18 months

Gavin is 18 months old today!! He loves singing, still dances regardless of whether there's music, and he's developed a strong attachment to one of his blankets. He's moving nonstop and requires my 100% attention, which is great so I don't miss any of his hilarious antics. Happy half-birthday to this wonderful, sweet little man!

Lake District

We've wanted to visit the Lake District since we got to England, and we're glad we finally did. The scenery was unbelievable, and the weather was especially nice. It was great to be there with Melissa and Mike too. 

We visited the Wordsworth birthplace while we were there, and that was interesting and fun.

A huge highlight was hearing Melissa play the harpsichord--incredible!

We had a picnic at Buttermere, which was breathtakingly beautiful. We shared the field with sheep and enjoyed the gorgeous views. Gavin stole my sandwich and has crazy hair because of sunscreen we applied to his head.

Edinburgh--in and around

After York and Alnwick we headed for Edinburgh where we enjoyed a break at the Elephant House Cafe where JK Rowling was inspired by the view of the castle and sat writing some of the Harry Potter series. (Other writers, like Alexander McCall-Smith, have also frequented the Cafe.) 

We had some hot chocolate and a cookie Jacob and I intended to share. Gavin ate most of it, mostly because he shoved it in his mouth, fearing he'd have to share with his parents.

While Melissa and Mike explored the city, we took a boat cruise, mostly to see wildlife. Here's a puffin and some cute seals.

 We would have liked to see more puffins, but we did enjoy the boat ride on a gorgeous day.

One of the highlights of the trip was the highland games. We watched pipe band and highland dancing competitions, as well as the heavy athletics where competitors mostly threw really heavy objects. But the best part was sartorial. Everyone wore kilts, including the athletes.

...and the highland games' mascot, Hamish the Haggis.

We loved the highland dancers' cute outfits. Also, the piper in the left of this picture provided the music for their dancing which seemed much more authentic than playing recorded music over a speaker.

The North

We took a fantastic road trip with my brother Mike and his wife Melissa while they were here. It was so much fun! We began in York with the beautiful York Minster.

Then we headed north to visit Barter Books in Alnwick. It's apparently one of the 20 most beautiful bookstores in the world. It's in an old Victorian train station and very cute.

It also claims fame for the discovery of the now-ubiquitous KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON posters. The original hangs on the wall above the till, near the place where a train circles overhead above the shelves.

We caught glimpses of Alnwick Castle as we were leaving town to head further north to Edinburgh.

Eurovision 2012

As we've posted in years past, we love the Eurovision Song Contest. It's quirky and fun, and we had a great time watching it with Melissa and Mike this year. Here are a few of our favorite entries.

This was Jacob's pick, the Russian entry. They finished second. It was terrible. (Yes, they finished SECOND.)

Here's Melissa's pick, the act from Denmark. They finished dead last.

Italy was my favorite. Their song finished 9th.

And Mike's favorite has a special place with all of us--he's been singing it ever since we first heard it last week, and it's growing on us. You can watch the official music video if you want, but the version I'm posting is the live performance; the backup dancers are a huge highlight.
Another draw of this song is the lyric "You have never been to the show/You've never seen before/How looks that trumpet."
They finished 11th.

The winner? Sweden. Not bad, but not really worth posting. (Watch it here if you're interested.)

Golfer

 Gavin discovered Jacob's golf clubs and became obsessed.

So when we found this little set we were excited he'd have his own, and he does love them.

Windsor jubilee pageant

Saturday night we got to attend the Windsor Castle Diamond Jubilee Pageant! This is one of many events to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year, and hopefully not the only one we'll participate in. With the London 2012 Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, this is an exciting time to be in the UK! Union jack flags are flying everywhere.

The pageant celebrated some of the locations around the world the Queen has visited during her reign. It was a great evening that also included performances by The Tenors and narration by Alan Titchmarsh and Angela Rippon. The following brief video shows a Haka dancer from New Zealand whom the audience loved because of the way he jiggled his bare cheeks to the rhythm of the songs (sorry, that part's not in the video). This is his bow upon leaving the stage.

In addition to New Zealand we like the performance from Africa (including some West End stars singing from The Lion King). We saw these performers before the show. That headdress is really something. 

The performers from the Indian subcontinent were colorful and beautiful, and we loved the dude who followed the dancers around and threw what looked like poppadoms in the air, cleaned them up again, then threw them in the air again. It was entertaining.

The performance from the USA had a western theme with this cute stagecoach and a very talented lasso group. 

By far the most impressive act, and one of the more impressive things we've seen in our lives, was the Russian performance. The horses were moving at their top speeds while riders did stunts like hanging upside-down from the side of the horse or climbing underneath the fast-moving horse. It was crazy-cool--we were totally wowed. It was too fast-moving to get photos and I didn't get videos of the really impressive stuff, but here's a video of something cool (though much slower-moving).

Singin' in the Rain

 Last night I saw Singin' in the Rain in London's West End with my friend Becky, and it was great! They flooded the stage a couple of times and splashed people in the first few rows (not us!), and the dancing was the best I've ever seen. Amazing.

Then we went to Chipotle for a delicious late-night burrito before the long ride home in the middle of the night. Definitely worth losing a few hours of sleep!