England

Our good friends the Carters and the Petts, friends from Texas, were in London for work for a few months.  It was wonderful to see familiar faces and to be in a place where English was spoken.  We could actually read the signs- I can't tell you how wonderful that felt after feeling so foreign in Germany.  

Grace made the mistake of telling Austin she wanted to marry him last summer.  Austin still refers to Grace as his girlfriend and intends to marry her someday.  I'm sure she has moved on, although I think they did share a peck on this trip.  

We visited the tower of London, which was amazing!  They had people dressed in character acting out William the Conqueror.  The kids loved it!  The tower of London also houses armor and the crowned jewels.  It is said to be the oldest museum.

One of my goals in Europe is to try vanilla ice cream everywhere we go.  England didn't win, but it did have a nice chocolate cookie on the top.  

After touring the tower we had fish n' chips and toasties (similar to a panini)  from food stands.  It was all going well until a bird pooped in my hair.  

We did lots of "tube" riding.  Let me tell you, this isn't for the faint in heart!  I was so worried one of the 8 kids we had with us was going to somehow jump in front of a moving train.  No one came close, thankfully.  

I was so impressed by the people in London.  They were very friendly and eager to help.  I'm sure we looked like a circus trying to get 3 double strollers up and down flights of stairs and on and off subway cars.  I think Amanda and Aubrey are super women for doing it without their husbands.  

Since we were touring between Christmas and New Years all of the attractions were pretty busy.  It was pretty wet and windy and we laughed because all of our umbrellas were blowing inside out.  

 The "rubbish" bin.  

Once inside were able to see many treasures!  The Egyptian mummies were a big hit!  

Our boys were troopers.  None of us were used to the walking and then they were good sports about finding the fun in museums.  Tyler crashed on Andrew numerous times.  

 We also went to Harrods.  It was huge!  We bought an ornament while we were there and enjoyed looking around.  

We got stuck in the Disney section and had a really hard time getting Tyler off of Mickey's foot.  

We ended the day with Indian food and a very happy Husband.  

We stopped at Princess Diana Memorial Park on our way to Kensington Palace.  It was a magical park that has a Neverland theme.  Unfortunately, they close at dark and so that means around 4 this time of year.  Bummer!

 One of our other stops was Kensington Palace.  They have an amazing dress display including gowns worn by Queen Elizabeth, Margaret, and princess Diana.  

Kensington Palace was also fun because when we arrived the kids were all given a crown.  When we went to different parts of the castle the kids could do different things to their crowns.  

 Tyler didn't want to wear his crown. 

We finished off the day eating at a restaurant called Giraffe.  The kids loved it because in their smoothies came a plastic Giraffe in addition to getting a big orange balloon.

We rang in the new year with our traditional glow stick dance party.  Amanda and I fell asleep on the couch and our husbands woke us up for the count down.  We watched the London fireworks on TV, but could hear the booms from outside.  It was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen!  

Happy New Year from our family to yours!