Windsor Castle

Two Saturdays ago we woke up with the intention of going to a stunning castle (forgot the name) and a few Pride and Prejudice spots, but turns out the castle was super expensive, like $150 for three of us. So we decided to print off some vouchers and try again another week. Instead we went to Windsor, and Windsor Castle. 

 The gate at Windsor. 

 Just a small part of this castle. I was seriously huge! It was also 35 pounds a person to get it, or close to $60 per person, so We decided to skip it. Not to mention the line to get in super long, and the kids, nor the adults, were in the mood to stand. 

 So we let them just run. 

 Probably not the proper thing to do in front of the Royal Family's castle, but what do you do, blame it on the Americans. 

 Family Picture in front of the castle. 

 I wish we could have done the tour. But it already feels like we're hemorrhaging money so we are going to pick the castles we want to go in very wisely. 

 Can you see the gun this guy is carying? 

 More castle

 Alongside the castle walls there is a fantastic little street and we stopped to take some quick portraits. My kids, however, basically wanted nothing to do with it, and we really didn't get many good ones. But they're still cute, so I'm still posting them. 

Can you believe this is the best one I got of just Boston? 

  

Then there's my little girl. Look at those blue eyes. I usually try to keep a bow on her head since whenever we seem to forget it everybody thinks she's a boy. But her hair is coming in so hopefully that won't be the case for much longer. She has quite the fiery little personality. Sometimes I don't know where she gets it from. :D 

 This is Boston and Ally. They are basically inseparable here. Ally came over with her family who also came with qualtrics and happens to live above us. If he didn't have her, life would be so boring. Aren't they so adorable? She's four, so a year older than Boston, but you know his got went after an older woman, and it worked out well for him. *Wouldn't it be awesome if the got married and you could use these on their wedding video? haha. Just a thought. :D

 I told you you'd see a lot of these. 

 Here's a guy repelling off the side of a church building. Apparently it was a big deal There were All sorts of News camera's there and people wearing that same red shirt. I just took a quick picture and kept walking. 

 Look closely at this picture. Does anything seem odd to you? If you feel like something is off, you are quite right. This house is crooked. It's literally leaning to the left. I have no idea how or why, but That's the way it is. It's actually a small cafe now. Odd. 

 There was a fantastic shopping district at Windsor. I could have spent all day there, but the kids were less than impressed so we had to quickly move on. 

 This little girl seriously ADORES her daddy. He can do no wrong in her eyes. Her mother on the other hand...

 Do you see the plane right over the castle? This picture doesn't do it justice. I had Maddie in one arm and my camera wrapped around my shoulder so I couldn't quick maneuver the way I would have like to for this. The planes flew so low to the castle, it was pretty cool. Boston was in heaven every time one passed over head. 

Here's our little group (most of it) finishing up the day at a Kabob shop. Chris loves Kabobs and was so excited for us to try them. He got a lamb and I got a chicken. I tasted his lamb and was immediately grateful I didn't get the lamb for myself. It tasted like sweaty armpits. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to swallow. I can't remember the last time I tasted something so terrible. I don't know if it was just the place, or lamb that I don't like. I'd be willing to try it again. Chris thought it tasted fine, but the lamb had almost ruined the entire kabob experience for me I couldn't even eat much of my chicken kabob. Chris says I have to try it again, so I'm sure I will, as long as I can get the taste of attempt one out of my head. 

London

This post will be way better if you read it in a Brittish accent.

So the second weekend we were here we decided to explore a bit. We plugged in London in our Audi's GPS system and started driving. An hour later when we thought we were almost there I saw a sign that said London then pointed left as we followed the road right. I pointed it out and Chris said he plugged it in the the GPS, and we'll stick with that. However, with in 5 minutes, Chris began to recognize the road (how he did that in a foreign country when the freeways look all the same, green rolling hills and lots of sheep, I'll never know) realized we had been driving in completely the wrong direction for the last hour. Since there was nothing we could do, we laughed fed the kids their lunch and turned the car around. After another hour we finally arrived at the nearest tube station (and by tube I mean train, and by nearest I mean to to where we got lost...)

We parked the car, bought tickets and climbed aboard. Maddie and Boston thought it was awesome. They LOVED the train! We had to make a few transfer due to lines being shut down, and as it turned out had we stayed on the original train we would have saved ourselves another hour traveling to London. We finally arrived and came up out of the tube and saw this...

There it is, in all it's glory. Big Ben. I was impressed with how tall it really is! When Boston first saw it he knew exactly what it was, "Mom look!" He exclaimed, "It's Lightning McQueen's Clock! With Holly and Finn McMissile!" 

He was right of course! The only part of Cars 2 I've seen was the part where McMissile and Holly are strapped to the gears in side Big Ben, But I was impressed that he recognized it! 

Big Ben was completely pack with people. We could barely get three feet without getting separated so we decided to get the heck out of there and head across the street to catch our breath and have some lunch while we enjoyed the view of parliment and Westminster Abby. 

Boston loves getting his picture taken lately and refused to eat until I took his picture in front of "Lightning McQueen's big clock" for Noah and Emma. So Noah, Emma, Katie and Charlotte this one is for you! 

