London, Part I

{Day 1 - Travel}

In April, we went on a massive ten day trip to London!  It was so much fun!  The kids were travel champions, and everything went as smoothly as it could have.  This was the first trip the kids got their own suitcases which made prepping for the trip all the more exciting. 

I come very, very prepared for these trips.  The kids have all the things to keep them happy for hours and hours (the big button calculator was an unexpectedly successful addition this go-round, no pun intended😏)  It's also our tradition that they can earn a new set of legos in the months leading up to a big plane trip.  This time, I also surprised them each with a mini London lego!  Auggie got a cityscape, and O's got the double decker bus.

Lots of airport shuttles to pass the layover time.

Cutie airplane snoozers.

Made it!!

{Day 2 - All the things!}

First things first.  A beautiful 7.5 mile run in Hyde Park!  I ran by the old flat from my BYU study abroad days 💙.

27 Palace Court.

Don's parents and Kyle met us in London.  London has always been on their bucket list, so they were very excited to have us as tour guides during the trip.  I made sure to show them all the things!  I figured it was a good idea to start off with a bang, so it was off to Big Ben first thing.  

I had researched that you can go watch a political debate in the House of Lords or the House of Commons for free.  You can just walk right in!  So we waltzed into the House of Commons that morning, nbd.  I was thrilled, because it was the room that I had seen in so. many. movies.  Way cool.  There were no pictures allowed in the actual debate rooms, unfortunately.

Auggie immediately thought that the chapel entrance into the House of Commons looked like the Great Hall from Harry Potter.  He's not wrong, so we did some spells. 

Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel.

Ok....so this was cool.  Here's the story.  There is a famous British street artist/political activist who goes by the name Banksy, if you've heard of him.  He's been doing graffiti art since the 1990's, and now he does it all around the world.  We actually saw his "Hammer Boy" graffiti in New York City a couple summers ago when we were walking around the UWS.  

In 2008, Banksy started a graffiti festival in a tunnel underneath the platform of the Waterloo tube station.  It became so popular for artists to graffiti inside the tunnel that they made it legal only in this 300-foot space.  Now, street artists are encouraged to paint, and everyday people re-tag the walls and paint something new!  It's nicknamed the Banksy Tunnel.  

It was so much fun, and we even "tagged" the walls with our names and a sharpie marker, ha! 

London Eye POV:  

You're in a beautiful clear glass bubble with a perfect view of London at the very top of the London Eye when Owen suddenly and desperately declares he has to pee right now, but unfortunately, the London Eye takes a half an hour to complete one full revolution which means you're stuck, so you begin publicly debating whether to have Owen pee in a water bottle which is super weird given the clear glass bubble situation, or just let him have an accident which isn't particularly great for everybody inside the bubble either 😅 . 

It was looking like a lose-lose, but we opted for a third option of firmly telling Owen (every two minutes) that he simply wasn't allowed to pee.  And what a kid!  He ended up holding it for twenty more minutes and made it to the bathroom.  All's well that ends well!

Telephone booth photo, of course.

Our last stop for the night was Harrod's.  It's just fun.  I had no idea that the toy section was so iconic! 

{Day 3 - Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Tower Bridge}

Next up, Buckingham Palace!  One thing that I was continually impressed with in London was the option for kid-friendly tours.  In Buckingham Palace, the family tour included a scavenger hunt for the kids, and they had a blast searching for all the different artifacts and paintings in each room as we went through. 

But the best part of the family tour was the pretend "knighting" ceremony they held in the ballroom.  The ballroom is the actual room where Knighthoods are awarded, so it was really neat when they held a ceremony exactly like the real thing for the kids.  Auggie was knighted and thanked for his "services to the Queen as Master Lego Builder".  Cuuuuuute!  Owen was too shy to go up in front of everybody, so he stayed with me and watched.  

No pictures allowed inside Buckingham Palace, but we took a lot outside.  The boys wanted some very serious Royal Guard pictures, so we had an impromptu photoshoot by the gates.

