Colorado

While I was back in the states, I went to Colorado for a week for Owen's brother's wedding. Owen flew from London to Colorado for a week and I met up with him there. We stayed with Jake and Sydney for the week leading up to the wedding. It was a really great chance to spend time with them, since it's been 3 years since we last saw them. We had the chance to see the rest of the family too. We also had some time to catch up with some other people, including Chris's parents and my college friend Abby.

This was also my first trip to Colorado, so we did do a little exploring. We went to Colorado Springs for a day and wandered around Garden of the Gods, which was beautiful! We saw Pike's Peak from the distance and got some nice landscape pictures, classic Colorado views. We also drove up Lookout Mountain for some views, it was nice to be out of the very busy Denver suburbs. One of the highlights of exploring was the hike up Devil's Head. This was a beautiful trail with amazing views at the top. Definitely one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done, and the highest elevation!

Aside from all the exploring, the main reason for being in Colorado was the wedding. It was a great time, Sydney looked beautiful, and they both looked so happy. We were so thankful to be able to share this day with them, obviously worth the trip back from London. We're so happy that Sydney is officially part of the family now. Congratulations Jake and Sydney!

Pike's Peak from Colorado Springs

Garden of the Gods

Lookout Mountain

Connecticut

Finally holding little Gabriella

Wow so I'm really behind on blog updates! I have had so much going on with traveling, visiting family, grad school courses, and then visitors here in London. I finally have a little time between classes that I can catch up on a few posts! 

To begin, I just finished 3 more classes for my masters, which will be finished in December! I have had so much work to do for those classes that keeping up to date with the blog definitely got pushed aside (in fact the last post was at the beginning of my term, when I still had some time). Though a lot of work, the classes went well. I am definitely enjoying the week off now! Owen is in his last week of his 12 week surgery rotation already! Hard to believe we've been here for 6 months now. The weather is nice today, with the sun actually shinning and it's almost 70* out. The last few days have been barely in the 60s though, which is tough when it's almost July. That's a few updates on life around here, more about our London visitors will be posted soon :)

So I spent almost 4 weeks back in Connecticut this spring, on either side of my brother in law's wedding in Colorado. It was a really great time at home, even though it was full of juggling course work and spending time with people. Of course I had a lot of time with my parents and brother. My mom and I went for pedicures before I went to Colorado, such a treat! We also did hot stones massages after Colorado. There were several family dinners, movie night, some shopping, a beach day with my dad, a day at the lake, and just lots of hanging out. Overall a really great time, between all the school work of course.

I finally got to meet my precious "niece" Gabriella and spend a lot of time with her, and her parents too of course, Michelle and Evan. I got some quality time in with Connor and Olivia too, and saw Aiden briefly. The kiddos are always a highlight of my time at home. It's so tough to be away from them all, but I love seeing them and watching them grow up. We had some family dinners out at Brunetti's, watched a thunder storm out there, and just enjoyed time together. It was very simple but much needed. 

Also had the chance to participate in the neighborhood tag sale, finally getting rid of the last of our big furniture. Funny after 3 years we no longer care to keep much of the stuff we thought we'd want. There was a neighbors bonfire one night, always a good time. I had the chance to see Sarah Bouckoms as well.

So those are the highlights from Connecticut. Here are a few pictures from my trip, sorry I don't have more. Look for more posts soon!

Misquamicut

This is the remains of the beach house we rented every summer. Sandy did a number on Misquamicut

High Dunes from all the sand washed up by Sandy

Watch Hill

Amsterdam-Holland-Netherlands

After not being able to travel as much as desired, we finally took a trip to Amsterdam! I have always wanted to see the tulips at Keukenhof so we picked Amsterdam in spring for our big trip. Since we had such a cold spring, the tulips were a bit late in blooming, but this was the last weekend we had to go since I flew back to the states the following week. However, as we discovered, it is impossible to see all the tulips bloom at the same time, since the light and dark ones have slightly different timing. Anyway we'll get to the flowers.

