This Weather Is Shirt!

John, Me, Em & Adam

During the week of Christmas, I was skyping with my friend Emily when she told me to open my email and look at a photo she sent me.  She explained it was a present but she couldn’t send it through the mail, so she had to send it over email.  As I opened up the photo I couldn’t believe the picture of Emily and her husband Adam standing in front of our house here in Truro.  As I looked closer I realized that it said, “Truro, here we come.”  Emily then said that her and Adam had made the decision to come visit us before our time in England was done (and yes, Adam had photoshopped the two of them into one of our pictures, very impressive).  I was beyond surprised, happy, and excited to have my best friend of forever (literally, as I remember her and I fighting over who got the pink carpet in kindergarten) and her husband come to visit.  Five weeks later, we were greeting them at the Truro train station!

Photoshopped picture on Richmond Hill

For real on Richmond Hill!

First day out in Truro

Emily and Adam had smooth travels over and were in Truro by this past Sunday night.  After a long day of travel, we decided to just spend the night at home hanging out and catching up on life.  We then took Monday to explore Truro, have some beers at a pub, and Em and I even got a Minx pedicure done! 

Coffee stop at Uneeka

Tuesday was spent visiting the cute town of St. Ives and having lunch overlooking the harbor.  We ended the day by meeting up with John at our favorite little coffee shop, Uneeka.  John and I have had so many moments at Uneeka talking to each other about how great it would be to share this cute place with our friends and family.  So it felt a little surreal to be having coffee and cream tea on a Tuesday with Em and Adam.  Definitely one of those life moments. 

Wednesday was then spent renting a car and heading to the coast.  Even though it was cold (cold for Cornwall standards), we lucked out with a bright and sunny day to walk along the beach and climb the rocks by the sea.  The day continued with checking out the shops in Newquay and making a stop at a local cyder brewery.  And during all of this, Adam even got a chance to drive.  I must say, I was very impressed with his driving skills as it was the first time he has driven on the other side of the road.  When the day was finishing up, we drove back to Truro to check out a couple more shops and then ended the night by having the most wonderful dinner at a restaurant here in town.  A successful day! 

As Em and Adam have an adorable ten-month old son back in the States (thanks a million for helping this trip happen Turner family!), they made their way back to London Thursday and flew home Friday.  As expected, the week just flew by as that tends to happen when you’re with amazing friends.  And to finish this entry off, here are a couple highlights of having them here.  Here goes:

- I was amazed by Emily and Adam’s lack of jetlag.  It was determined that having a baby at home actually helps a person better deal with lack of sleep and being on a weird sleeping schedule.  Or as Adam said best, having a baby is like 24/7 jetlag J 

- I can’t remember the last time I laughed as hard as I did having them here.  There were multiple moments of laughing so hard you were crying, which always helps the soul.

- Being able to see first-hand how much Emily and Adam love being parents to their son Turner.  They did such an amazing job being without him for the week, but I also know they missed him immensely and were looking forward to, and going to love, every second of being back home with him

- Honestly, being able to share this experience with my best friend was more than I could have ever asked for.  

Christmas, New Year's and Fowey!

Christmas at Truro Cathedral

After a busy and adventurous year, John and I decided to end the year in the opposite fashion.  We had a very low-key, but enjoyable Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Dar here in Truro.  Even though I had to work Christmas Eve, we still made a point of making the most of a quiet holiday.  We watched some Christmas movies, made a delicious Christmas dinner with all the fixings, slept in, skyped with family and even strolled around town to see the Christmas lights.  New Year’s was spent in much the same way with lots of good food and ending the night in the Truro Piazza to watch the midnight fireworks.  I would say a successful English holiday season!

Enjoying cream tea at Fowey Tea House

As January (in any part of the world) can be a bit dull, especially after the busy holidays, we decided to try and continue making the most of our time in Cornwall.  We decided that we wanted to visit a new coastal town and ended up spending last Saturday in an adorable little village by the sea called Fowey (pronounced “foy”).  We started our visit by eating lunch at a pub outside by the sea.  Then we spent some time just exploring the city by checking out the shops, visiting the old church in town and even stopping at a tearoom (which happens to be one of my favorite things in the world to do)! 

