny.

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I have to say thank you to RMJ over at the Seventh Diamond for hosting such a really great baby shower for Dragonfly and Ladybug this entire weekend. It was so much fun.

Come on you Georgia Summits ladies, spill the beans. It has been really quiet this weekend and we want details, well I do!

Back To School

Since we are leaving in a couple of days and won't be back until a couple of days before Lily starts Kindergarten I suddenly realised I needed to get her back to school shopping done. She decided that once she was dressed that she looked like a big girl and a girl in a magasine and asked me to tape her for "her" blog. So here she is, modelling.


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Once the Super Model was done with her posing it was off to buy school uniforms. In uniforms she still only wears age 3 so I have to tell her they are size 3 because heaven forbid she thinks she is wearing "baby" clothes. Then it was off to the Disney Store to get her a new back pack and lunchbox. She wanted princesses....whew, what a surprise.

And finally we headed to the shoe shop for new shoes. I think these are the most adorable little school shoes I have ever seen. We always go to Stride Right for school shoes but they had the most ugly and boring shoes ever so we went to a little kids boutique and spotted these. I was so happy when she liked them.



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Shortly after we came home our neighbour came over to check out the school uniform because her little girl and Lily are going to be in the same class. Lily and Isabella decided to split the uniforms evenly, including the shoes.



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And there you have it. Who knew it would all be this much fun. In case I forgot to say it, I love those shoes. They came in red too but Lily didn't want red shoes for school but maybe she should have them not for school!