On Saturday we said goodbye to our new friends from England, Adam and Lindsay. They were soccer coaches who stayed with us all week while they conducted a youth soccer camp. Adam and Zach latched on to them pretty quickly and by the second day were going into their rooms in the morning to wake them up. It was a little confusing at first having two boys named “Adam” in the house, and a couple of times when I was calling (ok, yelling) for my child Adam, Adam the coach would answer. So we decided that we would call him “Coach Adam.” The funniest time was when Zach didn’t have any clean pajamas so I told him to go get some of Adam’s. Coach Adam was walking by and said, “They’ll be a bit big, don’t you think?” He knew what I meant but we still had a laugh. Coach Adam and Lindsay talked with an accent and the boys said sometimes they didn’t understand what they were saying.

They said they really like Wichita (despite the two 105 degree days we had). They made it to the Sedgwick County Zoo, Towne West (probably not the best shopping option in Wichita) and our neighborhood pool. Scott took them to lunch one day, and they passed an IHOP (International House of Pancakes), and said they had always heard about them, but had never eaten there. So that’s where they ate lunch. Adam asked Lindsay if she had any kids. Lindsay is only 19, so she said she was a little young for that. Later Adam said to me “Mom, Lindsay is WAY younger than you.”

Scott grilled steaks one night, which they seemed to enjoy. New foods they tried at our house were scrambled eggs, cinnamon toast, burritos and peanut butter. We had a conversation about the word “chips” and what it means in each country. Chips in America are called “crisps” in England. A “chip” in England are steak fries in America. We found out that iPod’s cost about $200 less in the US than Great Britain. The only word I had a hard time understanding was “garage.” Lindsay pronounced it “gare-age.” And I think they called the soccer field, the “pitch.” They were great with the kids at the camp and on the last day they had a huge water fight…campers against coaches. Adam and Zach had a blast running around squirting them with their water guns.