London Weekend Trip

When my friend, Bri, said that she was going to London for a conference and that she didn't want to travel alone, I jumped on the opportunity for another trip to London.

 Our trip started off rocky when our 4:00 am shuttle to the airport never arrived.  We hurried by car to the airport and made it safely and on time.  We spent Friday exploring the city.  

 In all of my trips to London,  I had not been in the Portrait Gallery.  Shakespeare is above. 

 This horrible picture is a bust made out of the sculpture's blood!  YUCK!

 Our hotel was near Hyde Park, so we strolled over before dinner. 

 Peter Pan. 

 I had Saturday and Sunday to myself because Bri was in her conference.  I spent both days shopping and exploring.  I did make into the National Gallery.  

 Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  

 Monet's Waterlily Pond

 I took this picture for the boys.  Ethan and Lincoln hated this picture.  I thought it was funny!

 On Sunday, the London Marathon was happening.  The streets were pretty bare compared to Saturday's massive crowds.  

 Buckingham Palace is at the end of this street. 

 I fought these crowds on Saturday when shopping.  NOT my idea of fun!

I was able to find a few things, see a few things, and eat a few yummy things!  

I love LONDON!  

Lincoln's Eighth B/day Party

 Lincoln invited his two best buds to go to World of Fun and have a sleepover.  

 After our 2 hour hike, and two baseball games, these guys played for three hours straight!

 They are at a GREAT age.  They really don't need supervision here.  Nate and I were able to relax and pass out water as needed!  It was a fun afternoon.

 Ice Cream Cake!!!

 Julian is the BEST friend.  He knows just how to push Link's buttons!  

This wrapping paper was hilarious!  We all got a kick out of it!

 This was the b/day of Pokemon!  He got Pokemon cards, a Pokemon binder, 

and a Pokemon DS game.  

They played at home until 9:00.  I can't believe they made it that long.  Then, they watched movie and were all asleep by 10:00.  I am impressed.  Tomorrow, they all want to go to church!  

I think this may be the most perfect b/day party, yet!

Baseball 2015

 Lincoln moved up to the Coach Pitch League this year.  He had his first game today.

 He is still awkward and unsure how to stand or bat,

 but he is enjoying it so much more than he ever has.  

 We shipped our bat, and we are both regretting it!  He is having a hard time figuring out how to swing.  He told me on the way to the game that all he wanted to do was run the bases.  My heart broke when he struck out for the third time.  However, his coach yelled at him to head to first!

 I was sooooo happy and he grinned and grinned!  He got to run the bases and that made his day!

 Lincoln and I missed Ethan's game.  We picked up Link's friends for his birthday party.  

I gave Nate the camera and he took some pictures for me.  

He got to pinch run.  

When I saw him, he said he had a great game.  He loves sports so much.  

I don't think he ever has a bad game!

Hike to the Windmills

We move into a friend's house next week for the remaining weeks of our stay in Germany.  I had ONE more thing that I wanted to do before we left Erzenhausen:  hike to the windmills.  

I told the fellas that on Saturday morning we were making the hike.  

Once we got to the top of the hill, we stopped to take a picture of the scenery.  

I noticed two horses sprinting towards us.  

I think they thought we had food.  

Well hello there!!!

They were so friendly.  

Ethan picked up every rock and stick he could find!

After what seemed like HOURS we finally found them!

We see these everyday, and they seem so close.  Once you get up to one you realize how HUGE they are and how they are really far away from us down in Erzenhausen.

We glanced at my watch and realized that we only had two hours before Link's baseball game!  

We started hustling home!

Last peek over my shoulder!

I made a big mistake of thinking that if we took this path it would be MUCH shorter!  Oops....the path ended and we had to back track.  Our hike ended up taking us 2 hours and 20 minutes.  Both guys had baseball today AND Link had his birthday party at World of Fun tonight.  

These guys are going to sleep GOOD!!!

Hike to the Windmills-CHECK!!!

Man, we are going to miss Erzenhausen!

Third Quarter Awards

 Ethan had third quarter awards on Friday.  For the past three weeks, every time we looked at Grade Speed, he had all A's  and an 89 in Science.   He was sweating it for a while!  The week before the quarter ended, he asked his Science teacher if there was anything he could do.  

He retook a test and pulled out an A!

For the third quarter in a row he joined the Gold Medal winners!  One more quarter to go!!

London Day 4

We started our last full day in London off at Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian.  

We also toured the Royal Observatory.  

In the middle of the museum I found some clocks and a log book from a watchmaker and inventor who spent time at the observatory.  Who knows?  Maybe we are related!

Once again, on our 2000 trip, Marilyn was enthralled by a tour given at the observatory.  They now only do audio guides, so I had Nate reenact the tour for her!

The views from here would be impressive if we didn't have such a foggy day.

The astronomer Halley spent time here too.  We found his Meridian Line on the wall.

I knew I had one little boy who would LOVE to tour the Cutty Sark.

He enjoyed it, but I think his brother may have enjoyed it more!

I found a sign that said on April 2nd they had a sleepover on the Cutty Sark.  

These guys would have loved that!

I don't know where the adults would sleep because these beds are tiny!

The fog cleared up and we were hungry!  

We all enjoyed fish and chips for lunch!

By 1:00 we were finished with our entire day's plans.  So, we headed to another train station across the Thames and made a quick decision to try to see Wimbledon.  

We had no clue where to go once we got off the train, but thankfully we found some signs to tennis!  We had about a 30 minute walk through Wimbledon Village.  It was beautiful.
On our way through the village, we noticed and mom and toddler walking towards us.  The little boy starts running to us.  He gets in front of Ethan, rears his arm back, punched Ethan in the gut.  Our jaws fell open and his mother called him back.  She apologized and walked off.  We all cracked up!  The rest of the day, we warned Ethan of toddlers passing us!

We peaked through the fence and found some of the courts.

And a rolex clock!

We were able to go to the Wimbledon museum and take a peak through the glass at Center Court.

Very cool!

Afterwards, we saw a few of the smaller courts.  The grass was very green!

I really enjoyed the museum.  We saw clothes from famous players such as Agassi, the Williams sisters, Jimmy Connors, John MacEnroe, lots of others.  This is Agassi's racket.  

Of course, the trophies were stunning.  

We enjoyed some cookies from Center Court to fuel us for the long walk to the tube!

After our walk and train ride back to the city, we ate some super yummy and super spicy Indian food.  I think I was too exhausted to remember to take any pictures. 

I don't think we could have had a better last Spring Break in Europe!  We all LOVE London!