Where Did You Go?

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t posted in ages… well more like 5 weeks! My last post on Social Media was about making your dreams become plans for your life.

It’s one of my favourite quotes to give some inspiration to making your dreams a reality.

It probably felt like I pumped the brakes on those dreams since I seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth, but that is far from the truth!

I should have let my followers know what was up! Anyone that is close to me should know where I went. I just took some time off because my mom and my step-dad came over to visit for 5 weeks from the US!

Now, everyone knows the last year or so has been tumultuous for all of us. The downside mostly was not being able to travel. And I, like many, had not been able to see my parents for nearly 18 months! This is the longest time I’ve been apart from them, so it was a well overdue trip!

So in the last 5 weeks, we did a lot of exploring across a lot of England! My mom has done a lot of researching of our ancestors on ancestry.com and found that we are directly related to some of the Knights of the Garter from the 1300’s to 1500’s. When my parents were here last it was the end of 2019, and they took a day trip to Windsor Castle. She and my step-dad only had a limited time at Windsor and wanted to find the seats that our ancestors sat in at the Chapel, but only had about 30 minutes to spend there before their tour bus took off for their next tour destination. And ever since then, she has been so excited to come back and follow our history. This time around, she was armed with so much more knowledge which lead us down a much more historical path!

During their 10 day quarantine, they helped me remodel our utility room to make it more functional as a mud-room and more of a useful space with loads of storage (pictures to follow). After this, we began to plan the rest of our trip! We planned a trip to Dover to see the Castle and the White Cliffs. My mom had traced my dad’s side of our family tree all the way back to William the Conqueror (sounds impressive, yeah he’s my 31st great grandfather, but I probably share this line with about 5 million other people…). So we had to go check out my Great Grandfather’s castle real quick, and then she wanted to see the White Cliffs of Dover, which are stunning to see in person. That little weekend trip was quite fun and we loved every second!

The following weekend was Silverstone British Grand Prix. They had bought the 4 of us tickets to go for Christmas, on the hope that they’d be able to travel out here for the race, and we took our lateral flow tests and off we went to one of the most amazing F1 races I had ever seen! It was also my parents FIRST F1 race, and what an amazing one as the first one you go to! We had an amazing day, and were exhausted by the time we got home!

I got my mom (and the rest of us) tickets to visit Highclere Castle (the one from Downton Abbey), and the Tuesday after Silverstone, we headed there to explore another castle and see all the history there, as well as the Egyptian Exhibit they had on display. It was simply beautiful, just as I imagined it would be, grand and breathtaking. We decided we would all have to watch the show again after having been there.

We went to Windsor Castle on Thursday and FINALLY my mom was ready to find all our ancestors that were Knights of the Garter, and find their seats in the chapel. We were unable to find the exact chair (back then all the signs were written in Latin) but the person we asked that worked there, was able to show us their crest and he knew that his plaque was hung on one of the chairs. So we were in the right place! We went throughout the rest of the castle and saw the room where they would have been knighted and walked through the same rooms and halls that so many royal people would have walked through.

We then planned a trip up to northern England to Raby Castle. This was the castle that my mom’s ancestors built back in the 1360's to the 1390’s. We stayed up north for a few days and spent the better part of a whole day at Raby Castle. So much of the castle was just the way it was 700 years ago, but a lot of it had been renovated and upgraded throughout the 1600’s and 1700’s. The rooms were some of the most decadent I have ever seen, some with chandeliers made of hundreds of crystals that hung 10 feet down from the ceiling with the most ornate decor. On our way out of the town, we ended up going to the church down the road to see our ancestors final resting place. Their effigies placed in the church which we were able to visit with for a little while before heading home.

The last few days of their visit with us, was spent with family and friends and more time together which we have needed for so long!

So, I haven’t gone far, just here, there, and everywhere!

I did do some work while they were here! I had a few birthday cupcakes to make for some of my friends! Those are on my social media pages! Anyway, I’m back at it and ready for all your orders to come rolling in!