Well we just returned from having lunch with Gabe at his office for the last time here in London. It was one of our favorite outings to do while here. The Lane Powell office was right across from Leadenhall Market, and I think I talked about his before in the blog.. so I don't want to repeat and bore you to death.

But it is just a cool place to be, and a lot of energy down there, with all the business people walking around in their fancy suits walking past Leadenhall market and seeing it packed with business guys grabbing pints on their lunch break. You get a peek inside what life is really like here for those that work in that area, and it is a fun thing to see. The weather is beautiful again, and the city is filling up. Our time here ended up to be during the perfect time... just as the height of tourist season builds we are out of here, and avoiding the crowds. We still got lots of nice weather and couldn't have asked for anything else. Tonight we are having a date night, and I am BEYOND excited about that!!!

Another random note of Life in London is the fact that our milk is reverse... like you know when you are at starbucks, and you see them pick up the red capped milk you know they are making a mistake making your nonfat latte, because that milk has the BLUE cap. Well, here the WHOLE milk is blue and the nonfat is red! Odd... how did that get lost in translation??

Yesterday we headed to Hampstead which is in the North of London, and they have a LARGE Heath that is "suppose" to be beautiful. And it was beautiful, but the day didn't live up to the dream. The village part of Hampstead was beautiful with lots of great shops and leafy green trees, and there were lots of famalies, and the weather was great and the homes beautiful. We stop at a lovely deli and buy some sandwiches and other picnic treats and head to the heath where we were to spread out and dine and our beautiful children would run and be one with nature, and Gabe and I would gaze into each other eyes.. and sigh.. OK so you get how magical it was GOING to be.

All of that ended, as soon as I took a bite of my sandwich and George wandered off about 2 feet came back plopped down and informed me he stepped in "something". DOG POOP!!! Smooshed in between he sweet little pink toes. Thank GOD for baby wipes, as I am wiping off the crap, and muttering to myself that this is a thankless job, I notice and army of 20 pigeons has surrounded us... Mary-Mae starts yelling at the top of her lungs "SHOO SHOO". The young couple lazing with their champagne didn't seem to appreciate the fact that her bird herding was "shooing" them in their direction. Phoebe was toddling off towards the lake, Gabe was fielding messages from work on his blackberry...PACK IT UP KIDS, picnic's over! Lunch then became an ice cream from the ice cream truck strategically parked outside of the childrens play area.

Besides ALL that, I STILL loved the Hampstead.

I have been wanting to make a post of Random Observation of life in London...unorganized thoughts of things I noticed.....
here are some.

They REALLY like to bundle up! Themselves, their kids, and most importantly their BABIES!!!! It is in the high 60-low 70s and I STILL see babies being pushed passed me in snowsuits and blankets!!!! These babies are peaceful and asleep... I am guessing they are on the verge of heat stroke.

Yogurt-- there is a whole aisle dedicated to yogurt. I found it confusing when I got here... the varities and lables on themwere the most foreign thing to me in the food store.

LONDON CABS!!!! The best!! LOVE them. They are huge with a bench seat along the back and two jump seats that fold down facing the back seat. They are large enough that I can just wheel the stroller with Phoebe in it in, and we can all sit. Also, there is some crazy test with a low pass rate that all cab drivers take here (called "The Knowledge") where they have to know EVERY street in London... which is REALLY impressive considering the street name changes every two blocks or so. I have never gotten into a cab ANYWHERE and the cab driver didn't know where we lived!!!

They take their queues (waiting in line) VERY seriously... which I LOVE! I have been in line, and have had old ladies snap at people they don't think are queuing properly, and everyone around them will nod in agreement. Also most long queues I have been in have had SEVERAl people making sure that everyone was being "proper".

i will add on more as I think of them....

Hello? Is there anyone out there still reading??? Ugh- I can't believe how long it has been since I have made a post! There has been lots going on, and the biggest thing going on is that we are gearing up to come on back to the U.S of A! Two and a half weeks and counting! It feels so odd to think that this flat is not my home!!! I can't imagine being back in our house with a car, and people that I know everywhere!!! I am most looking forward to my bed, my friends, and the absence of the exchange rate!!!

