Go Ape!

Summer is almost here, so I thought I would take the time to post a few posts on what my first summer was like in the UK. This was last summer (2009), which was our first full summer here. We did not really know what to expect of the summers here in England because when we arrived in August of 2008, the weather was completely different from what we were use to. We were both born and raised in Louisiana, and our first base was Texas. So you can see that we were use to the heat.. and England, well it just does not have that much heat throughout the year. We were told that in 2008, England has about a 3 week-ish summer time frame. However, last summer was a completely different story, and I hope the same is true for this summer. So to start this "Summer Looking Back Phase", I am going to post one of my favorite events that took place last summer.

The highlight of my summer was when my Mom and little brother flew out to see us. I am a Mommy's girl and me and my brother are extremely close. (I also have a sister, which is 3 years older than me.) Anyway, my brother and I share the same birthday, so we thought it would be awesome to spend one more birthday together. Growing up, we had parties together and did things together. From me dressing him up in my cheerleading outfits to going fishing at the pond, we did it all.  When he was born, all I asked for on my 5th birthday was for a baby sister! I was a girly-girl, so I wanted a sister to dress up, put makeup on, and have princess parties. But I was all wrong... you don't have to have a little sister to do these things with as long as you have an awesome brother that will take it on! (Sorry JE!) Let me make something clear. My brother is very much a BOY! Ok, clarification out of the way, and now back to last summer. Our birthday is in July, so they came then.

For our birthday, we decided that we wanted to be monkeys. Swing from tree to tree and let the youngster in us fly free, and that is exactly the very first thing we did once my family got here. Mr. Man, my littler brother (JE), and myself went zip lining through a local forest. My Mom in tow, being the wonderful and fabulous mother we could ever ask for, taking pictures.

Here is an insight of our wonderful day:

First, we got there, parked, and saw a statue monkey and posed next to it.

From left to right: Birthday Boy (JE), Statue Monkey, and Birthday Girl (Myself)

We are monkeys ourselves!

Next, we signed in, signed the waivers, meet our trainer/tour guide, and got dressed. 

Then we were trained and ready to go. There was a small trainer course, so we had to practice with supervision first. After that, we were set free. 

We did a lot of this in order to get in the actual trees. I believe 7 of them to be exact. 

JE went first. I went second. Mr. Man went last.

This is about the size of one of the middle ones, definitely not the tallest we did. 

D

Do you see us?

After getting to the top, we had to do a few mazes, which were fun! 

JE being a spider. You had to jump from a platform to the netting, then climb to the next platform.

I have to say this was the scariest one for me because my heart dropped whenever I jumped... and honestly, I was scared out of mind. (Shh.. don't tell anyone!)

We had to pull ourselves from one side to the other while hanging in the air. And this is obviously me!

We had to walk on the little poles. 

Mr. Man is doing it without any hands. He did that a lot... Show off! 

There was obviously a gazillion of these. None were ever the same, but I don't want to bore you with too many pictures, so these are what you get! 

When we finally got the the platform with the zip lining, it was jump (without thinking twice) and swing away!

JE plays it cool.

I was definitely a screamer. (on every single one!)

Mr. Man enjoys being a kid all over again.

This does not end the zip lining journey. Would you like to see what happens next? Too each and every one of us? Who crashes and who makes a clean landing? And the correct answers are: 

I would say that it is pretty obvious that my brother and I make crash landings while Mr. Man doesn't get a single bit of dirt on him. Go figure.

S

See by the prints on the butts!

Stats: 

JE- Crashes every time.

Mrs. Ma'am- Crashes every time.

Mr. Man- Clean landing every time.

After we finished, we got a picture with our trainer.

Then he gave us our certificates for completing the course without chickening out! 

Go us! 

Want to see the wonderful woman behind the camera?

T

This is my fabulous Mom. 

She was being goofy in this picture, and she actually does not wear glasses. 

(She was reading previously.) 

And, of course, sporting those LSU Tigers!!