Weekend in Cheltenham

I went to Cheltenham to visit Pete this past Thursday through Saturday night. It was my first time to go visit him. I have been to Cheltenham once before for a church conference, but we didn't actually go into Cheltenham at all, just stayed at the conference and our hotel which was close to the racecourse where the conference was held. So this was my first time to really visit Cheltenham...and it's pretty much like every other English town. Most of them are really, really similar. It was a good time. Thursday evening I got in and he picked me up and took me back to his parents house. We all had a lovely dinner together that his mother,Wendy, made. She's a great cook! I really like his parents a lot...they're very warm and welcoming. After dinner and "pudding" (dessert-not actually pudding) Pete had a football (soccer) game. He plays on a league for fun, not too competitively. I like to watch sports live, so that was enjoyable. The next day Pete and Wendy both had to work and Richard had to leave early in the a.m. to pick up John (Pete's younger brother, 21) from the airport. He was returning from Houston, TEXAS where his new fiance lives. They just got engaged while he was out there, but that's another story. Anyway, I slept in which was FAB because I never get to, and had a nice, quiet, slow morning before I headed into town. I went in and found a great little fairtrade shop and bought some goodies...and met Pete for lunch at Subway! We love Subway. Then I went to Costa coffee and sat there for 3 HOURS working on my Sunday school lesson and DV8 (middle school youth) talk for Sunday night. I was just so excited about it all and about the scripture I was reading...so the time just flew by. It was so nice to just sit and relax and chill for a good chunk of time. I headed back to the house and finally met Pete's brother John, whom I had heard sooooo much about! After viewing all of his pictures from his Texas trip, the 3 of us went to the grocery store and bought the makings for a wonderful dinner. Pete had planned on making chicken stir fry for the fam...and the boy can cook. It was super yummy! After dinner and pudding, the boys and I played a competitive game of LIFE. The G of L as it's known in the Hills' house. Pete and John like to make fun of their dad a lot, so there was much laughter, but he takes it well. Apparently he usually loses pretty badly, but this time he came in second I believe. I love LIFE! So fun! Saturday was yucky English weather. The boys went to a men's breakfast at church, so Wendy and I went to a few shops in town. Then we met up with them again and Pete, John, and I headed over to Jill and Heath's house. Jill is John's fiance's cousin. Heath is her husband. They are from TEXAS and will be living in Cheltenham for a couple more years as Heath finishes school there. I think he is getting his PhD maybe. Anyway, Jill was born and raised in AMARILLO!!! She graduated from Tascosa high school! How weird is that! Then her fam moved to Lampasas and she went to A&M. It was so great to meet this awesome couple and talk with them. I seriously love Texans. Then Pete and I went to this really good Tex-Mex restaurant called "That Mexican Place." It was actually quite good and I was fairly impressed, but hear me now people, no Mexican food will ever be as good as the Mexican food in Texas. That is truth. Later we went to see this movie "The Longest Yard." I thought it was pretty good, but Pete just thought it was okay.
I think that's pretty much it for the weekend. That was quite an in-depth account I just gave. Hope I didn't bore everyone out too much with details!
Oh, then Sunday was the first DV8...so I thought it would be fun if we had MESSY GAMES NIGHT. And it was. I laughed so stinkin hard at these kids, they seriously crack me up! First we had a whipped cream pie fight; then 4 kids had to dig there faces into a plate of chocolate pudding and get out the gummy worms; next was pass the SPAM (their fave)-just like pass the orange, but with SPAM-absolutely disgusting; then this toothpaste game; and an egg toss to finish. They were incredibly grossed out when I pulled the SPAM out of the bag and explained what the next game was. It was awesome. The girls were like "It smells like cat food, I'm not touching it. GROSS!!!" But they somehow got over that really quickly and everyone played...then they commenced to throwing the spam at each other. Oh, to top it all off, it was raining the entire time. Not really raining, but sprinkling I guess. Or maybe just a heavy mist. In any case, it was wet and messy, smelly, disgusting. Lovely.