The Little Nemeceks

So after trying to catch up on posts, I realized that I missed our trip to Brimham Rocks, so my comment about Fountains Abbey being our second National Trust site was probably confusing!  Anyway, Brimham Rocks is a large set of balancing rock formations about a half hour from our house.  This was probably the kids favorite trip we have taken so far, as they were able to climb all over the rocks and be adventurers for the day. 

Avila and me up on one of the rocks

A close up of Avila on my back

The adventurers with binoculars

I can lift a huge rock!

Look! A picture of my kid actually smiling!

Nathan and David wanted lots of pictures of them high up on the rocks

All my boys under a rock

Nathan slid down this.  It wasn't comfortable.

A photo of the photographer

Josh imitating the dancing bear rock formation in the background

My kids can hold up big rocks too!

And so can their dad!

Another historical site near us is Fountains Abbey, the ruins of a Cisternian Abbey. The property also adjoins the Studley Water Gardens and a protected deer park.  We have purchased a National Trust membership since we plan to visit as many of these sites as we can, and we were excited to head to our second location! (Brimham Rocks is also a National Trust site.)

We had planned to mostly explore the abbey and let the kids try out the playground, but the visitor's center was closed when we arrived and without a map, we ended up going in completely the wrong direction!  So, we began by walking through the deer park past St. Mary's Church, and then through the water gardens, and finally ending with the abbey after about two miles of walking.  Needless to say, we didn't have time for the playground, but we plan to go back at some point to check out some things we missed.  We did get a good overview of the property!

St. Mary's Church

Kids and I examining a memorial

Josh took lots of pictures of pheasants

From far away, the downed trunks/roots look like resting animals

Temple of Piety

Lots of deer in the deer park to see

Avila giving hugs while riding on my back

This is what the boys do when someone says "smile!"

Avila was afraid of this bridge.  Nathan said it needed handrails.

Taking a rest in a rock grotto

The lake at Studley Water Gardens

Reflections in puddles.  Avila didn't have wellies yet, so she got soaking wet.

Another rest break.  David really didn't appreciate all the walking we did.

We found the abbey!

Picture on the bridge

Inside the abbey

A view from inside

One of the surviving towers

Well, it snowed!  It was, apparently, not seasonable for it to snow this early in the winter season, but we got a good 3-4 inches last week, enough for the boys to have a snowball fight and make a mini-snowman.  I dressed Avila up in winter clothes and boots as well, but she was not interested in joining her brothers in their snow frolicking and instead watched them from the window.  Now, I really need to get the boys some snowpants!

All right, so we have a house now, and while we don't have our household goods, I was getting pretty antsy after five weeks away from homeschooling.  So I put together an emergency "we don't have our school stuff yet" homeschooling plan, involving printing a lot of things I had digitally, getting a downloadable science study, and begging sister in law Carrie to scan some of the things she is doing with Caiden (they are using the same language arts and math curriculum as us).  While it was an abbreviated week, we were able to do enough to count as a week of school.  The kids learned about both Spain and Portugal, and are fascinated (horrified?) by the bullfighting stories.  They also enjoyed learning about La Tomatina Fiesta, a festival in which the people of Bunol throw tomatoes at each other until the juice comes up to their ankles!

For our cultural celebration, the kids were supposed to pick between reenacting a battle between the Moors and the Christians, or celebrating Sweetheart's Day.  They weren't very eager to do either, so we ended up watching Flamenco Hoy on YouTube, having finally gotten our internet hooked up on Saturday.  I also made Spanish Paella for dinner with flan for dessert.  Things turned out ok, despite cooking with very limited tools.  The flan fell apart taking it out of the pan, but it tasted ok. Thankfully, the school stuff I packed in unaccompanied goods arrived Friday morning, so we will be able to have full days of school from now on.  And our household goods are arriving in port this week, so we are hoping to have the rest of our things by the end of the month!

Kids playing tag on the Stray for some exercise

All the stuff I printed for this week

A fully armored sword and light saber fight

Paella

The flan that fell apart.  It tastes much better than it looks!

The boys strike their best flamenco poses!

We got to celebrate our first British holiday!  November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, aka Bonfire Night.  They celebrate the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate King James I.  Guy Fawkes was not the ringleader, but he was the man caught hiding under the houses of parliament with lots of barrels of gunpowder.  So now, Brits light large bonfires on the evening of November 5 to celebrate that the King was not killed.  Some places still burn a "guy" in effigy, but our celebration on the Stray did not include that part.  There was an enormous bonfire, the kids got gingerbread (lots of food stalls, none of which were gluten free that we could find, but it was very busy), plus a fireworks demonstration.  All the kids had fun, despite it being very cold!

It was a big bonfire

The kids and I were all bundled up

David doing his best wolf imitation

Another shot of the bonfire

Some of the fireworks

More fireworks

Avila really enjoyed her first fireworks show!