London Day 1

I took a direct flight from Dallas that left at 6pm Wednesday night and arrived at Heathrow at 9am Thursday. After going through customs, I took the tube/underground to the hotel. While I was taking the tube to the hotel, Aaron was taking a train from Leicester to London. He has been in England working, but took Thursday and Friday off so we could do some sightseeing. I got to the hotel first (about noon) and Aaron came about 5 minutes later. Pretty good timing. While checking in, we found out that Aaron has earned some sort of high status so we got upgraded and had access to the executive lounge, which meant we got free snacks, breakfast, desserts, drinks, etc. A perk from all his travels.

The first thing we did was to get pick up our London Pass for our big sightseeing day for Friday. The place was right next to the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery. We went in the portrait one thinking it was just the National Gallery. I took this picture on my phone because I was going to text it to my brother, Robert, who likes to sport some ridiculous mustaches so I thought he would like it. Turns out, Saturday, I lost (or it was stolen) my camera which meant ALL the pictures on my camera were gone. Such a bummer. The good thing is that I took a couple pictures on my phone and so did Aaron so we have some pictures, but not much. Oh well.

We then walked around and saw the London Eye. For all you Amazing Race fans...do you remember them going on here?

We also went to 10 Downing Street. This is our White House. The PM works here. We also went to Big Ben and the House of Parliament. I think Aaron has some pictures of that on his phone, but I took my pictures of that on the camera so someone else is enjoying those pictures. Did you know Big Ben is right next to Parliament? I always thought they were separate, but they are.

After eating some food, we went to the London Eye. It was fantastic. The views are great. Here is Big Ben right next to Parliament.

I didn't realize how many bridges there are over the Thames River. They each have stories that are interesting too.

A better picture of Big Ben and Parliament. Aaron and I thought that London is a great place. Some cities that we visit are just not great, but we are fans of London. I love how they mix old buildings with new. They preserve things well there and it was really neat to be in a place with such history. The accents were also super fun to listen too...even though it was hard to understand some words. I think their accents make them also sound more polite and proper. But I do think they are more polite and super nice. BUT so many people smoke and it is nasty. They say it is better now, but I still wasn't a fan. Also, they don't believe in air conditioning. Granted they don't have many months when it is really air conditioning weather, but we were there during the time that they needed it. It was much cooler then Dallas though, but at least in Dallas we use our AC. Their public transportation is great and easy to figure out. "Mind the gap" is what they say every time getting off the tube. The street signs are not labeled well at all. Our other observation is people, overall, are thinner, but not many people are fit...no big muscles here.

We also went to Buckingham Palace. I think Aaron has some pictures on his phone, but you can see it in this picture. The Queen is gone in Scotland so you can actually go inside for a tour during the summer, but we didn't. There is a great park next to Buckingham called St. James Park which is beautiful and they had some fantastic pelicans.I got some great pictures on my camera of the park and the animals, but you will just have to imagine them.

This is what the pods look like. They can fit about 25 people, but I think we had about 14 people in ours. It moves slow so you can't really notice that you are moving. The Shard is now the highest structure in London, but we thought the London Eye would be much more fun and we are happy with going on the Eye. It was pricey, but a really neat experience.

We then headed back to the hotel. I was soooo tired. We talked to the kids to make sure grandma and grandpa were surviving. This is the view from our hotel room. We were right on the wharf. It is in the financial district.

Airplane Park

Last Monday, we went to a new park for us. We call it the airplane park. After the park, we ran some errands and then went swimming. The next day, we went to the library for the summer program. We saw our friends, Cohen and Issac there. We then came home and ate lunch, went swimming, talked to Aaron, then went to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa who watched the kids while I went to London to meet up with Aaron. So, with all these trips to the airport it was appropriate that we went to the airplane park.

Dylan is super adventurous and has very little fear so this park was fun for him and a bit nerve wracking for me. He was doing great going up the rock climbing wall, but then realized that he wanted to go on the red rock because red is his favorite color, so he jumped over to get the red one. He did it though.

Later in the afternoon, the kids were playing and Blake put on this clown costume. My grandma made it for my uncle when he was young. No one else wanted it, so my mom got it from my grandma while they were cleaning out her garage and sent it to the kids. The boys love dressing up, so it is perfect.

