Fall Fun!

Happy October! We've been really lucky here and are still enjoying lots of great weather! We haven't done much sightseeing over the past few weekends and have, instead, been setting up our house, going to birthday parties, and running back and forth to the base! Lyla was very excited to celebrate her friend Chloe's 2nd birthday and even sported pigtails for the occasion!

These girls have places to go!

Yummy!

Mommy, Daddy & Lyla celebrated Columbus Day with a long hike with Chloe and her mom and dad while Riley and the other big kids were in school. With Lyla on Wayne's back, we embarked on a 5 mile hike from Winchcombe to Belas Knap, which is a large earth mound from around 3000 BC that was used as a collective tomb. Along the way, we saw Sudeley Castle, as well as lots of horses, sheep and cows. Parts of the hike were along the Cotswold Way, which is a National Trail through the English countryside that is 102 miles long. It is very strange because it's not actually a trail...as you can see below you hike right across fields filled with cows and sheep, through kissing gates and over stiles! We accidentally veered onto private property after a wrong turn and upset some horse owners but it was nearly impossible to tell what was the trail! We rested and ate lunch at Belas Knap, a beautiful but unlikely spot for a picnic lunch! Whoever heard of a picnic on a collective tomb!?

Sheep!

The "trail"

Can you spot the sheep?

Chris & the girls in the tomb

Riley is continuing to enjoy life here and sang in her school's Harvest Festival and joined a rugby team! She was nervous to join in but spotted her friend Kasper from school and was fine after that. She did a great job hitting the tackle bags and doing her drills and loved that the coaches squirted them with water guns at the end of practice! Here she is in action.

School is still going great! She had two field trips--one to the park to investigate forces for science and another to her Teacher Assistant's farm. Here are some pictures Mommy stole from the school's website!

The girls have also had alot of fun lately playing at home. Our swingset is now here along with our little trampoline, which has already proved to be lots of fun! We are looking forward to half term, when Riley is off from school for two weeks from October 24th to November 4th. We are going to stay in town for the first week and are planning to go horseback riding and have some fun playdates. We will spend the second week in Aberfoyle, Scotland, which is inside the Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.  We are very excited to explore the park and visit Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, all of which are about 60-90 minutes away. Stay tuned for more pictures & updates after our trip!