R.O.C.K in the U.S.A

Wow! Wow! Wow! Jeff and I were so blessed to be able to travel back to Indianapolis to visit with lots of family and friends.  Originally we had not planned to make a home trip as we wanted to take advantage of all of our limited time in the UK.  Although, we missed everyone so much, we decided to come home before heading to a wedding in Cincinnati. Now, I try my best in all my posts to give a general "play by play" but it might be hard to summarize every single part of our experience home.

We planned a lot of different dinners, lunches, and coffees with friends and family, but our first stop after getting off the plane was...Taco Bell. Ah, I am pretty sure I demolished not 1, but 3 tacos in less than 5 minutes and they were ahhhh-mazing! We headed to the dry cleaner and randomly stopped by Jeff's grandparents for our first of many family visits. It was such a great feeling to be around people we love so much and miss daily.

My choice: double decker & 3 crunchy tacos. Jeff's choice: 1 spicy chicken burrito and some tortilla chips. Who was craving Taco Bell more? I will never be embarrassed about my ability to demolish Mexican food. 

We took advantage of all the time we had. I was able to get some shopping in with my mom and sister.  It was so nice to be able to shop with my crew again!  The next few days we were able to have a few special dinners with both of our families. We had wonderful home cooked meals.  Our family spoiled us with our favorite foods throughout our time there. We are so lucky to have such special families!

Jeff's mom & sister

My brother-in-law, sister, & nephews

My parents

Jeff's grandparents.  

Sorry Greg, looks like we dropped the ball after the soccer game and lunch....and forgot to take a photo or two! 

It was so much fun to see my nephews in person. We Skype a lot, but it just isn't the same.  My nephews also enjoyed their little London buses and taxis I brought them back, but of course my sister and I got more out of the cute little outfits I bought them.

 Little squirmy things would not sit still. Their shirts say "Keep Calm and Play Footie". 

The shirts came with matching shorts. Too cute. 

But being outside playing water guns, cooking out, and just spending quality time with loved ones was such a special feeling for the both of us.  Jeff was even able to get a round of golf in, and later in the day we were able to see my grandparents.

We were shooting at the "alligators" at this point in our water gun fight. 

Mexican dinner at our favorite hometown place with my grandparents and parents! Yum!

Seeing friends, even if it was just for a short while was wonderful.  I was able to get coffee with a few wonderful friends, dinners, and even spent a whole day just hanging out and catching up.  It is so nice to know that things just go back the way they were before we left. What amazing friends Jeff and I have!

Jeff and I's friends from his hometown

Great friends from work. Glad we squeezed in some sun-time!

So, because I was trying to soak up as much time during all of our friend-dates we had...I was awful at remembering to take pictures. Sorry, my dear friends, for your lack of debuts because of my spacey brain!

We have been following the World Cup to some extent over here.  We were in Indianapolis at the right time, because we were able to watch Team U.S.A. Our favorite street, not far from our house, was shut down and massive TVs were placed there to watch the game. We met up with a friend and watched the game in the middle of the street. It was fantastic to be surrounded by Americans cheering on our home-team! We obviously stick out over here while we watch US sports. Although, Team U.S.A lost, we still felt the huge amount of patriotism when the crowd would chant: I believe that we will win!

I was loving the ability to call it soccer, and not worrying about someone correcting me with "football". 

So packed! I love it!

The last few days before heading to Cincinnati were difficult knowing we would not see many of these people for another year.  Time definitely flies by over here, so we know we will be home before we know it.  We were able to spend time with more friends when we went to Cincinnati for our friends' wedding. Lots of eating, drinking, and sharing stories between the group.  It was also great to be in the United States for the Fourth of July. For our friends' rehearsal dinner, we went out on a riverboat on the Ohio River to watch the fireworks. Saturday was another great day and we enjoyed the wedding festivities so much.

  On the riverboat.

 Great group of friends. 

 Hooray for being in the US for the 4th of July

 Beautiful venue for the wedding and reception in Cincinnati 

 Groomsmen at the wedding. 

Sunday came too quickly.  Jeff and I were dreading the long plane ride and traveling, but surprisingly we had one of the best flights of our life.  We sat by ourselves in a row of 3, had personal TVs, and decent food.  Although we were tired, we loved getting back to see Mackey (who kept waking us up on our first night home because he was purring so loudly) and get back into our routine.  Let's hope this jet lag doesn't last too long.

I think he is glad to have us home. 

A special thanks to all the people who gave up their normal schedule to hang out with us.  We truly enjoyed every minute of our time back in the states.  We wish we were able to come home more often. I'm sure it'll be a blink of an eye and we'll be back bugging you all soon enough! We love each and every one of you!

Townies

We stayed in Nottingham this weekend.  As you can tell from previous posts, we have been traveling a decent amount.  We decided to stay in town to do the things "townies" would do and just relax!

Friday night we went to a "deportation" party for a few friends that are heading back to the states after being here for 2 years with Rolls-Royce.  We will miss them, but are very excited for them to head back to family and friends.

Saturday morning, we woke up and headed to get some good ol' fashion American breakfast.  There has been a place called the Warsaw Diner that advertises for a traditional American breakfast, so it has been on our bucket list for a while.  The place was packed with people, so we were lucky to get a spot on the stools near the griddle. Jeff and I both got "The Big Easy", which was french toast, eggs, and sausage. It was a pretty large "American" sized portion so we left in a food coma and decided to take a walk.

We visited this large cemetery we've been meaning to make a special trip to see. It was a very large cemetery, but ill-kept.  It appeared that they were still mowing the grounds, but not taking the time to weed around the stones, which was sad. Afterwards we stopped in a few shops to look around.  We found a beautiful furniture store.  It only used wood from old or run-down buildings in Nottingham. There were some amazing tables, mirrors, and all sorts of decor. I'd love to buy something from there before our time is up...although a table is probably not a likely choice.

Later that afternoon, we headed to the town square where there was a festival.  It is amazing how many times we can walk down to the square and see tents set up.  We are never sure of the celebration, but often times you can figure it out. We "think" this one was in support of England playing Italy in the World Cup on Saturday night.  At least that is our thoughts with a "Come on England" sign on one of the buildings. Who knows?  We both grabbed a burrito from one of the tents, and headed home.  The burrito just made me crave some authentic Mexican food from home. Watch out Los Amigos! (Local Mexican restaurant at home) There is a chance that might be the only thing I eat when I come home next.

England played Italy in the World Cup at 11:00 or as my clocks say 23:00, so we headed down the road to a local pub to watch the game.  It was pretty intense, and I honestly didn't care who won (sorry English friends).  Jeff was great and did a great job rooting on England. I told Jeff when we left that I should have been cheering for Italy since I actually own a football sweatshirt. Ha!  It was a fun environment, and would have been very comparable to a night out downtown watching the Colts Vs. the Broncos.  The fans were excited, and a little too excited as the first attempted goal made everyone in the bar cheered.  They were all quite embarrassed afterwards considering the goal didn't go in!  It was pretty funny to see their reactions after thinking the goal was made and realizing it was just "close". We watched England lose, and headed home around 1:00.

Not the best picture, it was too dark to get a good one. 

It was a nice, relaxing weekend.  Soon enough another round of craziness will happen! Until then...