mark + ange guinn

Hey'a!

I can’t believe another week has passed.  And then I remember September is nearly here and I’m even more amazed.  We’re quickly coming to the first anniversary of our move here and I can hardly believe that!
Continue reading ‘Where has the week gone (and random pics)’

We took Lars and Maria and the boys to the airport on Wednesday for their flight to Denmark. We loved having company but are worn out now, and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. It’s great to have people visit us though. I think with Northern Ireland being such a similar culture and language to our own, you often don’t notice the subtle differences. I think we feel so at home here, that we don’t realize the small ways that we don’t feel at home until we get to spend time with people from home. So it’s been refreshing. Thanks to our guests. We had a great time with you.

Sometimes it’s just nice to hang out with people who call french fries french fries and spell color without a ‘u’, you know?

Walking on the promenade with the Kristiansens.

Bridge over the Shimna

Lars, Maria and the boys at Tollymore Forest Park.

We are so excited to have the whole Kristiansen gang here with us for the week.  That is Lars, Maria, Luca, and Silas for those of you who don’t know them.  They are in the process, albeit a rather long one, of moving to Newcastle to join us in our work here.  And we get them for a whole week while they’re “on their way” to Denmark to visit Lars’ family.  They’ve dealt beautifully with the jet lag, including the boys and have already begun to meet friends and explore our beloved home.  This morning we’re going to head to a coffee shop for breakfast and are particularly excited to share this place with them.

Lars sent us an email just a month or two after we’d moved about a coffee shop he’d come across  online that was for sale.  It was at the south end of town, down by the harbour, and we’d never come across it before.  So we decided to go check it out.  We saw no signs of sale, but we LOVED the shop and have been faithful patrons of it ever since.  The staff are wonderful, decor is actually cool, clientele is young-ish, and scones are the best we’ve ever eaten!  So today we get to show Lars in person the place he introduced us to virtually.  What fun!

We’ve got more plans for the rest of the visit, which lasts until Wednesday.  Pray for us that it will be a good, useful, and encouraging time.  We don’t know what we need to accomplish together, but we sure want it accomplished.  We’ll get some pics up soon as well as another “_______ Revisited” update from Mom and Dad S’s visit.

You might recognize some of these places by now, as this is one of our favorite places here – Tollymore Forest Park.  Some of our favorite spots were blocked off when we went because a movie (Your Highness, I’ve been told) was being filmed.  It was raining, so nobody out filming.  I’m looking forward to seeing a movie with scenes filmed in such a beloved spot!  I’ll have to wait another 2 years or so, though.  Anyway, enjoy some lovely pics…

Heading into the park.

Made it down to the river and the trees were shelter from the rain.

The water was moving more than we'd ever seen.

These are the stepping stones we usually walk over. A bit flooded today, though.

My cutie-pie mom. Who could resist such a shot?

The rain stopped by the time we left and we had some pesto in the back garden. What a satisfying day. *sigh*

My dear parents flew home yesterday after a whirlwind 3-week adventure here with us.  And we were absolute failures at communicating with the world during that time.  Sorry about that.  Right now we’re both in recovery mode, though Mark seems to be ahead of me on that front.  We’ll do some extra blogging in the next week or two to fill you in on all the fun.  Somewhere along the line you’ll get some Ange-ramble about the emotional ride of getting to be with my parents again, but I certainly need some more processing time.  So you’ll get some fun pictures and a bit about the early days of the trip.  Yeah!

After a bit of rest, we took the folks to the best chip shop in Ireland (for the last 4 years). Yum!

Then we felt the need to take a walk by the harbor in Annalong...

...and another walk on the Prom in Newcastle.

Dad was so happy to be by the sea.

Mom and I couldn't help but have Dad take cute pictures of us.

We also got to open some fun presents. Have I mentioned I love presents?

And the adventure begins.

…to be continued…