Mark & Mandy

On Wednesday we headed down to Dorset (Alison’s Country Home) for a relaxing last few days. As we were driving we happened upon Stonehenge – so we had to do a quick walk around. Stonehenge is quite a site – Eddie Izzard gives the best description of its creation. Elsie slept through the tour – clearly she wasn’t impressed.

Alison’s cottage is in a town called Sanford Orcus and to get here you travel on little country roads not much wider than the car with giant hedges on each side – this is a two way street. You have to be quick with your breaks in case you meet an oncoming car – you then stare at each other to see who will back up first. This would never work in the states because everyone would just sit there waiting for the other to back up – but in England, they are fighting over who can back up first.

When we arrived we decided to take a walk around the area – it was so lush and green and we packed the little bean up in the bjorn and headed off (without any diaper bag – we are still new parents)

As we walked up the field, the cats followed… (Puck and Basil have a great country life)

We happened upon some dairy cows … Elsie is also the name of the borden dairy cow, which many kind people informed us when she was born.

We walked into town and ate at the local pub – we had a not-so-cold pint (who knew that british people don’t like cold beer). Elsie was a trooper – she had her own meal and then dropped a giant poop bomb that came out of her pants and onto alison (a badge of honor!) – here is where we realized we should have brought a diaper bag.

We high tailed it home and played a board game by the fire (with clean pants of course). The next morning we had breakfast on the lawn and Elsie had her first snuggle on grass – its much softer than US grass, but Elsie wasn’t so sure she liked it.

Alison showed mark her bee hive which was very prolific with its honey this past year. they were all suited up in bee suits and I was hiding in the house in case they decided to pray on the young (thats me and elsie)

We went to the Sherborne Abbey just a few miles away – this church was constructed over 1300 years ago (when they say old, they mean it)

Inside the church showing the perpendicular style (late gothic)

To finish our day Alison and Michael packed us a picnic and we headed up on the hill to watch the sun set.

The sun started behind some clouds …

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Elsie was snuggled up – she didn’t seem to care about the sun setting, she was too schleepy.

the next morning we packed up and headed to heathrow. We left lots of time to drive to the airport, return the car and get through security. At Heathrow they were extremely accommodating with us and the baby – they helped us through security. We went to the red carpet club where elsie had a melt down – she was hungry and hot. The ladies at the front quickly found us a cool room (we didn’t ask, they suggested) for a quick feed and she was back to new. We even had the real bassinet on the way home … elsie did great. Sadly the flight was over an hour late and we missed our connection in Chicago. Transferring in chicago is a huge chafe and on a good day might take an hour – what a horrible welcome to the states.

We managed to get on the late flight to denver and some kind soul switched seats with us so we could sit together. My parents were waiting for us when we got to Denver and Elsie had no jet leg, Mark and I on the other hand…

We had a wonderful time in England and it showed us that traveling with an infant is not too difficult – we can’t wait for our next adventure!

Today was a very relaxing day for us. We are staying with Alison in Clapham and woke up to a beautiful sunny (yes there is sun in england) day! We had tea and toast in the back garden and elsie had to put on a sunhat

We decided to soak up the sun and head down to the park via clapham’s main road – here we are in front of a very popular mommy hangout.

After a coffee and a quiche Michael pointed us towards the park and gave us some instructions to find a pub (because clearly our whole vacation is based around eating!!). Off we went.

The park was filled with pasty white folk trying to get a bit of sun without getting burned.

Can you believe Elsie’s leg is in the sun – I don’t think Dad saw that.

We found the pub and had a small lunch – just as the food arrived Elsie decided she also had to have lunch, so another first happened … breastfeeding in a pub (fortunately we were outside and Elsie was under a shawl so not too much trauma).

As soon as lunch was done Elsie did some major business that required and impromptu pants change on the grass – fortunately Mark is superman and can change pants faster than a speeding bullet.

After a long walk we arrived back to alisons where michael and alison were prepping for the dinner party (which we didn’t take photos of – shoot!). We had Patsy, Antony, Jonathan (mark’s cousin) and Tamar (Jonathan’s lovely lady friend), and Alison’s brother Johnny and his wife plum. It was a yummy dinner.

Tomorrow we are heading to Dorset (alison’s country home) and will be without internet connection so we will post next when we get to heathrow on Friday.