Truro City of Lights Parade

Once we finished the day and headed to the train, we had a good ol’ travel mishap that tends to come with visiting someplace new.  We got to the train station just before the timetable stated a train was coming.  As we soon found out, the timetable had mistakenly printed this train time and the next train to Truro wasn’t coming for a little over two hours!  John and I (ok, mostly me) grumbled for a good five minutes until we decided to just head to a pub across the road to have a drink.  And after my initial complaining, it ended up being a really great two hours spent with John having a drink at a pub in front of a fireplace.  Moments like that remind me of why I love to travel and how many times the best moments are completely unplanned.

Christmas in Truro

Ringing in 2012!

Merry Christmas from England

Home with the Henrys

The whole group, together again

Even though if feels like a long time ago now, I am finally getting around to writing about our time at home with my family.  Like Katie, home has always carried a number of meanings (and locations) for me.  After being away for as long as we were, it was great to have such an unusually long length of time to spend with family.  As much as we have changed in the first year living abroad, it didn’t take long for us to feel like we never left Wisconsin.

As most Henry family gathering begin, we started our weekend meeting at Piggy’s in La Crosse on Friday afternoon for lunch.  It’s become sort of a tradition over the years and the only thing that seems to change is how many chairs, highchairs and booster seats we need.  It had been well over a year since I had seen my brother and sister, both who have had a new baby in the year that we were away.  As a result, we spent the majority of our time catching up, meeting new babies and enjoying the entertainment that comes with having 5 kids under the age of 3 under one roof for the weekend.  We spent the entire weekend doing what we love doing the most—going for walks, eating amazing food, and watching the Badgers and Packers both win. 

Henry's Baptism

Katie and I were both honored to be our new nephew Henry’s Godparents, so we were thrilled that it worked out to have his Baptism on the Sunday that we were all together in West Salem.  To top things off, my Grandma Henry even made the trip and it was so great to see her any my uncle Rick and spend time catching up with both of them. 

Our last week in the States was spent making the rounds to see more family and friends.  We had a great few days in Madison spending time with Kevin and KJ and meeting the lovely Sophia as well as seeing Kelly Mohr (& Lucas) and spending some time with Emily and Adam and meeting little Turner.  It was brilliant seeing so many great people in such a short amount of time, but we could have easily spent a week catching up with each person.

Our last day in the States was spent in Minneapolis, the city that we called home for 5 years before moving over here.   Katie was able to spend the day catching up with a good friend and colleague and I was able to spend the day with my third set of Grandparents (Marlene & Terry) as well as meet up with a group of my friends from work.  Again, we could have spent weeks catching up with all of them. 

One of many amazing meals around that table

As we prepared to come back to the UK, we were sad to say goodbye to family, friends and some of the American comforts that we have grown up with.  Some of this was made easier by the suitcase filled with American food that was loaded onto the plane with us.  It was bittersweet saying goodbye this time, but somehow it felt different.  It was amazing spending as much time as we did together, but knowing that we would all see each other again in the spring made it much easier.

I know that I have said this before, but this trip was a reminder of how precious time is.  The weeks leading up to our trip back home felt like they dragged on forever, but once it finally arrived we wished we could have slowed down each moment to take it all in.   Yet, even as I sit here writing this now, we remind ourselves, almost every day, that this experience for us will soon come to an end and all we can do is wake up each morning and be thankful for what we are doing right now, while remembering how lucky we are to have such an amazing life waiting for us back home. 

Go Badgers !!!

I Feel Home.....

Dinner with the fam at Dad and Rhonda's

I have been fortunate enough to live a life where home has always been a safe and welcoming word.  It is something I’ve known over the years, but never put a lot of thought into.  And through this year of being in another country and away from home, I have found an invaluable (and unexpected) opportunity to have time to gain further perspective on what home means to me.  Through my trip back to the States, I have realized that home is not necessarily a physical structure of a specific house or even a specific town.  But it is a feeling.  It is comfort in people you know and love, familiarity of places and doing.  It is the general day-to-day, being 100% yourself, connection to others and most of all, love.  So I was humbled and beyond excited to be able to have an entire week devoted to these things.  So in that week of being back with my family in Wisconsin, here are some highlights of what makes home truly home to me:

Making bread at Grandpa's with Aunt Jane

-  First and foremost, seeing my family

- Spending a day at Grandpa’s Skroch’s house cleaning hats, eating comfort food and getting a 93 year old man set up on skype

- The cabin, a physical structure that represents home. Waking up to the most beautiful colors over Sand Lake in the early morning.  Standing on the dock looking out over the lake.  Heaven.

