Castles And Cathedrals

This year our Valentine's Day was anything but romantic. On top of it just being a normal Friday, I hosted the Valentine Party in McColley's classroom and then both big boys had basketball games. We eventually left for our three-day weekend trip at 7PM and had to drive through a giant windstorm.

Luckily we arrived at our destination without incident and just in time to crawl into bed.

On Saturday morning we woke up and decided to explore the castle we were staying at - we were in a holiday cottage carved out of the old chauffeur's quarters at W.almer Castle:

Unfortunately the wind was still so bad that we couldn't go out into the gardens. The castle's interior was quite interesting because it has been the home to several famous people and is also where the Duke of Wellington died.

Walm.er Castle is only about twenty miles from Canterbury, so we decided to spend the rest of Saturday there.

Of course, we went to the cathedral. The heart of the cathedral is the former shrine to Thomas Becket (which is now represented by a candle):

Near the alter is also the tomb of The Black Prince (the first Prince of Wales to die before he could become king and an English hero of the 100 Years War):

Canterbury Cathedral is at least as big as Westminster but not as crowded with tombs and memorials, so it feels bigger:

Outside the cathedral is the cloister (which was the Harry Potter film maker's first choice for Hogwarts' yard... the church decided it would probably be a bit sacrilegious to shoot a movie about magic and wizards at the most important church in the Anglican world... so they sent them to Durham Cathedral instead):

We left the cathedral at the same time as the Eton Choir who had been practicing during our tour:

On Sunday we went to Dover Castle. We arrived just in time to help Princess Matilda figure out how to manipulate her father (King Henry II) into freeing her mother (Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine) from jail:

After snooping through her father's papers and talking with her big brother (the future Richard the Lionheart) she had freed her mother with all her 'wards' help:

All of that intrigue happened inside The Great Tower which lies at the heart of Dover Castle:

We ate lunch and then headed to the castle's walls... and under them. We toured the WWII tunnels carved into Dover's famous white cliffs:

After resurfacing we got high enough to view the cliffs and all the ferries coming from continental Europe:

Before leaving the castle we did a bit of code breaking and tried on some Home Guard helmets:

On Monday (Presidents Day) we made a short detour into Rochester on our way home. Our first stop was Rochester Castle which is now only walls but was once an important stronghold protecting London:

On the third level of the castle we discovered that it overlooks Rochester's cathedral and that both the castle and the cathedral had originally been designed by the same man:

The boys got a few toys in the castle's gift shop and had a small 'fight' on the grounds before we headed over to the cathedral:

The cathedral remains some of its medieval origins including a wall painting depicting the Wheel of Fortune:

The boys each lit a prayer candle before we left (although Pearson immediately blew his out... he didn't quite get what the whole thing was about):

And then when we got home this happened:

Brayton lost his first tooth!

Pinewood Derby Day!

McColley is a very proud Tiger scout. He is also very proud to be an American.

On Saturday January 25th he got to combine those two things in his Pinewood Derby car:

It was a bit stressful waiting to see how his car was going to do:

His category (Tiger and Daisy Scouts) went first and each car got three runs. In this run his car is on the far right (the only blue one):

On his final run his car came in second!

McColley finished fourth in his category - unfortunately only the top three advanced to the next round. Still, pretty good for his first try and now he has some ideas for how to do better next year!

Sutton What?

We've been having a lot of wet icky weather. We've spent a lot of weekends in our house and by January 19th all of us had cabin fever. Luckily there was a break in the weather.

We decided to go somewhere that would require a lot of walking outdoors and that was relatively close. After putting on our Sea.hawks gear (yep, it was the day they played the 49ers) we headed east to S.utton Hoo:

We decided to tour the mansion first where we were greeted by a lovely docent who immediately guessed the boys' ages and then showed them all sorts of cool stuff. She even let McColley play the 1865 grand piano:

After finishing up our tour of the mansion we exited through the re-constructed work room of B.asil Brown:

Bas.il Brown is the archeologist who discovered the Su.tton Hoo ship-burial. It is the most important archeological find from the Anglo-Saxon era. On our way out to the burial mounds the boys stopped for a rest under an Anglo-Saxon style ship on an Anglo-Saxon style carved bench:

Once we made it out to the mounds, B explained to the boys where the most important discoveries were made (two ship-burials - one of which is assumed to be an East Anglian king):

Pearson was more interested in watching the sheep that use the mounds as a grazing field:

On our way back to the visitor center Pearson got a ride:

Which was good because even though the rain had stopped the ground was still very wet:

Unfortunately the puddles were too tempting and Pearson eventually heeded their siren call:

Unfortunately he was not happy about the consequences - i.e. not being able to get another shoulder ride:

Only a quick game of hide-and-seek cheered him up:

There is a large museum attached to the visitors center where they have information about the discovery and recreations of the artifacts (the actual artifacts are in the British Museum). The boys' favorite part was getting to try on The Helmet:

The Suns And The Magic

It is basketball season yet again and this year Brayton is big enough to play:

What's even better is that B is his coach this year:

It is actually pretty funny to hear B yelling, "Suns! Suns! Get over here!"

Brayton definitely started the season with no basketball skills but he's slowly showing improvement:

McColley is on the Magic again this year and he even got to keep his number (10) but he has moved up into the next age division:

They play on the full court with just slightly lowered hoops. McColley still hesitates to get too close to the hoop:

But he has gotten much better at paying attention to the ball:

The season continues through the end of this month - it's hard to believe it's almost over!