August 10th

On the 10th of August they wanted to move us into the house that we thought we would be living in on parson's close #7 the base commander had offered us another home across the street #11 but it had a little more of a wait. They decided to have us move into #7 until #11 was ready. We still didn't have our things and did not want them until we moved across the street. So we were on borrowed furniture from the RAF. It was nice to have a little more space but I think I would have rather stayed in the cottage. Since we knew we wouldn't be staying and had no date of our move for good we were really careful with trying to keep #7 in tip top shape including not using the oven since we would have to just clean it again for an inspection. It was hard not living the way that we would like and not knowing when we would get to finally get settled. One day before we moved in we finally purchased a car.

Not having a car downtown was actually a good thing since any where you want to park will cost you money. The only bummer is that we couldn't do much site seeing until we did. We ended up getting a Vauxhall Zafira. Buying a car here was quite the task. What normally would take a few hours took about 4 days. The roads here are very small so we didn't want anything to big. It does fit 7 though. My only request was to get an automatic transmission. I was nervous enough to learn to drive on the left side of the road and then to drive with the wheel on the right. Luckily we were able to find one since they are hard to come by here.

Whitby Abbey

The Whitby Abbey is absolutely beautiful. It sits up high in Whitby and can be seen from many places. The first monastery there was founded in 657 and the building that sits there now was finished in 1220. Parts of the church collapsed during storms, its west front was hit by German naval shelling in 1914 and wind and rain have added their own decoration. It is renown as the backdrop to Bram Stoker's Dracula which has made Whitby the 'Goth' capital of Britain. It really is impressive!!!!

 The English heritage has a Children's Time Travelers program where they get to do certain activities at some of their sites to achieve a treasure. The boys first went on a scavenger hunt to get points and then had fun dressing as the men of that time.

Helping Hands

Our Heavenly Father never lets us down. Even though things had been a little rough with all of the adjustments we were dealing with we definitely were sent some wonderful people here to help us make it through. I think it had been only a couple of days that we had been here when a wife of one of Chris' coworkers had stopped by to introduce herself. She had a bag full of brochures of places to see and do here and instantly welcomed us with a lot of love and support. Yvonne is from Scotland and one of my favorite people. She has been around to drive the kids and I to different places and had us over for dinner or "tea" several times. She's been there for us through smiles and tears. We are ever so grateful for her and her family.

Steam train in Grosmont

 Station where they filmed Harry Potter in Goathland

 The Harry Potter car

Stream in Lealholm

 While the boys were fishing with their nets in the stream there were 4 older ladies there sitting on a bench having an ice cream or " ice lolly" watching Alec and Hayden skip across the stones. Three of them decided that it would be fun to do the same thing so off they went holding up their ice cream cones like torches from the Olympics the one in the rear slipped on one of the stones and fell right in. She tried getting up but had done something bad to her knee. Yvonne ran to the nearest pub around the corner for some help while I stayed with the ladies and the boys. Some local gents tried to help her out when Yvonne came back saying that the paramedics were on the way and to not move her. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that. The lady turned out to be ok and all of them got quite a laugh from it. Needless to say it was an adventurous day!!!!

 Later that week in Goathland Chris was asked to play cricket with the RAF against the Whitby gazette so Yvonne drove us there to watch. What an interesting sport. One of the ladies there asked if I had brought a book to read because she had said that cricket is one of the most boring sports to watch ever!!!! Chris did very well for only studying about it from some kid books we had gotten him from the library.

 Since we did not have a car we were not able to go to church for a while. Chris kept asking around at work if any one knew of any members of our church but no one had. He read in the Whitby gazette about a meeting that our church has in Whitby once a month so off we went to see what it was. It was nice to get there and see that it was a sacrament meeting. We were able to meet some people from our ward and get a ride for church the next week. Alyssa was instantly welcomed by the YW and soon after was attending sleepovers. We hardly saw her for a while.

May, Alyssa, Chloe, Cassia

 We have been welcomed by everyone very well and the ward has been very kind to us. The Hankin's had a get together for us and Hayden found in instant friend with their daughter Corina. The lord has truly blessed us with great people to meet!!!!

Not Knowing

The month we spent in the cottage had it's ups and downs. Chris was busy right away with learning his new job and the kids and I were left to explore Whitby and what it had to offer. We did not have a phone or the Internet for googling or email or a car so we were left to our own devices. Blackburn's yard was the name of the alley where we were staying. There was 3 other cottages attached to us. Two of them were for holiday and the other was where a cute couple lived named Chris and Annie. They became instant family for us. Chris took Hayden under his wing as his new apprentice to help him in the garden and Alec made instant friends with the family that was on holiday next door.

Chris and Annie with the kids

Alec and Hayden with Alex and the twins

Since there was really no where to run the boys would hike up and down the stairs toward the abbey and do it over and over again. The family next door soon left and we would go to the beach when the weather would allow. The sea is very cold here of course which didn't faze Alyssa and Alec at all. 

We were pretty lucky that day to have so much beach. The tide comes in and out a couple of times a day and can do at a very fast rate. Not knowing a date of when and where we would be moving to made things a little hard and the kids started to get a little restless so needless to say we did do a lot of walking and hiking.

Starting over

Ok it has been a very long time since I last posted on our blog so I thought instead of feeling overwhelmed with thinking I had so much to catch up with that I would simply start over. I will try to feel in where I can but for now I thought I would update everyone on where we are and what we are up to now. On July 13th we boarded a plane to move to England.

 Chris and the kids before we boarded

The night before hand I could not sleep at all. I was nervously making sure that we had all of our paper work and items packed and my mind would just not go to sleep. I was thinking of England and how excited I was to see it while worrying about flying again after 15 years of not being on a plane, would the kids be alright, then I was feeling sad about the fact that I would not get to see my family for a while too. The thoughts just would not stop so when the alarm finally went off at 5am I started to panic to the point where I felt sick to my stomach. Our good friends the Anderson's followed us to the airport with our many bags (20) and we said our farewell's. It was hard to say goodbye. We will ever so be grateful for their great generosity to our family. We wheeled our luggage in the terminal and I was playing best friends with the restroom until we boarded. My stomach finally calmed down after we boarded. Thank goodness. It was fun to watch the kids and their reactions as we took off.

Chris and the boys ready for take off

The first flight to Newark was about 4 hrs long. Where we landed and had a bite to eat before boarding our plane to Manchester in England which was a 8 hour flight. We arrived in England around 7:30 am UK time. The RAF had a van to come and pick us up to drive us to our new hometown in Whitby!!!!! Needless to say we all slept except Chris who was trying to keep the driver company. We arrived to our  cottage that we would be staying in for a month 3 hours later.

 The bathroom which was on the top floor. No showering here.

 Alec and Hayden shared the loft

 This cozy room was for Alyssa

 Master bedroom

 The deadly stairs. there were 3 flights of these 

from the basement to the loft/bathroom

 Living area

 Kitchen which was in the basement

 The EVER HOT oven. Very intimidating!!!!!

The cottage was very quaint and had a lot of character. It was over 300 years old with short doors and creaky floors. Chris cut his head open several times walking in and out of the place. It was right in the heart of downtown Whitby which is very busy in the summer.

-Rochelle