Europe Trip: London

I've decided to share about our Europe trip one city at a time. So, hopefully, I will post each day for the next (let me count...) 8 days. I will try to limit the number of pictures and words I use to keep it interesting.

Our first stop was London, after successfully saying goodbye to the kids, leaving a messy house for my parents to clean up, almost losing my boarding pass (it was totally a scene out of the Amazing Race...there were many of those on our trip where I would think "We could totally win the Amazing Race" and other times where I was embarrassed imagining watching us) and suffering through a long airplane flight with a pretty bad cold. Jeremy is the master at working the system, so we got upgraded seats without having to pay for them and I got to select 2 mediocre movies to watch on my own personal screen.

Many people acted surprised when I told them that we didn't have everything planned out and that we hadn't made very many reservations (my mom's exact words were "that is the most brief itenerary I have ever seen"), but that's just how we roll. Well, actually, that's how Jeremy rolls and I have learned to roll with him. We know it means there will be some frustration when we have a hard time finding a room or are tired, but we also know that the trade-off is more spontaneity and freedom. More about how that worked out later (i.e. Munich).

We did have reservations for our time in London. In America, a reservation means that the people at the hotel actually hold the room for you, in England, it seems, reservation means that you will think you have a room and will navigate the subway system to get to said room and you might just run into a whole section of subway that is under construction so you have to walk and walk and walk but it's okay because your room is waiting for you and then you walk some more because the numbers on each side of the street don't actually coordinate with each other like they do in America and then you get to the hotel and they look at you cross-eyed and say they don't have a room for you (like every situation in life, there is actually a Seinfeld episode about this). Yes, this actually happened. So then we had to take a taxi across town to another hotel which ended up being great and cheaper...well, I guess at that point, we were easy to please because they gave us a room in the attic that looked like this:

Imagine Chris Farley singing "Big guy in a little ro-om"

We lost most of our sight-seeing time that day with the hotel mix-up, but we did drag our tired (and sick) selves out to SoHo and Picadilly Circus that evening.

We experienced "full English breakfast" (which we became very familiar with for the next 8 days) which is bacon (sort of) sausage, eggs, toast, tea, coffee, juice, beans (huh?), tomatoes, and various dairy products and cold cereal (which was always offered as sort of an appetizer while they cooked your breakfast). It sounds like a buffet, but it wasn't...all of those things were actually served directly to us. It worked out okay because jet lag made us hungriest in the morning and our budget made us fill up at breakfast to save money later in the day. We may or may not have smuggled various bread products out of dining rooms in our jacket pockets.

We headed out (by city bus...the subway (tube) was closed all weekend...it was a proud "Amazing Race Moment" (A.R.M.) to see how well we handled that) to catch the double decker bus to tour around London (that's when Jeremy rolled with ME). I was holding back from trying to rush to see the changing of the guard because it seemed so touristy and stressful to try to make it but I secretly really wanted to. We managed to get on a bus (with a Rick Steves' guidebook discount) and, following Rick Steves' advice, got to Buckingham palace and found a great spot to see all the strange festivities. I felt a little choked up when I saw everything--the "wow, I'm in England" moment Tim Darby told us about. I don't understand a lot of why the British do some of the things they do, but tradition is obviously very important to them (If you have seen the changing of the guard, you will understand what I am talking about...like, for example, can someone tell me why they are called "beefeaters"?)

The Original Bus Tour

I often found myself playing cheesy "majestic" music in my head when I would see stuff like this ("du-um dum dum dum, dum dum dudumdum dum") or imagining the clip-clop of horses pulling a royal carriage up to the front gate

Here I am enjoying the moment and holding onto my purse for fear of the Artful Dodger

The thrill of the changing of the guard (or the thrill of seeing every tourist in London in the same place at the same time holding up their arms in a strange international salute)

The statue of Queen Victoria (where we stood to watch the events), depicted in the act of nursing one of her babies...can you imagine if someone in the U.S. wanted to put up a statue of a woman politician nursing?!

Our next stop was Hyde Park for sandwiches and Speaker's Corner. Speaker's Corner is a place that has a long tradition of people standing on their "soapboxes" (literally) and shouting about hot topics of the day. We saw a Messianic Jew singing, an American "Cowboy" ranting and raving about Islam and Christianity, and old woman ranting about Islam, a black man preaching Christianity, and some Muslims preaching Islam. This tension seemed to be a reoccurring one during our whole trip and with travel warnings in effect in the countries we visited, I often felt a little uneasy. The climate seems to be changing in Europe, and not in the ways our politicians are busy talking about. That's all I'm going to say about that.

