London

We've been wanting to get the kids back down to London so on Saturday, August 1, we headed down on the train. Our first stop was the Tower of London. Above is a picture of Steve with the kids in front of it. One of our first stops once inside the Tower was to get some lunch. We are all in better moods when we have full tummies. Then we were off to see the Tower.

Mommy and Nathanel eating fish and chips for lunch.

Leah at lunch.

Cason at lunch.

After we finished lunch, we headed outside only to find a sword fight going on. This is a picture of us watching the fight.

Andrew in front of a very old castle wall.

Leah happily riding on daddy's back.

Steve and the kids with the Tower Bridge in the background.

A very nice, American gentleman offered to take our picture. I think it came out pretty well.

Mommy and most of the kids with a guard in the background.

Nathanael watching the guard.

We have to admit, the Tower of London was not our favorite castle (we like Windsor and Edinburgh Castles much better). We did however really like seeing the English Crown Jewels. It was incredible seeing videos and pictures of Queen Elizabeth's corination and then seeing the amazing jewels.

Cason on the Tube (the underground).

Tristan on the Tube.

Dad and Andrew on the Tube.

Our next stop was Hamley's, a huge toy store. I think we may have been a little nuts to take our kids there, since it is such an incredibly busy store. It wasn't too bad and we even got out of there without buying anything. We did buy the kids a small item back at the Tower of London earlier, so they didn't even ask at Hamley's.

Leah in front of the lift(elevator) doors in Hamley's .

Annaliese feeding Nate some ice cream at Nandos (a delicious Portuguese chicken restaurant)

Nate after eating a bite of ice cream. I think he may have had a brain freeze.

Cheesing it up for the camera.

Annaliese eating her ice cream.

Picture of us in Piccadilly Circus before catching the tube back to the train station.

Patiently waiting to jump on the tube.

Enjoying some guy time on the train ride back to Peterborough.

Impossible to Get the Perfect Picture of 6

Take 1!

Take 2!

Take 3!

Take 4!

Take 5!

But I was finally able to get these good ones!

These were all taken at the end of July at Bourne Woods. The one at the top of our blog page was the best one in my opinion. It is neat how the pictures show all the kids personalities though.

Lego Land

On Monday, we surprised the kids with a trip to Lego Land. We didn't tell them where we were going. I truly think we may surprise them like this more often. That morning they were calm. If they would have know where we were going, they would have been bouncing off the wall. It was so fun too. They had no idea, until we were driving in the drive of Lego Land. Cason looked around and saw giant Legos. He said, "Hey, I think we are going to Lego Land!" They were thrilled.

For those of you that don't know, Lego Land is an amusement park centered on Legos. They also have stores spread out through the park, so we didn't leave without buying some Legos. It is a nice amusement park for our kids. It isn't too big and our kids were able to go on most of the rides. Steve and I both admitted, though, that once you have been to Disney nothing else compares. Disney just rocks. Lego Land was fun, though and the kids had a great time, so that is all that matters.

A picture of most of us and the Lego family near the entrance to Lego Land.

Andrew and Cason on their first ride.

Daddy and the girls on their first ride, Sky Rider.

The girls, Tristan and Dad racing Cason and Andrew in a fire truck game. You can see Andrew and Cason in the background, spraying water.

Mommy and Nate in the hot air balloon ride.

Tristan driving a Lego boat.

Mommy, Leah, Anna and Nathanael watching the boys ride the Lego boats.

Our family riding a fairy tale ride in Duplo Land.

We all enjoyed another day out as a family.

Visit to Windsor

It has been a few weeks ago now, but I wanted to document our trip to Windsor. We left on a Sunday morning, skipping church and headed down to Windsor. It is right outside London. The drive took us a little over two hours. We headed straight to Windsor Castle. We went there last summer, but that was when President George W. Bush was visiting the Queen at Windsor castle. So, obviously the castle was closed that day. It is such a beautiful castle from the outside, we wanted to go back and tour it. Windsor castle is one of the homes of the Queen.
They had free audio tours and kid ones too. That is what all the kids are holding up to their ears in the above picture. The girls just thought they were phones and had conversations on them the whole day. It was pretty funny. Andrew listened intently through the whole tour. (I couldn't even listen that long.) When we finished, I asked him what he learned. He said he learned that when you listen to someone talking for two hours it gives you a head ache. I told him he didn't have to listen to all of it and he said, "he didn't want to miss anything." The facts and such he picked up from that tour are amazing. He has taught me a few things.

We were able to see a huge doll house that was given as a gift to the Queen's grandmother sometime around 1912. The detail and intricacy were amazing. One of the workers in that exhibit came up to us and was telling us about the doll house and how everything in it works. It has running water from the taps, and the sewing machine, lights, etc. all work. It was incredible.

We also saw two giant (by this I mean girls size) dolls that were given to Queen Elizabeth and her sister Margaret when they were children from France. They came with a whole wardrobe of clothing, accessories, boxes and even a little car. They were gorgeous as well.

Steve and a tower from the castle

Whenever we visit castles, the boys search out the canons. They love canons, the bigger the better. They also want their picture taken with them.

Mommy and the girls

Mom, Tristan and Nathanael watching the armed guard across the courtyard.

After we left the castle, we stopped for some yummy ice cream before heading to our hotel for the evening.