Sylvia, Reese & Co.

Today Luke took us to Tintern Abbey in Wales.

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Tintern Abbey was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1131. After falling to King Henry VIII’s dissolution in 1536, the abbey was destroyed leaving only the stone shell behind.

Sylvia had a great time running and climbing stairs (her new trick).

Tomorrow we are off to Dover where we take a ferry to France. This will probably be the last post for a while, possibly until we are back in the states. We can’t wait to share all of our travelers’ tales in a week.

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Here are a few of our initial photos:

Darcie, Sylvia, and a Yeoman Warder at the Tower of London.

Luke giving Chris and Sylvia a tour of Bristol.

Sylvia at the end of the tour of Bristol.

Don’t worry. There is much more to come. We’ve taken about 80 photos so far.

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We are happy to report we have safely arrived in England. After being delayed two hours, the flight over was a bit of a test. There was very little sleep – for us and the neighboring passengers – but once on the ground things went smoother. Luke picked us up and took us to the flat where we stayed until Tuesday. The location was terrific, in Kensington just west of Hyde Park.

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From the flat we toured Hyde Park. The highlights of Hyde Park included Kensington Palace, feeding the ducks, and playing on the swings with Luke, Cindy, and Alison.

On Monday, we toured Westminster Abbey, Parliament, The Tate Modern Museum of Art, & St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Today, we visited the Tower of London where we learned about the rich history of England, imprisonment, heretics, and betrayal. Sylvia enjoyed chasing the pigeons and climbing the stairs. Darcie loved the tour, and Chris was happy to be in sunshine in only a sweater! We travelled on from London to Bristol. We are now in Luke and Cindy’s flat and are awaiting a tour of Bristol tomorrow.

Sylvia has been a trouper and seems to have adjusted to the time change better than her parents. She loves the tangerines, digestive bisquits, and bananas of England. She also loves that mom and dad have relaxed on nap time and are letting her stay up until 8:30 pm.

We will do our best to supply updates, but once we hit the continent, we are not sure how much internet access we will have. But fear not. We will certainly have plenty of photos to show in a week and a half.

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The bags are packed. We’ve fretted over every last detail. Now we’re just waiting for 12:30 to roll around so we can head off to the airport and begin our two week trip abroad. At 4:30 US Central time, we take off for London where we will be spending time with Luke and Cindy.

The itinerary seems a little daunting – 4 countries in 2 weeks by plane, car, and boat with a 17-month-old. First we’ll be staying in the London area for a few days to acclimate before heading on to Bristol, where Luke and Cindy live. For the second week, we travel by Ferry to Dunkerque and Lille, France. From there we drive up to Brugge, Belgium and then on to Amsterdam.

Other than the two nights in Brugge we will be staying with friends, friends and family of friends, or rented apartments, so hopefully Sylvia will be able to settle in and feel at home along the way. We will be making posts to the blog as often as we can, though we can’t always promise pictures.

First things first, though – adventure number one is the eight hour plane ride!

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Tonight we were treated to a beautiful lunar eclipse lasting from about 9-9:30., the last one until 2010.

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Zella Rose came over to play while Manda was speaking on a panel about home birth. This weekend, Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein, came to Chicago for the showing of their film “The Business of Being Born.” Their film explores how birthing in America has become a business and has taken the labor out of the hands of the people doing the birthing, the mothers. It’s out on DVD now; I recommend it.

Sylvia and Zella Rose got to play together. They had fun exchanging sippy cups, watching me blow bubbles, throwing the ball, walking the halls, and playing in the snow. Here are some photos.

Sylvia insists on trading sippy cups.

Sylvia gives Zella her cup back.

Zella gives Sylvia’s cup a try.

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Sylvia and I have found another winter play space, thank goodness. We are frequenting the Evanston Library and the Ridgeville Community Center weekly, but now we’ve also discovered the Skokie Exploratorium which has Sylvia’s favorite, a water play station. It also has puppets, indoor slides, an art center, story time, and lots of cars to drive. We met up with Lily and Victoria to play last Friday. Sylvia didn’t want to leave when it was time to go.

Lily and Sylvia play in the kid fountain with their rain gear.

Sylvia mesmerized by the water…thinking of ways to get something like this in our home.

Sylvia and Lily sitting on the toddler sized sofa before story time (they didn’t actually sit long enough for story time or this photo).

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Today Sylvia received a Valentines gift from Dede and Papa – a pink apron and cards with recipes. She immediately put them to good use by cooking up something that involved a knit cap, a plastic bag, and a little piece of cracker (dagu, as Sylvia says).

Chewing up the cracker.

Making sure the cellophane bag is fresh.

Hope everyone had as much fun on Valentines Day!

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This weekend Sylvia helped out on a film shoot that Chris was working on. Friday night the whole (small) crew traveled south to Morris, IL to a lake house where we filmed all night until 5am Saturday morning… outside. Sylvia was allowed to stay indoors and catch a few z’s.

The next day was another full day of shooting outside.

Sylvia tries not to slip

On Sunday it was out to Palatine for more shooting – this time indoors. We were lucky to have had the mild temperatures on Friday night, because Saturday night and Sunday the temperature plummeted. It was a brisk -5 degrees on our way to the shoot Sunday morning.

Sylvia helps prep the camera.

Sylvia prepares to take measurements for focus

At the end of the day Sylvia decided she liked being in front of the camera more than being behind it.

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Sylvia and I (self-confined due to the snow) baked Valentine’s cookies today. She poured flour and sugar. And did the decorating. I manned the oven. The best part was that not only did Sylvia get to wear her favorite outfit (her thermal underwear) for the event, but she also got to eat a lot of the dough.

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