Saying Goodbye to London

*sigh* As I went through my pictures of our last week in London it was hard to not get emotional. In some ways it still feels like home. We have lots of great memories--and lots of pictures! Here are a bunch.

Coming home from somewhere. This is

our street.

Our flat. Laura is on the steps.

They're kind of mocking the students. The

students always point and pose.

Mailing a postcard near our flat.

Just inside our entryway. Stairs up to classroom and dorms.

formal dining room on the left.

Formal dining room where the professors and their 

families ate. Some of the students ate here too.

The parlor. Our boys played chess here with

the students. They also played Pokemon here!

Looking down to the entry way, dining room, and parlor.

Going upstairs to our flat. (four flights)

The classroom.

View from the Thames.

There were painted elephants all over London.

They were being sold for charity.

Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery and

St. Martins In The Field's church in the background.

St. Martins In The Fields.

Trafalgar Square

Whiteleys. The oldest mall in Europe.

Where I lived:) The grocery store near us. Without a car

it was hard to stock up for a family of seven. I was here

all the time!

On the corner of Bayswater and Queensway streets.

Across the street is Kensington Gardens Park.

Our favorite Gelato!

The girls are mocking me! They were tired of getting 

their picture taken.

Mmmmm. Chicken Shawarma's from Taza,

a hole in the wall. So yummy!

Bayswater street near our house.

                                                                        Lots of pubs!

Hyde Park Ward

Playing in the "red forest," as my kids call it, in the plastic

area of the science museum.

Portabello Road shopping. They also sell antiques, clothing

music, kitchen and housewares, etc.

Portabello Road.

Potabello Road in high season. This is why

I left!

OK I couldn't resist. This was taken as I left Portabello

Road at a Rock store called 'Be Famous.' For those of 

you who are wondering...This is an autographed picture

of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant from 

Led Zeppelin. Cool.

The entryway of our house with all

our luggage. 14 bags not including

back packs. Scott showed his talents as
he packed and repacked all of our things
so they weren't over the weight limit!
This was around 2 or 3 AM.

Heathrow Airport. Our four oldest had trolley's

with our luggage. Laura is second to the last in line. 

What a site. Yes we were stared at!

Now...if we could just finish getting unpacked here. We're not good at it. It's like we came home in a tidal wave where life is so busy all the time. We have also lost a room with Laura and Heather no longer sharing, so we don't have a place for everything. We're getting it done slowly but surely though. 

I really miss London. More than I imagined I would. (Except I don't miss the politics at the center!) But it's so great to be home.

Kew Gardens London

I'm  sorry this has taken so long. All the "stuff" involved with us moving out of London and moving back here has taken a lot of my time so I haven't even finished blogging about London! So here is our last official trip. We went to Kew Gardens in London. What a beautiful place! There were several Victorian green houses, a Japanese garden and pagoda area, the Princess of Wales indoor gardens, and lots more. We all really enjoyed it.

I still have one more London post of our last days there. Maybe in the next day or so:)

 Thinking of Grandma and Grandpa Cooper in AZ.

This guy was just sitting there watching everyone.

The butterfly house was really neat. I have never seen so 

many different kinds of butterflies. The pictures don't

do them justice. 

This butterfly just emerged out of it's cocoon. Look at
the different kinds. Some where teeny tiny.

These are caterpillars! I have no idea what kind though.
It was cool to watch these white fluffy things crawl around.

The Queen's Beasts. Each one of 10 was used
as an heraldic badge by Queen Elizabeth 11's ancestors.
Together they symbolize the various strands of royal ancestry.
(I copied that from the sign near it:))

Tree line walk.

They had these pretty areas to sit and relax.

Japanese garden.

 Heather writing in her journal in front of this Victorian greenhouse.

North West Trip

Day 1

On Wednesday the 2nd (Jacob's Birthday) we drove several hours by coach to the Bronte Parsonage (Bronte sister's home), Dove Cottage,(Poet William Wordsworth's home) and then to a small lake town called Ambleside to spend the night. The next day we hiked to Hill Top Farm (Beatrix Potter's home) I absolutely love the Lake District. To me, by itself,  is worth a trip to England. This was mostly a repeat trip, but I loved it just the same. There's plenty of history and sooo much beauty.

The same cat outside the Bronte Parsonage as last time

 

Countryside and moors

The countryside and moors

These roosters were very interested in Jacob when

he did raspberries in the palm of his hand. They clucked 

louder and moved closer to us.

Playing cards with Megan on our way to Dove Cottage

The surrounding countryside near Dove cottage

Crossing the street with Charlie.

