Day with Debbie

 We have a wonderful friend, Miss Debbie who we feel so blessed to have in our lives.  We all love spending time with Debbie, especially my kids!  I happened to snap a few pictures the last time we got together.  Love you Miss Debbie!!!

Thanksgiving in Snowdonia

Happy Thanksgiving from Snowdonia, Wales!!!

 

Plas Dualt our Welsh home away from home.

One of the best parts of any trip to Northern Wales is the drive! Such unspoilt beauty all around you.

 The road up to our vacation home was treacherous and terrifying but well worth it once we reached the top.  We were at the top of a very very tall hill or maybe it was a mountain, not sure.  Our house was the only thing on the hill aside from sheep.

 

My babies playing in the conservatory.

I really love English conservatories.  This one was beautiful stone and full of fragrant flowers.  

Molly and Snowflake

  

Campbells Platfom, just up the hill from our house.  Our private train stop!!

Hoping on the train at our train stop for the Welsh Highlands Railway.  We are the only private train stop in the route.  

We have arrived at the bottom of the mountain.  Now lets see what there is to see!

On our train ride back up the mountain with yummy Welsh cakes to munch on during the ride.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Mushrush's!  Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner together in our quiet home away from home.  I will miss this tranquility once we return to the States. 

There are so many castles in this area of Wales.  We saw about 4 of them on this trip.

Daniel loved the castles, you can see why on this particular day.  Rain equals major mud puddles.

Molly was not so fond of the castles as they were cold and wet.  She got only a few steps farther than this though the door of the first castle and announced she was done and wanted to get out of there.  So, I was happy to oblige and we got some hot chocolate in a nice warm tea room while the men explored the castles. 

Daniel running the parameters. 

Daddy and Daniel in the castle.  They don't look at all alike :)

After the castles, we went to the beach.  It was very cold so we didn't stay out long but the sky was beautiful, the beach was practically deserted and the sound of the crashing waves made me feel like I was back at Surfside Beach, SC.  

Georgous and omnious sky over the beach.

In the US, most touristy beaches feed into massive hotels, vacation properties, restaurants, you name it.  Here, the beaches feed into farmland and unspoilt hills.  I much prefer the latter. 

Molly and Daddy at the beach.

Another beach from the top of one of the mountains.

A Castle at Sunset

We also visited the Slate Quarries and took a cable car type trip deep into the quarry to see how slate mining took place years ago.  Slate is a major source of revenue for this area of Wales.

Molly getting geared up for the trip underground.

After a wonderful trip, we headed home.  On our way home, we stopped at this tiny shop which had a sign "Homemade Chocolate" out front.  So, we went inside and bought some of their yummy goodies.  We had our first ever chocolate covered pumpkin seeds and they were fantastic!! 

From the Mushrush family, we hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Thanks be to God for his undeserved bounty and blessings this year.  Next year, we will be spending Thanksgiving in Kansas, USA!

Happy 34th Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday Bryon!!  

As your browsing through the pictures for this posting you may be thinking, did she mean Happy Birthday Molly, as all the pictures are from Disney on Ice, clearly not a typical male birthday gift.  My answer to you would be, nope!! This daddy got exactly what he wanted on his birthday, a special day out with his little girl.

 Molly and Bryon got up on Saturday morning, boarded the ITT bus here on base and spent the whole day together traveling to Birmingham, UK to see Disney on Ice.  Molly got up early, packed her backpack with snacks and fun things to do on the bus, got her Minnie shirt on and geared up for the adventure, hours before it was time to go.

 Molly's first taste of cotton candy!! Crazy huh!  No state fairs in the UK, she loved it of course :) 

 Let the show begin!  The Little Mermaid, the Lion King, Peter Pan and Lilo and Stitch along with the Disney gang (Mickie, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto) all graced the stage.  Molly was in giddy heaven.  The only thing that would have made it better would be if sleeping beauty, her favorite princess, showed up.

Bryon took random pictures throughout of Molly's facial expressions as she watched the show.  Here is one of my favorites.

 

Hooray!  I heard from both Molly and Daddy that the show was great, but the true birthday gift was the memories made that will last a lifetime.  On your next birthday remember, "things" break and the shininess wears out but special times with those we love can never fade away.  

Is that Molly or a pumpkin?

Being silly around the house. 

Molly loves her pumpkin glasses, can you blame her?!?!

Happy Halloween!!

 Happy Halloween!! 

 Hunting for creepy crawlies in the slimy noodles at playgroup's Halloween party.

 Molly crawling through the tunnels at the Halloween party

 We are so thankful that God brought us to such a wonderful playgroup here in the UK.  We have 4 years of pictures and memories from playgroup's Halloween parties each year.  This is one thing we will really miss once we are gone.

Making peanut butter play-dough

 Decorating Halloween cookies

 Molly won the most colorful cookie.  And she ate every bite :)

 Off to trick-or-treat!!

 They aren't excited :)

 Bryon's costume..  You'll never guess who he is.. I'll give you a hint

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's........

 Daniel ran up to every door screaming "Thank You" rather than "Trick-or-treat".

 

 "Look what I got!! Woohoo!!!"

 Trick-or-treating at some of our friends houses on base.

 Diggin into the loot!