We've made it!- with pictures

The Holloways are finally back online with internet, UK phone, text, US number, and power to laptops (which had sadly died...).  It seems that our connectivity problems might just have been solved...even surfing with a US IP address!

The past few days have been a whirlwind of novel events.  Everyone is doing well and seems to be handling the transition gracefully.  Except for one momentary lapse Tuesday afternoon and occasional mild over excitement, the children have done really great.

The big events include arriving at our new home, driving to London Ikea, meeting new friends, furniture gathering, a playdate for Connor and gymnastics class for Hope.

We arrived to our home mid-day with only our airplane luggage.  It's small, but perfect for our year here.  Fortunately, a new friend, Melina arrived with the most awesome care package.  It included many goodies such as dishes, flatware, British foods, but none more important than the blow up mattresses, pillows, and comforter.  And her GPS was really handy for the drive into London.  Considering the bed delivery has been postponed until mid-October, the blow-up mattresses have been very well appreciated.  Later Tuesday, we met her two children, who are nearly the same ages as Hope and Connor and have become instant buddies.

Allen rented a really large van for furniture pickup, most of which we bought through our version of Craigslist, Gumtree.  It's been great to pay so little for furniture, especially considering we won't have it that long.  Tuesday night he drove out to Thatchum, a village 30 minutes away.  It look him a hour and he declared that he turned around 10 times (yes, we opted not to ride with him for the first drive).  He actually did great with driving, even in London- quite impressive!
We befriended the cute couple (Deb and Gary) who sold us our dining table and chairs.  The little old man gave Connor a toy lory and Deb cleaned off her sewing table on the spot to sell us when the first table was too small).  What a nice way to meet nice people...and get inexpensive furniture.

The Ikea run was quite an adventure- see below for pictures.
Now really only need a sofa, beds, photos of friends and family, and the shipment (which is stuck in customs longer than normal...NOT happy about that) to feel complete.  We are making progress!

It's really cold and rainy- I know, not surprisingly, but we only brought a few pieces of long pants and tops each (the bags we packed many weeks ago when it was really warm).  The shipment contains our winter clothes so we are getting anxious to have it.

Here are a few pictures from the past few days.  We've been so busy we didn't take many- we will try to be better about that.