We continued to ride the bus around in the rain (we stayed on the top level despite the rainy weather) and learned about the plague of 1665 (which was wrongly blamed on cats and dogs, therefore leading to the required extermination of them, which in turn led to a proliferation of the actual culprits--rats), the fire of 1666 which destroyed 80% of London (and effectively stopped the plague as well), stopped in at the British Museum (a lot of old knick knacks and water jugs, we wish we had gone to the British Library instead), passed by the Tower of London and wished we had gone there, and made it to Westminster Abbey in time for the 5:45 organ recital (a clever way of getting inside without paying--thanks for the tip, Rick).

One of my goals on the trip was to hear bagpipes being played...I didn't imagine it would happen the first day! My other goal was to see Morris dancing, but that never happened.

I learned why people love English Gardens, and it wasn't even summertime!

Whenever I saw slummy areas, I imagined Oliver Twist and Nancy and Bill Sykes living there.

British Museum

Westminster Abbey (no photos allowed in most cathedrals, but donations gladly accepted)

We finished the night sharing a plate of delicious Thai food with locals and then fell into bed in our little attic exhausted and glad to finally be warm after all day in the rain!

Next stop: Cambridge--Tension, Resolution, a Cemetery, and Shoes

Why My Birthday Was Special

This summer started with me feeling the best I ever had in my life. I was running 6 or 7 miles a day and had so much energy and felt I could conquer the world. I thought that 32 was the best age in the world. I was woman and you could hear me roar (okay, I'm getting a little carried away). Then, one of my knees started to bug me, and I ended up at the doctor's office with X-rays and an MRI and the doctor looking sympathetically at me and saying, "I'm pretty surprised to see you have arthritis. Very uncommon in someone your age." And then, he shrugged his shoulders, told me to come back in 8-10 weeks if my pain was too bad, and left the office.

I can't say the news was devastating or earth-shattering, and I knew I should be thankful for all the scary diagnosises (I know you say "diagnosees," but I don't know how to spell it and that's how I talk anyway) I hadn't gotten, but it still was...discouraging...like I had to redefine a lot of who I was, and I started to worry about what it meant or what I wouldn't be able to do in the future. I suddenly felt very, very old.

So the prospect of my birthday was not very exciting, just a reminder of the aging of my body. I went to High School Sunday School where Jeremy surprised me by putting me in the "Hot Seat" (a tradition we have in youth group when it is someone's birthday--people can ask them any question they want, but they have to give a compliment first). Usually the students struggle to think of lame compliments so they can ask really random questions like "Would you rather have a shovel for an arm or an elephant's foot?" I had gotten to spend a lot of time with the high schoolers this summer and felt like we knew each other pretty well, so I was curious as to what my Hot Seat would be like.

One student said, "You pay attention to what we like and ask us about those things. I like that." Another said, "I like when you sing when you and Jeremy lead worship." And many of them said, "I don't have a question, I just have a compliment." I felt so known by them...and to feel that way with teenagers is quite a compliment in itself. It made me realize the great things I had gotten to be a part of with them this summer, and how much prouder I am of that than if I can run 7 miles. It was a good morning.

My actual birthday day, Jeremy, Annie, Evan and I went downtown to a little hole-in-the-wall place called MartAnne's that I've been wanting to go to. It was really good and the kids were really well-behaved...and that's really all a mom can ask for! After brunch, we walked around and I bought a new purse that fit the specific requirements of the purse I wanted for our trip to Europe...thin enough to be stuffed into my suitcase but pick-pocket proof. We'll see how it holds up!




Later, we dropped the kids off at a friend's and went for a motorcycle ride. Jeremy got me (drum roll)...a helmet for my birthday. (Yes, it's a little like when Homer Simpson gets Marge a bowling ball with his name on it for her birthday..."but I don't even like bowling"...you get it). But, we actually had a great time. I looked at the beauty around us and kept thinking, "This is where I live!" (old Campus Crusaders might know what I am referencing).

We stopped at Mormon Lake Lodge for Diet Dr. Pepper and Iced Tea (really fruit punch disguised as iced tea, isn't it?) and had one of those peaceful husband and wife talks where you just talk...about the future and things you're thinking, and neither person has an agenda or gets all stressed out about the implications of what the other person is saying (what? I never do that!).




In the evening, the Chiefs were playing the Chargers (those are Football teams, for my dear Flagstaff friends), and since we don't have cable and only know 1.5 NFL fans in this town, we invited ourselves over to some friends' house to watch the game. There was a little birthday cake for me...but the Chargers lost. And we totally overstayed our welcome. Oh well.


