Water World. Take 3 & 4

While Luke's family was out we decided to go to Water World. Luke and I had been there twice before, but it is always so much fun that we wanted to go again. We had a blast with Luke's family and I even got to go on some of the fun rides! But then a huge storm blew in around 4 in the afternoon and Water World had to close. They gave us tickets to come back another day...so we did. Two trips to Water World in the same week! Jack couldn't have been happier!

On Jack's favorite dinosaur ride

Lily was nervous to go on her first
fast tube ride

Playing at the lazy river

Tired?

Having fun with my underwater camera

The fun never stops!

Since we are in the USA for longer than anticipated, Luke's family drove out from California to spend some more time with us. They were here for just under two weeks and we had a blast. Just about every day we were able to get out and do something fun. 

One day we drove up to Estes Park and visited a family fun center:

Bumper boats in Estes Park

Jack and Grammie in the race cars

Luke and Amanda taking it seriously

 For dinner, we found a nice place to have a picnic

Jack and Grammie walking along the trail

Picnic with Amanda and Jack 

Josiah and Jack exploring 

Another day we visited a local splash park:

Tornado themed splash ground

Grammie and Jack drawing

Amanda and Lily

Amanda and Jack

 Jack's favorite game of seeing how high he can throw something. (can you see the red ring?)

More pictures coming soon...

Staying busy

My mom and Luke both work from the house during the day so the kids and I try to get out as much as possible to give them some quiet. Jack and Lily have been taking swimming lessons every morning at the community pool. They absolutely love the lessons and Jack was so excited to be accepted into the class that is for 5 year olds and up. 

Jack's swim class

Luke with Lily in the baby class

In addition to swimming every morning, Jack also has activities two afternoons. One day a week he goes to gymnastics which is probably his favorite class. 

On Fridays he has baseball, which he doesn't seem to enjoy that much since most of the class involves standing in line and waiting 

The other afternoons we spend at the local swim beach, or one of the many outdoor pools

City Park pool in Ft. Collins

Luke and I discovered a hamburger bar right down the street that lets you choose a doughnut for a bun. Below is their "hangover" burger with meat, bacon, egg and cheese served on a warm doughnut with maple syrup on the side

Fun at Nana and Papi's house

What was supposed to be an eight day visit to my mom and dad's house in Colorado, has turned into an almost 2 month visit. It's a good thing they have a big house! We have officially taken over the entire downstairs. It's been great fun and Jack and Lily have loved staying with their Nana and Papi.

My parents have a huge backyard so we've spending as much time as possible outside. 

Jack pouring water on Lily's head

Lily had a blast playing at her water table and it reminded me of watching Jack play at his water table 3 years ago. 

Jack at 1 year old, Lily 9 months

 

 We went to Walmart and bought a bunch of cheap water toys to cool the kids off in the hot weather

Thanks Walmart for selling a toy that doesn't
even stand up on its own.

The slip and slide that didn't slip. Thankfully Luke figured
out if you add a little soap to the slide, you will slip better.

Lily's jumper in the kiddie pool

 Of course the best thing about staying with my parents is watching them bond with Nana and Papi

My mom loves to give the kids baths most nights and after each bath the kids love to jump on her bed.

Another great thing about being back with my parents is having babysitters! My mom takes the kids one night a week and Luke and I get to go out alone. This video below shows Lily having a blast one night with Nana.

Stuck in the USA

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...

Okay, so we're not stuck on a desert island... but we are stuck. What was supposed to be a 3 week vacation looks like it might turn into a 20 week vacation.

When Luke accepted this new job back in March he signed the contract and gave notice at his job in Switzerland only to then find out that his new job does not have the license to hire non-European citizens. Back in March it didn't seem like a big deal, and everyone thought that it should be no problem for the company to get the license and our visa's by the end of May.

By the end of May, the company still did not have their license. We had the option of staying in waiting in Switzerland or go back to the US for a vacation. So we packed up all our stuff and sent it to a storage unit in London, and then we headed to the US for what we thought would be a short vacation.

The return flight on our airplane tickets was set for June 28th. When we bought the tickets we thought Luke would already be in England at his new job and I would have to fly with both kids by myself. I didn't like the idea of flying solo with two screaming ninnies, so my mom and dad agreed to fly back to England with me and the kids and then they were going to plan a vacation in Ireland while they were there.

As the end of June neared and we still had no word on the visa's we had to cancel our plane tickets. My parents had to go to England and Ireland anyways since they already had the whole trip planned. So they left for England while we stayed behind. We waited and waited, hoping that any day we would hear news that our visa's had been processed.

At the end of June we finally heard back from Luke's work. They told us that someone from the immigrations department in England had contacted them and said that all non-Olympics related paperwork had been put aside until the backlog from the Olympics had passed. So...they hadn't even looked at our paperwork yet! Geez... it would have been good to know about this a few months back. At least then we could have planned to rent an apartment and pack more things with us.

As it stands we have been living with family for almost 2 months. We each have one suitcase and that is it. Lily has already outgrown everything we packed for her. We packed only summer clothes so if we are here for several months we will need to buy warm weather clothing. We didn't anticipate this "vacation" turning into a several month ordeal. You have to remember, everything we own is in a storage unit all the way across the world...

Since we have no idea when we will finally get to England, we have decided to rent an apartment for 3 months. We have also rented a car (our "race" car as we lovingly refer to it) so that I don't have to borrow my moms car anymore. We are going to try to live a normal life during this transition period. Jack will start preschool in September and we will try to make some friends while we are here. We are all enjoying sunny Colorado and the more time we spend here, the harder it will be to leave. But alas, I still have the travel bug and would love to live in another country for a while.

In the meantime I get to enjoy my favorite Swiss chocolate in my favorite flavor! The Swiss don't mix mint and chocolate so it was a surprise to find this even existed.