Mostly, I hung out in my parents’ living room, and baby D was all…

Oh, and he took up giggling in a big way.

Sherry threw us a baby meet & greet though, and D got lots of neato stuff I still need to write thank you cards for (I am disgustingly behind on that)

And he discovered the joys of the baby executive toy bouncer. GOOD TIMES!

Then we flew home. Baby D was again a flying champion. He’s a good little dude! We were home for a few days until we were back at the airport to fly off to the UK. We scheduled the flight for bedtime, which was pretty much perfect as he slept the whole flight. He was so good and quiet that the flight attendants made him this crown. Next stop.. Toddlers and Tiaras!

Once we were in London, we made our way to our old house to crash with and see our old flatties. GOOD TIMES. Jane changed her first ever diaper.

We explored London for a few days and even took Derek into a few pubs (totes legal there). I demonstrated some amazing multitasking.

Saturday morning arrived, and we made our way back to Gatwick to pick up our rental car and head to the Cotswolds. Rather than drag D’s seat all around, we rented one from the rental company, which was kind of a mistake because he hated it with the fire of a thousand suns, and I basically had to sit in the back seat with him the whole time and entertain him and feed him and MAKE EVERYTHING A BIT BETTER BECAUSE STUPID CAR SEAT IS STUPID. This is the closest he got to smiling. Excuse the milk.

After a few hours of driving, and some stern words with Janice (it’s what we’ve named our GPS – she’s kind of know-it-ally and bitchy and just seems all around like a Janice), we arrived at our rental cottage. NOT TOO SHABBY! Pretty much looks like a scene from Jane Eyre or Tess of the D’Urbervilles

The rental was on a real working farm, so there were adorable baby piglets to admire

Baby D is not so sure about the pigs. THEY ARE THE SOURCE OF BACON, YOU SILLY BABY!

Or perhaps he just hates his hat. I can’t blame him. His mama dresses him funny.

Our week in the Cotswolds was spent relaxing and hanging out and going for walks and playing lots and lots of Draw Something. I am addicted to that game. Mostly because it provides me with many excuses to draw penises.

Once our week was up, we hopped back into our rental (and the dreaded torture car seat of doom) and went up to Northern Wales to visit Mike’s grandparents.

They were over the MOON to meet him – he’s their first great-grandchild. Derek also got to take a bath in the same sink Mike was bathed in as a baby. (Well, not the same sink as it was replaced, but same sink location).

We did a walk around Wrexham as well. Want to make a bajillion dollars? Go sell babywearing wraps in Northern Wales. Everyone LOVED them. I was stopped several times so people could admire him and comment on how snug he looked.

After a few days of hanging out there, it was time to go home. Back on the big plane for a LONG flight home. Sprocket was an angel again and enchanted all of our seat neighbors. We’ve been home since Thursday and have been making up for lost social time – dinner and Cranium with Tyler and Leslie on Friday, BBQ with a bunch of other friends on Saturday, and dinner at Mike’s mom’s on Sunday. Everyone seems pretty much over their jet lag now, so I have my fingers crossed that there won’t be any 3:30am wake ups tonight!

We landed in Van on Friday. Mike’s mom met us in the airport with bedding and food and toiletries and everything we needed to just settle in home and not have to go out to get stuff. Very thoughtful and useful. I am super grateful to be marrying into a family that is nice and normal and loving. We spent the rest of Friday getting settled in, then crashed around 8pm. We’re pretty boss like that.

Saturday we got up and Tyler and Leslie picked us up to go to Denny’s for breakfast. SO MANY HUGS! Reunion hugs! Engagement hugs (Tyler proposed last weekend)! Birthday hugs (was Tyler’s birthday also). Met Bryan and Kailey at Denny’s, ate about a million pancakes, then took off for a day at Splashdown Waterpark. So much fun. I did the silly slides and worked on my sunburn. It looks fantastic. Basically, I am a failure at spray suntan lotion, so I look like a candycane made love to a zebra – just a mess of red and white stripes. Came home and had a nap, then had a pile of people over to reunite and chat and have a good time. It was a late night, but super fun.

Okay! So now we are caught up to Sunday and I can finish talking about Romania because I have more pictures to show you. It’s weird to think that only a week ago, I was 10 time zones away, looking at Dracula’s various castles. ANYWAY! We woke up the Saturday of the Romania trip and met our lovely tour guide, Radu, promptly at 9:30 outside our hotel. He was very apologetic about the mess the day before. For the record…this is the damage that had him spending his entire day dealing with police and insurance.

