Catching up March

Time for an attempt at catching up. As I mentioned in the previous post, we made a trip back "home" earlier in the year. Ryan was not able to go with us due to lack of leave time from work, but fortunately for me, my girls have the most wonderful grandmas in the world!

Starting in February, 'Nina' came for a visit. Her visit included both girls acquiring and recovering from pink eye (twice), a trip to France to visit some of the D-day sights, and Alexandria's 4th birthday party (see next post).

At the end of February, the girls and Lauren joined mom on the plane back to St. Louis. Though there were a few hiccups with gate changes and delays, the trip was an overall success. Back in St. Louis, we had another birthday party this time in celebration of Alexandria's 4th birthday and Julia's 1st. Though sad not to have daddy with us, it was incredibly wonderful to celebrate with family and friends.

Lexie with her birthday Build-a-Bear from Mawmaw

The primary purpose of our trip was to share in the wedding of Nick and Megan. They had a gorgeous wedding with perfect weather!

The rest of our visit was spent catching up with family and friends. I cherished every second of it. As I write this (some 3 months later), Ryan is now home creating similar memories of his own. I am so happy for him that he has been able to make this trip home after missing out on our March trip. Time with cousins and grandparents simply cannot be bought for anything in the world. It is so precious to know that even living 4000 miles away, my girls still know and love their American family. Here are just a few of the many memories we created in March:

Cousins, Lexie, Julia, and Brody
Cousins, Abby and Julia
Cousins, Elijah and Lexie
GG and Lexie
Pawpaw and Julia

After a 2 week stay in St. Louis, it was back to England, this time with Mawmaw in tow. The trip home was a bit stressful with multiple missed flights, all of which were out of our control, but we finally made it, and boy was I glad to have my mom along for the ride! We made it back on Julia's 1st birthday, just in time to celebrate with daddy. Mom and Lauren also enjoyed some quality mother daughter time with their own trip to London for some sightseeing and Phantom of the Opera. Before heading back to America, we all made a trip to Liverpool where mom and Lauren again got to cut loose from the family for a visit to the Cavern Club!