Moving to England

In August, our family moved from San Antonio Texas to Feltwell, England, after spending a month in Utah visiting family and friends. Here we are on our flight out of Chicago, with Joey and Emily checking out their remote controls. Our flight left in the afternoon and arrived in the London, Heathrow airport the next morning. We were glad to get though customs and to our hotel room.

One of our first ventures out after arriving in England was to Thetford. The bridge in the background was made in 1823, and replaced a wooded structure that carried all traffic from London to Norwich through the Middle Ages. We bought pizza nearby, and had a picnic by the Little Ouse River. Here are Joey, Emily and Jenny admiring the swans.


Mandy loved seeing the swans, too.


After our picnic by the river, we walked to a local park and climbed Castle Hill, which at 80 feet is one of the largest man-made mounds in the country. Here are Jenny and Joey, almost to the top. A wooden castle stood here, built shortly after William the Conquerer arrived. I'm still adjusting to the reality of living among so much history. In the US, history is mostly something found in books or the classroom -- often abstract and distant. Here in England, the hills, roads and buildings are saturated with it, and I get the sense of how short a human life really is.