We had quite an eventful weekend. Yesterday we went on a hiking adventure with the McFadden clan - Caton, Mark, Anna, Scout, and Duncan (sorry Dunc, someone had to be last). We drove up to Chipping Campden, which is in the Cotswolds, hiked around for quite a while, had a few mandatory indulge-in-the-GORP breaks, got minorly lost on the way back, finally found a WONDERFUL pub, and found our way back to the car for an exhausted drive home. The GORP (which actually stands for Good Old Raisins & Peanuts but ends up being a bunch of other yummy treats mixed together) was amazing. The pub lunch was amazing. A shandy (half lager, half “lemonade aka. sprite) tastes pretty darn delicious after a meandering hot hike. The drive back was most certainly enhanced by the vocal stylings of Caton, who has of late built up QUITE the repertoire of baby-appropriate tunes. All in all, a wonderful day.

Today, Andy and I went to the National Portrayte Gallery. That’s how they say it. Portraytes. It’s basically a medium-sized museum filled with hundreds of paintings of various British dignitaries. The section on the “Struggle for America,” which some of you know as the Revolutionary WAR, included one of George Washington and about four of some British guys. Then again, I’m sure the American Portrayte Gallery would probably have one of George III and about 600 of some American guys. So it’s only fair. Anyway I decided I want to have my portrayte done. BUT first I need a really fancy dress and actually I don’t really want to sit there and wait for it, so maybe they could take a picture and paint from that? Not sure how these things work these days. For a lady of honor like me, I’m sure that proper arrangements can be made.

Besides the National Portrayte Gallery, and INFINITELY more important, is that today Andy and I decided to make carrot cake. This is our first time with carrot cake, and so far things are going splendidly. For the record, all I did was grate the carrots and help carry the groceries home, but still - that’s helping! SOOooooo what I am doing now, besides posting to the blog, is waiting quite anxiously for the carrot cake to finish chilling, for goodness’s sake, because SOMEONE needs to taste it, and it might as well be me.

Here are some pictures of our hike in Chipping Campden , and here are the ones I promised of the Changing of the Guards. Enjoy!