Poor guy – that sounded like a pretty rough Friday for him. Anyway, he took us on a little walking tour around Brasov, then we hopped in the van and started driving. First stop – top of a nearby hill to enjoy the view of Brasov. Also, our tour guide knew the guy working at the lookout at the top and got him to fire off the town cannon for us. AWESOME. Here is a picture of Mike and I obstructing the view.

After we enjoyed the view for a few minutes, it was off to Bran Castle, home of Dracula. Less coffins and dark dingy basements than you’d think. More bright airy rooms and pretty outdoor spaces, which you can apparently RENT FOR HALLOWEEN HOW COOL IS THAT? Just in case though, we made sure we had garlic to keep the vampires away.

And here is a top view of one of the outdoor patio areas I was talking about.

After the castle, we did a bit of shopping and bought 4 million postcards, then got some traditional Romanian street food. Bread dough base with sour cream and cheese on top and a round sugar dough thing. Both very yummy.

We then drove to Sighisoara, only inhabited walled citadel in Europe. Also, birthplace of Dracula. Dracula was born in an ice cream parlour. DID NOT SEE THAT COMING.

We saw the citadel (no picture place), the walked around a bit and stopped at a pub. Boys like beer. Basic science. Also, heard some more stories from our tour guide. Apparently he and his wife used to meet in Sighisoara when they were dating because it was halfway between their homes. Their mothers did not approve of the relationship, but they got married anyway. At the time, he also had long hair and a mustache and liked listening to Led Zepplin. He was not very popular with the communist government officials because of this. He was also part of the group that basically went into Bucharest with guns and took down the communist government. All this before he was 23. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

After that, we were back in Brasov for our second night of Sergiana’s dinner. SO SO SO GOOD!

Sunday morning, Radu picked us up again, and we went for a lovely drive through the mountains. Absolutely breathtaking – reminds me very much of the Rockies. Take a look at the roads though. VERY winding and crazy. It’s called Transfagarasan Road, and it’s apparently one of Top Gear’s favorites. Pretty awesome!

On the other side of the mountain was Peonari Castle, the other main Dracula castle. Only 1480 steps to get up there. NO BIG DEAL. I took 2 or 3 breaks and almost died of TOO MANY STAIRS, but it was pretty awesome. Group shot at the top. I LIVED.

Another shot of Mike and I. STILL ALIVE – TAKE THAT STAIRS!

Here is a shot from the top. You can KIND of see the road. That is 1480 stairs down. SO HIGH!

They were also in the process of building mock stocks and hanging place for tourist photos. Not open yet, which is the ONLY reason I am not filling your screen with 8 million silly photos of Mike and I pretending to be peasant prisoners, hangmen, etc. I kind of hope that babies can sometimes be born adults because Mike and I are NOT adults and I feel like there should be at least one adult in the family, ya know?

Walking down 1480 stairs was not surprisingly much easier than walking up 1480 stairs, then it was back in the car and onward to the monastary that contains the Tomb of Dracula. It was a no pictures inside place, but here is the outside.

After that, Radu dropped us back at our hotel in Bucharest where we crashed until it was time to catch our place the next morning. All in all, a FANTASTIC trip. Highly recommend Romania and this tour – we will definitely be back in that beautiful country again some day.

Anyway, before I get into the specifics of Romania, I think I should probably clear up a few misconceptions I went into Romania with. First of all, there are no vampires. I know, right? I was all “Twilight is stupid, seeing real, non-sparkling vampires is going to be rad” and it turns out there are precisely zero vampires. Secondly, Romania is rad. It’s a very beautiful country (the scenery reminds me of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where I grew up). The people (at least anyone in the service industry) all speak English, and it’s super safe. That said, they are only 21 years past the fall of communism, so they are definitely still rebuilding in places and there are pockets of poverty here and there. Overall though, rad country. Also, the people who are doing well are still building their businesses and are very committed to making sure you, the customer, are happy. Very good service.

Anyway, picture and talking time!!

We landed in Romania late Thursday night and grabbed a taxi to our hotel, the 4 Seasons Bucharest. 59 Euros a night + not really knowing much about Romania…we were prepared to rough it a bit, so you can imagine our surprise when we opened our hotel room door. Huge, gorgeous room with two Queen-sized beds (Mike and I love each other but are definitely a little over sharing a double bed, a King-sized bed is definitely on the agenda in Canada!).

