So...we are moving home

As I wrote the title of this post, my heart felt a little heavy.  As I wrote the word "home", it dawned on me that for the past 3 years, Marlow has really been our home.  I remember writing our first post when we were leaving Melrose and wondering how will this adventure turn out, how leaving our families and friends was heartbreaking, how the unknown was exciting and a bit scary- I remember all of it.

Some people believe that you can only have one place to call home, others believe that you can dub many places your home, some say home is where the heart is or home is a feeling not a place.  For us, it is for sure a feeling, it is where is where our hearts are, it isn't our only home, it is where my husband and children are, it is where our story begins, changes and grows. One of Mark's colleagues told him that Marlow is our spiritual home. We couldn't have agreed more.

What a wonderful experience we have had here and we are so fortunate that Mark was given this opportunity as a result of his hard work.  We have been able to see different parts of the world, make friends we will have for life and had our family and friends share our home and love for our adopted country.

When we moved here Oliver and Henry were 3.5 years old. I don't think I could write all of the changes they have been through- it would take weeks.  From small changes to big changes.  To put it in perspective, they were still in their cribs when we moved! They started kindergarten, moved on to grade 1, learned to read and complete math equations, Henry lost his first tooth and found a love for history and art, Oliver became a fluent reader and loves creating stories. Both learned how to swim here.  They both changed their words as they acclimated to their British life and inevitably took on little British accents as they listened to their teachers and friends.

When we moved here Mark and I were still 39! Goodness. We learned a lot ourselves - such as... how to drive in the UK and obtained a UK license, learned what quality family time was, learned how to navigate airports of any size with small children, appreciated the feeling of coming home- no matter where that was, understand the different definitions of "tea", fell in love with curry, changed our wardrobe to accommodate balls and black tie events, learned that the bigger the fascinator the better, obtained a soft spot for the Royal Family, learned how to pack the night before a trip or the morning of, found a new appreciation for world history and we inherited the bug to travel! That is just the short list.

All of this plus the amazing ability to travel and expose the kids to different food and culture- we were blessed. When I ask the boys to name a favorite place, they can't. They loved something about every trip! 

Here is the running list of places we have been in nearly 3 years:
(I say running because we aren't done yet!):

Madrid, Spain
Saas Fee, Switzerland
Zauchensee, Austria
Barcelona, Spain
Crete, Greece
Algarve, Portugal
Nice, France
Paris, France
Munich, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Ireland
Edinburgh,Scotland
Llansaint,Wales
Rome, Italy
Sicily, Italy
Marrakesh, Morocco


Inside England:
London- countless times
Corwall- St. Ives, Tintagel, Padstow, Port Issac
Oxford
Bath
Stonehenge (how many times Mark??)
Salisbury
Bournemouth
Poole


If I'm forgetting some, then it's in the blog anyway!

I started this post a few days before we left Marlow. I was emotional, without Mark for a month, tired and anxious. Re-reading it today, I still feel the same about what home is to us.

Currently, we are back in Massachusetts and trying to settle back in. I'm not going to lie, it hasn't been that easy acclimating again. There are parts of us that want to go back and stay forever. It was that good. The upside is that we have people there - Jo, Simon, Liv, Sophia, Annie, Ned, Ollie, Emma, Ray, Beth, Ollie, Lucy, Paul, Tom and Nicky, Lou, Kate, Steve, Andrew, Janet, Jill, Simon, Chris, Helen, Bex, Louise, Jenna, Julie, Vic, Carly, Alfie, Lisa and Ewan. - all part of our new family.

All of that being said, we have loved seeing our family here (our friends included) now that we are home- the family who sent us off with love and blessings when it may not have been the easiest thing to do, the family that visited us and created life long memories, the family that didn't waiver when we signed on for 1 more year, the family that accommodated us every time we came home to visit and the family that welcomed us back home with open arms. You were always present in our hearts and minds.

Cheers to our family, near and far....thanks for supporting our journey!


Below are some photos from our last weeks in Marlow...

                            Started with a goodbye party...almost all of our friends were there!

                                 I took the boys to Charlie and The Chocolate Factory in London.

                                              We spent a lot of time in Higginson Park.

 

                                                          Salute to our favorite park.

                                                Wittington Green and Fairfield House

                                                                  Marlow High Street

                                                            All Saints Church, Marlow

                                                   Should read "Best Village Ever".

Last day at Danesfield school. 

                                            Saying goodbye to the house was not easy.

Many fun times on this swing set!!

                                                           My babes 3 years ago. Think they've grown?

Ahhhh it's been good Marlow. 

                                                  A silly one for good measure.

                 

                                                       A few pics with great friends.

Our last morning in Marlow. 

                                        One last call to Nana to tell her we'll be home soon.

                           
                                   Hugs as we waited for our taxi to bring us to Heathrow.

                                         Henry's face sums up how we all felt when we left.

                                                      Cheers for now Marlow, England.

Marrakesh, Morocco

Yes, you read that correctly. Morocco. Who goes to Morocco??  Well, it happens that a lot of people we know here have been and we made the right choice when we chose it to be our final destination trip before we moved back to the USA.