Elsie is doing great – I even caught this little smile today … (she’s chubbin’ up!!)

We drove into London this afternoon (after a quick stop at the Dragon School for Boys in Oxford) to have dinner with Glynn, Cindy, Peter and Anika. Elsie was named for Elspeth (Mark’s Mom) and Elspeth was named for her dad’s favorite sister Elsie.

All of the manson’s were taking turns snuggling the bean – especially anika and cindy…

They had a new kitten (11 weeks old) named Peter that was extremely lovey and feisty at the same time – and I had to show this photo because their puppy Dottie was so patient. Lola take note …

Glynn is known for spoiling girls and in keeping this up he wanted to be the first to buy Elsie a DIAMOND! (it is her birth stone). Here she is with her new bling!!

Dad said she couldn’t wear it officially until she was at least three. She loves it!

On Sunday we headed to Steeple Aston to visit the Kewley family (Jan is Mark’s godmother). We didn’t get a photo of the B&B we were staying at in Badsey until now and Mark wanted everyone to see that we were staying in a land of little people – here he is coming in the door. Elsie, of course, was right at home.

Now on to Steeple Aston …. we arrived to Jan and Davids house which was an 17th century farmhouse that use to belong to Iris Murdoch called Cedar Lodge. The house has 5 acres of land around it that Jan and David have turned into a perfect english garden. Yes, Julie this is exactly the place that you need to be.

The House is beautiful and the gardens are spectacular. We arrived for lunch and were lucky enough to have coincided with Kate who was home for the weekend before Exams.

We had a lovely lunch of home grown veggies and some fresh baked scones and then took a walk through the grounds.

The kewley’s horse, Kismet is 29 and just loves Jan. “Kizzy” has her run of a field, but comes in at night to her stable. Jan really wanted Kizzy to have her ears up for the photo.

Here is david creating a hedge wall on stilts – when this place was first purchase 14 years ago only the the mature trees were there – the rest of the garden has been imagined and created by Jan and David. Jan is filled with gardening knowledge and we were sad to tell her how poorly our garden is doing in Colorado…

The Kewley’s have two cats, one looked much like Crenshaw and was instantly wanting to snuggle me and elsie while elsie had some lunch.

Of course Jan just loved Elsie (who wouldn’t!) and Elsie loved the Enlgish Garden!! Now we are off to London!

Today was our very first English Wedding – We arrived at the church in Badsey and walked in with our pram seated right by the videographer (a great way to ensure that Tom and Lucy hear Elsie’s cries over their wedding vows). During the processional Elsie gave her own toast with a large mud slide (in baby land poops are very special!) – we had to excuse ourselves outside for a quick change and then elsie was a sleepy head for the rest of the ceremony. Grammie gave elsie the little hair bow and it was very cute with her white dress – although we realized that a traditional english wedding has lots of feather plumed head pieces, I felt under-head-dressed.

The wedding was beautiful – this weekend 30 years ago Lucy’s parents, Patsy and Antony were married in the same church. Lucy was gorgeous! After the ceremony we all headed across the street to the Sladden Barn for the celebration.

check out this hottie!

Here are Doctors Tom and Lucy (Miller) Lee! with little elsie bean.

The barn was totally decked out -flowers were done by two of patsy’s friends and Lucy actually decorated her own cake. We had yummy lamb with potatoes and peas followed by a rhubarb creme brulee – delish!
Elsie again was a super champ – sleeping it up through dinner and waking just to eat a few times and then was happy to be held by Patsy and Alison. We got her home around midnight and she is ready for bed – this cute little hat was knitted by ann shires (from New Zealand) especially for Elsie (it fits her little noggin quite well). This look means we have a rough night ahead – she will show us for keeping her out all night.

Today was a day of relaxed touring of lots of little villages around the cotswolds (cotswolds refers to the type of stone used to build the villages). We went for tea and scones which were served with this butter-esque stuff called “clotted creme” which will clearly give you clogged arteries just looking at it. The little tea place was too small for our “buggy” so Elsie had some snuggling from Dad, who had a hot flash (fatherhood has given him a hormone imbalance) and passed her to aunt chloe where we snuggled right in.

The weather was pretty chilly this morning but the sun did shine (yes there is sun in england) – elsie spent a lot of the time bundled up (sun does not equal warmth). Chloe got ahold of our camera a snapped a few shots of dad and elsie – too cute not to post!