Sitting area. Walk in closet. Enormous tiled bathroom with deep soaker tub. Amazing! Also, free wifi, so I was able to keep up with the Casey Anthony trial (SO MAD DON’T GET ME STARTED!!!)

We pretty much crashed right away as we had a 9:30am pick up time on Friday (which felt like 7:30 am London time – I’m only dragging my body across 10 time zones this week, no big deal). We got up early, helped ourselves to complimentary breakfast (fruit, yogurt, toast, coffee, tea, etc) and checked out… just in time to get a call from our tour guide who had been in a fender bender. He had to do the police/insurance/etc business and was expecting to arrive about an hour late. We settled into the sitting area where there was thankfully a TV. Watched some Xena which was in English with Romanian subtitles. Score! Xena ended, and another phone call… he was still tied up, but they were sending someone else. We start watching a Romanian-dubbed ninja movie and making up lines for all of the characters (“Why are you so angry?” “I am menstruating, young soldier”) (“Your ninja skills bring disgrace to your ancestors, menstruating woman!”). Pretty much ridiculous. Anyway, the second guy they sent got caught in traffic, so we didn’t get to hit the road until about 1pm. Since we had a full day on Sunday and weren’t leaving until Monday, they decided to shift things around a bit to try to get us to more things and make up for lost time. This was our tour, but we headed immediately for the last day thing, Peles Palace. Unfortunately, more traffic meant we reached it exactly 2 minutes after closing, so we couldn’t go inside. There were nice gardens outside though, and it felt good to stretch our legs.

Luckily, just down the road there was another, smaller palace for us to look at. Unfortunately, it was a no pictures place.

After that, our substitute tour guide drove us into Brusav. Some interesting conversation on the way there about what life was like under communism (answer: sucky), and we reached Brusav. Another lovely hotel in the city square, which was pretty amazing. I mean, first of all, Brusav has a Hollywood sign, only, you know, it says Brusav. Pretty bad ass.

We popped into the square for a few drinks, then headed down the road to the restaurant recommended by the girl working at the hotel. It was called Sergiana’s and it was AMAZING. So much good food. Insanely good! Highly recommend if you’re looking for a restaurant in Brusav. After that, we went back to the hotel and crashed!

(Okay guys, hate to cut this short but I am meant to be packing now. More tomorrow!!)

(Aside: Totally will NOT miss the wallpaper in that bathroom. Yikes!)

I was thinking about paying for a private gender scan before we went back, but decided against it. Instead, the day before the 20 week scan, Mike and I are going to perform all manner of gender testing I can find online – commercially sold tests that you pee on, household things you pee on such as red cabbage and draino, as well non-pee tests like the ring on a string and other old wives tales. I don’t put a lot of faith in ANY of them, but it will be fun and we’ll post the results here. I already have a nice list of about 20 “tests”, but am always happy to add to it if anyone has any fantastic gender-predicting tests. Ooh! I wonder if Mike would think it was a stupid waste of money to spring for a psychic reading!

After my midwife appointment, I went home and worked from home for a bit, then went to get my hair done. Nothing new or exciting – my same old blonde streaks and a trim. Cannot wait until I’m all done working and can put funky colours in my hair again! Here’s a picture – it was looking better this morning, but then it was raining when I went to get my lunch and my hair was all like “HUMIDITY! LET’S GET WAVY IN WEIRD AND AWKWARD WAYS!”

Just noticed…my eyes look WAY blue in that picture. Not sure if it’s just lighting or if they’re actually bluer. I had super blue eyes as a kid. Then I hit puberty and they kind of went green-grey. I wonder if pregnancy hormones are changing them back to blue. Weird.

Other than that, we’ve just been getting ready to head back to Canada. We’ve posted the ad for the room and are bringing in interested candidates to meet the remaining housemates. We’ve sorted through a lot of our crap and investigated different ways of getting the stuff we want to keep back to Canada. We’re looking into what wheels we will have when we’re back, and planning all sorts of fun stuff all summer. Basically, every weekend all summer is booked with fun activities with friends. It’s going to be an amazing summer!

I’ve been wanting to see another West End show before I go back to Canada. OH YEAH GUYS, I’M GOING BACK TO CANADA ON JULY 8 AND I NEED TO TELL YOU MORE BUT THAT IS FOR ANOTHER POST!! Anyway, we went to one of the discount theatre ticket booths and requested something “girly and inexpensive”. Chicago fit the bill nicely, so off we went.

