New dining room

This is what it looked like to start -






And here's us enjoying Thanksgiving dinner together in the finished product. A job well done!

Rome

Great sights, great company and amazing food! Can't beat a girly weekend in Rome, although I must admit I really missed J. Next year we're committing to mini breaks in European cities. They are the best.

Home to California

I went home for a few days to see the fam. It was such a nice rest and had so much fun playing with everyone - especially this little girl :)

Maggie's 20 Mile Night Hike

Last night my friends and I walked 20 miles around London to raise money for a cancer charity. Let's just say I'm a bit sore and tired this morning! But it was a great experience and will be a life long memory to cherish forever! And we raised lots of money for a great cause. If you are interested in helping us to raise even more, please click here.

Hall Stairs and Landing

For some reason these uploaded in reverse order. So the finished product is here:

















And the later photos is how it looked when we moved in.... all the bits in between represent all the hard work we've been doing over the past 5 months!

On to the dining room now....

N's trip to the UK

My brother N visited us on the way home from his field studies program in Ghana. We had such a great time visiting museums in London, travelling to Snowdonia in Wales to do some family history visiting, walking and eating lots of good food! We really miss you now N! Good luck in your last year at uni.

Edinburgh

The last week of July, J and I went to Edinburgh for a long weekend. We wanted to try out our new car, so we drove all the way there and back (about 7 hours). That doesn't sound like a long drive to me, but for J it was very long as those Brits aren't used to driving long distances like we Americans are!

The first day, we stopped at the Angel of the North on the drive up. We stayed at a lovely B&B in the Leith part of Edinburgh (about 20 minute walk from Princes St). We visited the Royal Botanic Gardens and saw a comedy act, which was a prep act for the Festival, which started this week.

Then on Friday, we saw the Royal Yacht Britannia, which was the Queen's boat that she used on all her holidays for nearly 50 years. That was beautiful and I really enjoyed seeing the Queen's taste in decor. Then we had lunch at The Kitchin, which is a Michelin starred restaurant and it was fab. I will never forget having minced pigs trotters - yum! J also really enjoyed his chocolate souffle for dessert. That afternoon we shopped, went on a ghost tour and then had a late supper at The Witchery Restaurant near the Castle.

On Saturday, we visited the Castle and then walked all around the town and shopped way too much. We saw Inception and then had a nice quiet dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant that evening.

All in all, we ate too much and spent too much but it was a great little break to get away. Even the weather cooperated :) Now we just have to get through 3 more days of work and then we're off for a week (or 2 weeks in J's case) for our visit with N. More pics to come!