Budapest, Hungary

This Mid-term break in February we were supposed to go to Sharm El Shiek & Cairo Egypt with new friends the Fikes. We had set up hotels at The Ritz Carlton and Mena House Oberoi at the base of the Pyramids - but as fate would have it, there was to be a historic revolution instead. Riots and chaos were abound and it wasn't safe for foreigners to travel. The US and the UK put warnings to citizens not to travel there. So we had to scramble and come up with a new game plan. At first everyone was worried about refunds - luckily I got back either all my money or got credit on the airline. No small feat I can say.

We wanted sun but the Canary Islands seemed iffy - our friends all ended up going to Dubai (about 6 families that were to go to Egypt) but since we had been there last year it didn't make sense (nor could we spare the cost to our pocketbook) to go again. I polled a bunch of friends and our good friends the Folan's were going to Budapest - I always wanted to go there anyway so we took our credit from our flights.

It was not disappointing in that it was so beautiful, even in the freezing cold. However you could really get a sense of the Eastern Block and what it might have looked like back in the day. Although it was very gray you could make out the pretty colors and amazing architecture of the city. Another place to tick off my very long list of places to see in this beautiful world.

Warwick Castle

Since I'm working backward anyway here's what we did on Tuesday.... I drove the boys & Tristan 2 hours north to Warwickshire to Warwick Castle - we have these Merlin passes so I've been taking them to all their locations this summer getting my monies worth! All of the other places are theme parks - Chessington World of Adventures, Legoland Windsor & Thorpe Park - but they also own this castle, The London Eye and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum - yep, we hit 'em all this summer - the closer ones more than once!

It was fun - they had jousting and a trebuchet and you could climb to the top of the ramparts and walk in the castle. It's beautiful land and a nice place to take the kids. They had birds of prey on display - and did a little show with them - I actually got hit by a bald eagle!! I have it on video - I never seem to have luck uploading videos onto to my blog but will try once again - but I was further away from the center of the demonstration than the kids on lower ground even - had my camera up videoing and the Eagle flew by me - or so I thought until it knocked down my camera and I had bird feathers on it!

The boys got to practice archery and it really was just a lovely day - this truly is a very nice country to be living in.
















Hooray success!

New Jersey

I have so much to catch up on - but I will have to just work backward. Chandler and I went to New Jersey to visit our old UK neighbors - they sadly moved away from us last summer so we had to go visit them! It was so much fun - I was really excited to go there as I've never gone before - but I have gone to NYC. New Jersey is beautiful where they live and they have such fun things - they belong to the Noe Pond Club which was fun - it's basically a private swim club, but it's a pond instead of a pool.

They also have a really nice Golf Club - seems like the kids have such fun places to go for the summer! I only got to stay for 5 days and I left Chandler there for 5 more - he flew home alone and he did fantastic! I got to go to NYC to see my BIL Ryan for dinner but it was so hot! We got to go to the Jersey Shore and went to Point Pleasant (like Santa Cruz), poor Chandler got a little sick so he didn't get to go to NYC for dinner, just as well it was SO hot there! Cathy took me shopping - I dropped a pretty penny in just 3 days - but got Chandler lots of clothes which he so needed.

He went to Boy Scout camp this summer and I was trying to get him to pack his clothes and I couldn't get him to get any clothes together - so I finally looked and it was because he didn't HAVE any clothes!! Poor kid!


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It was a terrific vacation and I needed it - even though it was short. My super babysitter Pauline watched the other 3 kiddies (Tyler is still in CA/UT) and they had a fantastic time. Chandler got to go to Six Flags Great Adventure - said he went on the tallest roller coaster - he was so excited about it. He also got to go into NYC and ate at hmm, forgot the name of the diner, but the waiters all sing, went to the top of the Marriott Marquis in the elevator to see the city. Went to Broadway because Donnie's friend is in Billy Elliott so they dropped him off for rehearsal, went to the Empire State Building & Macy's - all full days and so much fun with great friends!!!

Eyjafjallajoekull

That is the name of the Volcano that is causing so much havoc in our travels home. But I need to document from the beginning. We started the week after Easter nicely - we left for Malaga, Spain on April 11 for a much needed vacation to sunny weather. We had this trip planned for a long time and we heard such great things about Malaga/Marbella and the Marriott Resort here.

Funny how best laid plans can go awry...

Our place was terrific - 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, washer dryer, beach, pools, kids club, fitness room - we forgot to ask for some sun! We just assumed being in the South of Spain it would be nice - granted it might be cool since it isn't quite summer but we didn't expect Thunder and Lightening Storms!

Warning - this is more for me to remember and document so sorry if it is really boring! Oh and I forgot my camera cord on vacation so I have to wait until I get back for some photos!!

The first day we just tried to get our barrings and enjoy the resort - we sent the boys into the kids club for some fun and games (I'm sure Chandler was so excited) but hey, they had Playstation, Wii - what else could boys want!

We found the market - found the giant sized chess set can you say lifesaver? - , both indoor pools (one for adults only - funny Mike & I never found time to enjoy it!) outdoor pools, playground, ping pong tables. We had a great time after dinner playing chess on the giant board as a family - it started with Ian & Chandler playing each other, but then Mike tried to help Ian - so of course I couldn't let Chandler not have any help! We won in the end - but I'm sure the game lasted an extra half hour because we were really working on our strategy!

