Sunday in London

We had a very nice Sunday, our second day in London. We had Stake Conference for church, and we were late, but it was fine. We liked showing our kids the famous chapel near Hyde Park. 

They were restless and tired and we sat in an overflow room where we watched a video feed. Not entirely memorable, but we tried. After, we changed in the upstairs bathroom and went to meet my friend, Chiz, who I worked with at Kings College, ten years ago.

Chiz invited us to her house for a spontaneous lunch. It was great to catch up with her, and the kids were happy that she put on Toy Story for them to watch. Here's the outside of Chiz's house. We took pics with her, but they are on the other camera...

She recommended a playground in Kensington Gardens for the kids. It was one of Princess Diana's projects, way back when. It did not disappoint!!! The kids LOVED the pirate ship, especially.

There was a big sand pit under the ship, which they loved. But we got there kind of late and it closed too soon.

Not to worry... The Science Museum was open late, and was nearby, and was free. What's not to love, right?! The kids really liked the space exploration exhibits. They had a model of the moon landing ship...(and I obviously didn't get a great pic).

Here are Sam and Spence trying on big astronaut gloves...

And, I asked Natalie to pose by the wtold model. She put her hood  over her face with her jacket on backwards, and giggled uncontrollably...

The "flight" exhibit, that we didn't see up close...

We went in an exhibit with lots of antique appliances and oddities. They had this old automatic door that has been in use since 1933. The plaque said it was such a novelty when it was first installed that people came from all over, just too walk through an automatic door. I had each kid walk through it.:)

Then back to our place for a quick pasta dinner and a very rowdy bedtime that ended with shouts and threats and timeouts on the front porch.... Not all is fun and games on this trip, I just thought you'd like to know.;) But all in all, it was a nice day. 

London, first day

Well, we made it over the ocean, safe and sound. Whew! Our kids actually did really well on the plane, and got several hours of sleep. That was a good thing, because we didn't really have too much down time once we arrived.

We had a long delay in Chicago, then some hiccups with our rental car, and finally got sorted and started on our way into London by around 1p.m. We took a quick driving tour through downtown London, then headed to our flat in West Hampstead. I took some pics as we drove, but they are on the other camera. I'll have to see if I can get them uploaded later. 

After settling in at our flat, we rode the tube downtown to have a look around. The kids LOVED the Tube ride...

We decided to go down by the London Eye and see if we could get a ride at sunset. But... the line was enormous! Er, whoops, I mean the "queue" was enormous-- to use a proper English word here.:)

So, we just looked at it instead, and said we might try to come for a ride on Monday. 

Plus, our kids were a little too tired for that. So, we settled for a nearby playground...and they perked right up, imagine!!

And we then had a fun little ride on a carousel...

Then we gazed at the Thames and watched the lights come on the Houses  of Parliament and Big Ben. Kinda dreamy, kinda cold.

For dinner, the stars were aligned and we lucked into an International Food Fair on the South Bank. Yay! 

Brian got stuffed grape leaves and Arab sweets, I got a taste of curry and some amazing cheese samples, and then we shared huge bruchetta slices to share with the kids, along with some delicious chicken sausage sandwiches on ciabatta bread. Turkish delight straight out of Narnia for the kids for dessert.:).I LOVE those little quaint food fairs!

On the way back to the Tube, we walked by my old work, at Kings College London, and I took a picture of it.:)

I also took a picture of the National Theatre Gallery building. It was lit up red last night. They  light it a different color every night. My old boss, Caroline, and I used to be the last ones to leave the office at night. We would look out the window together to see what color the theatre was lighted each night.:)

"It's red tonight," I would have called out to Caroline yesterday. So, I called it out to my family instead, and they all thought I was weird.

That was the end of our first day. Kids were in bed by 8 pm, and slept through until 8:15 am. Except for Camille...

She had taken lots of naps while we were out, so she was a little restless in the night. But not too bad. 

And now we've already had another whole day I need to write about. Stay tuned...

A Family Trip

We are having an adventure!! Our family is taking a two week trip to the UK and Europe. Sooo exciting!!!

We left this afternoon, and just touched down in Chicago. One leg down, a much longer one to go! Here is my little companion.... She tore my hair from its barrett. 

Spencer studied the map for nearly an hour.

We have had two minor mishaps already... First, I forgot three pairs of pants. This is bad, because I was already trying so hard to pack light. So now, I only have the pants I'm wearing, (which Spencer already spilled  sprite on), plus one extra pair in my bag. Not good. Brian's mom was hemming them for me. I was supposed to get them from her this morning and I totally forgot. Rats. Two weeks, with two pairs of pants? A little problematic, I think. Sigh.

But the second mishap would have been really bad, if it didn't turn out to be a near miss... We were sitting on the plane in Boise, taxiing down the runway for take off, and Brian realized he forgot his jacket at the gate. Oh no! It was a brand new jacket from Costco. AND... It had all four of our kids' passports in the inside pocket! No joke.

Brian called the flight attendant, who called the boarding people. They stopped the plane for 10 minutes on the runway while someone located his jacket. Then they turned the plane around, went back to the gate and collected his jacket for us. The pilot made announcements, telling everyone "we've got a slight delay, a passenger left his jacket with his family's passports..." Yes. We were THOSE annoying passengers.:(

But we're much relieved to have passports in hand. Woulda been hard luck to get to customs in London and have no documentation for our kiddos! We might have ended up like Tom Hanks, in "The Terminal," remember that one? 

So now we walk...

And wait... 

Not sure what my connections will be like, but I'll try to send some updates as we go. 

Lost tooth

Natalie lost a tooth today.

Yes, I said Natalie-- our new four-year-old  dolly. She was at a friend's house jumping on the trampoline, and she fell and hit the bar.:(  It's on the bottom row, on the right side....

She was pretty sad, and we quickly took her to the dentist and got x-rays. It was a clean bust and should heal up well, he said. We gave her Motrin, and an hour later she felt well enough to eat pizza and am ice cream sandwich. And, she went to bed feeling very excited about the tooth fairy coming tonight! :-)