On Friday we arrived in the early afternoon, got checked into our hotel and decided to head to the city center. Even though it was cloudy, the rain held off and we had a nice first impression of the city. We didn't realize that it was all canals, which made it even more beautiful and relaxing than we anticipated. We heard that Dutch pancakes were the thing to try in Holland, so we found "the best pancake house" and grabbed dinner. Basically the pancakes are like crepes, but a little thicker, and really delicious! After that we went to an Ice Bar and froze ourselves for 40 minutes while having drinks out of cups made of ice. It was a fun first day exploring all the little side streets and canals of Amsterdam.

On Saturday the weather was a bit nicer so we headed to Zaanse Schaans, a windmill town just north of Amsterdam. There are about 5 working windmills there still, and the town is a traditional Dutch village, with a cheese maker, wooden clog maker, and traditional green and white houses. We went inside one of the windmills and saw how it would grind materials. We went up 4 flights of narrow, steep ladders to near the top, went outside on a platform with the windmill turning right beside us. We also went inside one that was grinding cinnamon and cloves, it smelled amazing. We spent a couple hours walking around the windmills and town area then headed back to city center for some more exploring.

On Sunday we had tickets for Keukenhof, the main reason for going to Holland. I have always wanted to see the tulips, and after Owen bought me some Dutch tulips a couple months ago, I was even more excited. We spent the morning wandering through all the gardens and greenhouses. It was a very nicely designed park with a huge variety of tulips. The greenhouses held the more unique tulips, many of which we had no idea existed. Such a variety of color, shape, size. Most looked hand-painted, others had 4-5 colors on them, others had ruffled edges, many didn't even look like tulips. After spending many hours discovering all the different tulips in the park, we walked out to the tulip fields. That was the highlight of the day and trip. The fields were even more colorful that we expected and really in bloom. This is definitely something everyone should experience, I would highly recommend visiting the tulip fields. It was also neat on the flight home, we saw dozens of different fields from the plane.

Monday was our last day in Amsterdam. It was supposed to rain but thankfully it held off. The city was very busy in preparation for Queen's Day. We spent the day wandering around the city again, doing a little shopping, and seeing all the Queen's Day prep and decorations. It was a nice end to an awesome weekend. We would definitely recommend Amsterdam to everyone. We had a great time and it is a beautiful city. So beautiful in fact that I have way too many pictures. It was hard to choose some for the blog, so here are a few and a lot more on our Picasa Holland Album. Enjoy!

The beautiful canals of Amsterdam

Tons of cheese shops in Amsterdam

Zaanse Schaans

Windmills and Tulips at Keukenhof, a perfect weekend

For perspective, these tulips were massive

One of my favorites

Loved these ones

One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen

Tulip Fields from the plane

Sunny Day in Central

A couple Saturdays ago, Owen took his Internal Medicine exam in central London (this is a computer based exam at the end of the rotation). I met up with him for lunch when he was done.The original plan was to grab lunch at Borough Market and then head to the Tate Modern Museum. However, something rare happened. We had a warm, sunny day here in London! It was so nice that we couldn't even think of spending the day in a museum. So we did still walk around Borough Market for a bit and then decided to see the sights with the sunshine and blue skies (aka I wanted nice pictures that weren't grey and cloudy).

We walked along the Thames, down to the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London area, where we had not been yet. Although we didn't do the tour, it was still nice to see everything. Then we walked all the way back up the Thames to see the London Eye and Parliament. We spent the whole afternoon walking along the Thames, checking out different areas, watching street performers, and even getting a little sun on our faces. We had a really great day and really enjoyed spending the day outside, in the sun (obviously the Caribbean had an effect on us). So here are just a few pictures, with blue skies! Everything looks better with a blue sky (see pictures from our first trip to central for the comparison).

Tower of London

the Gherkin (will get it from a better angle eventually)

Tower Bridge

Shakespeare's Globe