Lon-done

We're back now and have been for almost 2 months! It's finally setting in how much I miss living in London. I keep thinking about all of the places we frequented and can't help but feel sad that chances are, we'll never go there again, and if we do it will be for a quick visit. I love that city and country so much! Now to catch up on the last two weeks we spent in London.

Probably the saddest day to be in London that we've experienced was Independence Day. I love family and BBQ and fireworks. We celebrated by having a good old American meal...at McDonalds :) Turns out Whole Foods had a proper BBQ over there, but we didn't know until too late.

 It was hard to say goodbye to friends. This is Grace with Aubrey, another ex-pat who lived just around the corner from us. 

 The last Saturday with the Petts we headed down to Waterloo and South Bank to play in this huge temporary sand box they had set up along the banks of the River Thames.

 Benji loved throwing the sand

 Silliness with Pizzza Express stickers

 The Tour de France rode through London near where Rob works so he and two work mates (Brent and Beth) headed over to watch the 30 seconds of excitement.

 Our last Saturday we spent at the Twickenham fair

 Grace and her best friend from church, Amelia.

 Our spectacularly beautiful stretch of the Thames and the Richmond bridge.

 Packing was a little nuts. (When is it ever not, though, really.) Things were looking so good. We had most of our stuff in our bags and we weren't even squashing them as full as we could go. Until we packed the last few things in that must have grown in size and weight because in the end we were measuring and shoving things wherever they would fit. It ended up being a tight squeeze in the end!

We got to the airport really early, which was nice. We got all checked in and all of our bags were a perfect weight. Until they weighed the carry ons...oops. We had stuck all of our heaviest stuff in them to save on the bag space. Thankfully the lady let us throw a bunch of stuff into our car seat bags or we wouldn't have made it!

There was a nice little play area that the kids played on for a couple hours (we got there really early!) then Grace and I took a stroll around the airport shopping and snapped a few last pics.

The flight itself was pretty uneventful, just really, really long. Grace threw up a little at one point, but that was the most exciting thing that happened. The kids were thrilled to watch as much tv as they wanted. Ben had a rough time sleeping and woke up crying a couple times, but the kids really did great!

 

Our first sign of being back in the USA! It was fun, but sad all at the same time!