National Space Centre & Coventry Cathedral Visit

Sorry it took me so long to update ... it's been a busy couple of weeks. To make up for lost time, I've added 3 new entries. ;o)

On Saturday, we decided to head to Leicester (about 1.5 hours from our house) to visit the National Space Centre. We weren't necessarily sure what to expect upon our arrival; however were very pleasantly surprised as there was a ton of hand-on activities for the kids to participate in and the entire visit was very informative for all of us. While Brett, Kendall, and Kameron enjoyed learning new things and doing the hands-on activities, Kameron has proven to us that she definitely has "engineer" in her blood. On some of the activities, we basically had to peel her away. ;o)



Building a rocket


A replica of the Columbus spacecraft


Making a rocket fly





Since we were already in the general vicinity of the Coventry (only about 35 minutes from Leicester), we decided to visit the Coventry Cathedral, also known as St. Michael's Cathedral. All that remains of thie original cathedral is a ruined shell as it was bombed during WW II. Next to old St. Michael's is the new St Michael's Cathedral which was built after the destruction of the former. I found it amazing to look at the shell of the cathedral to see what actually withstood the bombing. On some of the windows, you could still see portions of stained glass that survived.





Stained glass that withstood the bombing

And, of course, on our drive home we stopped in Milton Keynes to buy some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and enjoy dinner at TGI Fridays. (We were also planning to buy a lot of Auntie Anne's pretzels -- but unfortunately the shop has closed due to 'staff shortages' ... so I'll just have to make up for lost time by eating a ton of them when we return to Peoria at Christmas.) ;o)

We have a busy few days ahead of us getting together with friends and then getting ready for our trip to Egypt. I'm sure I'll update the blog before Thursday; however in case I don't have a chance to...while I know travelling to Egypt will be a once-in-a-lifetime trip and I'm sure it will turn out to be absolutely fabulous, I'm a bit nervous (okay -- really nervous!) about travelling to Cairo and Luxor (probably because it is such unknown territory to me). So if you wouldn't mind, please keep our family in your prayers to ensure we have safe travels. Many, many, many thanks...