Canoeing and camping

 Meanwhile, over in Michigan, our girl is up hanging out with Drew's family at their pad.  She and Drew went on an overnight canoeing trip which sounded really fun.

First suit

Today Rhods and I took Tryfan into Royal Tunbridge Wells in order to buy him his first suit.  We went to M&S, then to another shop, then finally to Moss Bros where we found the right combination of quality, fit and overall look.  Now he can attend both Prom on June 27th and Iain & Angela's wedding on July 20th in style.

Nice day for a ride

 Rhods went for a solo bike ride today and it looked beautiful out there from Firle Beacon.  Its so nice to have a long weekend with the late May bank holiday tomorrow (same as Memorial Day in the USA).

Paddling with the Mermadams

Today we did our normal Saturday morning swim, and then we all went for a further adventure over at Cuckmere Haven.  We packed a picnic and rented a bunch of kayaks and had a grand ole time!

This was in celebration of Emma's birthday.

Elderflower fields

This festival, called Elderflower Fields, takes place at a venue that is walking distance from us, and so this year Tryfan and his two friends, Sam and Harrison, decided to sneak in with homemade entry bracelets. They were pretty proud of themselves.  The only problem was that Tryfan used some first aid cream that he thought was a weird-smelling glue stick, so his paper bracelet fell off at some point and he was questioned by a security guard.  Fortunately the mother of a friend of his put in a good word for him and he didn't get kicked out.

It was pretty funny hearing the stories about their adventure the next day.

Graduation aftermath

Yesterday and today have been full of saying goodbye, closing things, and moving out. It was a very emotional and exhausting couple of days, and actually it was a relief to get onto the plane to start our journey back to England.  

Rhiannon didn't come back with us, because she elected to spend about 10 days with Drew and his family up in Michigan before planning to come home on June 1-2.  Bye for now, St. Louis!

Graduation

Today was a really emotional day, starting with Sunday School where Rhi had to say goodbye to her Sunday School teacher, Randy.  

Then at the main event, the graduation ceremony which took place at 2pm, it was all very formal and well organized.   

Here is the money shot:

Once everyone had crossed the stage and then threw their caps in the air, we went outside for the reception. 

After everything was finished, we changed clothes and headed over to Drew's parents' house for the evening.  We had a lovely meal and played cards, and it was a very enjoyable evening!

Few days of build up

 This morning was the annual Award Ceremony at Principia, and Rhodri and I were really happy to be able to attend it.  Rhiannon earned two awards: Excellent Senior Project and recognition that she will graduate "With Honors", both of which are awesome achievements!! We are so proud.

After the awards ceremony, there was a Parents' Gratitude service which was very emotional.  I'm glad that we were able to attend this, however.  It was nice to meet some of the parents of Rhiannon's friends and celebrate all the achievements of this cohort of students.  After this service, we did some more white dress shopping but still didn't manage to find the right one.  We also did a bit of moving out. Here is her bedroom that she needed to move completely out of, and then she joined us at the hotel.

We found a nice place to have lunch in the grounds of a church on Clayton Road

And then we spent some time by the pool, just because we could!  It is a great pool, and the weather was lovely for spending a bit of time relaxing in it.

On Saturday morning we met Drew for breakfast at First Watch, and then we continued our quest for a white dress.

We did manage to find a lovely dress this afternoon, and then just as we thought we were all done... "I need new shoes, too".  Doh!  But that wasn't as painful of an experience, so we quickly found some decent shoes for the occasion and moved on with life, including a dinner reservation at Flemings near the hotel, which was great.  Tomorrow is the big day!

Traveling to St Louis for a big occasion

Rhodri and I made our way to St. Louis this week so that we could attend Rhiannon's graduation from Principia School on this coming Sunday.  We traveled on Wednesday from London through Chicago to St. Louis, arriving at 8 pm ish.  This wasn't the original plan, since we had deliberately booked a flight with Air Canada via Montreal so that we could avoid Chicago! But we got notice on Tuesday after we had checked in for the flight that our flight was cancelled and we were rebooked on United via Chicago.  Whatever. It turned out totally fine in the end.  So we checked into our hotel at Hilton Frontenac and had a good first night sleep on Wednesday night.  

Then Thursday morning we got up quite early in order to collect the rental car at 7:30 am from a spot near the hotel.  Taking advantage of the free shuttle service from the hotel, we collected a giant red pickup truck!  This was not what I had booked, but I was pretty excited about it.

We then picked up Rhiannon from Principia and took her to a doctor's appointment since her foot was still bothering her since a football (soccer) collision a couple of weeks ago.  It was great that we could be there to take her to this appointment and spend the day with her.  Classes are finished for her now, so it was just a few special occasions that are scheduled to take place now in the final days of her high school experience.  

After the appointment, we headed to a shopping mall to look for a white dress for her to wear under her graduation gown.  So that took the rest of the afternoon, and we didn't manage to find the 'right' one, but we enjoyed just being with our girl.

Aurora borealis way down south

 Tonight we went to the Danehill Club for the Open Mic night, and it was pretty fun.  We had heard that there was a big magnetic solar storm going on right now and that we might be able to see it from our latitude at 52 degrees North.  But we didn't expect to actually see anything!  I was brushing my teeth around 11:30 pm and looking out the window (which faces north), and I noticed that part of the sky was slightly red and another part of the sky was slightly green, so we jumped into the car and drove up to the Mile Straight so we could have a good view of the sky.

Eventually we headed back home so that we could go to bed, but it was pretty exciting! Loads of our neighbors were out and about enjoying the aurora as well.

Gill, at last

Today I went into London again for a work event that I was participating in.  I was able to finally meet up with my former manager Gill from years ago, and I was so happy to be able to see her.  We have been trying to meet up for over 2 years now, and it just hasn't worked out until today.

She is from Northern Ireland and since Rhodri and I just visited there only last month, it was fresh in my mind and I loved being able to hear Gill talk about her history there.  

An amazing reunion

Our long lost former neighbor from Reno, Alyssa, was transiting through London today so Rhodri and I made a very rare journey into the city so that we could meet up with her.

It was so amazing to see her after all these years.  Her mother, Leann, came to see us last year around this time and that was super fun, but we hadn't seen Alyssa for so, so long.  Rhodri used to pick her up from school when she was 6 years old and then babysit her in the afternoon.  Crazy to see that she has turned into such a gorgeous woman with a career in photography and travel.  Really great to catch up with her.  We went to a restaurant near Paddington which was not great (but at least it was quiet), but then we went for a lovely evening walk and had a refreshing beverage at a bar near Victoria where we eventually said goodbye.  Such a lovely evening.

Azaleas in full display

This is normally my favorite time of year because flowers are finally blooming and the azaleas are particularly amazing.  With the paving stones in place now between the pod and the house, things are looking pretty good!