England

So, here we are...England!!!

The flight over here was really long. We had to take 2 planes, flying from SLC to JFK and then JFK to Surrey England. All of our kids did very well and surprisingly enough they staid up the whole trip. Ryder, however was miserable! Poor little guy, and poor passengers. For those of you who doesn't know this, Ryder doesn't cry, he just screams! Happy, sad, hungry, poopy all equals SCREAM! So, yes, airplane ride wasn't that fun for most of us.
The older kiddos just LOVED the big airplane. They had their own tv with movies, and games,and tv shows that they could pick and watch/play. Then bringing of the food and snacks and drinks made it really fun for them. Drews face was absolutely priceless, when he lifted window covering and saw sunrise. He couldn't believe that he staid up the whole night (his words) When Rylee saw her first Double-Decker bus she got the biggest grin on her face. We can't wait to ride it while we are here.
We were greeted by a man name John Burns. Troy's company had hired him here in UK, finding him through LDS job services (yes, he is LDS) isn't that great!
Thank goodness to John, we were able to load up his car with all of our luggage and we drove bus to the car rental place. We were lucky to find car that will fit all of us. However, non of our luggage!People here are not used to having so many kids. We are daily reminded of that by stair at us and smiles and commons such as: " You two have been really bissy.....Yes, bissy in deed!"
Friday was pretty much gone, us sleeping!!! Saturday and Sunday felt like we were in twilight zone. Time change isn't fun. We drove to the beach and had diner somewhere in the park. On Sunday we went to church and were greeted by a very friendly people! It was fantastic to be at church and felt like we were kind of at home. After church John had invited us over for diner and so, we had BQ at his house. It was lovely (can you tell, I'm already speaking with English accent ;)
House hunting here is a whole different animal then in the states. Gush where to begin....
All Monday we spent driving from town to town to Renting Agencies (they call it Lettings here) You have to register with an agent and he/she will have listing for you for that city. Then we go to the next city and do it all over again. Now, most agents won't show you any property that same day, so you have to wait till they can ;( Also, they ask the most interesting questions. Like, so, you have 4 kids and you are looking for 3 bedroom home, how are you going to sleep your children? Seriously? What biz is it of yours? Then they do crazy back ground check on you,(they say it takes like up to 6weeks) and us being from the US, I don't know how it's going to work out. We hope that Troy's employer can back us up on this and secure our "rent-worthy" on their side....and will allow us to get a house in less then 6 weeks from now.
Though, we can look for the house pretty much anywhere we'd like, because of John(guy that Troy's company had hired)Troy felt it had to be with in descent travel distance for him. Country itself isn't that big, but for Brits 20 min travel seems like 2 hrs for us.
So we have been mostly looking for homes in the South East of London. Kind of around London Temple it is in Surrey area. It is mostly made of small towns and darling villages. There isn't a doubt about that the villages are so, so cute. Unfortunately, not very much for rent there, and what is for rent isn't very cute. Apart from the fact that the England is very old country and so houses are old and I'm talking like 1930 old or older. Places that are for rent usually kind of scary!
Few days ago we found what we felt was a perfect home for us, and as we were "falling in love" with the house, other people wrote a deposit check to the Realtor, and our "love" was gone just like that. We found ourselves speechless, and felt kind of rubbed.
At the main time the best we have come up with is two houses in the middle of NOWHERE ! We have put an offer on one of them and are waiting to hear from the owners if they will accept it. (it's kind of like buying it here) Oh, and also, we are going to be responsible for paying taxes on the house here. Crazy, right?!
So the house is old, but kind of charming. It has 3 bedrooms (one of which in in the attic and the only way to get there is by this crazy ladder. There is no way I am putting kids sleeping there (they will fall off from there at night if they ever would get up to come to see me or go to the bathroom, which they do on the regular bassis. But I think it's going to be a fun place for the kids to play. We will take the smaller 2nd bedroom and put all the kiddos in the master bedroom. We really like the kitchen (though it's old) at list it's big, and I guess, that's what we like the most is the openness of the house(most houses here are very small and narrow)
This country home has great yard, or what they call it here garden. We feel it's going to be great for the kiddos. The down fall, is that there is NOTHING around at all. The closest store is like 6 miles away. I told Troy, I need TV, Computer with Internet,and Sawing machine. And, though, I am resisting, I will have to learn how to drive here. For which I am not excited. People drive here like crazy maniacs, and roads are sooo very narrow. You can't have two way traffic. When you come face to face with upcoming car, you just have to back up till you can find a space to get to the side of the road. It's crazy. If our offer on the house is excepted I will post some pictures of the house.
This Sunday, sense we couldn't look for the house, we have decided to go find a castle. And castle did we find. It was AWESOME!!! Here are some pictures.
So, that's what we did our first week in England! We miss you all.