Europe Trip, Day Three

Day Three began at the Tower of London. Here are the girls with a "beefeater." Don't ask me what that means. This was one place where we didn't get an audio guide to explain everything.

More pictures at the tower. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures of the crown jewels, which were spectacular.

Next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral where we climbed many, many stairs to get to the top and take pictures like this one of Megyn.

After St. Paul's we crossed the Thames on the Millennial bridge, otherwise known as the "wibbly, wobbly." They've fixed the problems that made it that way, but the name has remained. This is the bridge that was attacked by Death Eaters in Harry Potter 7.1. As you can see, we had some very dementorish weather that day.

Next stop, The Globe Theater. We were too late to see inside it, but we browsed the museum for a bit.

The last thing we did that day was take a cruise down the Thames River. On the way home we walked through St. James's park where Josh was attacked by a squirrel. (See the video on his Facebook page.)  As you can see, it was a fun and very full day.

Our Europe Trip--days one and two

A few hours after our arrival in England we took a stroll downtown. This was when it hit me that we were really in London--double decker buses and bobbies.

 We arrived at the tail end of the Diamond Jubilee celebration for Queen Elizabeth. This is in Hyde park where they had big screens set up so people could watch the queen and her family step out onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace and wave. (The Palace grounds were already full by the time we got there). It was rainy and cool, but it was a fun experience watching the people "hip hip hooray" their queen and wave flags. We also got a good view of the jet fly by. The coolest thing for me was seeing the guards all raise their tall hats in unison on "Hooray."

Here we are at dinner the first day. A little damp, very jet lagged, but happy to be there. By the way, we ate at a Mexican restaurant and had an interesting British interpretation of Mexican food.

Day Two began with a tour of Westminster Abbey, which was spectactular, and where we caught of glimpse of Big Ben's clock

. Then we went to the Royal Mews where they house the Royal cars and coaches. Here's the golden coach that they use for very special occasions.

After that we took a train to a Suburb north of London to the studio where the Harry Potter films were made. They've turned the studio into a tour and preserved a lot of the original props and sets used in the filming. I took about a hundred pictures here. But I'll just post a few.

The Great Hall. It had no magical ceiling like you see in the movies. It was just flat and the high vaults and magical stuff were added later.

Ron's Bed in the Gryffindor boy's dorm.

Gryffindor Common Room

The Knight Bus was made by taking a double decker bus and welding another half bus on top. They closed down streets in London for eight nights so they could drive it around and film it. It was too tall for most of the bridges so they had to map out a route that would work.

The bridge at Hogwarts.

This was the last thing on the tour and the most amazing--a 1/24 size miniature of Hogwarts. The whole castle and grounds and eveything. They used it for all their shots and flyovers of the castle. For me this made the trip to London. I love miniature things to begin with and this was so painstakingly detailed, it was incredible. We could have gone home after day two and I would still have been happy.

Pretty girls

A week with my girls

We had a fun time with my three granddaughters plus the two adopted ones.  Among the things we did was a photoshoot almost every day.  Here are a few that I have managed to get photoshopped.

Finally Four

 Jack has been looking forward to his 4th birthday for a very long time. After Tristan had his birthday in April, Jack started asking me on a daily basis if it was his birthday yet. As his birthday approached I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He had a very short list ready:

1. "A clipboard with my name on it, just like Tristan and Kennedy"
2. "A new bear"
3. "A new bike"

The clipboard was easy. I knew where to find that. After all, I have bought at least two already.

After thinking it over I decided to invite a few of Jack's friends to come along to Build A Bear with us. I thought I would let them all pick a bear, we would build them, and then that would also count as a party.

These are two of the three friends we invited. Next to Jack is Will. He has a twin brother who is also named Jack. Next to Will is Rebecca. She lives down the street from us. All of these children are older than Jack.

Of all the bears in the store to choose from Jack chose the Camo bear. He's a true Southerner!

 Two of the three things on Jack's checklist were taken care of. The third, the bike, was a little tricky. Jack already has a bike with two wheels. He wants one like Tristan's but he is a little too small for it and he's just starting to ride with no training wheels. We went to a party the week before Jack's birthday and the kids had these plasma cars which my kids really enjoyed. We decided to get this for him instead. He loves it!

 Presents purchased, we were ready to celebrate his  birthday. I asked him what he wanted to do for his family party and he said, "Go to the airport". I told him that was a great idea. Our airport has an observation deck and park so we packed a picnic and headed out for the afternoon. He really enjoyed watching the airplanes take off and land.

Happy birthday, Jack! You are finally four.

Tamsyn

A picture of Tamsyn with her pretty, new smile

Tired of Walking

Rupunzel was in the picture too...