The Hoppings

After a week of rain and endless amounts of the boys pleading and begging we made it to The Hoppings on Friday night. Of course the boys wanted to ride absolutely everything, and even though they didn't get to ride everything they wanted to, they did leave as happy fair goers. Scott even got them some candy floss to complete the fair experience.

Owen standing with Scott after he chickened out of riding the fast boats

Samuel with Jarrod on the fast boats

Dragon Roller Coaster

mini-scrambler

Each of the boys got to choose their last ride of the day, Owen chose the Dodgems (bumper cars) and Samuel chose the Ferris wheel.

View of the fair from the top of the Ferris Wheel

If you look at the end of the street in the picture you can see Owen's school

York

After months of trying, we finally got to York! We had a really wonderful day. York is a gorgeous town with cobbled streets, Shakespearean type buildings and the very impressive York Minster. We went to the Castle museum, where it like stepping back into Victorian times. We went through the old dungeons and castle prison, which the boys thought was a bit spooky.  We went to the top of Clifford's Tower, once the central stronghold of York Castle, the tower is all that remains. The boys went on a search for all of the wives of Henry VIII and got a chocolate egg when they found them all. (The funny thing was that when they found Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, their heads were missing). Probably one of the coolest things about York are the old city walls and you can walk all around them, and get some great views of the city. We didn't make it to the railway museum this time, so we are looking forward to go backing and exploring a little more.

Took this one for Liz

York Minster

Pub where we had lunch

Owen always wants to be a statue

Clifford's Tower

Mike was slouching during our Victorian school lesson

Boys buying candy in the Victorian candy shope

The Town Walls

Samuel's Snail

For Samuel one of the great things about living in England, snails everywhere. We were quite amazed by this particular snail that seemed to have created a three shell look.

Samuel falls down the Stairs

Over our Easter break, Samuel fell down the stairs. He was simply walking down and tripped and missed the last three stairs and broke his left elbow. He had a supercondylar fracture. He was such a trooper when we took him to A&E, he didn't cry once and took the X-rays like a champ. However, the pain must have been pretty intense because he did vomit several times. He was admitted into the hospital and had surgery the next morning. While everyone else in the country and around the world was watching the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton Samuel was having his operation. He was in the hospital for several days. He had wires placed in his arm so that he wouldn't have a broken wing like his mom. When they had to remove the wires there was quite a bit of screaming, but he was such a brave boy. We are pretty sure that although they had been vaccinated the boys seem to have caught the chicken pox at the same time, which made Samuel very sick in the hospital and caused Owen to have some nasty skin peeling around his birth mark. It was a trying month, but everyone pulled through.

Samuel got completely spoiled during his recovery!

Day two of taking out the wires, amazing how fast he healed.

beautiful flowers from Grandpa Woody

Bike Riding

Owen has been learning how to ride his bike without the training wheels (stabilizers). He rides perfectly, but has not quite mastered the art of stopping. Mike takes him after he gets home from work to the green across the street. These pictures were taken from Owen and Samuel's room, so they are not the best quality.

Aydon Castle

We finally got an English Heritage membership, now we can visit many places around the country. The boys love to pack a picnic and go exploring. Our most recent visit was to Aydon Castle. We love to visit places that are mainly in ruin, the boys always find unique things and places to hide and we don't have to worry about them disturbing much. When we first arrived we saw some beautiful horses. They came close enough for the boys to touch and they thought that was really neat.

Aydon Castle is one of the most unaltered examples of a 13th-century English manor house, Aydon castle stands in a secluded woodland setting.