Anya is eight months old already

With Anya time just seems to fly by. In a blink of an eye she is already eight months old, crawling, sitting up and pulling herself up. She made a huge leap in her development over the last two weeks, coinciding with us shifting into our new place in Maidenhead (photos of the new place to follow). Instead of causing us trouble, it was actually quite good because it kept her occupied and she was able to entertain herself while we were packing, disassemblying and cleaning.

Visitors from Germany

In March our German friends Anna and Stefan with their two sons Tim and Benjamin came to visit us. They stayed for ten days and for the entire time the sun shone. The weather was amazing. It was still a little chilly at times, but there was hardly a cloud to be seen the entire time. We went on a few trips into the surrounding area to go for walks, to pubs or to the Cotswold wildlife park. Here are some photos:

Lindsay and Stefan with the buggies on our walk near Ashton Keynes.

Outside a pub in Ashton Keynes.

Anna and I with the little ones in Lechlade.

Anya and I having fun on the big slide at the Cotswold wildlife park.

Family photo at the Cotswold wildlife park.

Stefan and Lindsay went to the Severn river to see a rare 5 star bore (or tidal wave), as the tide came in, which despite the nasty frost attracted dozens of surfers eager to catch their 2-60 seconds riding the wave

Trip to Germany

At the end of January I took on the challenge of flying to Germany on my own with the two girls. It worked out quite well, apart from a bit of an adjustment phase once we got there. Because we were all sleeping in one room, the girls woke each other up and I ended up with two crying children. But after a couple of days they went back to sleeping well.

We had a really nice time staying with my sister and her family. Here are a couple of photos of Yana and Anya with their cousins Oscar and Alexander:

We also stayed with my parents and met up with lots of friends and family. While we were there, we were snowed in for part of the time. My parents live in a small village which doesn't always get cleared by the snow vehicles. There was more snow around than there had been for years.
This is Yana in the hire-buggy at the Cologne airport just before taking off to go back home to Daddy.