UK invasion (guest blog from wifey)

Hello to all of Painty's readers out there. I haven't done a guest blog in ages and I thought what better topic to talk about than the recent visit from our girls. Painty has been busy writing presentations for a job interview, and as it turns out it was time well spent. She was offered the job 10 minutes after she interviewed. Congratulations.

So - we had an absolutely wonderful 9 days with our girls over Easter. It all started in a bit of a rush actually. We got home from work early and I checked the airline website to learn they were expected about 40 mins earlier than scheduled. We got Ruby ready and jumped into the car and headed up to the cities. It was a direct flight from London so they had to clear immigration and customs in Minneapolis. We arrived at the International Arrival Gate in, what we thought was plenty of time, only to be very surprised to see our girls beautiful faces about 1.5 mins later. I am so pleased we were there, just barely in time. The drive home was one of the more adventurous drives I have ever had.

As an aside - things always happen in a car when the 4 of us are together. Last year in May when they were here I got stopped for speeding and somehow was let off with a warning. We also got a flat tire (and soon after discovered I didn't have a jack in my car) when we were taking them up to the airport to leave. In England in September there was a little incident where someone (won't mention any names here) reversed into another car in a car park, and also Ruby threw up everywhere in the car while we were on the M40 (I think) heading to Brighton. Weird.

Anyway, I was driving and chatting to Clare and just excited they were here and all of a sudden I see the exit for Rochester on the right and I am in the very left hand lane. I think some swear words came out of my mouth. It was 5:30pm and lots of cars around so I managed to get over but missed the exit. After some humming and ha'ing and with no encouragement from anyone else, I did some off roading and crossed 2 medians and 4 lanes of traffic to get onto my exit. Very naughty and only 1 car honked their horn at me. Sorry girls - completely my fault.

The weather was perfect from the minute they arrived until our drive home from the airport after a very tearful and sad goodbye. I think it started raining about 10 mins after we got in the car and it seemed perfect as it suited our moods completely.



We had quite a few trips to the playground on the other side of the lake. Ruby loved the swing and her little shrieks of 'Eeeeeeeeeeeeee' could be heard by all. She also loved the slide and tried her hardest to walk up but couldn’t quite manage it herself.
We had a lovely meal out at the Marshall's and I indulged in quite a bit of beer and wine that night. Not sure is anyone else did or not. It seemed to set the tone for the rest of the week for me. We had a wonderful Easter and even managed to drag Ruby's god mum's to the church where she was baptised. They were good sports about sitting through Easter Sunday service and there was an Easter Egg hunt afterwards in which Ruby managed to find some eggs, which a bit of help from us all. Clare cooked up a wonderful Easter Sunday lunch and we walked it off with a wagon ride for Ruby and a run in the field for the dogs. Not sure how Clare always managed to be the one dragging Ruby around in the wagon, but she didn't complain at all.

Poor Buc managed to pick up a tummy bug and was in bed for a few days not feeling too happy. She managed a trip out to the zoo, a trip to the mall for some shopping and even a visit to Fleet Farm. Apparently if there was a coffee shop at Fleet Farm, next time she is here we can drop her off in the morning and go back at 5pm to pick her up. I big store and lots to look at.

Clare did not have any such troubles with upset tummies - even when she was changing any of the many poopy diapers she got stuck doing. Ruby loved her morning time, bath time, monkey time and dancing time with Aunty Clare. I have a sneaking suspicion that someone else may have enjoyed those times too.

It was a wonderful 9 days and I just wanted to say thanks to our girls for coming over and spending some time with us. Thanks for being there through the whole 'Tully' incident and thanks for being amazing god mummies to Ruby. We all miss you terribly and can't wait for Christmas.

Here's to too many bottles of red wine being drunk (although I think it was 1 less than it should have been). Hahahaha.