Things I've Seen in England

Knighton Park Festival

It's great to live next to a park, especially on days when something fun is going on there. Knighton Park had summer festival right before the beginning of the school year with jumpy castles, a dog show, lots of food, and lots more.

Craig and Maya at the jumpy castles. Maya took one look at the face on this thing and decided it wasn't for her. Oh well, maybe the carousel will be a hit.

It was pretty hot that day. What better way to cool down than with a "Knighton Park Special" a.k.a. an ice cream cone with a candy bar sticking out of it. The reason you don't see the candy bar in this picture is because I already ate it!

Ice cream mustache

Maya's first time on a carousel. Verdict - awesome! She wanted to go around again and again.

Flying airplane ride - meh.

Abbey Park

We decided to go on an adventure to Abbey Park on day to see what it would be like to go without our dog Pete. There is one area of the park with a petting zoo - no dogs allowed - that I was particularly interested to see. The petting zoo was a let down, with just a few scraggly guinea pigs and an old peacock missing most of its feathers. Eek. On the bright side, the rest of the park was beautiful and fun. Here are a couple of pictures.

Craig and Maya playing around the ruins of the old Abbey cathedral

Me and Craig, taking a break while Maya makes a run for it.

Farm Day

Time for a real petting zoo. I got a flyer in the mail for a place calling itself a "family farm." Intrigued, we decided to check it out. For a few pounds they give you a bucket full of different snacks that you can feed to all the animals on the farm. It was fun! Farmer Maya and Farmer Craig especially got into it.

Maya is ready to scale the fence to get up close and personal with the chicken heirloom varieties . We try to tell her to just throw the food through the fence, but she's not having it.

chicky chicky chicky

I know where Rhode Island is!

Pigs can eat the carrots, Maya

Maya took riding the tractor around very seriously. She was ready to take it into the fields and made us truck her all around the animal pens like a real farmer.
Some kids like cars or trains, but for this kid there's only one amazing vehicle - the tractor.

It's hard to really do it justice in a photograph, but there is a whole lot of sky in England. Look at the clouds over the farm in this picture.

The farm had a lot of odds and ends. Here is an indoor all-weather sand box for the kids to play in. My personal favorite thing was a cage with black and white striped chipmunks in it that did back flips for fun. It was like watching a little circus show!

This is Maya feeding the pony named Mia (pronounced "Maya" in England). They make a good pair.

Aylestone Meadows

We took a little stroll down by the canal to see a new playground we have never been to before. It was a really long walk and Maya made it the whole way (with a little help from a frog).

Superfrog also went on a walk with us.

Uh oh. Hurry!

We flew back to the United States in June and stayed until the end of August. While we were there we went to my sister Sarah's wedding, ran an archaeological field school in Connecticut, toured all around New England seeing friends and family, and generally spending as much time as possible enjoying the beach. In the spirit of enjoying myself to the fullest, I kept the camera packed away most of the time, so these pictures only capture a fraction of our fun. Here's a few shots I snagged:

Sarah's Wedding

Thanks to Sarah's friend/ photographer, Rosanna, for most of these.

Sarah's swanky Cape Cod beach house rental.

We all pitched in with the little touches to make the day go smoothly. I was in charge of the lemon signage. They came out looking great, if I do say so myself!

Wedding day started out overcast and dreary. Our mantra was "It'll burn off." In the end, it did, and we had a lovely, cool day.

Mid-morning lounging in the wedding pad.

Craig and Dad assemble the wedding awning.

It looked at little too boy scout camp-y, so Colleen to the rescue!

The tables are all decorated. Time to get the show on the road.

Okay, clearly these next few are a little out of order. Here's Craig and Maya cutting a rug at the reception.

More dancing.

Post-wedding photo shoot on the beach.

Sarah and Brenton's united families.

Walking down to the beach.

The "I do"

Grammy, looking stunning in yellow.

Maya and Isabel walking down the aisle together.

Maya danced until she dropped. Everyone takes a breather on the dance floor.

Ferguson girls photo shoot.

Izzy helps Maya with her flower girl duties.

Mohegan Fieldschool

Uncasville, Ct

My second year assisting with the University of Leicester/Mohegan Tribe archaeological field school. We had a great new site, great new students, and we had really interesting finds.

Session 1: Rowan, Jenny, Aidan, Nicki, Nadia, Sam, Nathan, Justin, Jamie,
Paul, Yvonne, Tonay, Tory, Theresa, and Jay

Me, working with the survey equipment.

Session 2: Me, Tom, Ed, Jonnie, Craig, Michaela
Nicki, Nadia, Paul, Sam, Jay, Theresa, Andrea,
Tonay

Fun on the North Shore

Colleen got Maya a cool, inflatable crab pool.

Pouring water on her foot.

Cheeky cheeky

We took Maya to the park every day we could. She never got bored, especially of the swing. Photo by Granny Annie.

Another action shot by Granny Annie.

Maya and Grama Lila taking a break at the park.

Maya playing waitress. Today's menu: bark chips!

One hot day we took Maya to the bowling alley for her first shot at candlepin bowling.

I'm showing her the ropes.

Working on technique.

Craig brings the style.

Maya showing off her itty-bitty bowling shoes.

I was really excited about the "super moon", so Craig and I drove around at night trying to get a good shot. I swear, it looked a lot more impressive in person.

Super moon with the street lights below it.

Our two canine companions, Pete and Ivan.

Connecticut Happenings

We started calling Maya "little bear" because her diet consisted of a majority "bear" foods: straw-bear, blue-bear, and rasp-bear.

Our summer apartment was just down the street from Rocky Neck State Park seaside in Niantic, Connecticut. One thing that we loved about this beach is that the water is really shallow with really mellow waves. It was a perfect place to learn to swim.

Craig and Maya at the beach

Maya and me

One day someone put up a little driftwood sculpture decorated with multi-colored seaweed.

Family selfie portrait

Kate got Maya bathtub finger paints for her birthday. Maya was into them bigtime.

Living room dance party

We took a trip down to the Niantic Children's Museum. Maya loved playing in the pretend taco shop. Here she is playing waitress.

More tea?

They had a bubble table outside at the museum. Maya literally dove right in.

Topless jam session at the children's museum.

Sarah and Brenton came down to visit us one weekend. We took them on a trip to Mystic. Here is Sarah getting picky outside the Mystic army surplus store.

Ice cream break

Sarah and Brenton

Maya said "enough" to the photos and decided that any additional photos would be of her in this pose.

If y ou can't beat them, join them.

Craig and Maya in Mystic

Barbecue at the LeClair house

We had a fun backyard BBQ right before we went back to England. Here is Maya, Stella the dog, Chris, and Olive

Jenn and Alex sporting a nice pony tail.

Liz, Dottie, Liz, Claudia, Dave, and Jamie

Craig, giving Maya a good spin

Olive and Maya

Buddies

Nice hair!

Alex and Eli

August English Adventures

At the end of August, it was back to England. We have been able to squeeze in a few little adventure since we have been back.

It already feels like fall here in Leicester. What better way to ring in the new season than with a trip to a humungous corn maze! Here's a picture of Craig and Maya at the center of the Wistow Maze. The Wistow Maze's claims to be one of the biggest, most elaborate corn mazes in the UK.