S'mores....S'what?

Had one of Na's friends over and it was such a calm, cool night, we went to get the equivalent version of ingredients for S'mores.
Marshmallows - you have to buy a bag with both strawberry and regular marshmallows.
Hershey's chocolate bars - I bought 'milky bars' actually they were white chocolate but I've since found something similar to our thin chocolate bars.
Graham Crackers - 'Digestives' are a good sub

They roast marshmallows here but they don't do 'S'mores'. Oliver thought they were 'gorgeous'. He also loved sausage gravy for dinner - could be a budding southerner in our midst!

Cruise and Walk

Saturday we took 17 of us from the youth group on a boat ride across Lake Windemere, 4 mile walk along the lake and then another two boat rides to get back where we started in Ambleside. I checked the weather before we left feeling good that the radar showed rain only til 10 a.m. clearing til about 4. Perfect - we left Whitehaven at 9:30 in the rain. No worries - the radar said it would clear by 10 so the 10:50 boat launch would be dry. Weathermen...what do they know? Obviously, not enough! It pretty much rained most of the day - ranging from a light English mist to sunshine peaking through to 'full on' rain. The kids were good sports even though many of them had dressed for fashion not for a walk in the boggy path along the lake. Regardless of the weather, the fall colors were pretty and the surrounding mountains, lake, and sailboats made a very picturesque walk. The cute umbrellas are two German exchange students we've met that have joined some of our youth activities.

The guy in the front of the boat with Dennis is Tom, the curate, or assistant pastor that does the weekly teaching at CYFA or youth group. He's married to a New Zealander, came up here from London, trained as an oboeist and then went into the ministry. did his first training at All Soul's Church in London where John Stott is from. He's great with the kids and very relavent. The picture of Dennis and Julieanne is when we stopped at a Costa Coffee for something hot to drink. The first picture is the 'before' the hike and the last pic is the end. You can see they're pretty upbeat at the end. Teenagers are teenagers here and back home.

Field Hockey and Soccer

Most Saturdays we have treked to watch either soccer or hockey matches if not both. The real fun started one Saturday when the matches were played in the pouring wind and rain. Up to this point I only owned wellies (rain boots) and a great waterproof jacket. Both work great but that leaves about two feet of unprotected area so naturally after one game in the rain I had to go home throw everything in the dryer and then head out for the next match only to return to do the same thing. The spectators, which aren't too many stand - there are no bleachers and people don't bring those fold up camp chairs.

All of these photos were taken on clear days - I don't take my camera out too much in windy rain for obvious reasons. Anna Catherine is really enjoying field hockey as I've mentioned before. She has been playing a mid fielder position so she gets to do both defense and offense. Her team plays about 20 minutes from their school on an astroturf pitch while Julieanne's age group slogs it out in the mucky grass field. It's a bit muddy but that just adds to the challenge. Nathan's team usually plays on the astroturf. This photo was taken when his team was getting stomped and Na was upset feeling like it was his fault. That's the problem with being a goalie - people don't remember the 10 blocks you made - just the 5 you let in.....This is a stretching position for Nathan to play as he can shut down mentally if he gets discouraged and then the game really is over. He is learning to work through that in school, at home and on the sports field - a huge life lesson no doubt. Thankfully, his coach is pretty undersatnding as you can see here in the picture - a strong back defense helps too.