- Making Grandma (and Mom’s) homemade bread with Aunt Jane

- Spending a day enjoying every second of being an aunt and uncle to Adrian and Amaia – that includes lunch at McDonald’s, lots of sword fighting and doing underdogs on the playset

Uncle John with Adrian and Amaia

- Being able to meet, play with, and put to bed Sophia while in Madison

- Spending a day at home while it’s snowing outside with my bestie Emily and her baby Turner

- Spending Halloween with The Mohr’s eating the most amazing chicken dumpling soup

- Dinner with the family at Dad and Rhonda’s house – always more than enough food

- A couple hours of hot chocolate and catch-up time with my fellow K. Mohr 

- Breakfast pizza at Main Street Café, lots of cheescurds and Bloomer Bakery

- Going to the Bloomer Rec Center to take a Zumba class Mary rocked at teaching

- Staying up way too late, hanging out and chatting (done multiple times throughout the trip with multiple people!)

Ahhhhh......the cabin!

After spending more than a year away from what I know as home, I was lucky enough to get the chance to go back and visit.  And to be honest, it was the best week home I’ve ever had.  

Aunt Katie putting Sophia to bed

Spending the day with Em and Turner

Can't do a home blog without cheesecurds :-)

UK Unions on Strike

Earlier in the year, Katie and I watched closely as the unions in Wisconsin fought to maintain a number of their rights.  We watched as the public sector union employees protested at the capital and the state of Wisconsin spent weeks in the national spotlight.  

Striking union workers in Truro

Well today in the UK, as millions of public sector employees (all who belong to unions) are on strike, the news headlines are eerily familiar.  The only difference here is that a large amount of NHS (National Health Service) employees are also on strike, which made today a very interesting day at the hospital.  The doctors and nurses were not allowed to strike, but almost every other employee (including Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists and some Speech Therapists) spent the day picketing throughout the hospital grounds.  Since the hospitals here are all public property, this is very different than when the nurses went on strike in Minnesota a few years ago.  Since the American hospitals are mostly private, those on strike were limited to the "public" sidewalks that surrounded the hospital.  In the UK however, the workers are allowed to physically walk up and down the hospital corridors of with picket signs.  (NOTE: Those who did this remained VERY quite so they did not disrupt the patients.)

To further complicate things, all teachers in the country and almost all airline workers were also on strike.  With an estimated 12-hour wait time for anyone going through customs at the major airports, let's just say we are thankful that we're not traveling today.  

So, what is the strike all about?  This particular strike is essentially about one thing.  The government has proposed to reform the public sector pension plans.  The government is requesting that public employees contribute more out of each paycheck into their pensions, the value of which continues to decrease each year.  To quote my friend Tim, a particular militant physiotherapist I work with, "Today is about all of us being sick of paying more, to get less."  

Similar to the protests and picketing that took place in Wisconsin earlier this year, this strike will be made up of mostly peaceful professionals exercising their right to assemble for something they believe in.  The only difference is that over here, there will likely be more breaks for tea.

First Stop.....Las Vegas!

First day seeing the fam

After a couple of crazy weeks leading up to our trip to the States, we were finally off!  We left London on the morning of Tuesday, October 25th and proceeded to have the longest travel day of our lives!  Our flight from London to New York went by quickly and smoothly as there were some great movies for us to watch and the food was delicious.  Yes, I am a little weird as I actually enjoy in-flight meals :-) 

Once we touched down in New York, we had our first taste of being back in the States.  Some things we immediately noticed:

- The American accent was everywhere and really stuck out to us

- People were so incredibly friendly and helpful in the airport

- Walking into the news store and seeing all the familiar snacks, newspapers, magazines, etc.  Noticing and missing things you didn’t think twice about while living in the States

Having a good time at Old Downtown

John and I couldn’t help but walk around the airport and take note of all the little things that we hadn’t seen in over a year.  And as our layover (and enjoyment of seeing American things) finished up in New York, we started the next leg of our journey to Las Vegas in celebration of Mary’s 21^st birthday.  We couldn’t help but smile as we looked out the window and saw the defining bright lights of Vegas.  After a long day, we finally made it.  Since we were absolutely exhausted, we went directly to our hotel a block off the strip and proceeded to fall asleep and get a great night of much-needed rest.