We also visited Elspeth’s Grave in Badsey where Alison and Chloe arranged a bouquet of yellow roses. Many other sladdens are buried in the cemetery including Sir Julius Sladden the brewer who was knighted for his philanthropy (ie spreading good cheer by giving away free beer) which is just at the front of the badsey church. The flowers were fabulous.

We ended the night with a lovely dinner in Winchcombe at a place called 5 north road (this is handy to name your restaurant your address) – a 1 michelin star restaurant. It was a yummy tasting menu with great wine and Elsie was a super champ sleeping it up all through dinner.

Here I am pushing the “buggy” in my new tartan wrap!

Well we made it to London in one piece and actually the flight was a big success! Our seats weren’t ideal because the plane was packed and the guy next to Mark was clearly an eastern european wrestler, but Elsie did great. She slept for most of the flight and didn’t have any ear troubles.

We requested a bassinet which was delivered after take off – it was a soft sided bag that laid on the floor – I know they were trying to disguise my baby as luggage so that someone could drive a cart into her, step on her or steal her (note to self – don’t watch flight plan before taking your baby on the plane). I didn’t get a wink of sleep on the flight – but I can tell you to avoid watching “Because I said so” it sucked.

We breezed through UK customs with my UK husband (shhh – he was american when he left, and british when he entered – is that legal?)

Michael met us through customs and we headed to the car rental. The most important thing to remember in England is that they drive on the wrong side of the road – which is fine, since I am not driving, but you must remember this constantly or your will walk right out in front of traffic and get hit by a lorry (that’s UK speak for truck). We drove up to Badsey where the Sladden Family barn is and where Lucy and Tom will be getting married. We stopped along the way in Burford to have High Tea – Yum City!

Julie would love burford with its cobblestone paths and stone buildings – so cute!

Elsie was (is) a hit – it was great to meet her extended family and so far she has been totally oblivious to the time change …

Patrick Sladden (Mark’s Grandfather) converted a 17th century barn into a home all on his own – its a wonderful mix of rustic pieces (large beams) with updated touches. Tonight Patsy and Antony hosted a family dinner for Lucy and Tom in the unfinished part of the barn. We had english peas, shepards pie and pimms followed by a lemon pudding with berries. Delish!

Here is Mark and Elsie with the beautiful bride to be …

and here is elsie with aunt patsy

Now its off to bed for Elsie bean (thanks Niko for this yellow sleeper)!

Mandy, Elsie and I are on a stopover in Chicago on our way to London for the Miller family wedding. As I am a Premier something or other from traveling last year, we get to go into the Red Carpet Club on international trips – which is nice on any trip, but I must say that O’Hare seems permanently over capacity with people overflowing from every gate! Even the Red Carpet Club here is huge and fairly full.

So Elsie has had a day of firsts: First airplane trip (Denver to Chicago – a smashing success); first “mile-high” poop, no never mind… make that first and second “mile-high” poops. Well actually since she lives at a mile-high, we’ll just say first time pooping in a plane. She did great on the plane sleeping all the time (except for the two poops). It precipitated Dad’s first airplane bathroom diaper change – that is one small space! Mom has had her first public breast-feeding, in the red carpet club and on the plane. The scoreboard stands at: 3 diaper changes, 2 outfits (at this rate we may be making unorthodox use of the skymall catalog!) But I think the nightmare scenario envisioned by some people in our group has not come to pass – yet!

So now we’re on to our first international trip including Elsie’s first in-plane bassinet, and Elsie’s first trip through immigration and customs in the UK – we hope, she doesn’t look like her passport photo of 3 weeks ago!

Elsie has been a great baby – for the first three weeks she was sleeping close to 18 hours a day and just happy as can be. We kept quiet about it hoping not to jinx it – but somehow I started opening my big mouth and sure enough all things went to hell. On Monday we had an entire day where if she was awake she was fussy-mcfusserson. I wanted to pull my hair out.

We pulled out the swing (a fantastic gift from the Johnstons), inserted the screamer and Viola! we had some peace. I would say the Swing and the vibrating bouncer chair are vital tools to raise a child – oh and probably ear plugs.

Fortunately for me (lack of patience) she seems to be out of her crab-claws mood so I am hoping it was a growth spurt and not a pattern of life. I now see why babies are born so delightfully cute – even when you want to pull your hair out they are still seem perfect.