Then Maddie, who adores her brother and wants to do everything he does, jumped in front of the camera and shouted "Me!!!! ME!!!" So here she is. And how about a parent of the year award for the chocolate milk in a bottle? I know, I'm every child's dream mother. :) 

My three favorite people in front of a statue of Abraham Lincoln...of all people to have a statue of in central London. I didn't get a picture, but thought it was odd. Who knows. 

Does anybody else think it's semi-ridiculous that I've waited all my life to travel and see things like Big Ben and they get to see them in the first couple years of life? They have no idea how lucky they are. As long as they have mom and dad, a place to run, and chocolate milk life is good. 

Of Course we had to get the stereotypical family picture in front of Big Ben. 

This is the Catholic Cathedral next to Westminster Abby. It's incredible and has been around since 1500 something. Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside, but it was still fun to see. 

I love this picture! Such a beautiful building! It's amazing to me what people used to make with their hands! The detail is incredible! I just wish I could rotate the blasted picture. So You'll have to tilt your head to catch the beauty of it.  

More of the Cathedral

These are the classic phone booth pictures. Boston loves taking pictures with the red phone booths, actually any phone booth. Any time he sees one he will run in to them and tell me to take a picture of him. I'm sure I will have a million of them by them time we get home. 

Buckingham Palace. It's huge. I can hardly believe how gigantic it is! Now that I'm watching Downton Abby (LOVE) it's fun to think of the amount of people it takes to run a place like this. 

The main gate. 

 Trying to catch a view of the guards

 I'll admit, I was really hoping to see the guards in full dress with the red coats and the big, fuzzy black hats. But apparently this is their winter dress. And they definitely weren't still like you see in the movies. Can you blame them though, really? 

 Statue outside the palace. 

 My princess wishing she had a palace of her own. 

 Boston could have cared less about the palace, he just had a blast playing on the fence surrounding it. 

 Last view of the palace. 

 After we left the palace we found this large stretch of leaves along the side of the walkway. This was the highlight of the day for Boston and Maddie. It's amazing, we come all the way to London, see a timeless palace, and they are most impressed by the leaves on the ground. 

 Seriously, it was their absolute favorite part of the day. Sad to say, it was basically all down hill from here. 

 Boston had a fit and demanded that we take a picture of him and Maddie at the main fountain at Trafalgar Square, but Maddie refused and only wanted to play in the water...so that didn't work out. At first he threw a fit but got over it fairly quickly. 

He likes to be the star of the show. I think Trafalgar square was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole day. There were so many people and an amazing museum there. Chris and I would have loved to continue exploring, but the kids had hit their limit and were about 30 minutes past done. So we packed them up, got back on the tube and headed home. They both we completely unconscious within about 10 minutes, but you can't really blame them. We didn't have a stroller and so they had basically walked around London all day and were completely exhausted. 

Chris and I are hoping to go back in a few weeks and go see a couple shows without the kids. We'll see if it happens. Overall, it was a fun day, and we all had a good time. It's so odd to think we're here still since so much of our life is spent in our little apartment, but Slowly but surely we're seeing new things. To be honest I will be sad when it's time to go back home. 

Tour of the Apartment.

Wow, I can hardly believe we have been here three weeks! We've become much more comfortable and actually feel very much at home in our little apartment. For the most part it's fully stocked and has everything we need. We have bought a couple things just to make life a bit easier, such as a small crockpot and Britta filter. The filter we had to buy because Chris is a water snob and can't stand the water from the tap. Apparently there is an odd taste, pretty sure it's all in his head, but if it makes him happy I won't complain at all. Ok, so let's start the tour and then I'll catch you up on some of our outings and other happenings.

Here is the hallway to get to our apartment. Maddie and Boston love running up and down and I'm sure it drives our neighbors nuts. 

 This is our apartment, good old #36. Notice there is no doorknob. It took me forever to figure out how to unlock the door, and then another three days to really figure out how the stupid thing locked and unlocked. 

 This is the view when you first walk in the apartment. Maddie's room on the left and Boston's room on the right. 

 If you look left you'll see the living room and the kitchen. 

 To the right is our bedroom. 

 Thank heaven for command hooks! 

 On the way to the family room is the kids bathroom. 

 Here's the living room. 

 More living room. 

 Here's the kitchen. We're pretty lucky. We've got a full sized fridge and a dishwasher. 

 This is basically where we spend most of our day. Do you like Boston's moves? 

 The view of the gardens from our apartment. Boston and Maddie LOVE running around in here. 

 The hallway. So captivating. 

 Maddie's room

 Boston's room

At any given time of the day you will be able to find Boston in his underwear, jumping on his bed. 

Our room. This bed is a full, we're used to a queen. Enough said. 

Our Bathroom. We're glad we have our own bathroom. 

Our Shower. It seriously the smallest shower ever. Shaving my legs has proven to be a tricky thing. 

And the tour wouldn't be complete unless it included a peak of our daily activities so here is Boston showing you some of his tumbling moves. This is a cartwheel in case you were wondering. :D 

Well, it's now 10:18pm and I've been dying to watch Downton Abby, so I will have to catch up on our trip to London and Windsor Castle another day. Cheers!