Bye bye Pete

(Not MY Pete!) We said goodbye on Sunday to a guy from Pete's youth club at church - named Pete - who is going to Korea and Japan for 6 months. He's got no plans, just going! Crazy kid.

(My) Pete and I found an ice cream place on Saturday that was awesome, which is kind of a rarity around here, so we went back on Sunday with some of the rest of them for a final hurrah for (the other) Pete.














Ice cream numbs of the pain of goodbye ...

Valentines

I have these incredibly generous and wonderful friends who were in London for Valentines weekend. They invited Pete and me to high tea at The Langham Hotel - very posh! Quite possibly the poshest experience Pete and I have ever had. (For example, when Pete asked me where the restaurant was, I used the nearby McDonalds as a landmark.)


John and
Sandra and
Seana





















It was a lovely time!

Shapes I miss

From my trip home ...

The best of Connecticut

My cute dad demonstrating how yummy the jam was that Pete had sent for them.


My mom and Peyton, my cousin Courtney's 3-month old.


My Valentines donut from Dunkin Donuts.


The flowers my mom had waiting in the bedroom when I got home.

4th Street Deli, Philadelphia

While I was in Philly, we went to the 4th Street Deli. It's an experience. I never had a sandwich this size before (I also never had one that cost $17.) Everything is, well obviously, enormous.
















Insane place. (We loved it.)

My nephew!

I went to Philly to meet my new nephew! Jonah is the cutest boy in the whole world !!





Auntie Lauren and Jonah





Me and Jonah in our pjs


And a quick video of the cutie in action. I spent 4 days pretty much bothering him, pinching his cheeks, and laughing at him.

This amused me

Outside the Tower of London.

(And I almost got run over trying to take a picture of it.)

The Tower of London: it's not made of plastic

I didn't take this picture.
Pete loves the Tower of London, and I'd never been. So one of his birthday presents (admittedly more exciting than the ironing board) was tickets for us to go.

I'm still getting used to the idea of all this really old stuff, and that it's real. I feel like I'm in some Olde Englande theme park instead.

But sure enough, this bell tower for instance is from 1190.

It's a very cool place. We had a 60 minute tour, which is given by one of the "Yeoman Warders" (aka Beefeaters), and then went to see the Crown Jewels, the interactive exhibits, and walked along the castle walls.










The famous and beautiful Tower Bridge behind us, which people often assume is London Bridge. London Bridge is nothing to look at.

They keep ravens at the Tower, because of some old superstition. Pete has a thing for them and crows (I have no idea) so I bought him this stuffed animal raven in the gift shop. If you look past the weirdo and his stuffed raven, in the background you might be able to see the real thing.

London is cheap

People seem to think London is expensive, but there's absolutely nothing you can buy in America that costs the equivalent of 9 pence.

These shortbread biscuits are really good, by the way.

New Year's social

Last weekend our church had a new year's social event and Pete and I helped out a little. It was a really fun night, with lots of games and crafts and quizzes and food.




We had a quiz where people had to guess who the babies were, and the organizers asked Pete and I to be in it, only he told me we had to bring kids pictures, not babies. You can probably tell in one second who each of us is. (So could everyone else, but hey, we're cute).












They asked "international people" to bring a dessert from home. My dear boyfriend thought of s'mores, which I had to improvise on, in light of no campfire and nobody in the UK having ever heard of graham crackers. But with the help of digestive biscuits and a microwave, it went ok!