It's Ours!

I snapped a couple of quick pictures of our new house when we were over there yesterday:

First box! Elijah quickly packed this when I told him we were headed to the new house. (He then decided he didn't want to leave it at the new place, so we're back to zero progress on the packing front.)

Backyard view from the patio

Patio!

Living room with formal dining/school room to the right

The boys' room

Master bedroom

Bathroom #1

Renter's room for now

Kitchen and dining nook, laundry room is off to the right past the fridge. I will miss my beautiful kitchen.

Elijah was interested in turning the cupboard into bunkbeds for Josiah and him, and then using the bedroom as a playroom

London, Day 4

We tried to fit in as much as possible into our last day in London, although some things were sadly, but unavoidably, left undone.

We started the (very cold) day by touring St. Paul's Cathedral:



We walked up the spiral staircase to the top and got lovely, snow-laden cloudy view:

Then onto the Tower of London!

Tower Bridge, taken from the Tower of London

In the snow, waiting to see the Crown Jewels; on the plus side, it kept the lines shorter

Lots and lots to see there (and plenty we didn't see!); parts of the castle date back to the time of William the Conqueror, so lots and lots of history there.

Then we crossed the London Bridge over the Thames and entered the second half of the day, also known as the part where Dustin graciously indulged my preferences (and I apparently stopped taking pictures).

We didn't have time for both the Tate Modern (my preference) and a tour of the Globe Theatre (his preference; although at this point we were no longer sadden by the fact that the outdoor Globe Theatre was not yet open for performances--brrr!), so we went to the Tate where Dustin indulged my enjoyment of modern art.

And then we headed out to tea for dinner; lots of delicious, sweet carbs were consumed (again, not Dustin's ideal meal, but a good English experience). Yum!

For our last night in London, we enjoyed an excellent, as well as very bloody and messy, performance of "Macbeth," starring James McAvoy.

London, Day 3

We started the day by switching hotels (maximizing Dustin's points!), and then headed through Green Park to meet up with the Berriers at Buckingham Palace.

More daffodils

Buckingham Palace

It was cold!

We then headed through Hyde Park on our way to the Churchill War Rooms:

The Churchill War Rooms were fascinating to go through; at the end of WWII, they shut the door and the rooms weren't reopened for decades. Teddy was a good companion, holding my hand and carefully listening to the audio guide. Everywhere we went did audio guides; I've concluded that I'm actually not a big fan of them.

Map room

 Next up: The National Art Gallery located next to Trafalgar Square. I'm not sure it even counts as an activity as we zipped through it (My favorite glimpse was of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers").

 Then onto the subway to have lunch in Regent Park.

Despite making fun of our desire to picnic in the cold, our friend Timothy was a good sport to bring his lunch and join us.

We said good-byes to our dear companions, and Dustin and I headed off to the British museum by ourselves.

Assyrian bas relief

Pieces from the Parthenon

 We ended the day with our first quiet meal of the trip:

Well, actually, we ended the day going back to the hotel and dealing with housing stuff (the ups and downs of being contactable!) as we did most nights of the trip...Happily it paid off in that one of the groups who toured the condo while we were away is going to rent it.

London, Day 2

Our hotel room and view:

 

For day two, we met up with the Berriers and all took a bus tour with stops at Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford.

First stop: Windsor Castle!

Teddy and Caeli got to take turns sitting with Dustin and me for each leg of the trip:

Second stop: Stonehenge!

Third stop: Oxford!

It was a really cold winter, so everything was still pretty bare, but there were daffodils everywhere