Weekend with Granny

So everyone who will never make it to Granny's can understand....Granny is the classic British granny who lives a story book village. Her house is 400 years old and the views cannot even be described. A visit to Grannie's is nothing short of what everyone imagines the British countryside to be.

The trip started out quite normal with a ride on the tube and a short train trip. Then there was my first car ride. What a stressful experience. For some reason on a bus I never really noticed or cared what side of the street we were on. In the car I felt like we were constantly going to be run off the road. On top of my being mixed up the roads are small and when people park on them you just drive on the other side. Drivers are then going at each other head on...and rather fast. The other thing that happened to because of the road issue was when we were walking and Dee said to go left to avoid a car I walked right. I managed to not get hit.

Dee and Granny

Granny went all out to take care of us. On Saturday we had a classic English dinner of cottage pie. Elana ate so much I thought she would explode. Definitely a recipe I will bring home with me. We also had a traditional roast lunch on Sunday before we left, complete with tea in the garden.
Leaf climing a tree...he tore his little arm a bit but nothing a little rest won't help.

Sleeping in England has so far has required some extra work. Elana needs to wear two sets of pajamas to stay warm...at Dee's. In the country she needed more. I added a blanket, a cap, and a hot water bottle. Still she woke up in the middle of the night freezing. I ended up pulling Elana into bed with me...the bed was a single person bed so it was a tight squeeze. Regardless we both had a nice sleep.
Elana in the family crib

By far the funniest thing that happened on the trip was when I poisoned myself. Yes I poisoned myself...at least I would call it that. I went to brush my teeth and thought I grabbed my toothpaste. Well it was Elana's medicine for her girly parts. I got as far as a few brush strokes and screamed "poison, poison." Dee ran in to me flushing my mouth out and trying to read the tube for the safety information. So far so good. I do not seem to have any ill effects yet...

Leaf and Elana after a long walk

Poor Alex...he carried Elana on the walks because there was not a suitable trail for a stroller. He also won Uncle of the year for finding, buying, and installing a car seat. Not an easy task in the English countryside....every village may have a pub but stores are hard to come by and open on Sunday stores are even more rare.

The nicest part of the weekend was the walks with Granny and visiting with her. What an amazing woman. She has lead a life I could only dream of. What a blessing it was for Elana and I to meet her. She has so many talents and even gave Elana a beautiful sweater she knitted. I am sure it will be well used. Elana may not be able to remember Granny but she will have the sweater and some great pictures to look at one day.