i promise i haven’t fallen off the face of the planet…yet:) evan, nanny, and i went to england over spring break to visit the family and i had every intention of updating the blog while i was there but it just didn’t happen :) so now you get a HUGE post with TONS of pictures!!!
we left thursday night {the 11th} on the 830pm flight. this was the perfect flight for e as it was his bedtime. my hope was that he would get on the plane, take his bottle, and sleep most of the flight. wishful thinking huh?? except that he did!!!! we changed him into his pajamas while we were waiting in the terminal, boarded the plane, started to give him his bottle, and he fell asleep. mum and i took turns holding him while he slept {i knew he’d do better if we were holding him rather than putting him in the “crib” that was provided}. neither one of us thought we were sleeping very well until the pilot came on to announce that we would be landing in 45 minutes. it had to the best england flight i have ever been on – baby or not!!! e woke up around then so i decided to change him into his clothes. when we started to take off his pajamas, we soon realized that my darling child had completely blown out his pajamas {footed thank goodness!!} from foot to neck –wow!!!! i don’t know if you’ve ever seen the changing table in an airplane bathroom but e doesn’t really fit on the best of days so trying to clean this up in there was basically impossible! we wrapped him in an airplane blanket and kindly asked one of our flight attendants if we could use the galley area to change him. he said it was ok so we laid him on the floor and went to work. tons of wipes and an airplane blanket later, we had a “clean” baby :) one of the other flight attendants told us that if we wanted a blanket, she would’ve just given us one – funny funny!!
for the descent, we made e a bottle since it was his breakfast time anyway. he also had to sit buckled to me on my lap. we were doing well until i felt a little rumble on my lap followed by warmth. mum got yet another blanket and put it under his bottom until we could deal with it once we landed {the fasten seat belt sign was on after all}. my kid wasn’t worried about any of this. he just kept eating! once we were on the ground, e’s amazing nanny put e on the ground in front of our seats {we were sitting at the bulkhead meaning we had extra leg room} and cleaned him up. the only problem was that the only outfit we had left was the shorts and tshirt e went to the airport in. so yes, my kid arrived in cold england in shorts and a tshirt! you can submit your mom-of-the-year nominations now :) don’t worry, we wrapped him in blankets! i don’t think uncle bob was quite expecting what he found in those two bags of clothes…
so a great flight but it became quite an adventure in those last 45 minutes!!
e waiting at the airport.
uncle bob picked us up at the airport and took us back to their house before driving to grandpa’s. i don’t think any of us realized how excited grandpa was to meet the little man! as soon as we walked in the door, grandpa sat up straight and was ready for me to put e on his lap. they were so cute together just sitting there staring.
e & his great grandpa. 
nanny & bobby watching e & grandpa. 
anna. 
saturday, we met up with the irvine clan at a pub for auntie joan’s birthday and then were fairly low key the rest of the day.
while we were in england, e became mister independent! i brought these net things with me. you fill them with fruit {and i made his cold fruit cause of his teething} and then they can chew on it so it’s healthy and feels good on their gums. he also mastered the art of holding his own sippy cup and bottle and can pretty much feed himself solid food. here’s mister “i can do it myself” in action :)
while we were there, it was also mother’s day {before you freak out thinking you’ve missed mother’s day, it is on a different day in england so you’re safe}. what that means for me is that i get 2 mother’s days this year!!! sweet evan {or uncle bob – whatever:)} arranged flowers for me!! they were gorgeous! he also {or nanny & anna} arranged a card for his mummy! my kid has been busy!
we went out to a pub meal for mother’s day so e got dressed up and off we went. we met up with bryant, joan, and tim in godstone. at a table near us, they put some balloons for a little boy. evan just stared until finally his nanny asked the waiter if he could have one as well. he was in heaven!!!
after lunch, we went on a walk around the green in godstone. this is where nanny & grandpa used to live and we used to always walk to the green and look at the ducks in the pond so we decided evan needed to as well.
anna & evan the cuddly bear. 
grandpa sleeping in the car. 
godstone pond. 
the pub where we ate lunch. 
anna & mum. 
evan & bobby. 
nanny & grandpa’s old house. 
we spent the week visiting grandpa, going to lunch, and just doing the visiting family thing:) on tuesday, grandpa wanted to show us where he’d gone on holiday. there are little resorts that former servicemen can go to. this particular one is on the coast in rustington so i drove us down there on tuesday so he could show it to us! on the way down, we stopped at a little cafe along a river to eat and it was so quaint and beautiful!
the place in rustington that grandpa stayed was really nice and i can see why he loved going there! while he took a nap in the car, we took e for a walk along the seawall in littlehampton. i used to go here as a kiddo and so did mum so that was kind of fun to see again! e was a little moody because he was tired but it was still a great day to be down there!
the next day, grandpa showed off his new scooter on a grocery shopping trip to sainsburys. all i have to say is you better stay out of his way!! crazy driver on the road :)
after our trip to the store, we headed to aunty joan rushby’s house where evan had his first taste of her amazing jam sponge cake. let’s just say he was a big fan!
“hmmm…how do i get to the cake???” 
he was also a fan of the puppy puppet she bought him! 
“just try to stop me!”
we also attempted to get a 4 generation picture. let’s just say evan wasn’t all about looking at the camera when there is no one behind it :)
this is the best we got.
throughout the week, we met up with family, a coworker of mum’s and his friends, and did some random shopping.
here are some random pics of e.
little did we know when we left that getting home would be the adventure. the flight attendants for british airways went on strike the weekend we were supposed to fly home. luckily, we got on a flight for tuesday but the night before the flight, it still wasn’t confirmed. i’m all about taking adventures as they come but when you have a 9 month old along for the ride, it makes things a little more complicated! luckily our flight took off as planned and e was great on the plane. he didn’t sleep the entire flight but he also didn’t blow out any outfits :) we were definitely glad to see daddy, vanpa, and the puppies when we got home and i think they were all pretty happy to see us as well!!
evan’s 1st international trip – check!
