Life as we know it: May 2009

Sunday, May 31, 2009

A visit from Phyllis' siblings & a Niece

Phyllis' siblings and a niece were able to coordinate their schedules to make a visit to London.

Here is Roger, Linda, Rosie, and Rosie's daughter, Sarah on the tube on the way to our place after we met them at Heathrow. They look pretty good for not getting much sleep.

This is what we look like after a day of getting them around the city!

The day after they arrived we had a beautiful day so we took a long walk along one of the canals which ended up in Regents Park.

After Regents Park, we went to Camden Town to look at the market. Outside of the tube exit was this drummer which sounded pretty nice.

A group photo in front of the fountain in Trafalgar square.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Kensington Gardens & Palace & Holland Park

May 16 we had a free day of no guests or groups to take care of so we headed on a walk to Holland Park. However, we took a wrong turn out of the tube station and stumbled onto Kensington Gardens and Palace first.

This is one of the views of the Palace. It was closed for the day. This was the residence of Princess Diana. Also the birth place of Queen Victoria & residence.

Evidently, this man spends a bit of time feeding the squirrels as he had a lot of food for them and they would eat right out of his hands. Made me think of the old lady in Mary Poppins when she is feeding the birds of the steps of St Paul's.

We did make our way to Holland Park eventually and here is a beautiful Japanese garden within the park. The bird is real.

This white man was posing outside of a cafe in the park and this young girl went up to take a look and he beckoned for her hand as if he were to shake it then planted a kiss instead. She was thrilled!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Trip to the States & a 50th celebration

My US trip was mainly to attend the 50th birthday bash for my sister in law Mim Shirk. The sisters and sister in laws of Ed's family have a tradition that when we turn 50 we get together for the weekend and celebrate. Mim choose a great location near Virginia Beach. We only had to walk less than a mile to the beach. Every day was sunny and warm. I walked at least twice each day to the beach including a night visit to lay on towels and look at the stars.
As always there was much game playing, good conversation, eating, laughing, and gift giving. This year the main Saturday night feast was Fondue. Thanks to Renee for taking this on.

I arrived a couple days early to PA to stay with Ed's parents so that I could get over my jet lag. While I was there, Casey who is Pete & Sandy Shirks daughter, had a soccer game. She is on the Varsity team of her Jr High. This is a shot taken right after she made an assist. They won!

Mom Sandy and bother Eric clapping for the end result. Somehow Pete avoided the camera.

After the game in the driveway.

Mother's fabulous garden and the great shed Pete made complete with rockers to sit and enjoy the view.

This tree was picked out and planted for Mim years ago (Each child got a tree) which is a dogwood. How appropriate that it blooms on her birthday!

Mim's 50th Bday party weekend

Those of us from PA drove to our destination while others flew in. Mim and Ron were at the house for the week prior to our arrival. Ron vacated to another location while we had our party.

A few of the early birds on the first morning waiting for breakfast.

The birthday girl getting in some early morning quiet time reading.

Relaxing before supper on the deck.

Late night activity. Earring making. One of the gifts was a kit to make earrings so everyone made a pair for Mim. As I was still jet lagged, I took pictures instead. I was afraid that my creation would be lopsided.

The weather was great. Actually the skies were blue the entire weekend except in this picture. I forgot to take my camera each time I went to the beach so this is from Hilda. This is Sunday afternoon after the most of us had left. Mim, Dorothy, and Hilda (not pictured) stayed for another day.

Two teas and a bunch of friends

The Monday after getting back to PA from Virginia, I flew to Wichita where my sister Linda picked me up and I stayed with her one night. The following day she took me to Harper where I stayed with our good friends Spike & Gloria Hostetler. It's a great location as it's close to the church and other friends and within walking distance to the hospital where my mom lives. I spent the next 9 days there catching up with them and many other good friends. It felt like I'd never left. We have the dearest friends in Harper and we miss them. Visiting with my mom every day at the hospital gave me a chance to see my old work mates. It was a good time to be with my mom too.

As a small way of saying THANK YOU to my home congregation (Pleasant Valley Mennonite in Harper, KS) for the support they have given Ed and I while in London, I said I would like to have a cream tea for who ever could come. Big thank yous to Faith Penner, Pam Gerber, and Leslie Roberts for doing all the ground work. It was fun! We had scones, Victoria sponge cakes, chocolate covered strawberries and TEA!

These lovely ladies did the work of inviting everyone, setting the tables with lots of pretty dishes, flowers, and tablecloths, etc. Thank you so much! All I had to do was make the goodies, everything else was taken care of.

I think about 30 ladies showed up for the tea. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. It was so good to see them all!

The next day at the hospital in the Long Term Care wing where my mom lives, was a Tea for families of the residents. No scones or cakes this time but some great American cookies!

Icing on the cake of my visit was that Tonya, Andrew and Emma Graber from Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp were in the area for a graduation of relatives. So I met them on their way home. Corbin and Natalie stayed home this time. Here they are leaving and doing one of their silly face poses just for Ed.