The show was really good. The only downside was the talking, texting, making out couple right in front of us. Ironically, they did most of this during the “No Class” song, so they can ALMOST be forgiven their jerkiness. ALMOST. The most interesting part for me was the incorporation of the orchestra in the show. Usually the orchestra sits in a pit in front of the stage, but in Chicago, they all sat in the main bit of stage and were involved in the show in places. Very cool.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and took off to Oswestry to pick out our wedding rings. Wedding rings, y’all. How grown up am I! Anyway, terrible shot, but here they are:

The photo doesn’t really do them justice, but they are lovely and everything we wanted. We then drove down, hung out with Mike’s grandparents for the evening, then came back to London to relax and get ready for the week.

A combination of him being EVIL and there not being much left for plane tickets and hotels left on a long weekend led to him booking tickets to Dublin. Staying in the Temple Bar area. So basically, exploring the drinkiest area of the drunkest city in the drunkest country on the world…WHEN I CAN’T DRINK.

I still posed with a pint of Mike’s Guinness though. I think the “Baby on Board” badge is an added bit of class.

I also made Mike pose with the Guinness. I mean, we were in Ireland after all. The first of many pints of Guinness for him in Ireland.

We spent most of Saturday walking around Temple Bar, checking out various pubs and whatnot. LOTS of drunk, friendly people, and live music everywhere. Very fun!

We found a mirror. Why am I the drunk-looking one in this picture when Mike is about 4 in and I’ve had none? I DON’T GET IT.

We wandered down to Dublin Castle, but they were only doing guided tours, and we weren’t into waiting, so we took off and wrote a whole bunch of postcards for people.

I’m not sure that the sidewalk is the comfiest bed, but you have to admire this gentleman’s dedication to protecting his pint.

Anyway, we went and crashed in our hotel early – my back hurt and Mike’s head hurt. Kind of a lame night, but I’m pregnant, people. I don’t exactly make a rocking drinking buddy these days. The next day was more of the same – walking around and stopping in pubs as we pleased. We walked by an advertisement for dinner and watching Irish dancers, and I was IN. I talked Mike into it (easily… he is pretty much game for any bit of fun). We went back to the hotel and got cleaned up, then killed a bit of time in pubs. Unfortunately, we’d both left our phones in the hotel because they were dead, so we were depending on our camera as our clock. Many, many photos like this were taken, just to see the time.

We also saw the bartender tell off a patron for waving cash rudely in his face. “But I was waiting for half an hour!” “Good! Ye can wait for another hour!” For the record, he was only waiting for about 2 minutes, and the bartender was BUSY – he didn’t stop the whole time we were there. Then it was time to go to the dinner show.

It was pretty awesome. First of all, we met (and exchange emails with) a really nice American couple living in Rome. Good conversation and banter until the opening band came out. Irish folk music, including a marvelous rendition of 7 Drunken Nights

Then the Irish dancers came out. They were awesome. The calves on those girls…amazing. Energetic dancing and it looked like hard work.

And the male dancer looked like Clay Aiken.

It was closing in on midnight by the time we were out, so we went back to the hotel, crashed, then got up EARLY for the flight (the bad side of buying tickets last minute!) Now we’re home enjoying our bank holiday.

We had a Friday the 13th this month, which means anniversary for Mike and I (yay!). He asked me out on a Friday the 13th, so we celebrate every Friday the 13th instead of the yearly anniversary.

This time, we didn’t know what Mike’s work schedule was going to be, so we weren’t able to book anything out of country. Instead, we went to Windsor!

We left Friday night and walked around for a while. The restaurant we were most interested in was all booked up, so we went for noodles instead. Only although noodles sounded fantastic when we walked it, I developed a sudden irritating aversion to them when we sat down, so I had edamame and calamari instead. YUM! Mike had a chicken and rice dish.

After dinner, we checked into our super posh hotel and *ahem* then crashed for the night.

Saturday morning, we went across the street to the crooked house for breakfast!

Then we walked around and went shopping for a while.

We found a place selling old maps of counties in England. We found maps of where Mike’s parents were from, as well as one from where my mom is born, and we plan to frame them as decoration. Walked down to Eton College, then back up to Windsor Castle to go exploring. Mostly, I just wanted to see Queen Mary’s dollhouse again.

After we were done in the castle, we sat in a pub and had dinner and wrote postcards to friends at home. I also had Eton mess (hey, when in Rome!)

Sadly, after that it was time to head home and back to reality!

I was reading Sapna’s blog, and saw that she’d been to the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, Hever Castle. I love all things Henry VIII, so I decided then that I HAD to go. Which meant Mike had to go. And since we now have friends who wake up early and like to go exploring as well, Shaun and Roseanna came as well.

