Stormy Weather

I can't believe we've been in America for almost 2 weeks now, it's gone so quickly but I guess that's what happens when you're looking after kids! The American way of life isn't too different from the English and therefore pretty easy to adapt to. The main difference here is in terms of money and also different names for things. Everything here is so cheap for us compared to the UK, the food, the clothes, even activities and attractions. It;s great but to start with I kept forgetting about the exchange rate and assuming everything was the same as sterling. The depressing thing was that most things are the same price in dollars as they would be in pounds (ie: something that's 10 pounds in the UK is probably around $10 over here!). This has been good for us as we haven't had to worry too much about what we do or buy.

As I mentioned, the other major difference is the different names for things. We played a game with Réné where we tried to come up with as many as possible and there are quite a few everyday words that change. It's pretty bad but both of us are already using some of them as it;s just easier than explaining ourselves to the kids every time! One of the best ones though happened on Friday as we were driving with Lisette. As they're going away soon I wanted to make sure I knew where the nearest petrol station was, so I asked. She told us where it was but Réné shouted that there was one just by the house. He was adamant that there was a petrol station by the house. Lisette laughed and asked him if he knew what a petrol station was and he eventually admitted that he didn't. When I asked him what he thought petrol might be the answer was a classic; "A type of dog??", not quite!

Since I last wrote, the weather has been very unpredictable making it hard to plan stuff to do. On Wednesday we were just going to stay home and play but Lisette needed the car on Thursday so we decided to change plans and go to the Lion Country Safari. We got most of the way there and hit a massive storm, the rain was so hard I had windscreen wipers on full and I had slowed right down but still couldn't see a lot. We made the executive decision that the animals wouldn't be out in that sort of weather so we'd be better off going another day. We headed back home (where it wasn't raining) and stuck with our original plan of staying there all day.

Thursday morning we got the news that my Aunt, Martine had finally succumbed to the cancer she had been fighting for the last few months and had dies overnight at the age of 44. This obviously meant an emotional day and left us not wanting to do anything at all. Lisette had taken the car to work anyway and luckily we didn't have any plans.
To cheer ourselves up on Friday we took the boys to a waterpark near here, 'Rapids Waterpark'. We arrived at about 11am and we could see huge amounts of rain in the distance as we went on our first slide. We hoped it wouldn't come our way but it did just that, with a couple of lightning bolts just as we got to the front of the queue for our first big ride. All water attractions were closed meaning pretty much everyone went and got lunch at the same time. Just as we finished our meals we heard that staff were watching the storm on radar and had to wait until it was 5 miles away but that would be in 10 minutes time. We decided that was a good time to head to the rides and they all opened just as we put our towels back on the beds, perfect timing! The rest of the day until about 5pm was spent enjoying all the rides and the sunshine. We had a really good day and 2 very tired boys by the end!

Yesterday we planned to go to the beach but once again the weather had plans of its own, raining hard from about 8am right through to the afternoon. The boys were both off with their "Mentors" (kind of like adult friends, someone to talk to and hang out with that isn't a parent or teacher) so the house was quiet and we enjoyed some time off. Megan by reading and me by watching Euro 2008 on ESPN!!

Another relatively quiet day is planned today as they're all getting ready to go to the UK on Tuesday but tomorrow we're going to try the Lion Country Safari again! We're also now trying to think of things to do whilst we're on our own here. We're thinking of visiting the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral and we're also toying with the idea of a visit to a theme park in Orlando. A long way for a day trip but I think it could be worth it. (Just after writing this Mum and Dad have said that they will reimburse me for a trip to Orlando, 2 days theme parks and an overnight stay as my birthday present!! YAY!!! Thanks!!!)