Halloween

During the day of Halloween we went to the Tate Modern, which is perfect because it has some pretty scary art in it.

We finally saw the much talked about CRACK. I'm not sure that we were as impressed as others in the group.

Tina did a great job of fixing a fun halloween dinner. So fun to go out and play all day and come back and dinner is just already!

We had planned out lots of fun activities for the night. It started out with cookie decorating,

and pumpkin carving.

Then we had a costume parade. There were some very creative costumes, because no one has any with them or wants to spend any money on them. Gary is Ghandi, Jennifer and I are siamese twins, Jeff is King Harold(he was shot in the eye with an arrow by William the Conquerer, for those of you not in the history class), David is from Queensway, and Kris is the official party pooper.

Hansen and Mitchell are Hansel and Derek Zoolander.

Eliza and Elizabeth are a pair of dice.

It's hard to see how great all the costumes are, but they were great!
After costumes we all went bunk-or-treating. Everyone had decorated their bunk beds and we trick or treated to everones beds. Two of the girls decorated their bunk as the night bus from Potter. Very fun night.

The Day Before Halloween

It was a nice sunny day and so in preparation for a spooky halloween we went to Highgate cemetary. We had to walk through the park to get there and this tree was the brightest red we'd seen. Hansen and Mitch always have some kind of game going on, I'm not sure what it was this time.

The famous Karl Marx headstone.(literally)

The cemetary is so perfectly creepy and overgrown with sunken in graves and tipping headstones.

On the walk from highgate cemetary to Hampstead Heath we discovered the coolest planned community. This group of homes was built in the 1800's and they were incredible.

Then we walked across the Heath to get to Hampstead. It was such a clear day you could see across the whole city.

Then we finished our Halloween prep with a viewing of the Woman in Black. It was really good except for the mice that came out as soon as the lights went out. We ignored them until they started charging towards Jeff's feet. It did get us moved to much better seats for the 2nd half.

South West Trip: 4th and Last Day

Our last day of trip we went to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. It was Victoria and Albert's house. left to right:Hansen, Jeff, Katy, Lauren, Hannah, Eliza, Brittini, James, and Jame's friend.
Eliza and Hansen in front of the Swiss Chalet where the nine kids gardened, cooked, had school, and more.

We ferried back from the island to Portsmouth we found this great picture spot.

The main reason for stopping at Portsmouth was to tour the Victory, Lord Nelson's boat.

After this we were homeward bound. It was an enjoyable trip. It's a little sad because it's our last one. The students thought that maybe we had turned this last trip into "fat camp". We didn't always have good places to find our dinners and lunches and had to sometimes get creative and think ahead for our food. I don't think that any of us really were lacking in food, but at this point in the semester there's quit a few of us who wouldn't mind loosing a few pounds.

South West Trip: Day Three

The first stop of the day was Montecute house. We'd never been there and loved it. Of course it makes it even better that it is the house used in Sense and Sensability.

Eliza, Hannah, and Mitch completed their kids projects in the house and we were so proud!

After Montecute House we dashed off to catch the ferry to the Isle of Wight. We got there 1 minute before the ferry left. Great timing! This is as we are about to pull in at the Isle of Wight.

We spent the night in Sandown, an old seaside town. There was a fantastic large sandy beach. We played in the water, walked, and had a big football game.

After the beach time we went out on the pier that had a bunch of tacky arcades, but also had "crazy golf". It was a really fun course, plus we had 2 for 1 coupons. That night we stayed in a hotel instead of a hostel. Taking that S out makes a big difference, mostly having our own bathroom.
GREAT DAY!!!

South West Trip: Day Two

On our second day we went to two of my favorite places, St Michaels Mt. and Tintagel. Our first stop was St MIchaels Mt. The tide was still way out so it was easy to get over to the Castle/home.

This is the whole group before we went in.

Jeff and Hansen were looking out at some seals before I made them pose for a picture.



Hansen had just purchased a football in Bath, so of course they had to play some football on the beach.

It was an amazing day at Tintagel,and as you can see from the pictures we tried not to step off the edge of the cliffs like this guy.

We could never quit catch all of them in the air at once. Gary was getting a nice X games pose.

Hansen enjoying the good boy to girl ratio on this trip.

The girls were able to all catch air at the same time, but I'm not sure about the style points.

We thought that this looked a lot like pride rock.

We had to get back up into town to get a delicious pasty(kind of like a meat pie,but you can hold it in your hand) before the restaurant closed. The kids walked up ahead of us and purchased the last ones. They were incredible.

South West Trip: Day One

Our first stop on the trip was Bath. We had three hours there, but it still wasn't enough. We went into the Roman Baths first. We drank some of the water and it is not good!

Then we walked by the shops and made our way up to the famous Royal Crescent.

Then with just the girls we went into the fashion museum. It used to Jane Austin dresses to try on, but they didn't anymore, so it was a little dissapointing. While Eliza tried on a corset and hoop skirt we met the Jeanette Wolf of England. She taught Eliza how to put it on properly and then taught her a few dances. I thought it was great, Eliza was pretty embarrassed.

The girls with Kellee Cook at Wells Cathedral. There was a cool knights clock in the cathedral that chimed ever quarter of an hour and the knights rode in a circle knocking each other off their horses and the carving of the guy with a toothache,

The final stop was Exeter. We didn't know if we'd make it there before the Cathedral closed, but we did. So we visited the Cathedral then went in search of food.

The only place that we could find in our budget was Mcdonalds, but at least it was a cool euro interior.
Then off to our first Hostel of the trip. It was just outside of Exeter. We taught some students snaffu and also taught them the water game. It was a fun night, but as it gets darker ealier we have to figure out indoor games instead of soccer and walks.

St Pauls

We had a couple of days after Jeff got home before we left on our trip to the south west. Jeff had quit a bit to catch up on , but we still fit in a few things. We had a nice wander in the beautiful streets behind Harrods, and found all of Hansen's streets, Hans Place & Hans street. We then shopped Harrods, which means a lot of looking and no buying. Then on Tuesday we went to St Pauls. It was an incredibly clear day and we could see all over the city. It is quit a climb though.

A few shots from the top of St Pauls.