March

March came and went way to fast. Owen was stuck in the office at work quite a bit so he didn't get to fly as much as he would have liked. The first part of the month, the base sponsored a "Legends of Aerospace" visit. With that visit came Neil Armstrong first man to walk on the moon, Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, the last man to step foot on the moon Gene Cernan, SR-71 Blackbird chief test pilot Bob Gilliland, and the first and only US Air Force pilot ace Steve Ritchie. It was an exciting night. We got to sit and listen to each one of them tell their stories. what an amazing group of men.

Later that month, we had some more wonderful people come and visit us for a few days. My sister's Shayla and Stephanie and her friend Derek were able to get away from work and school and come see life in England. We had a great time showing them all the different things around our area and London. I was so happy to have them come but really sad to see them leave.
(miss you girls).

Later in the month, Owen and I did a high ropes course with a couple of our friends, Joe and Erin. I never ever thought I would be doing something like this. I am glad I have done it but was pretty scared the whole way through. It was fun though I am not sure if I want to do it again.

Owen at a motor cycle training course
(can you tell it was mustache march)

At the training

Stephanie, Shayla, and I at Orford Castle

Oxburgh Hall- a mansion with a mote

Us in front of Oxburgh Hall

Shayla, Derek, and Stephanie at Oxburgh Hall

London- Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard

London- Buckingham Palace

Changing of the Guard

London- Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard

London- Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard- Band

Stephanie and Shayla eating soft serve ice cream in Ely

Shayla and I in Ely

Legends of Aerospace (l-r)
Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, Gene Cernan, Steve Ritchie, Bob GillilandGO APE- Ropes Course
Joe, Erin, Owen, and I

Owen and Erin on the bottom, I on the top

Owen trying to walk across the net.

I walking on one of the courses. This one wasn't too bad

Here are a couple of videos from Go Ape. I hope they work for you and you can enjoy a good laugh.

April

April found us doing some more traveling. A friend and her little girl and I decided to take a car ride and drive to Amsterdam, Holland for the weekend (7 hrs). We drove from our place to Dover (on the coast) and boarded the ferry to France. From there we drove all the way back up the coast line to Amsterdam. It was a great adventure as neither her or I had been there let alone drive. We toured Keukenhof Gardens- world famous gardens, full of lots and lots of tulips plus other types of flower. We took a bus tour of Amsterdam and also visited Anne Frank's house. The whole trip was amazing. We had beautiful weather the whole time and had a blast together. Thanks Melissa and Elaina for dragging me along. I will never forget this trip.

The following week/weekend was spring break for me at school, so Owen and I packed up the motorcycle and rode down to Stonehenge, Bath, and Cheddar. This was our first time riding together on a long trip. It was about 3 hours down there. The ride went pretty smooth and was actually more comfortable than I had expected. The weather was perfect. Sunny and semi-warm the whole weekend. We saw Stonehenge for a few minutes, that was about all you really needed unless you wanted a whole history lesson on it. Then we drove on down to Cheddar. Cheddar is a little village placed in a gorge. We got there a little later than we wanted to but were able to tour one of the caves there. We also bought some cheddar cheese made only in Cheddar. After leaving there we headed to the city of Bath. We had reserved a room in an old court house just outside of Bath. They had turned it into a B&B. Each room was unique. We didn't stay in these but they had taken the jail cells and converted them into guest rooms. They were very interesting. The court room itself was turned into a grand dinning room/living room. We had a wonderful time there. That night we had dinner aboard an old train. It was a cool experience with great food. The next day we headed into Bath. There we joined a walking tour of the city. It was very informative. We saw the Roman Baths and the chapel. We really enjoyed this little city. That evening we treated ourselves to a 3 hour spa session in the Thermal Spa. It was a great place to relax. They had a room with 4 different saunas and each sauna had a different aroma coming out of it. They had a roof top pool and a pool in on the lower floor. We also were served dinner there. It was wonderful relaxing trip. Plus the scenery made it worth the whole trip. It is such a beautiful area.

On the ferry heading to France

An old windmill in Holland

The oldest windmill in Amsterdam

Anne Frank's house- Amsterdam

I thought these were rather interesting.

Urinals in the middle of townKeukenhof Gardens- Holland

Keukenhof Gardens- Holland

Keukenhof Gardens- Holland

Keukenhof Gardens- Holland

Keukenhof Gardens- Holland

These tulips came up past my waist!!

Bike trip to Bath

This is where we had supper our first night

on the train for supper

The Court room of our B&B

One of the jail cell rooms

The river in Bath

The Roman Baths

Inside the Roman Baths

A view from the Spa- we weren't allowed to take any pictures of /at the spa but I was able to get this one before we left. The roof top pool had a great view of the city.This is the Jane Austin Museum Cheddar Gorge

Village of Cheddar

More of Cheddar and the gorge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Oh and for our exciting news. We found out this month we are moving to Fairchild AFB, Washington. It is located in Spokane, Washington, close to the Idaho boarder. We are pretty excited to be moving back to the states. We are set to move the end of August. We will really miss England and all our great friends but can't wait to be closer to family. So if you are still wanting to visit you better get over here soon as we will be packing out our things sometime late July/August.

May

On to May, we started out this month rather interesting. We went to two dress up events within a few days of each other. I say this because it is just not something we do very often and to have done it twice so close together was wonderful. First off we went with a group of friends to our first horse race. It was so exciting. We all dressed up, guys in suits and ties and girls in cocktail dresses and enjoyed a wonderful sunny day at the race course. I was a little disappointed in the lack of big hat wearing, I expected to see a lot of hat but saw only a handful. We watched 5 races and placed a bid on one of them. We placed a 2 pound bid on a horse but didn't win but could have won 160 pounds, oh well. It was a fun experience.

Our other dress up event we went to was a formal dinner at a college in Cambridge. A friend from the squadron goes to school there and every Tuesday night they have a formal 3 course dinner. He invited a group of us to go and enjoy the evening with him. We had a great time and are glad to experience something like this. It was wonderful.

Well this is the last of the catch up blogs. Next time I will try and not get so far behind. As for right now we have only one more big trip planned. We are trying to plan a motorcycle trip through Scotland before we leave. Can't wait to see all of you again soon. Hope everyone is doing well and would love to hear from you.
Love,
Sara and Owen

My 26th Birthday

On January 2nd I turned 26. We celebrated by having a few friends over for pizza, drinks, and games. I had a wonderful time and wouldn't have wanted to spend it any other way. We have made some pretty awesome friends while here and are starting to realize how much we are going to miss them when we move this summer. We know though that the Air Force is small and we will probably see each other again in the future. (fingers crossed).

On my 26th B-Day

Our wonderful friends (minus many)

I, Owen, Jake, Sarina

Andrea, Kyle, Jordan, Lexi, Courtney