The second day we decided to try to figure out how to get to Selwo Aventura Estepona - it was an animal adventure park. Actually before we left there was an Artesian Fair at the Marriott - we were lucky we didn't have to go off-site for our art market! We got a couple skirts for the girls and a cloth purse for mom, bargain only €5.

The adventure park was really fun you had to ride all of these giant jeeps to get around the park. One of the highlights was the Inidana Jones Bridge - it was just as wobbly! They had all kinds of animals and it wasn't all that crowded as the kids in Spain were back to school.

Wednesday we took a couple taxis and went into Old Town Marbella - sometimes on vacation it is hard for the Cranes to get going before 11 - so here we have to hurry to see anything because of Siesta Time which is about 2-5 so everything closes. We went to the Plaza de los Naranjos - Orange Tree Square - lots of shops, lots of churches and lots of restaurants. Pretty pricey but worth going to see. We had a nice lunch there - yummy seafood but the kids got Spaghetti - didn't seem very Spanish to me! When we came home Tyler and I went to a Paella cooking demonstration back here at the hotel. Yummmy!

Thursday we arranged for a private tourguide to drive us to Ronda - if you ever come here and stay at the Marriott - Francisco is your man! Of course when we started that was the day it started to rain pretty hard - the other days so far had just been overcast and not that warm. We had to go through the mountains and the rain and fog were so thick! Normally you could see into Africa from up there but we weren't that lucky. At least for that portion of the trip - once we got to the other side - blue skies!! It was beautiful in the valley.

Ronda is a little town of about 10K I think Francisco said - it really is only open during the day for the few hours the tourists come in by the bus loads - it is because it has the oldest bull ring in Spain. This town is built on a rock basically that was split by water hundreds if not thousands of years ago - the 2 bridges in the town are unbelievable. We were lucky because the weather held for us while we were there - it was so pretty and really what you think of when you think of a Spanish town.

For lunch Francisco took us to one of the 'White Villages' on the hill - it reminded me of The Magnificent Seven (except in Spain) where the whole town is painted white and only about 200 people live in each town. Lunch was great and what you would expect in a little spanish town - choices were 1st - salad with tuna, seafood soup, chicken bouillon, 2nd - beef in sauce, pork, swordfish - dessert - flan or a big juicy orange. I was impressed - my boys picked the seafood soup or swordfish! And they loved it....

More tomorrow.....

Dubai

I guess I forgot to post our about our trip to Dubai - we went for February Winter Break - it was definitely one of the very best family vacations we have ever taken. We really enjoyed ourselves. We stayed at the Atlantis resort there and it was so fun!

At the airport getting ready to go..

The lobby - beautiful murano glass from venice!

We went to the waterpark every day - it was so nice to be in the sun!

Here is Mike going down the tallest vertical waterslide in the world!

The indoor alpine skiing place in the Mall of the Emirates or the Dubai Mall - one is the largest in the world, the other has the ski slope

They are all about being big, they have the tallest building in the world, the tallest waterslide, the tallest building in the world (the elevator broke the day we arrived) the biggest mall, they are building another mall to be bigger (why!?), they are building the biggest airport (hope I never have a connecting flight through that one!).
The world's only 7 Star hotel

The man made palms are incredible, but what I thought was the most humorous is the fact that the sand they need to build up the land - they have to BUY from Iran, all the whole dessert surrounding them and they can't even use their own sand! So funny.

We went for a sunset sand dunes ride & then dinner in the desert and camel rides. Sally the camel only has one hump..

Inside aquarium at the Atlantis (the one in the mall cracked a week or so after we left!)

But we thoroughly enjoyed going to Dubai much more than I thought we would.

California 09 Part deux - Utah too

We stayed in CA for just 5 days before heading out to Utah to visit Mike's family. I forgot to post this other picture of my cousin Emily holding Tristan when we visited my Grandpa John :)


Before we left I also got to go to dinner with my girlfriends....We went for Sozo Japanese - something I don't get very much of here in London.....

Michele, Christy, Me & Laura - Christy is my great friend that got to come visit us last Easter (and let us stay at her house!!) and Michele & Laura are coming this year at Thanksgiving!!! I cannot wait!







So then the next part of our journey commenced and we had to get onto another airplane. The one hour 45 min flight to SLC was a breeze! Except we felt more harried at the Oakland airport than we did at the International airports!

We got to Grandma & Grandpa Bob's house in Centerville and had a great time. We got to go to Lagoon, watch a 4th of July parade, fireworks, family parties - oh what fun!

4th of July and lots of glo sticks!

Uncle Ryan, Cman, & Mike ran in the Centerville 4th of July races - Chandler came in 10th for his 1 mile race - not sure about the old men ;)

Dad & Tristy Lu

New cousin Gabbie and Aunt Rachel

Lagoon - we went on the water rides first so we could "dry off" - little did we know we were in for a summer monsoon! It was freezing!

Me & my SIL Juliann

Mike and his old friend Brent

SIL Rachel, Tristy Lu, Gabbie & Me

We also had a fun BBQ - Mike's parents best friends have all been together for 60 years... their kids were like each others cousins so whenever they can we try to get everyone together. Amazingly all of the kids and grandkids were able to come to a BBQ
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So what started as this Six Pack, as they call themselves....

Became this group........

Then with spouses they created this......

And when we do come into town the kids all know who are cranes, gledhills or laytons and all have a great time together...now how fun is that?