The rest of the week was busy with MOPS and life, but I had asked some friends to go country dancing and the old place we used to go to in college. It was fun, low-pressure, free dance lessons at 7 pm on a Thursday, so it was us and the old couples who had just eaten dinner at 4:30 at Sizzler. But their knees were probably better than mine. Okay, anyway, we had so much fun and MOST of us said we wanted to go to the free lessons every week. They did a competition where they made everyone get with a new partner and do the steps that we learned and they chose a winner. Now, in our family, it is known that I am the best dancer, and I secretly wanted to win (Jeremy and I were each with another partner because they split us up, and he was with an old lady and I was with one of the better younger guys and I was even wearing a cowgirl hat, so I was sure we would place in the top 3). Anyway, another couple won the $5 prize (this is serious stuff, guys, keep reading) and then my partner said, "Well, I'm sure we were 2nd" and then right after that, the main teacher came up to Jeremy and I and said, "I thought YOU should have won, I voted for you!" and I stood up straight and smiled big and then he thumped JEREMY! on the shoulder and I realized he was talking about him!!! *Sigh*






So, in the end, despite not winning the dance contest, I felt appreciated, I had fun, and I enjoyed my 33rd birthday in Flagstaff with the people God has in our life, achy knees and all. And, in the middle of the week, I spoke at our MOPS group, where I shared our theme verse..."Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." I needed to hear it.

If You Could See...Then You Would Understand

If you could see how much frozen pizza my family has eaten lately, then you would understand why I haven't been blogging.

If you could see my despair over having both cameras stolen out of my car (and my wallet, but it was found a few streets over), then you would understand why I felt too sad to blog. I did find that I just enjoyed watching the kids do things without worrying about trying to capture them on film (though I think I'm pretty good at controlling the picture taking...Jeremy might disagree...but I have a strategy: I always take pictures right away when we get somewhere so that I can put the camera away and relax). Pictures I lost, which equals blog posts that will never be, include our trip to Carlsbad, our family's first camping trip, and Sam teaching Evan how to play school (so cute!).

If you could see this in my yard,then you would understand that there have been some interesting conversations in our home lately. We watched "Wild Hogs" one night and suddenly it appeared. Just kidding, we talked about it for a few days first...Jeremy's close friend, Jason, got one and he helped Jeremy get one (i.e. as soon as I said okay, it ended up in the yard). There are talks of a cross-country road trip in the air (just the guys), so I think I might begin negotiations on a Mom-sister-me-and-the-kids trip or something.

If you could see this......you would understand that we've been spending a lot of our free time preparing for our trip to Europe, which somehow involved buying lots of new clothes even though we are going back-pack style and taking like 3 outfits. Well, Jeremy is not taking outfits, he does not wear outfits. This is a fact that has been established a long time ago in our relationship. He also doesn't wear "tops". We're going to London, driving through England and up through Scotland to St. Andrews, then down to Edinburgh, then flying to Munich, then ending in Prague. United's Frequent Flyer program, Jeremy's careful savings plan (which also explains the excessive amount of frozen pizza lately--it was on sale!), and the grandparents' courageous babysitting services have made this trip possible. I'm just showing up to look cute in the pictures.

In order to prepare for our trip, we have also been watching lots of UK-filmed movies. The ones we've enjoyed have been The Young Victoria (LOVED IT!!! Well, I loved it, Jeremy thought it was nice, "but there were no wars or battles"), Shakespeare in Love (edited by Kaci because there's a little too much "love" in it); the ones that were "meh" were Sliding Doors (interesting concept, depressing when you stop and think about it), What a Girl Wants (cute for the teenage crowd...for the record, I did not subject Jeremy to that one); and in the thumbs down category, The Remains of the Day (I did not remain for the ending of that one, Jeremy suffered through it), and King Arthur (Jeremy finally got his battles, but we were both like "what?" at the end of that one. At least I know who Pelagius was now).

If you could have seen this last Thursday...



...then you would understand that I've been a little busy. This was the scene at our first MOPS meeting of the year, and seeing as I am co-leading it, I was QUITE busy these last few weeks.

If you could see this...

...then you would understand that opening packages that are sealed tight at high altitude can cause explosions.

Here's some other pictures of recent activities and general cuteness by the kiddos:Annie's first black eye, due to her independence and climbing abilities

We have some fun while Sam is at school...
Evan getting to eat a muffin tin lunch in front of the t.v. (don't tell Sam!)


Going to the fair. Evan got to play on all the bouncy things, Annie played with other kids' shoes.





Outtakes from Annie's 13 month photo session:




Three good friends in a rare moment of peacefulness:


Evan wears his Batman costume pretty much every day...Jeremy doesn't understand why I always let him go out in it...I guess I like the compliments and comments we get! (Vanity, yes, I know)


And finally, I love the busyness and imagination of this picture. It captures their play so well...Sam was overheard saying, "Batman, I'm going to have to do something VERY important. It might hurt. (very seriously) I'm going to have to cut off your feet."
Notice the frisbee-footrest, Annie in the sled, and Sam's arm (don't ask about that one...but it turned out to be fine in the end. It may or may not have been related to one of the previous pictures in this post.)
The end.