   

I love this one so much.

After Buckingham Palace, we ate lunch and headed over to the Tower of London.  The Tower of London has the crown jewels display, so we were all most excited about that.  Again, no pictures of the crown jewels...this was a common theme.

Owen was pretty worn out by the time we got through the jewels, so he and I relaxed on a bench for a while.  Auggie, however, was enthralled by the kid-friendly audioguide, and wouldn't leave until he'd listened to every single number!  He and Don had a great time wandering through all the exhibits.

The fun surprise of the day was the Tower of London guards, which everybody calls the "Beefeaters".  They walk around the grounds in full uniform, telling animated stories about the history of the Tower of London.  I overheard some of the stories as we walked along and quickly realized they were not the kid friendly versions...but Auggie ran into one of the Beefeaters at the end of the day and got soooo excited to take a picture with him.  So that was a win.

Audioguide Auggie :).

A perfectly rainy walk across the Tower Bridge to end the day.

{Day 4 - Church, Westminster Abbey, Frozen}

Day four was Sunday, so we went to sacrament meeting at my old building.  So random, but we ran into a friend who lives in London now.  It was fun to catch up with her, and she suggested a great lunch spot to go to in Kensington.  Yum!

We hurried to make it to a Sunday choral concert in Westminster Abbey that was suggested by none other than Rick Steves himself.  Every Sunday, Westminster Abbey holds a free concert called "Evensong" where you can listen to the choir sing.  It was a really neat experience.  I wanted to stay for the whole thing, but the kids were struggling to stay quiet after an hour of our own church.   So we left early, but it was still such a neat cultural experience (and pop culture...I love anything having to do with the Royals, so I was stoked to see the wedding venue of William and Kate).

Westminster Abbey.

We walked through Trafalgar Square afterwards and caught a glimpse of the new Mission Impossible Movie.  No Tom Cruise sightings though, darn it.

Frozen in the West End made for a perfect night!

Peep Owen's little puffy pink eye in that picture, poor kid.  Auggie got pink eye the day before we left for London, and then O's got it a few days in, and then me...sad day!  The boys got over it quickly with the drops, but I did not.  My eyes are still recovering from that explosion.  A story for another day.

I just love how much Owen loves trains!  He was mesmerized by the subway and wouldn't let us leave until we watched the train completely leave the station.  Every single time.  So we all just knew to hang out on the platform after exiting the train, watching and waiting, as everybody else around us bolted for their exits and transfers.  One of our favorite London memories!

{Day 5 - Stonehenge and Windsor Castle}

Our bus ride to Stonehenge was wonderful.  We've been really lucky with excellent tour guides on our day trips, and this one was no different.  We loved it!

I'm glad we made it to Stonehenge before the environmental activists painted it orange.  Grrrrrr.  I'm so mad about that.  I'm really pro-saving the environment, but really anti-destroying priceless historical artifacts to get the message across.  Not cool.

Stonehenge is fascinating though.  I think the most intriguing bit is how they got the stones on top.  The top stones are actually connected to the column stones with tongue and groove joints!  What.

A little perspective play.

The kids loved the huts and giant stone to touch.  It was a fun interactive section of the tour.  

Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle was really beautiful.  We loved learning about all of the history of the castle.  The rooms were stunning!  Auggie liked seeing the knight's armor in the grand staircase.   

I also loved knowing that Kate Middleton was living just beyond the trees.  We walked through the chapel where Harry and Meagan were married too.  I really don't know why I love the Royals so much.  I know they are all crazy, but they fascinate me nonetheless.

Windsor had the most perfect Royal Guard photo ops.  The boys spent most days of our trip pretending to be guards at some point.  

We had some extra time to explore the city of Windsor after our tour.  I love these pictures because Owen kept being so silly trying to duck and hide from the selfie view.  We got him in the first picture, but then he suddenly disappeared!  We all just busted up laughing. 

Now you see him...

Now you don't!

The Windsor sillies, I suppose.