Meanwhile at Home

 While we were gone, the big kids were very busy.  They had a 2 day swim meet, friends over for dinner twice, dinner with Grandma and Papa twice, work, school and who knows what else!  We were able to talk to them a few times and they seemed very happy!

Last full day in London

Ramadan happened to coincide with our time in London and this beautiful install was right next to our hotel.

Ended up being our favorite restaurant in London, we went 3 nights in a row!

B and I woke up relatively early to eat breakfast and get to the History Museum to get in line in hopes of being able to visit it.  We were successful, but it didn't capture B's interest as we hoped.  We did, however, see they had a space exhibit (with timed admission).  Unfortunately our time given was nearly 3 hours later, fortunately, Bri would be back with us, so we got three tickets and headed to lunch and back to meet Brian at the hotel before returning to the museum.  

And of course some yummy pastries as a late afternoon snack.

One area I hadn't been to before that I wanted to explore was SOHO and Chinatown, so we took the bus to explore this area.  Unfortunately, it started raining, was very crowded and was super cold, so we didn't stay long.  

 

London- Day 4

Prior to our trip, I loosely planned out what we wanted to see and do each day and booked the Tower of London for day 4.  We did not luck out with the weather the majority of our trip, but the day we went to the Tower of London and the Burough Market was the most beautiful (albeit cold) day we had.  This was lucky given that is all mostly outdoors.  (B wasn't too into having his photo taken this day either).

I purchased the audio guide for each of us which said to plan about 2 hours at the Tower of London and the grounds.  B spent nearly 3 and I had to pull him away because I knew he was starving.  He soaked up all the history and learned so much (I did too, despite having been there before, I didn't remember all the history).

From there we walked a mile down the river to Burough Market where we got burgers and sat on the ground people watching).

And of course hit up the famous chocolate covered strawberries after quite a long line.

 

London-Day 3

B wanted to see where Newton and Darwin were buried and because the Westminster Abbey was closed on our first day, we went there the morning of day 3.  Afterwards we wandered to the IWM (world war museum), but B wasn't impressed (no photos either).

One of our favorite activities in London was to get on a random bus and see where it took us!  After our failed war museum, we had a big portion of the afternoon left with no plans so we boarded the first bus.  Little did I know, the very next stop on this said bus was Hamleys!  The biggest toy store in the world (which had been on my list to go to, but I wasn't sure where it was or when we would fit it in).  It lived up to its famous reputation of being enormous, but it was fun to wander around and let B choose one thing for himself and something small for each brother (he chose Harry Potter Jelly Bellys and a Harry Potter chocolate frog).

And he couldn't pass up the gelato store 1/2 a block from our hotel.

 

Big Kid dinner

LT had the state swim meet last weekend (A also qualified but it was too late to enter him unfortunately).  After the meet, a few of the kids came over and then a bunch more kids who aren't swimmers to have dinner before these guys went to a concert.

 

Day 2- London

Sunday was pouring rain, but luckily we had some indoor plans.  It ended up being science Sunday!  I wanted to take B to a high tea, but a formal one would not interest him one bit, so I found a kid centered science high tea.  

He was able to make fizzy lemonade, they used dry ice and the treats were science themed.  It was all yummy and more fun than a traditional one.

The museums in London are free, so we wandered down the block to the science museum.  It did not disappoint, but probably the best part was the Wonder lab, filled with hands on science.  The wonder lab was timed tickets with an additional cost, but it was worth every penny.

Bri left for his meeting a few hours away after the science museum, and B and I headed to a highly recommended Indian Restaurant.  It was different and B wasn't a huge fan even after the hour wait, but I thought it was really yummy.