London - Day 1

Late Sunday morning on July 10th we departed for a long anticipated European adventure. We had decided as a family that instead of staying in one place for a few weeks, we would try to see as much as we could.  I planned a daily itinerary to keep us on track and off we went.  Remember, Friday evening we returned from trek.  All day Saturday we scrambled to finish up packing.  Sunday morning we felt ready for the adventure, but deep down some of us (ME!) were really tired.

I had this really brilliant idea that we should each only pack a duffle backpack as a carry-on. Originally, the one I had in mind also had wheels, but somehow it morphed into this awesome waterproof duffle/backpack that was way too heavy for most to carry, and far too large for a carry on. In the end we checked them all (at a cost) and heaved them around Europe.  Our rolling suitcases seemed like a luxury we lived without!

We arrived at 8:45AM Monday morning in London and looked forward to a full day of sight-seeing.  It took us far longer to get to our hotel, via Paddington Station, than we anticipated.

Then there were complications with our hotel because we admitted there were five of us.  It was a lot of sitting around, negotiating and an expensive upgrade to a junior suite that still didn't fit us all.  Finally we got out into the city and felt especially rushed to fit in all we had hoped to see that day.  

First glimpse of a British phone booth!

Our first stop was the British Museum.  If you've ever been there you know you could spend days exploring the treasures inside.  We had about an hour and half.  It was a glimpse, really.  We walked fast and looked hard.

A view from the museum.

We walked through Covent Garden...

and Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Regent and Oxford Streets.  There wasn't much time to stop and smell the roses, and it rained off and on the whole way.

Being in the midst of the Harry Potter series, Ceci loved every Potter item. (This was a spell store...seriously.)

Adele loves to shop.  She'll endure a museum for the museum shop.  She wanted to see what fun things there were to find in London, so we squeezed in stores here and there to satisfy her desires.

We walked past Big Ben.

And we headed to our scheduled ride on the London Eye.

There were beautiful views, and the rain stopped during our ride!

 The best route to our hotel from most places was this double decker.

We walked just shy of 8 miles that day.

April 2016

Blink.  Another month gone by.  We had some good tickets to one of the General Conference sessions and took Geoff's sister Nikki and his dad with us.  We love being in the conference center with so many incredible leaders, and the powerful influence of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Geoff and the girls made their annual Mormon Tiramisu.  



Geoff, Adele and Ceci met up with Em, Mike and kids for a Bees game.  I don't remember why I didn't go, but I sure wish I had gone!  I love baseball games!

Tennie decided to paint a lemon one night.  We enjoyed her creation in our fruit bowl for weeks.  We've challenged our girls to get off screens and use their time doing other things; this was one of her ideas.

Ceci and I are studying world religions, and during our study of Islam we visited a mosque. We got to witness a prayer time.  It was a beautiful experience with a beautiful people.

Ceci and Adele made a video about two criminals disguised as detectives.  It was spliced together and had special effects and everything.  The storyline was hilarious.  Nice to see a creative outlet for boredom instead of screen time, which is more common these days.

Tennie had oral surgery.  One of her permanent teeth is growing sideways along the palette of her mouth, so they pulled the baby tooth, attached a little chain to the tooth to be moved and attached it to her braces.  Fun, fun, fun.  She survived it like a champ.

Outside the oral surgeon's office there was a little British phone booth that the girls (and Tennie's friend, Moriya, who accompanied us to witness Tennie's drugged up state) loved. I've included a few of the hundreds of pictures taken...

Ceci and I have been walking any morning that isn't taken up with something else.  It has been a very unpredictable spring, but beautiful.  Ceci spotted this little guy:

Adele, Ceci and I watched Erica and Davey's 2-year-old twins while they had a quick weekend away before the NEXT set of TWINS show up in a couple months.  Man they are fun!

We made cookies:

And build-your-own pizzas and taco salads:

Adele and Ceci read endless books to these little story maniacs:

We had octopus on seaweed:

...and played outside in a big pile of sand, and took a long adventure to the park:

Good times.  The next week we spent a few days watching Em and Mike's three-year-old twins, and the next week a few more days.  They are so different from Eri and Davey's twins, and it was fun seeing the different stages of development.  I remembered how tiresome these young kids are!

We went to the zoo:

Fun on the tramp with soap and sprinklers:

We went to Liberty Park and were sorely disappointed the rides weren't open, yet.  But the ducks and geese were fun.

The second week of watching Em and Mike's twins was a little hectic.  It was performance week for Tennie's high school play.  I got a glimpse of life for moms with kids that are older and younger.  I was up until 11:30 each night, and up for school at 6:00 with little people waking up in the midst of getting breakfast, lunches and rides to school.  That was a bit much and I welcomed the weekend!

Tennie's play, Guys and Dolls, ran two nights.  She had minor parts, but it is always a pleasure to see her on stage.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures!  (I was running the concession stand and Candy Grams...)

While cousin Bailey was at her grandma's the girls got to watch her hamster, "Buddy".  Oh the joy!  This hamster palace was in our living room all week, and Buddy didn't go without almost constant love.

Adele and a friend went to a nearby hair salon and she got the ends of her hair dyed blonde, and then her friend curled it.  Adele LOVED it (and still loves the tips dyed). One of my favorite things about teenagers is their exploration of who they are and how they want to express that self.  

Geoff endears us with his many little idiosyncrasies.  Recently I noticed he drew an additional "hint" for himself on the stove.  He said the picture was confusing for him and he was constantly turning on the wrong one.

Ceci continues to leave me little surprises on my camera roll:

And that is a wrap for April.