York and Durham with Katie

On our last day together, Katie and I went to York. 

Here we are on the city walls overlooking the minster.

Katie loved seeing Poundland. She said it was much more exciting sounding than Dollar General or Family Dollar.

We found a boot scraper.

We really liked this belt too.

We made it back just in time to get some chai lattes at Flat White in Durham before they closed.

Cheers!

Nathan really wanted to take Katie to Colpitts, his favorite pub, so tired though we were, we went.

Cheers again!

I can't decide which picture is weirder. This one...

or this one. Your thoughts?

The Annivosawy

One of our favorite films is The Family Man, where Nicholas Cage has a sort of "It's a Wonderful Life" experience, but in reverse. His daughter, who knows he's an impostor, tries to get him out of trouble with his wife for not knowing about their anniversary. She says in the cutest voice (without her "r"s), "You did foget the annivosawy." So that's how we say it. 

We got married on June 16th, 2006, 11 months and one day after we met, also known as our 10th visit, if you can call a wedding a visit.

In his usual celebration style, Nathan made me breakfast in bed! I definitely poured out the butter that is swimming on top of my grits. More on butter later.

Nathan was frustrated trying to slice this cling-stone nectarine, so he decided to cut out a smiley face instead.

He went with me to chaperone a day trip to York with my international students. We gave them two hours of free time, during which we went to a very famous tea room called Bettys (no apostrophe... grrr). 

We had tea and scones.

It was overrated. Go to Crook Hall instead.

When we got home we exchanged prezzies! Normally we don't get each other anything on our anniversary, but this year I went all out and got him SIX little things for our SIX years together.

He got me this card and the gift of organization. He's planning all of the details for a trip to Scotland this fall. He knows the way to my heart for sure. We've been saving Tesco points to redeem on a hotel there. Woohoo!

He is so handsome!

I got him cheese and crackers, pencils and note cards, a manly travel mug, Belgian beer, a cube of Kerrygold butter, and a pair of shorts (his only other pair has a few holes).

We dove right into the cheese and crackers!

And we ordered Gilegate Tandoori for dinner. YUMMY!!!

I love you, Nathan. You're still my fave.

The above is our engagement picture, taken in our church library (of course!). If you want to take a trip down memory lane and check out our wedding photo gallery, you can still see it here.

Hey Hey Hayes!

Back in the day, Nathan was the youth pastor and Hayes was in the youth group. Nathan and I teen-sat Hayes and his sisters over Valentine's Day weekend a few years ago. I was mesmerized by their Penley painting on the landing. It snowed. Malon, Hayes's friend and one of my students, came over. The kids sledded. The dog got shocked by his collar trying to run out of the yard. Hayes tried his hand at making jewelry for a lovely lady he admired. We spent the rest day in Middle Earth watching all. three. Lord of the Rings movies. After youth group on Sunday night we fed them gobs of leftover wedding cake that we found at church. Then we dug Hannah's car out of the mud at Jenn's house that night on the way home. Good times. It's crazy what comes to your mind when you think back on just one little event...

Hayes was in Durham yesterday on Day 4 of his month-long school trip across Europe. He and his friends were literally on the other side of a wall from Nathan, but they didn't see each other. We finally reached Hayes at his hotel in York last night, and sadly, they were leaving for London this morning. Our hearts were broken! So close, yet so far! I felt responsible, because I'm the social coordinator of this household. So, last night around 11 p.m. we decided to have a little road trip to York.

We left at 5 a.m. and had breakfast - or more accurately, watched Hayes eat his breakfast - at the Royal York Hotel, chatted about life and school and family and college and church and God, took two pictures, hugged goodbye, ordered some McDonald's for the car ride home, and got here by 9:30. It was AWESOME!

Three thumbs up for being the first CCP youth to come see us in England! Sally still wins the award for first virtual visitor (via Skype).

Hayes likes me better. Yes...

Like I said, we love visitors! Come see us! Who's next?

WE SAW THE QUEEN!

We went to York last Thursday, Maundy Thursday, and the Queen of England happened to be in town. We walked toward the York Minster to see huge crowds and asked an elderly gentleman close by what was going on.

"Why, you must be the only ones in Yorkshire not to know! The Queen is here!"

Read this short article to find out why.

We waited about 15 minutes while Her Majesty had drinks in the Dean's house behind the cathedral, and then she came out! We were so close! It was amazing!

She's behind the bushes!

Here she comes in that car!

THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND!!! And Philip! And Beatrice!

Here's Nathan with the Queen.

I couldn't believe it! I was seriously tearing up... We just happened to walk up at the perfect time. And I feel so thrilled that Justin and Julie were able to be with us to share our special moment. We were in York for just a few hours, and we got to see the Queen!

Here we are in front of the Minster. We couldn't believe our luck again when we came back in the afternoon to find that it was free entry all day. Woohoo!

We had a drink at Ye Olde Starr Inne to celebrate.

It's the oldest pub in York.

After the pub we had a picnic lunch by the car and then went on a free walking tour, the same one I went on with Amy and Sam.

Here are some pictures from the tour, which was modified because the Queen was in town and we couldn't go certain places for security reasons. WE SAW HER! DID I TELL YOU THAT?!

Here we are on the walls of York.

The view of the Minster from the wall

The Shambles

Justin and Julie

The front gate

The rest of the day we were still in disbelief that we had seen the Queen of England, who is celebrating her Diamond Jubiliee - 60 years of reigning over the United Kingdom! 

"She's got great skin for 86 years old," I told Julie.

"I can't believe we were close enough to her to make comments about her skin," she replied.

If you're English, have you seen the Queen? Are you jealous that we Americans just chanced upon her? :) Has anyone had any celebrity sightings lately (besides my sister, who has an eagle eye for famous people all the time)? 

Leave a comment!

The Middle

I already told you about the beginning and the end. Here are the pictures from the middle of the girls' visit. 

Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island

Nathan planking again. 

And again. While Amy was attempting these shots, a couple walked by and the woman said, "Smile for the camera!" followed by the man who said, "It's his best side!"

Gorgeous view

The North Sea

Girl picture

Low tide

Nathan and the great wall

Check your tide tables before you go!

Here we are enjoying England.

Back in Durham, Amy took this picture from the Kingsgate Bridge.

The East side of the cathedral

Celebrating our not going to Ireland at the Black Bull.

Amy took this because she was really weirded out that the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the car.

4th of July with Frank! Side note: I just spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to find the link to the first post about Frank, and I can't find it. I know it's there somewhere!

*UPDATE* Found it! 

Here are the girls and I on the city walls of York.

This is us self-soothing with McDonald's french fries after the Ireland disaster at the ginormous mall known as the Metrocentre. There are actually five malls in one. That's the map I'm holding up. You can see the red mall, blue mall, green mall, yellow mall, and central mall.

This is us saying goodbye at the airport. No fun.

I'm glad you're home safely girls!