Daddy-Daughter Dates, Hampton Court Palace and Kingston

a.k.a. The Day Rob Rode 11 Different Buses

Rob and Rue started the day off on a date to McDonald's for breakfast, a trip to the bank and the playground.

They then rushed home so Rob and Grace could head over to the church building for the Primary Christmas activity for their date.

Then they hurried back so we could meet the Pett's and catch a bus to Hampton Court Palace.

 It's a really neat place. It's a huge uninhabited palace that has been restored. It was home to King Henry VIII and William and Mary.

 Grace got to wear a robe for the visit. She thought it was awesome to dress like a princess.

The kitchens have been restored and are being used by food archaeologists to figure out what life was like back then. They were baking bread and here they are roasting a chicken on the spit.

The gardens were spectacularly beautiful

 The girls had a great time running around

 There's a cool maze in the gardens too

The girls even got to meet Anne Boleyn. We learned a lot talking with her about her life there at the palace. She and Henry were walking around the palace all day doing re-enactments throughout the day.

Hampton Court was really fun, but we weren't done yet! Next we caught a bus down to Kingston to do a little Christmas shopping.

The girls love to ride in the front of the double deckers! Grace always points them out whenever she sees them, so it's especially fun to ride in them!

Rob's 30!

It's kind of fun that Rob and I will be turning 30 while in London. For his birthday, Rob wanted to see Phantom of the Opera and kindly took me along ;)

 It was awesome and so fun to see!

We had a little birthday celebration on the day of - our last day in our Kew flat.

Selfies with the birthday boy:

I feel so blessed to have such an amazing man to be my best friend and partner. Since we've lived here, I've really come to appreciate his motivation to get things done - he gets us up and going and out and about. We all love him so much and are so grateful for him! Here's to the next 30 years of adventure!

Church

 I will not ever take getting to church easily for granted again. Getting to church here is an adventure every week! Luckily for us, Elder and Sister Smart, couple missionaries lived in Kew Riverside a building away and let us follow them to church the first Sunday. We left at 8:30 for 10:00 church and got home around 2:45 - it makes for a very long day! Especially after an  always long Saturday the day before! We took a bus to the train station, then the train to church, which luckily is only a block from the station. We packed a lunch, too, since everyone is always starving and food raging by the time we're done.

In subsequent Sundays, getting to church has been much more adventurous. A couple of weeks the trains weren't running so we had to take a couple of buses - it was a long and grueling process. It's especially annoying that only 2 buggies can be on the bus at a time and all others have to be folded, so one week we were the last ones on the bus (even though we were the ones who had been there waiting the longest) so we had to (try to) fold the buggy with all of the junk we have in the under-basket and store it. It was a little stressful - I still wasn't sure of rules and stuff and it caught me way off guard. Last Sunday we missed the train by a couple minutes because the ticket office didn't open in time, so we had to wait 20 minutes for another train and we had to change lines. It was nuts. Every week we're usually 10-20 minutes late because buses are late or we missed the train. It's awesome. So last week we came in late and about three-quarters of the way through the meeting Ruby announces she needs to go potty. Not wanting to be the obnoxious in-and-out during church family, I ask if she can hold it, to which she responds in the affirmative. A few minutes later Grace announces she needs to go potty and since her eyes were red-rimmed and watering I figured she really did. So she ran out and Ruby followed, but then came back crying when the door closed on her and she couldn't get out to follow Grace. I try to quiet her and put her on my nap to snuggle. The last speaker finally ends and I breathe a sigh of relief that we've made it until the Bishop announces two surprise testimonies from the congregation. About halfway through the first one, Ruby says "sorry Mommy" as I feel my lap getting extra warm. Poor girl really had to go because it was audibly splashing onto the carpet below. Luckily I had a change of undies for her and she was good to go. I was not so lucky and thoroughly soaked so I took Benji home. It was freezing and I wasn't sure of what train to be on, and the one I thought I needed I jumped onto at the station. I was not at all sure how to get home and soaking and freezing. Then when I got into the station I realized that without Rob, I couldn't get the buggy up the staircase by myself easily, but no one was around, so I started bumping him up the steps backwards for the first flight until a nice man came to our rescue. To take the train all the way I would have had to do 2 more flight of stairs so I hiked over to the bus stop and took it home. Sundays are always quite an adventure!!

Winter Wonderland

 In December a section of Hyde Park is turned into Winter Wonderland. There's a German(-ish) Christmas Village with lots of shops and food stalls. The other section has fair rides and games. It's huge! We went the first weekend it was open just after it opened and by the time we left in the afternoon it was a zoo! We could hardly keep the kids together!

 We waited in line for over an hour to see Santa. The girls made friends with a little boy who they played with in line. It was a long wait, but worth it to talk to the Big Guy in person.