Hever Castle is actually my favorite of the castles I’ve seen so far. It’s historic enough to feel cool, but also was redone in the early 20th century, so it’s not falling apart, and you’re able to walk in most of the rooms. They unfortunately do not let you take pictures inside the castle, but it was very cool.

The true attraction to Hever Castle is the Castle grounds though. LOTS of walking trails and gardens and mazes. They have a kids’ maze, as well as a water maze and a hedge maze, were I managed to catch my favorite dress on a twig and tear it.

Mike did not have any negative hedge maze experiences.

There is also a topiary bush trimmed to look like the twitter bird.

And a statue that looks like a swan making sweet sweet love to a lady.

The real swans we saw were more interested in traditional swan procreation though.

There is also a Tudor Topiary Chess Set. I imagined the royals making the gardener dig up the piece they wanted to move and replant it in the new place. Slowest game of chess ever. I am sure they were never actually used to play, but it was fun to imagine.

A short train ride home, and then we PASSED OUT. It’s been a long couple of days. Today I am getting caught up on laundry and we are having a total relax day. Not gonna complain about TWO 4-day weekends in a row

Saturday was spent with my mom cooking chicken and ham and picking up balloons and streamers for the baby shower on Sunday, and Sunday was the shower. We had it at the local firehall (benefit to living in a small town and having a mom who works for the town and knows everyone!). The turnout was massive – we counted 47 people! Luckily, we’d prepared a mountain of food, and other people brought stuff. Like this beautiful cake which one of the girls Sherry and my mom work with actually MADE AT HOME. Isn’t it gorgeous!

The guest of honor slept through her own party though. Completely.

We opened gifts. She got a lot. I am pretty sure there will be no need for this baby to wear the same article of clothing twice for the next 2 years. I’m not even kidding about this. At this point, we’re only about halfway through the gift opening, and you can see there are still tons of presents behind Sherry on the floor and on the table. And that toy baby buggy…filled with gifts (the girls at the office all chipped in to put that together). Left to right in this picture is Sherry’s mom, who was a streamer champion in the decorating and also brought delicious brownies, Sherry, Briella in her car seat, Sherry’s niece, Madison who was the present hander over (she’s 8 and likes that sort of job, so I asked her to do it), and me, writing down who gave her what.

Super cute/funny card someone got.

Aside from the shower, I’ve been mostly hanging out with Sherry and getting as much Baby Briella time as I can. I have a theory that she likes me best. She gives me the best burps and LOVES to cuddle with me. This afternoon, Sherry is getting a massage, so I will be babysitting. I’m bringing the camera. Silliness may occur.

P.S. – Thanks to C.L. for the shower photos, since I was a giant dork and forgot my camera.

Friday night was Katherine’s birthday celebrations. We had been looking for an excuse to wear the banana and gorilla costumes for a while, and teasingly threatened Katherine with them. Surprisingly, she was THRILLED with the idea and wanted us to show up to her birthday do in them… so we did. It was actually a lot of fun. We danced in them for quite a while and got quite a following – people like costumes, apparently. I was pretty much the most sexually harrassed banana ever, with more offers to “peel me open and eat me” and requests to see “a banana split” than I could count.

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early and headed out to Heathrow to pick up our rental car. It was a beautiful sunny day, which made for a lovely drive (even if it was a bit long). On our way up to the Grandparents’ house, we stopped in Oswestry and ordered our wedding rings. We’d looked online a fair bit, and weren’t finding stuff we liked, so we decided to go with bespoke rings. A little more googling, and we found the perfect place in Oswestery, which is also Mike’s Dad’s birthplace and old stomping ground.

Finally made it to the grandparents’ house, then went out for dinner, then hung out with them for the evening. Crashed hard – we were tired, then got up and had some breakfast and went out for another drive. Mike’s nan fed us a fantastic lunch, then we hit the road to head back to London.

SO. MUCH. TRAFFIC. It took us way longer to drive back with all of the traffic jams. We didn’t get home until just after 9, and we were bagged. Some exciting news though – my dad bought a boat. It’s been pretty much his DREAM for years, and he doesn’t treat himself that much, so it’s awesome that he’s finally got a big shiny new toy.

It has all of the important features, like a built in cooler.

Now I just need to talk him into getting a tow rope and an innertube, and we can have some real fun!

Also, just for the heck of it…baby Briella pictures! I’m a pretty smitten Auntie! 24 days until I meet her in person!!