Let's see... since I last posted we had a great visit from my parents and my niece, Lainie. Lainie stayed with us, and the kids had the best time!! They really enjoyed the company. And it is always nice to see my parents, as I adore them, and everything always seems a little bit more like home when family is around! I am so thankful that they were able to visit us twice, and share in this cool opportunity we had!

While they were here we made a day trip back to Henley, which I love just as much the second time, and the Wind in the Willows exhibit was OPEN! The kids really liked it! One of the best days was when my parents took Mary-Mae, George and Lainie to LegoLand in Windsor! Phoebe and I had a whole day to get out and around by ourselves!!! We went out to lunch with Gabe and then walked around and shopped and walked, and walked!!!! We walked through Hyde Park, which was fun as I have only been to the Kensigton Gardens side of that area.

On Saturday we all headed to Brighton, which may have been my breaking point... too many daytrips, train issues which caused us to have to get OFF the train and continue the journey on a double decker bus complete with about 5 or so stops along the route, and it goes on and on! The Royal Pavillion at Brighton, however, was VERY cool and I'm glad I got to see it. It is the palace the royals use to vacation while at the beach at Brighton.

This past weekend we went to Borough Market, which I wasn't too excited about. Being from Seattle, and being spoiled by Pike's Place, I just don't get that excited by the idea of going to an open air market, as I think Pike's Place is pretty tough to top! I wouldn't say this "topped" it because it was just completely different. We got to taste lots of interesting cheeses and meats, and see lots of other cool things. The market is located over the Thames so we walked over London Bridge to get there. Mary-Mae remarked as we were crossing, "Boy, I sure hope that song doesn't come true and the bridge falls down."

So yesterday, Saturday.. we went to the Oxford/Cambridge boat race. Be still my beating heart... it was increadible. Okay, so around town this is referred to as "The Boat Race". All the posters, web site yadda yadda, that's what they call it. When I found out we would be here when it was going on, I wanted to GO! So... we DID!!! IT was AMAZING!!!!! So this boat race has been going on for an amazing 153 years! Incredible. And to tie it in even better to our whole London experience, the company Gabe is at, Xchanging, sponsored it!!! Love them even more!!!!!

So the race goes for 4 miles, we decided that we would watch at the middle section of the race, which took us just west of the Hammersmith Bridge. It was a mere 3 tube stops from us, so very easy to get to. We got there about 2 hours before the race, and it was crowded with people, and a very happy, jovial, and friendly atmosphere. We had packed a picnic, but walked around to see some sights... we went to the Furnivall Sculling Club right by the bridge, and bought my very first taste of Pimms. They were selling the british springtime cocktail, the Pimms Cup.. So, I was not familiar, but looking around it was a very popular drink...and Gabe ordered one and handed it to me, and told me about it. Pimms is a liquor that has some secret spices.. blah. blah. blah, and they mix it with lemonade, cucumber, mint leaves, apple, and oranges... YUM YUM YUM.... I'm sold. I love it. After that we headed back to the lawn and spread out amongst all the other picnicers. The kids thought it was so fun and fabulous. Mary-Mae was quite taken with the picnic right next to us, comprised of about 9 good looking young British people, she thought they had better food, better drinks, better blanket, and it was pretty much all I could do to keep her from rushing them and asking if she could be with them.

After the picnic we headed up the path along the Thames and found a spot along a wall, and hung out there dinking some pints for an hour before the race started.. securing a spot on the wall is quite a task, but we did it, and were fortunate to be located next to the ice cream truck which kept the kids happy while waiting, and a nice family with three kids who played soccer with our kids, when the race went off the kids were SO excited, and they came down the river rowing in an amazing form..

Following the two crews were about 10 or so beautiful wooden boats filled with coaches and other "important" people. It was quite a sight to see. When the race went by us, Oxford was ahead by about 3 seats.. and with the moving of the oars, and the yelling of the coxswain, and the cheering of the crowds.. you felt the importance of the moment. This was the moment that many of those men imagined when they decided what school to attend. Who did they want to row for? This was the moment they all thought about everyday when they woke up at 4 am to head to the boathouse, this was the moment... what was going to happen... it was thrilling to watch. Cambridge, favored to win, pulled ahead and won. But we didn't care, even though before hand I had decided to root for Oxford.