Lake Windermere

The picture doesn't do this justice. There were so many 

"layers." This is where we stayed in Ambleside.

a room with a view

Day 2

OK the view was great, but the bed was hard, the window only opened a few inches, and it was hot, humid, and stuffy! And I'm not one to do the community shower thing, so I just wet my hair in the sink in our room. I was more than ready to go. We hiked a few miles to Hill Top Cottage. It was a great hike and I felt really good afterward, but not all the students share my feelings. One of the girls was in tears. It was pretty warm out and she had been sick. We also got lost and went too far in the wrong direction. More hiking. The kids did really great though and the beauty made it worth it. One of the students started singing "Climb Every Mountain" from the Sound of music. It made us laugh and happy.

On our hike to Hill Top farm

Hiking across a meadow.

After Hill Top Farm we drove to Liverpool. It's several hours so we broke it up by stopping at the Preston Temple for 20 minutes. It was nice to talk with the senior missionaries at the Stake Center there. They're always so friendly. (they are anywhere) And the Stake Center was air conditioned and had a drinking fountain! The only other two I've seen in the UK are in the chapel we go to every Sunday and at the Tower of London.  

Liverpool was great. Only because we stayed in a "real" hotel. We had three rooms for our family. Nice. It was air conditioned, something the UK and the rest of Europe hasn't caught onto yet, and we were able to do whatever we wanted after the short talk at the docks where the emigration took place. We only had a few hours though because of the long drive there.

We went to another exhibit at the Maritime Museum that we missed last time and stood in line at the Beatles museum for 15 minutes or so and then decided to leave. It just wasn't meant to be. No one else wanted to go through but me. I could see it wasn't working for the family so we left and went to Pizza Hut and just kicked back. Something the kids really needed to do.

We went to bed early because we were scheduled to leave at 7:30 sharp the next morning. And we did.  

Day 3

We drove two hours to Wales. Our first stop was at Beaumaris Castle. Beaumaris means Beautiful Marsh. It's right on the coast of the Irish Sea and back in it's day you could sail right up to it. This castle is one of a "string" of castles built by King Edward I to dominate the Welsh and keep them under control. We saw Caerphilly Castle in southern Wales last Winter. Beaumaris was built on the same plan because it's such a good design for defense. The British were just trying to give the message that they weren't going away. The Welsh just gave up because these castles were so well designed. We also saw Caernarfon Castle a few miles away. That one is the Castle where Prince Charles was crowned as Prince.

The kids AND the students loved this. not so much because it was a castle (well for my kids-they loved the castle) but we pretty much had it to ourselves and they all just played.

Beaumaris Castle

Walking on the outer wall outside the moat.

The students spelling BYU.

This protective daddy swan nudged some people away

when they got a little too close. Mom was close by too.

They might be "ugly ducklings" but they are very cute Swans!

They had these Welsh signs posted all around the castle.

Like my kids would even stop to read it let alone obey.

Caernarfon Castle. This is by far the most impressive

visually. The defenses aren't as good, but still a massive

amazing castle. It must have been intimidating.

Daniel with his new toys. Sometimes I miss my 

little girls in their pink tutus and princess dresses!

Play sword fighting.

The boys ran all over attacking Ashley. She looked like

she was having as much fun as them. In fact she bought

these swords and bows and arows for her nephews at the

Beaumaris Castle. That was it. We had to do the same for 

our boys at this Castle gift shop!

Ashley teaching Daniel.

Laura: "I'm bored with castles!"

We HAVE seen many and aren't done yet.

Time to go home to London. A 7 hour drive. We did make one more stop to break up the trip. We stopped in Coventry outside Birmingham. There is a cathedral there that was bombed during the blitz. They left the bombed church there and built a new modern cathedral next to it. They wanted it to be a reminder, but also have a church of reconciliation and forgiveness.  As we were walking through a group of British teenage boys yelled, "Those dirty yanks!" Such a nice thing to say in a church. Whatever...

Old on the left, new on the right.

From the perspective of a student
(I copied this from their blog!)

The wheels on the bus drive me INSANE!!!

“Back on the bus, back on the busy, somebody shoooot meeeeeeee.”

We spent almost 8 hours on the bus today.

Wake up.

Eat.

Get on the bus.

Sleep.

Wake up.

Look at castles.

Eat.

Get on the bus.

Sleep.

Wake up.

Look at castles.

Eat.

Get back on the bus.

Sleep.

Wake up.

Look at burned cathedral.

Eat.

Get back on the bus.

Sleep.

Wake up.

AHHHHH!!!

Luckily our bus driver, Zultan, made the ride a happy one with dough nuts.

We made it home safe and sound after our 3 day trip to

Liverpool,

the Lake District

and Wales-

thanks to our noble steed.

Someday she'll appreciate all that she's learned.

My little Tsunami!

Our bedroom door burst open and then "whooosh! whooosh!" And more wooshing sounds. Daniel: "DAD! I made a Tsunami! I AM A TSUNAMI!! More whoooshing sounds..."I killed fire and rock! I'm made out of water, rock and fire! I used a laser made out of fire to burn the water up and I threw rocks on the fire to have something to step on!"

Oh he keeps a smile on my face!