The Anderson Outing

Sunday, January 5, 2014

2013 In Review

Here is a 3-minute summary of our year in 2013.

2013 In Review

Here are links to previous years...

Anderson Family 2012 Review

Anderson Family 2011 Review

Anderson Family 2010 Review

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Bublitz and Anderson Invasion

We had family visit us for our first English Christmas and had a wonderful time!

Here are a few highlights...

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Trip 12: Grandma Visits London for Christmas!

We were fortunate enough to have Grandma come to visit for Christmas! Yesterday was her first trip to London. Although it rained, we saw the Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, Covent Garden, and severals trains in-between.

Both the train rides were a little interesting:

On the way to London, we had the entire train car to ourselves.

On the way home, our train hit a tree. It broke a window, delayed us an hour, and we had to get a new train at the next stop. I suppose it could have been a lot worse!

The next few days will be focused on Christmas cookies, our traditional Christmas roast cooked by Grandma, and I'm sure a few trips into town.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Trip 11: Paris insights and highlights

The Louvre, originally uploaded by josh77anderson.

Bonjour,
Here are a few additional highlights from our trip.

Crepes = awesome. We sampled whipped cream, Nutella, ham and cheese, and jam; all good.
We only were turned away from one restaurant because we have kids and spoke English. They said it was because they couldn't seat 6 of us, but the restaurant was empty. To be honest, most Parisians were very nice and accommodating - especially if you made any attempt at speaking French.
In Le Louvre, an Asian man stopped Mara and wanted to touch her hair and take her picture. We let him.
On Jeryn's sixth birthday, she opened presents on the top of the Eiffel Tower; on my sixth birthday, I got a bike that I couldn't ride because I had the chicken pox.
Vin chaud = hot wine. It kinda grows on you. It is like spiced cider with alcohol.
Do not attempt to have dinner before 7pm. Repeat: don't even try. This also goes for attempting to have breakfast before 9:30am. One night, we had a dinner reservation for 7pm, and were the first ones in the restaurant at 7:10pm when they opened the doors, and they were surprised with us for being early.
A three day visit to Paris = about 10 miles walking, depending how strategic you are about riding the Metro (note for next visit).
McDonalds sells beer. We did not confirm if you can get your Happy Meal with a Heineken (another item to explore next time).
Two people wished us Happy Thanksgiving. One was our family. The other was a great hotel staffer. Well done.

Here's an additional exhange that Christina had:
Christina:
"Parlez-vous anglais?" (Do you speak English?)
Server:
"No. I don't speak English." (In perfect English).
Christina:
"Oh, Ok. Um, can I have this?"
Server:
"Ok"

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!, originally uploaded by josh77anderson.

This Thanksgiving felt a little different than most.
We were blessed to still be able to spend it with family and have the opportunity to see some new things in an amazing city!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We miss you!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Another Sunday Afternoon

Jeryn is now teaching Mara how to ride the balance bike...

Girls on their bikes, originally uploaded by josh77anderson.

Sisters on Balance Bikes, originally uploaded by josh77anderson.

Guy Fawkes Day

Since there is no 4th of July celebration in England for obvious reasons, we are celebrating the next closest thing: Guy Fawkes Day. It is also known as Bonfire Night, and is always the 5th of November.

The City of Chester had fireworks last night that we enjoyed in some traditional British weather (rain). On Tuesday, maybe we'll learn how to have a bonfire in the rain.