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!

London Trip, Part 2

We woke up on Sunday morning to wish Lily a happy 9th birthday!  I cannot believe she's 9!  Knowing we would be in London, we asked what she wanted to do to celebrate.  Her response was to see the crown jewels and ride the London Eye, so that was our plan for the day after enjoying some fresh muffins from Sainsburys.

 Of course, you have to take the tube just about everywhere.

 It was an amazingly beautiful day, and we were so thankful for this.  We were all looking forward to touring the Tower of London.  It's hard to see in the picture on the right, but Flat Arthur joined us via cell phone for his first appearance. The school was having a competition to see where Flat Arthur would turn up over the break, so he joined us several times on the trip.

 Everyone liked seeing the guards outside the crown jewels area.  And no, he didn't smile even at our adorable kids!  You can't take any pictures inside the crown jewels area, so I don't have any pictures; they were beautiful though!  We all enjoyed learning more about the Tower and the history that happened here.

 You know we're going to visit the gift shop.  Mia had fun pretending to be both a princess and a knight (and sword fighting Brian).  She decided she wanted her trip souvenir to an awesome knight costume from here.  Lily also wanted her trip souvenir to be from the Tower, and she chose a sweet little princess doll; she named her Queen Elizabeth.

 When we left the Tower, we headed down to the River to see the Tower Bridge and snap a few pictures.

 So thankful for this family!

 After we finished everything at the Tower, we headed over to Westminster to ride the London Eye.  Since it was a lovely day, we were able to enjoy some great views of the city.  This is a great way to get your bearings of what's where.

 The kids were inseparable for pretty much the whole trip.  They have such a sweet friendship.  I was so thankful to be back in London with Ryan!

 After the 30 minute ride on the Eye, we walked across the bridge to see Big Ben, Parliament and the outside of Westminster Abbey.  We then had a bite for dinner at a local pub, and then we started back to the flat.

 After getting the kids to bed, the grown ups enjoyed hanging out in the living room and catching up.  We are so thankful for this family, and it was great to spend time together.

London Trip, Part 1

We decided a few months ago to take advantage of what we see as a once-in-a-lifetime travel opportunity.  Some of our very dear friends, the Hendersons, are taking some time off and traveling with their kids.  We hated the idea that we wouldn't see them for months!  So when they told us they would be in London over the girls' Fall Break, we jumped at the chance to join them.  The timing was perfect.  They arrived at the flat we rented together on Friday night.  The girls and I flew out that evening after school and arrived on Saturday morning.  Ryan's trip to North Africa finished on Friday night, so he arrived on Saturday afternoon.  We were thrilled to have the 8 of us together again!

The girls couldn't wait for the big flight.

 After dinner, they tried to get a little rest.  At most they got 4 hours, but it wasn't easy.

 We arrived!  We decided a little caffeine would probably be a good thing to keep us going for a little while.  After landing at Heathrow, we took the Express to the Paddington station.  From there we took a couple of different trains to the South Kensington station where we were staying.  Brian and the kids met us there and walked us to the flat which was only about 5 minutes away; it was great to be back in London!

 We headed out to lunch to walk, get sunlight and stay awake.  It was great to catch up and hear about their adventures thus far.  After lunch, Brian went back to the flat to meet Ryan while Jill and I took the kids to the park to play for a bit.

We managed to stay up and keep going until about 8PM.  We put the kids to bed (all four were sharing a room, and they were thrilled!).  Lily actually got sick that night, and we're pretty sure it was because her body was so off schedule.  She got a good night's sleep afterwards though, and neither had problems after that.  We were all ready to start enjoying the city the next morning!