England, 2012!

So, besides Mr. & Mrs. Aspey's big day, we had a fantastic 9 days in England this year!  Mike & I started our trip with a few days in the Lake District, specifically Bowness on Lake Windemere.  Growing up, the Lake District was one of my favorite places, so it was really exciting to spend a few days there with Mike, showing him around and relaxing together on holiday!

The Cranleigh Hotel

Beautiful tulips everywhere!

Lake Windemere

We took a Lake Cruise around Lake Windemere to the south end of the lake, where the Lakeside Aquarium is located and spent a really fun afternoon there before taking the boat back to Bowness.

On the lake cruise :-)

The otter had had enough of my picture taking

We had a amazing food the entire time we were there, and our first night there found a delicious Indian Restaurant called Mela.  It was fantastic!  We also visited the oldest pub in the Lake District, "The Hole in T' Wall", seriously 400 hundred years old!  It was great, we loved it!!


Indian food!

After taking the train back from Windemere, we spent an amazing day touring the Manchester United Football Stadium, Old Trafford!  It was like Christmas for my Daddy, but we all thought it was really cool, the history in the team is really impressive.  Our tour guide has worked at Manchester United for 54 years, can you imagine?!  Now that is someone's that dedicated to their team! 

Daddy & Mike at Old Trafford

Home Team Locker Room

Old Trafford Museum & Stadium Tour!

We got to see family, see some places we always loved growing up (Blackpool is the Coney Island of Northwest England, says Mike Mahoney :-) ) and had a generally wonderful time!  We always wish there were more time to see more, do more, etc. but that's always the case with a good time.  I miss our family a lot, so it's always wonderful to spend as much time as possible together when we're there! 

Smith Family

Daddy & Uncle Andrew :-)

Pepsi Max

Mike in Blackpool aka Coney Island :-)

Blackpool promenade

Fantastic holiday for 2012!!!

Ultimately we knew we had to come home, so we could spring Lloyd & Milton out of Jail the kennel and pack up our life here to move to Nashville in just a few short weeks!  May is going to be an exciting month!! :-)