It was a very British experince, and we all had a great time.

Happy Easter to everyone!! We ended up having a great weekend, after cancelling plans to get get out of town at the very last minute we still managed to have a great time....
Friday and tomorrow Monday are both holidays here ibn London so we have had lots of time to do things!!! On Friday we decided that morning to take a day trip to Leeds Castle. It was an hour train ride, and then a 5 minute bus to the Castle. As the bus was pulling up we saw that the queue was maybe about 1 hour wait... I wanted to throw up.. because it was a Holiday and they had lots of Easter things going on.. it was packed. BUT, being ever so lucky, because we bought the "all in one" ticket, train, bus, castle, we were able to skip the queue and enter in the group sales entry! Hallelujah.
Once inside they had a scavenger hunt for dinosaur eggs, which the kids were all over.. that ended at the big maze, which Gabe took Mary-Mae and George in, and Phobe and I hung out on one of the many lawns packed with famalies. After that we got some lunch headed to find a great spot for a picnic. We ended up in a beautiful field of daffodils, across the moat from the Castle... it was so beautiful, and peaceful. Even though there were so many people there, it was increadibly quiet and serene. So relaxing!!! After a very long lunch and just laying in the grass Gabe took Phoebe and George to the aviary to look at all the birds.. and Mary-Mae and I toured the castle. The Castle was SO amazing, I just loved it, and so did Mary-Mae!! Walking around you could just imagine... what it was like oh so many years ago, to be there.... the views from the castke windows were breathtaking, and the weather was absolutley georgeous.

We had a great day and a great outing today--and believe me, we were WAY overdue. During the week it has seemed to get harder and harder to get out of the house to explore someplace new. But things just went along well today... and things went clickity clack... things just snapping into place.
We left as soon as Phoebe woke up from her morning nap, planning on having lunch at our destination. Our destination was (drumroll please) the National Gallery--- ambitious, very ambitious. I had been there childless when my friend Leigh was in town, and they have a great exhibit going on right now called Manet to Picasso. It is a small and managable collection but chock full of some big famous works, and I thought it would be the perfect exhibit for the kids. When I was there earlier with Leigh, I picked up about 10 or so postcard of my favorite works from their outstanding Renaissance collection and from the exhibit we were headed to. Mary-Mae was really into the postcards... looking at them, painting them, coloring picture to look like them.. etc. A REALLY cool thing happened! We had FUN, real FUN at the museum. You need to "cut through" some of the Renaissance rooms to get to the wing where the exhibit was. My plan was to quickly go through and not overwhelm them and even look or talk about them... but Mary-Mae asked,
"Can we see the painting that you brought home on the postcards?"
.......UM YEAH!
We would walk into a room, and she would instantly recognize a work of art, and say "THERE!" and go over!!!
George as a whole, actually enjoys looking at art as he is more mellow, and will just occasionaly point to things and say "I LIKE that one, Thats cool. Do you like it?"
She did a really great "copy" of Jan Van Eyck's "Man with Red Turban", I said would you like to see the Man with the red turban. She nodded eagerly. We headed from the Italian rooms to the German, they have the Van Eycks in a small room that has one entrance/exhit.. so it tends to be a bit crowded and jumbled in there... but it was cool to see the crowd mobbed around The Arnolfini Portrait, and explain to here why they were all there. The crowd I think helped her to get that it was a big deal.
We headed to the exhibit, and at lunch we had talked about how we were going to pick out some of our favorite painting... I told them that some people like works because of thier colors, the subject, or the way they make you feel. When I was in college, I was OBSESSED with the drama and beauty of the Italian Renaissance, so feeling a biggie for me.... George and Mary-Mae both picked out ones they liked... big props to my Dad here.. AND to George for noticing the similarities, he thought the piece by Seurat called The Channel of Gravelines looked a lot like the painting my Dad was working on last summer.....

We ended up buying the brochure of the entire exhibit, some paper and some water colors, and have been painting this afternoon.

The weather was great today and after the gallery we headed out to trafalger square and let Phoebe and the kids run around in the sun, after that we headed home....

Click clack.. I LOVE days like this!