ONE YEAR "IN THE USA" ANNIVERSARY

As of today we have been living in the USA for a whole year! We can't believe how fast the time has gone. Here is a quick run down of our past year, complete with twelve pictures....


MAY
 First time to San Francisco: Got our house and cars: Tour of California: Macintosh arrived!



JUNE
 Andrew's birthday: Our stuff arrived from England: First baseball match: Saw Fyfe Dangerfield: Went to Hollywood: Took Macintosh to his first dog beach 



JULY
Andrew went to Florida (again): Celebrated our first 4th July: Enjoyed the heat!



AUGUST
Keble's visit: San Francisco again: Lots of touristy things: Andrew came home from Florida



SEPTEMBER
Elisha was born: Saw AFI, 30 Seconds to Mars and Linking Park: Went to Sacramento 



OCTOBER
Went home to surprise family: Hannah's birthday: Said goodbye to our neighbour: Did some local exploring 



NOVEMBER 
Went to San Diego: Saw Switchfoot: Our friends got a beagle: Stayed at Big Bear Lake: Andrew grew a moustache: Celebrated our first Thanksgiving 


DECEMBER 
Got our first American Christmas tree: Watched Christmas parades: Saw Handel's Messiah in LA: Visited Santa Barbara: Celebrated our first American Christmas: Visited the Getty Centre



JANUARY 
Rang in 2015: Went snow tubing: Explored the Pacific Crest Trail


FEBRUARY
Watched our first Super Bowl: Saw Ben Howard: Explored more of the PCT


MARCH 
Woodruff visit: Did some touristy things: Travelled the entire West Coast by train: Saw Seattle: Watched the LA air show: 



APRIL
Visited Filmore: Dog sat a few times: Celebrated our first American Easter: Hiked to the Devil's Chair: Made it to a whole year in the US of A!



We genuinely can't believe how insane this past year has been. Writing this post and looking back at all the photos showed us just how much of this amazing country we have seen, whilst Andrew has been working full time too. We have many exciting things planned for the next three months so we know year two will be just as exciting. 

I think though we are just amazed at how God has blessed us in sending us over here for this period of our lives, providing us with such brilliant friends (both American and British) and sustaining us when we are homesick or just feel like we are missing out on life in the UK. We are excited to see what He has in store for us in the next year, so bring it on!
A&H 

MACINTOSH MONDAY

Guess what? We have all our photos back and in working order! Hooray! Now I can show you what Macintosh has been up to recently.

Unsurprisingly there has been an awful lot of sleeping, especially in odd positions!




I tried to take a photograph of him watching a film with Andrew only to have him yawn the largest yawn I have ever seen. It came complete with a little squeak too!

We took him hiking up to the Devil's Chair and tried to get some good shots of him. We failed. This was our best shot and yet its of his rear end...

Finally when we went away in March we left Macintosh with some friends of ours. He walked their kids to school and some of their friends became quite fond of him. Apparently those friends hadn't forgotten Macintosh because one of them made him a fleecey dog toy, which he LOVES! In fact he won't stay still long enough for you to get a decent photo of him with it. 

So there we go, that's Macintosh in a nutshell during the month of April. Well almost, I left out the gross things like poo eating etc. No one needs to hear about that...
H

LOS ANGELES AIRSHOW

Ok so the airshow was a while ago, but it took Andrew a while to post. He's a busy man, who clearly dislikes writing and will distract himself no end when I ask him to write a post. But hey, he's done it now!

Having had a very busy week just before the airshow weekend we decided that we should probably just give it a miss, but after a last minute gift of VIP tickets from some friends at church for the LA Airshow (yes VIP!) we shot down there to enjoy a couple hours of chilling and watching aircraft in the sun. I'd say that's the best kind of relaxing!

Here are a few snaps of the airshow; including some crazy pilot who threw their aircraft around and the very very patriotic Thunderbirds. They are the US Air Force's version of the RAF's Red Arrows. I'm afraid we can't say they are better than the Reds but we might be heavily biased! ;) But they did put on a good show, take a look. 
A
























MACINTOSH MONDAY

So I have been particularly bad at keeping up with Macintosh Monday the last few weeks. I'm sorry about that. I wanted to do a huge blog post with all the information about what he had been doing but guess what.... our computer is not showing any of our photos from the last two weeks. We updated the photo storage system and something clearly hasn't worked right! 

So here's the one photo I can show you. Its Macintosh fast asleep in what is fast becoming and normal position for him! 



Anyway I'll task Andrew with sorting it out once he gets home from work and see if he can get it fixed. Then I'll finally be able to show you what we've been up to!
H

THE MUSEUM OF FLIGHT

So whilst in Seattle we got to go to The Museum of Flight; the largest private air museum in the world. This turned out to be a great decision as the weather was very changeable during the day so we managed to catch the aircraft outside (including the first jet powered 'Air Force One') in the dry before heading inside when the rain started.

The museum has a giant space section holding the shuttle trainer and a few re-entry capsules that were a little burnt on the outside. I can't believe how little room they had!
The museum, with a very interesting story, had restored the original Boeing company building called 'The Red Barn' which they bought from Seattle Port for $1!  This incredible building was filled out with fascinating early aviation exhibits on the beginnings of the aviation industry in America. The building itself was incredible and so airy and light, to help the drafters and engineers construct the earliest aircraft. I think its going to inspire me when I get round to building my own house one day.

Obviously I was also looking for seaplanes and flying boats and was not disappointed with the few dotted around the museum; yet more inspiration. We then looked at the WW1 exhibition with interesting stories and cool dioramas, with a great collection of planes from so many countries. Finally we ended up in the 'Great Gallery', a huge hall covered in a strong lattice ceiling that could hold the multiple aircraft hanging from it.

All in all a great aviation museum trip. Think Hannah now needs a break before the next plane museum but not too long a break!

A