Morocco is different than any of the other places we have visited while we've been here.  Everything from the food, the language,  the sights and smells- all very unique.  The boys really took it all in and we enjoyed watching them experience something so different.  The moments we had couldn't be replicated and will never be forgotten.

We stayed a really lovely resort. You would never know that the crazy city of Marrakesh was on the outside of these walls.

Our camel ride through the desert was one of the highlights of our trip. It's not every day that you can drive to the middle of no where and hop on a camel for 2 hours.  The boys really enjoyed the ride and managed it really well.  We rode one hour in and stopped at a traditional Barber house for mint tea and moroccan pancakes.  Yum.

On our way to a traditional Moroccan dinner.  This involved belly dancers, musicians, singers, acrobats, and snake charmers! It was a really good time!

 Henry volunteered to go up to have the snake wrapped around his neck! 

And it gave him a kiss. No worries, no one was panicking! 

The show started at 8:30 at night...needless to say it was past their bed time but he did eventually wake up and rally.

The next day we were taken into the Medina  (city center to see the souks). Souks are essentially large market places that are confined by narrow alley ways.  With in the old city of Marrakech there are small communities - each one has it's own community bread oven and hammam (steambath). The hammam is is an ancient and integral part of Moroccan life as water, which is considered sacred, and cleanliness, are essential elements of Islam. In a part of the world where family and community are everything, the hammam is deeply rooted in everyday communal life. This is where people go to socialise, gossip, make connections, do business and even arrange marriages.

There are hammams throughout the Medina; some are basic – a couple of small tiled rooms, announced by a faded ‘Sunsilk’ sign – and others are hundreds of years old and full of character, with great domed rooms heated by wood fires under the buildings and multi-colored beams of sunlight filtering through stained glass into the steamy darkness within.

Below is one of the community ovens. Dough is brought to him by community members each morning. His job is to bake it.  He distinguishes each persons bread by making special markings on the dough as it bakes. 

Our guide brought us to what is now a historical building.  It used to be a boarding school. The court garden was their place for prayer. The pictures don't really show the beauty of the architecture but it was stunning.  

**A note.  Islam religion states that you perform daily prayer 5 times a day.  In the city of Marrakesh the call to prayer is piped through speakers 5 times a day to serve as a reminder to pray.  What you hear is actually a prayer throughout the city.  It stated at 5am. 

To read more about daily prayer click here  

Yes, this is them drinking Fanta.  Long story but it started out by asking if I could have orange juice in Sicily- they handed me a Fanta. I couldn't go through another 15 minutes of trying to get a proper drink. So Fanta - it's a new addiction. And yes only on holidays. 

Upon closer inspection of this picture I see the snake is wrapped around Henry's neck. I didn't see this moment and I'm glad I didn't. 

This is better. 

This guy wanted us to take pictures at his orange juice stall.  

We were trying to get a good picture of the olives next to me but we had to always be careful of what we were taking pictures of because if someone thought that we were taking pictures of them they would expect money. 

Youseff was our guide for the day. He was great and took us to many different areas of the souk.  Places we may not have ventured on our own.  Our first visit was on a Friday, which is a holy day. It was much quieter crowd wise but we were happy about this. Especially since we went again two days later and it was mobbed. The pictures below are combination from the days we visited. 

 

It was amazing to walk down an alley that didn't look like much and then to stumble on a shop like this.  It was a beautiful renovated riad. Riads are Moroccan houses with interior gardens or courtyards.

Everyone needs a fez right??

It was so amazing that we could come back to this after a busy morning. 

One day we took a horse and buggy to the Majorelle Garden.  Very, very pretty manicured gardens smack dab in the middle of chaos. You would never know what was going on outside the walls. The boys got the front seat the entire day and even cracked the whip now and then!

Back in the buggy and into the medina again. 

One of the entrances to the Medina.  The Medina is actually walled from the rest of Marrakesh. There is the new city (outside the walls) and the old city (inside the city). 

The boys having a drink at the bar. (Note the Fanta)

While this one takes a nap! 

Hanging out with the musician before our fancy dinner in which the kids had plain couscous for dinner. When in Rome...

More pictures from the souks and Medina.

Look out for the donkey's! 

This was a very cool geocache.  You had to ask for Youseff (different from Youseff our guide) and ask if he had a cache.  He was so nice to the boys and we were excited to find this cache very deep in the heart of a souk.  He was a shoe maker- thousands of leather shoes in his shop.

Literally mopeds zooming by you as your walking.

The pictures don't really do it justice but the size of these shops are so small- it is amazing that this is what their daily life consists of. 

Some of these shops have been in the owners families for several generations.  In some areas of the souk, their very small living quarters is directly above the shop.

Going out for our final dinner in Morocco. 

On this particular night we went to restaurant located about 15 minutes into the Medina from our resort.  La Fondouk   It happened to be in a part we hadn't seen before.  The taxi could only take us so far as it couldn't get down the alley. So, two young boys escorted us to the restaurant for a small fee. Coincidentally, they were waiting for us when we left to help us find our taxi to go home.  It was worth every cent.

This was the outside of our Ksar.  It was the perfect home to come back to after so much stimulation in the heart of Marrakesh.

Marrakesh. It was a very cool place to visit. The boys were exposed to so much as were we. At the end of every trip I always ask myself if we would go back and for sure we would.