Family Reunion in Skipton

Hi friends! Happy Hump Day! My week is moving pretty quickly, and I can’t wait for the long weekend. Work has been very crazy for me since I got back from my trip, so I am definitely looking forward to the extra day to catch up on life things this weekend.

In my last post we left off at the end of our short day in Amsterdam. The next morning we headed to the airport for a short flight to Leeds, England. Leeds is located in the North of England, about 40 minutes away from Skipton, where we were staying.

My dad’s parents lived in Skipton and we used to visit them there when I was little. Sadly, we stopped going to Skipton as often after my grandparents passed away. In fact, the last time I was there was in 7th grade!

The whole point of this trip was to spend time in England with my dad’s side of the family (his brother, sister, and my cousins) just like we used to do many years ago. This family reunion in Skipton was SO important to our family because we live all over the world (Los Angeles, Boston, England, Paris, Spain, etc.), and we NEVER get the chance to all be together.

At the Leeds airport, we met my parents, brother, and sister-in-law who had all just flown in from Boston together. My dad drove us (he’s the only one with experience driving on the left!) to our house in Skipton.

The house was perfect! It had plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms for all 15 of us to spread out throughout the week.

Since we spent six days in Skipton, I won’t bore you with the nitty-gritty, but rather just show you a few highlights of our time there.

We went to A LOT of pubs. Cock and Bottle was one of our favorites.

Day trip to Kettlewell! For a city girl like me, it was amazing to be able to get so close to grazing sheep.

How gorgeous is this view?

My little cousin Louis was hooked on his plastic iphone the entire trip. It was adorable.

Funny enough, this photo below was NOT planned, but it was so, so perfect.

Selfie with my beautiful Mamma!

On the Sunday of our trip, we had an even BIGGER family reunion. We invited extended, extended family over to our rented house for a potluck lunch. These family members all live in England and many of us had never met before, so this was a real highlight for everybody.

On my birthday, we took a day trip to York! My brother studied abroad in York during college and my aunt went to high school in York, so everyone had fun exploring their old stomping grounds.

I haven’t been able to spend my birthday with my immediate family in years, so turning 25 was extra special because I got to celebrate with my dad’s entire side of the family. I love these people so, so much!

On Wednesday we took a day trip to Bolton Abbey, another place we used to picnic as a family many years ago. The grounds are vast and GORGEOUS.

 

It’s a popular activity to make the trek across these rocks – we used to do it all the time when we were little. For some reason, I still found it terrifying 10+ years later. I am by no means scared of heights, but the stones were wet and I kept thinking I would slip. It didn’t help that I was carrying my DSLR camera, two iphones and two wallets in my jacket at the time. That was a silly thing to do.

On our last night in Skipton the cousins took a group photo together. Trav and I are the nerds up there in the back. Heeeeeeey!

The next morning Travis and I boarded the train from Skipton to London, the last stop of our trip. My whole family walked us to the train station (which was awfully nice of them). I felt like royalty with a giant send-off crew waving to us as the train departed. It was definitely hard to say goodbye to everyone because we don’t know the next time we will all be together again. I’m thankful that everyone took lots of photos, so we have great memories of our trip.

——-> Check back in later this week to read about what we did, and most importantly, what we ate in London!

For more “life” posts like this one, make sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram (@littlechefbigappetite)!

 

P.S. Thank you to my Mom for letting me snag some of her amazing photos for this post!