London Trip, Part 6

The kids enjoyed eating breakfast together each morning.  Renting this flat ended up being a great idea; it was wonderful to have everyone together.

 We made it over to Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard.

 We knew we needed to arrive early to get a good spot, so we waited about 45 minutes before anything started happening.  Finally, the guards started moving around and eventually the band joined them.  Really though, we all found this to be a little boring.  It wasn't what Ryan and I remembered, and everything seemed to be a lot more slow than we hoped for.  Glad we saw it, but we were all ready to leave when it was over.

 When we left Buckingham Palace, we went over to the British Museum.  It was a gorgeous day which made sitting outside to enjoy a food truck lunch better.  Having waffles from the food truck (mine with Nutella and the girls with marshmallows) made it even more fun.

 The museum has a fantastic antiquities section which works great with Mia's studies at school.  We were glad to introduce the girls to the Rosetta Stone which was really neat to see.  There are tons of fascinating areas here; we weren't even able to see it all. 

 The girls were getting pretty tired after so much walking so we paused for a few minutes.  I had them making lots of different silly faces which perked them back up.

 One of my favorite parts of the trip came at the end of our time at the museum where we enjoyed a traditional afternoon tea.  I ordered the full service which came with this tray of goodies.  Ryan and the girls both ordered a smaller service which had scones, clotted cream and jam.  It was all delicious.

 Of course, we all got tea to enjoy as well.  The girls both had a berry variety while Ryan and I had Earl's Grey.  I think they really liked putting the sugar cube in their drinks.

 We finished out our time at the museum in the gift shop which was filled with all sorts of interesting and fun pieces.

 Our feet were so tired that we decided to take a bus back, and boy was that the right decision!  It was rush hour so everything was quite busy.  One of the tube stops was temporarily closed to allow traffic inside to die down some; this was the crowd outside!  We were very grateful for the bus that drove right on past.

We got the kids in bed when we got home, and Ryan and Brian went down to visit the pub for a bit.  Jill and I had some packing up to do but we enjoyed a little time together too.  None of us could believe this was our last evening!  We had such a great time this week with our friends; we didn't want it to end!  We said our goodbyes that evening and headed on to bed.  The next morning, the four of us got up between 6 and 6:30; a taxi picked us up at 7, and we headed back to the train station.  We took the Express back to Heathrow and waited for our plane.  We were all sitting next to each other which was nice.  It was a smooth and easy flight home; the girls handled the 9 hours remarkably well. They mainly watched movies on the plane or on their iPads.  Dad picked us up from the airport and brought us home.  As much as we love to travel, coming home is always nice.  This was definitely a trip to remember.  We have so many great memories with wonderful friends; we are so thankful we were able to take advantage of this opportunity.  Until next time London, cheers!