As we were meeting my siblings Thursday morning, Wednesday was spent trying to get on American time and get some loose ends wrapped up.  As we didn’t have a car, we decided to walk to the nearest Target and pick up a couple of things before the real Vegas experience began.  As we walked up to the Target doors, we couldn’t help but be excited.  As corny as this sounds, Target is the store I hands down miss the most being in England.  So getting to go to Target the first day back in the States was actually a pretty fun experience! 

Once Wednesday night rolled around, we kept things low-key by heading to a movie theatre and seeing the movie Moneyball.  To be honest, a huge reason we went to a movie was for the pop and popcorn.  Every time we go to a movie in England, we talk about how the popcorn just doesn’t compare to the amazing stuff in the States.  So we definitely enjoyed a night of pop, popcorn and a really great movie.

Getting ready for our first night out

Once Thursday rolled around, John and I were beyond excited to finally meet up with my family!  We ended up all seeing each other for the first time in the lobby of our hotel and it was such a surreal moment.  To be seeing all my siblings in person and in Vegas was just unbelievable!  I couldn’t have been happier. 

All dressed up for "O"

As you can probably guess, we all (Adam, Kevin, Mary, her boyfriend Bryan, myself and John) spent the majority of the day just hanging out and catching up.  Even though it had been over a year in seeing everyone, things immediately felt normal and like we were never really gone.  There was such comfort in seeing my family and really having time to be together.  The only downside was that Adam and Kevin’s wives weren’t able to join in the fun.  Maybe next time!

Superheroes!

We all spent the next three days together in Vegas having a blast and just taking it all in.  We saw the fascinating Cirque du Soleil show “O”, visited the Old Downtown, did some gambling, spent an afternoon by the pool, walked the Strip, dressed up for Halloween, enjoyed the Wynn buffet, did some dancing and so much more.  It really was a perfect weekend spent with some amazing people.  Let’s just say that it was bittersweet leaving Sunday morning.  I was sad such a fun weekend with my siblings was over but beyond excited to get to Wisconsin to see more friends and family.

Visiting America...

Well, we’ve officially been back in England for one week now and it’s like we’ve never been gone.  Our time back in the States was everything we hoped that it would be.   It’s not very often that you get to dedicate three full weeks to spending time with family.   So one has to wonder how three weeks can go by so quickly and still leave you feeling like it wasn’t enough. 

Although we knew our time in the States would be busy and packed with visits with family and friends, we were able to truly enjoy each moment because we knew that waiting for us back here in Truro, would be days like today.  As I write this, I’m sitting in our favorite Truro coffee shop on a Saturday morning, watching people fill the streets and shops (now decorated for Christmas) as I wait for Katie to join me on her lunch break from work.   It’s a great life that we’ve built here and no matter where we live Truro will always be on the list of the many great places we’ve gotten to call home. 

It feels a bit odd updating our blog with things we did back in America, but after being away for so long, reuniting with family and friends, meeting new babies and looking at places that were once so familiar with a new and different perspective, is as much a part of this experience as every other trip we’ve taken.

Like many other trips we’ve taken, it would take days to cover all the details, but instead, we will try to provide the highlights that made our time back home so amazing.  I’ll let Katie write about Halloween in Las Vegas and our first days back in Wisconsin and I will write about our time with the growing Henry family and our return the UK.  More to come soon…

U.S.A. Babies

As our time in the States is winding down, we can't help but look back on a common theme of the trip.....babies!  Here's a quick look at all of the babies we met that had been born in the year we were gone.  

Henry Borens

Sophia Mohr

Caedmon Henry

Turner Bradley

Ryley Sue

One Year...a look back.