Amy Comes to Visit!

Last week my dear friend and co-favorite college roommate, Amy, came to visit.  And we had some much needed girl time. Truth be told I'm still lacking in the girl friend department in England so I am pretty sure I talked Amy's ears off.  Yes both of them.  But luckily, seeing as she is our 12th visitor to England, I'm getting pretty damn good at this tour guiding thing.  If only the British weather would cooperate a little better.  

Here's a rundown of our week in pictures....

The first night we went for a sundown walk in the Peak District.

Picturesque, No?

Then we went to Chatsworth.  Again.  

I love Chatsworth though so thats OK.  Especially the gardens.  

They don't get old.

The of course we had to go to London.  

We stayed in a very cheap girls only hostel which I can highly recommend

 for poor female travelers called Piccadilly Guest House.

 The plan was to see the major tourist spots, but England had other ideas.  

So shortly after this was taken we headed off to Harrods where they were having a sale!  

Hurrah!

We had dinner at my favorite restaurant in all of England, Bumpkin, then we went off to the West End to see Dirty Dancing. Ohhh Johnny!  No one puts baby in the corner!

When we came back to Sheffield I took Amy for a little more English countryside action.  

I love the Peak District.  

It's God's country (according to the locals anyways.)  

I must say I agree... at least when the sun is shining.  

I made a lil picnic.

 But then we had to go home because my hair was just not cooperating.  

Forrealz.

But not before Heidi pissed off a herd of sheep.  Eeeeeeeeeek!  

Sheep are creepy sometimes.

But then we saw these cute little baby horses on the way home.  

Awwwwww.  I love country life.

And then Amy and I passed out.

Note:  While we were curled up uncomfortably on the couch Heidi was in my bed.  

Typical.  

I take this to mean I was a successful tour guide.  

ps.  I didn't include pictures of our spa day at Harrogate Turkish Baths .  (this is due to the fact that there were looooooooooads of naked ladies wandering around and taking photos would have been totally inappropriate... fyi the English are so much more comfortable than Americans with nudity.)  But besides the fact that Amy and I were somewhat uncomfortable with nudies, and we creepily checked out the more ample hair styles sported by the very self assured British ladies, we had a wonderful time at the beautiful spa and this is certainly going on the guest list itinerary.  

Miss you already, Amy!

And thanks to Mr. and Mrs. N for buying her plane tickets!  What would we do without our parents?!

Tree Climbing

When was the last time you climbed a tree?

Better yet... when was the last time you climbed a tree,

pretended to be Micheal Jackson,

and grabbed your crotch...

while singing Man in the Mirror?

Just wondering....

If it's been awhile, 

I highly recommend you find your nearest tree,

and give it a go.

Trust me on this one.

A Weekend of Injuries

We had the most uneventful weekend ever!!  Saturday was the first summery day of the year, and Doodle is not allowed to go on any hikes for 10 days until she is fully recovered from being spayed.

She was pretty much the most miserable puppy ever with that cone, but she soon realized it was a great way to con us into letting her into our bed. (she's usually not allowed upstairs at all, but she has learned to open the baby gate...)

And by us I mean Nick, seeing as I got up on Saturday morning to go to rowing practice, and the two of them stayed in bed spooning all morning. Heidi was the little spoon if you must know.

So Heidi is on house arrest so she couldn't play with me, and then Nick goes and breaks his bloody toe on some wire.  Can I just express my extreme dislike for wires?  They really irritate me, they always seem to be everywhere and get tangled and you can never find the one you want, and then they go and break your husbands toe!  Anyone else have wire issues?  

So my husband and my dog were both out of commission this weekend and I had no playmates!  Oh well, hopefully everyone will have recovered by next week!

How was your weekend my friends?

A Hike in the Forest and a Friend of Yogi Bear

Today we went on a little adventure to Epping Forest.  Nick and I love hiking there, and before we got Heidi we always said how much fun it would be to go there with a dog in tow.  We decided to make time for it today, even with the moving, since we won't have another chance to go there ever again.  It was more fun than we could've imagined.  Heidi was running laps around us.  Her gun dog genes kicked in and she was in her element.

She was definitely living up to her pointer name!  (and Nick managed to catch her in the act... finally!)

We sneaked into some Bear Grylls style shelters, but decided the whole survivor deal isn't for us.  They were a bit soggy and cramped inside.

Then we tried our hand at some wildlife photography... and got some pictures of these underwater lovers.

I tried my best to get a good shot of this bird, but it was not cooperating.  I have to admit it looked a lot more interesting before I blew it up on my computer anyways.

Also, we met a lot of fun dogs, including the son of this year's Crufts champion, the Hungarian Vizsla named Yogi!

Of course, Nick had the camera at that point, and I thought the owner would think I was effing weird if I was like "Nick take a picture of that dog!  We're in the presence of greatness!" Apparently, the guy bought him three and half years ago, before Yogi was a doggy sensation, and didn't pay much for him at all.  For those of you who don't get it - let's just say this guy hit the jackpot as far as buying a purebred dog goes.  I'm usually the type who is all "Have your pet spayed or neutered" ala Bob Barker, but man this owner must have been so pumped his vizsla still had the family jewels in tact.  He's gonna get paid a lot of money for letting his dog bang some bitches... Do you think his pick up line will be,"Hey there Boo Boo!"??? 

(you know... like Yogi bear and Boo boo? Yes? No? Are my obscure pop culture references lost on you?)