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Tag Archives: outdoors

Road Trip: Leeds Castle

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A few weeks ago, the United Kingdom celebrated what’s called the Early Spring Bank Holiday – a public holiday, held on the first Monday of May each year. (Most of Europe closes down on May 1, May Day, but England I guess didn’t want to be associated with that socialist day, so changed that public holiday to a few days later. Something like that.)

Regardless, it ended up being a lovely warm-ish early Spring day, so we loaded up the car and headed for the county of Kent, also known as the Garden of England, about an hour to the southeast. Our destination: Leeds Castle, a beautiful thousand-year-old castle on several hundred acres of land and lakes. Here’s Nyan after we strapped him into the car, clearly excited:

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We weren’t the only ones with the bright idea of visiting Leeds Castle that day; the parking lot was packed with hundreds of cars, and the line to get tickets was about 45 minutes long. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on May 21, 2013 in Photos, Video

 

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Out in the Garden (Video)

Check out this video of young Nyan Thomas as he wanders around the backyard, also known as the garden, a couple weeks back. He checks out the birds, looks at the airplanes (he tends to call them all helicopters, for some reason), examines the ants (or ‘spider’ in Nyan-speak), nibbles on a cookie, enjoys the sunshine… well, here, just watch:

But wait, it gets better, in a post-modern sort of sense. Later that day, we were showing that video to Nyan, who was watching it on the camera screen. As he watched, Daddy shot a video of Nyan watching himself on a video. Weird, right? Or something. In any case, here it is:

 
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Posted by on May 14, 2013 in Video

 

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Out for a Stroll (pics and video)

Last Friday evening was beautiful and sunny here in London (yes, we’ve been quite blessed of late with a whole lot of sunshine of late!), and on our return home from school, the young man decided he would rather take a stroll around the neighborhood than going immediately inside. Daddy was happy to oblige, and we’ve got the pictures and video to prove it. Read the rest of this entry »

 
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Posted by on April 30, 2013 in Photos, Video

 

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Down on the Farm (Pictures and Videos)

Last Sunday, the sun came out and the temperature jumped up to about 60 degrees, and nearly everyone on this little island emerged from their homes, blinking in the brightness like baby moles, and headed outside for the afternoon. We were no different. Our initial plans for a trip to the London zoo got derailed due to practicalities like naptime and whatnot, so instead we decided Nyan would get in touch with his Iowan roots and headed half an hour north of London, to a place called Lea Valley Park Farms.

It’s tucked into a lovely little valley, and it’s apparently a working farm of some sort, but they have quite a spread that’s open to visitors, with trails, a cafe or two, several areas of games and activities, and animals. Lots of animals. We saw pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, llamas, rabbits, turkeys, tortoises, chickens, cows, meerkats, guinea pigs, ponies, even an entire sled’s worth of Siberian huskies. Our boy was enthralled by some of the animals, a little freaked out by others (goats, of course, stink to high heaven, and Nyan was not impressed). Here’s a bunch of photos of the lad – expertly shot by Mommy, who was manning the camera (click on any picture to make it bigger and start a nice slideshow):

And some videos. A short one and a longer one of Nyan on the trail – inspecting rocks, falling down, and struttin’ his stuff:

And finally, the creme de la creme: Nyan Thomas riding a tractor. With a little help from Daddy:

 
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Posted by on April 22, 2013 in Photos, Video

 

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Saturday in the Back Yard

It’s finally springtime here in London, we feel it safe to say, which means more light, more sun, more warmth. Hopefully. (About bloody time, too.) And that all means more time spent outdoors for our young man. This is good all around: fresh air, exercise, new experiences, and a tired young man who will sleep all night.

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One Saturday afternoon about a month ago, it was – shockingly – chilly and grey, and definitely not yet springtime. But Nyan Thomas and Daddy were feeling a little cabin feverish. So we wrapped up tight and headed to the back yard for a bit of tromping around in the grass. We didn’t stay out long, just long enough to get some fresh air, listen to the birds, wander around a bit, and take the photo above and this video.

 

PHOTO TOO

 
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Posted by on April 18, 2013 in Video

 

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Today’s Video: Out for a Stroll, or a Toddle

Our boy’s officially a toddler now – no more crawling for this young man. We’ve been getting him as much walking exercise as we can, and today was a great day for it.

It was a chilly, windy, blustery February day – not the greatest weather the planet has ever seen, but then, this is London, so what do you expect – but there was some sunshine, so we bundled up the little man and took him for a stroll around the block and a little bit into the nearby woods. He absolutely loved it; he loved the feeling of being (sort of) independent, looking at the birds, feeling the flowers, holding Mommy’s hand, checking out the WWII tank that sits in the driveway of a house around the corner. (Yeah, a WWII tank. Don’t ask; we haven’t the foggiest). He got a little tired every now and again, given that he has tiny little legs so every adult step is like three or four steps for him; we’d carry him for a bit before he demanded to be put back down for more walking. He’s really getting good at it!

 

For our overseas viewers, I made sure that, while filming, I did a 360 pan so you could see what our street looks like. It’s a fairly typical street in a small English town, I’d say (no, we don’t live in a small town, but the neighborhood we live in definitely has more of a small town than big city feel to it).

 
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Posted by on February 2, 2013 in Video

 

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Summer Party! (with Lots of Pics and Video)

It’s definitely fall here in London — chilly, dark, rainy. So let’s think back to just a couple of short months ago, when we were enjoying summer’s last gasp with a fun-filled day outside. We’ve got lots and lots of pictures and videos. Read on…

 
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Posted by on November 2, 2012 in Photos, Video

 

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Today’s Videos: Gardening, and Dirty Boy

Here we see our hero showing off his new crawling-on-the-knees skills in Grandma and Grandpa’s back yard. Still a little unsteady, but definitely getting there.

 

And when he gets to Grandma’s Garden, he discovers… dirt! Digging in it, kicking it, making a general mess of things. Yes, our boy is a boy…

 
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Posted by on June 18, 2012 in Video

 

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Nyan Thomas Goes Swimming (pics and video)

Our boy has never, ever been afraid of being in the water; his nightly bath is perhaps his favorite time of the day, and getting him out of the tub is never easy. So we were very excited to learn that Cousin Mia had left an inflatable pool at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Last Saturday, the first hot day since we got here, we blew it up – it’s an impressive thing, with two sections, a small slide, and a seahorse that sprays water out of its mouth if you hook a hose up to it – and got Nyan into his swimsuit. Mia came over and put on her swimsuit as well, and the two of them splashed, swam and laughed for quite a while. Okay, so Nyan was a little confused at first, as you can see in the video down below: he was a wallflower, clinging to the side and tepidly splashing his hand in the water. But before long he was all over the place, as the pics prove. (Click any picture to start a slideshow)

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Photos, Video

 

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More Fun in the Great Outdoors

As you’ve seen in recent posts, young Nyan Thomas is having a grand old time during his sojourn in Iowa. And the weather has certainly cooperated: it’s been sunny and warm – but not hot or too humid – pretty much every day. That’s meant lots of time spent outdoors – parks, the back yard, strolls around the neighborhood with Grandma. We’ll have more photos and video from his time in the back yard pool soon. For now, a quick look back at some fun crawling around in the grassy back yard, and playing on the various toys at nearby Willow Creek Park.

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Posted by on June 11, 2012 in Photos

 

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