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!

London Trip, Part 5

We decided to take an excursion on Wednesday, so we took a couple of trains over to Windsor Castle.  Macey and Mia got to practice their guard skills almost as soon as we stepped off the train!

 This turned out to be a pretty rainy day, but we didn't let that stop our fun!

 Flat Arthur joined us to learn about this amazing historical castle that is still used today as a royal residence.

 We snapped these pictures at various points inside before being told that pictures were not allowed.  Thankfully, they let us keep the pictures.

 Such a lovely place!

 We had lunch at a restaurant called The Duchess of Cambridge; that has to be good, right?  Absolutely!  I enjoyed some traditional fish and chips, and they really were delicious.

 On the way back, we were in the Paddington train station.  We took a few minutes to find the Paddington Bear statue.  We're reading that book at home right now (having finished Mary Poppins just before we came), so this was a fun little find.

 Brian and Parker were able to get tickets to the USA versus South Africa match in the Rugby World Cup, so they went there on Wednesday evening.  Jill, Macey and our family decided to stop by the Leicester Square Ticket Booth to see what was available.  Lucky for us, The Lion King had 6 tickets available!  We all loved seeing this; a West End show is always fun!

 When the show was over, we started walking to a tube station and crossed over a bridge.  What a lovely city view!  It wasn't much after this that we realized we were heading the wrong direction, so we quickly caught a taxi to get us headed in the right direction.  Train, tube, bus and now taxi; check on all the major transportation methods in the city!

Brian and Parker had already arrived back at the flat and were asleep when we got home.  They told us the next day that the US had lost badly, but it was still a very fun experience.  Glad we all had a great evening.

London Trip, Part 4

Tuesday was another drizzly day, so we changed our plans around a little bit.  We headed over to Kensington Palace.  I was really looking forward to this because I hadn't toured it before.  It was wonderful (even if we didn't get to see Will and Kate)!

 The first area we went in showcased the fashion choices of the modern era.  It was really fun to see the dresses that Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Princess Diana had worn.  Some of them were absolutely stunning.

 After that we toured the Queen's State Apartments from the Stuart era in the 1690s.  The furniture was beautiful, and it was fun to imagine living there.

 The third area was the Georgian era (1700s) in the King's State Apartments.  We all got a kick out of seeing the dresses worn by the those ladies visiting the court during that time; the one pictured was worn by a Princess Amelia which we loved.  The kids took a little break to play the "Game of Court" for a few minutes.

 In addition to some fantastic artwork inside, there was a nice view outside from this area.

 The last area to explore was about Queen Victoria.  There were several of her outfits, toys that belonged to her and her children, and many artifacts from her reign.  It was fascinating to see.

 After many hours at Kensington, we finally decided to leave and have Spaghetti House for lunch; that was a fun walk down memory lane for Ryan and me.  On our way to lunch, we couldn't resist having a little phone booth fun.  After lunch, we decided to take a double decker bus so we could see some sites as we were on our way.  The kids LOVED being on the top level!

 By mid-afternoon, the sun had come out which made for some lovely time in Trafalger's Square.  The kids enjoyed climbing all over the lions and monument.

 We walked over to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields church after visiting the Square.  It was nice to have a few minutes of complete peace and quiet to refocus and thank God for all His wonderful blessings.

 We decided to head down to the crypts so the kids could try brass rubbings.  They have always liked the four we have in our house of the Gospel seals, so we thought they would enjoy this.  They both made Celtic designs which turned out nice.

 After our time here, we decided to end the day at Covent Garden.  Everyone enjoyed the street performs and their talents.

 Mia's favorite part was riding on Daddy's shoulders.

 We ate dinner and headed on back to the flat.  After getting the kids to bed, the adults watched The King's Speech.  It's one of our favorites, and Brian and Jill hadn't seen it before.  This seemed like an appropriate time and place to watch it!

London Trip, Part 3

We woke up on Monday morning to see the famous London rain drizzle.  We threw on our rain coats and headed out; nothing was going to stop us from enjoying our day!  We headed back over to Westminster Abbey so we could explore the inside.  Again, you can't take pictures, but it was wonderful!

The kids were excited to learn they could go on a scavenger hunt throughout the abbey.  Lily and Parker paired up as did Mia and Macey.  They had a lot of fun walking through and learning all sorts of interesting facts to answer the questions.  The best part came at the end of the exploration; they were all rewarded with large gold chocolate coins that they thoroughly enjoyed!

 After eating lunch, we headed over to the Museum of Natural History.  It's a massive museum, but we attempted to tackle a lot of it!

 After spending the afternoon at the museum, we decided to head back home; the kids were fading really fast.  Jill volunteered to stay home with them, so Brian, Ryan and I could go over to Harrods which was a lot of fun.  This is a huge store!  I ended up logging over 18,500 steps this day!

 We stopped by the Diana and Dodi memorial which is nice.  My favorite part of this store though is the chocolate area.  Look how fantastic these little chocolate flowers look!  I made a little variety pack with some other ones that were so delicious.

 Yet another great day!