Dad's Back

Aaron did get back late Thursday night and the boys were super excited Friday to see Aaron. Aaron had  to fly out Saturday afternoon to England, so he didn't work much on Friday. Aaron lined up a massage for me Friday morning. When I got back, we went and got some shaved ice. That is what the boys really wanted to do with Aaron. Blake and Aaron went swimming for a little bit, but was too cold for Dylan. It is amazing how fast the pool cools down. 

Dylan doesn't care at all that his Superman costume is too small. He still wears it, along with my flip flops that are too big.

We played some games too. Aaron and I also finalized our plans for London. My parents are flying in on Tuesday to watch the boys so that I can fly out to London and meet up with Aaron for a couple days. Aaron will be in England for about 2 weeks then flies directly to China for another 2 weeks. So  the boys won't see Aaron for a month, which is why the boys wanted to play lots with their dad while he was home.

Perot

Wednesday morning, I took the boys over to Reese's house and while they were playing I went and ran some errands. I then picked them up and drove back home where our friends, Kaden and Kyler, were there waiting. We watched them while their mom went to some appointments. We went swimming basically the whole time. The next morning we woke up to lots and lots of rain. We had plans to go with Cohen and Issac to the Perot Museum, so we went. Aside from the digging for dinosaur bones, the museum is inside so it was perfect.

We watched Cohen while his mom took him to see an exhibit with Issac that was for older kids.

Here are some of the boys. By this time, Dylan was tired and didn't want to be in the picture.

Dylan ended up taking a nap on the ride home. Later that night, we found out Aaron's flight was delayed because of the weather. Side note: Monday the high was in the high 90s and then Thursday it was 67. It was a nice break. The boys were sad that Aaron wouldn't be home before bedtime, but excited that he would be home by the morning. The boys thought they were funny pretending to be sleeping...in Blake's bed.

Cute brothers!

Who Loves to Dance? I love mysefl?

The boys love to play "Just Dance" on the kinetic.  Michelle and I keeping saying we need to record them prancing around the room......but then we don't.  Well, I took one for the team and recorded the boys trying to follow the dance moves on the game.

So, here is a video compilation of the boys (and Michelle on the left) dancing the night away.  Hope you like it.

Who Loves to dance?

I normally put Dylan to bed at night, and after either a short video, a story, or a book, I end with giving him and kiss and asking him....
"Dylan, who loves you?"
Without exception, he responds with "Mom" first.
I then ask him, "who else?"
He then says, Dad and Blakey.  The other day he surprisingly ended up adding "Dylan" to his list.  Then he stops and looks at me, gets a very confused look on his face and laughs and says, "I love myself? That's funny!"

I giggled all the way back to my room.

Enjoying the Nice Weather

Monday night it rained, which meant much cooler weather. So, we took advantage and went on a bike ride to the park.

After the park, we went home and walked over to Cohen's house to watch them while their mom took care of something. After she came back home, we all went swimming at our house. 

Oleanders

Before this past winter, we had  three beautiful oleander plants out by our pool. They are meant for hot weather areas. Since we had a harsh winter (for Texas) with several deep freezes, our poor trees mostly died. We had some sign of life, so we waited to see what happened. Well, after some research, we figured out it would be best to cut it back significantly. So, last Monday, I (with some help from the boys) spent many hours cutting this down.

The next day I called the trash company about options for hauling it away. They were pretty particular, but they said they could do it. Aaron got back in town late Thursday night and had Friday off because he then flew out today (Saturday) for England. So on Friday, Aaron helped me cut them to the required length and bundle them up. 

7/11

Friday I needed to go to Costco, which is close to our new favorite park, so we went to the park in the morning for an hour. That's about as much of the heat as one can take. On the way to the park, Blake said, "Mom, we need to go on the chip truck." Good job advertising Frito Lay!

Found some shade.

After Costco, we came home and had some lunch and then went and got our free slurpees from 7 eleven.

What a fun treat!

Then they decided to play dress up.

Blake then needed to pose exactly like Dylan had.

Jake is sharing his banana bread.