Ellie Bean

My little Ellie and I tend to spend a lot of mornings together. While Lindy revels in the joys of Kindergarten and Curtis offers time to napping my second-born is typically bored out of her mind and looking to me to produce entertainment. I hate to admit it, but most of the time I'm "busy" and shoo her away to find her own way through the boredom. 

Today, however, I decided that it was a great day to be the mom I really want to be. So, we spent a little time reading books, pretending to be ponies, coloring, making shapes, and eating Laffy Taffy. Since it was an overcast day (my new favorite) I was also able to convince Ellie to let me take some pictures of her. I love that smile.

Thank you for spending the morning with me, Ellie. I love you to pieces!

Gifts and Eyewear

I spent quite a bit of thought on what type of gift we would bring back from England for our kids. After a little bit of work we found some adorable stuffed animals (our kids are suckers for all things fluffy). Lindy was grateful...and excited at first. Her enthusiasm for the cute and cuddly little giraffe was soon replaced, however, with a more dramatic adoration of the sleep-mask provided with our first class airline seat. She's been wearing it around almost non-stop since we got home. 

The other day I came downstairs after putting Junior down for a nap and found her twirling herself around the family room with said mask over her eyes. When I asked her what she was doing I found out that she was "playing pin the bird on the hippo."

What a funny girl.

The End

We woke up this morning at 1:00am Salt Lake time, had a lovely English breakfast and bid farewell to driving on the opposite side of the road, people blowing smoke in our faces, the best bacon I've ever had, and the beauty of Great Britain. I was suddenly VERY anxious to see my little ones. Unfortunately, we had a 10 hour flight into Denver and another 2 hour flight to Salt Lake to get through.

It was a long day. Sleeping on the airplane was made almost impossible by a 5 year old, binky-sucking, spoiled brat of a boy who apparently decided it was his sole mission to disrupt a cabin of sleeping adults. I glared and "tsk"-ed like I've never done before. About 9 hours into the flight he finally fell asleep. I resisted the temptation to "accidently" bump into his peacefully sleeping form and wake the little snot up. Grrr.

We finally made it home and into the welcoming arms of our dear children who, after a perfunctory hug, asked about the location of the promised presents. Welcome home. Lindy had a couple of Mother's Day gifts she'd worked on at school. Not to be outdone, Ellie proceeded to give me a bottle of baby lotion. Thanks. They all seem to have grown in just 7 short days. I am so grateful that I don't have to be away from them for long...and get to experience all their growing up in person. (Someone may have to remind me of that in a few days.)

There's no place like home.

Day Five

After saying goodbye to Steve, we packed up our little car and headed back into London. We dropped off the rental at the airport and took the tube into the city. I was quickly homesick for the quiet little villages we had recently left behind. I'm not a huge fan of big cities and found nothing in London to compare to the picturesque views of the countryside. Sigh.

We checked into our hotel. This was quite a different experience from my last visit 11 years ago. Ian's brother, Rich, hooked us up with a deal at the Hilton Metropale. It was clean. There was a bed with real blankets. There was a TV, a phone, and a mirror. There was also a bathroom! All of this a considerable step up from our stay at O'Callaghan's in '98.

And see...I actually did go to England, Marci. Here I am in our executive suite.

 We had a couple hours to spare in the afternoon. We decided to drop in on our dear friend, Her Majesty, the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

We took a stroll through Hyde Park. We found a bunch of French teenagers showing disrespect for the Canadian monument (notice the sign). I couldn't remember enough of my french to come up with something witty to say to them...so I just snapped an ironic picture.

And found a statue that bore a eerie resemblance to my brother.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat we finally reached our Monday night destination: WICKED.

It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! The theatre was fabulous and the music was phenomenal. Worth every penny. Or, in this case, pence. What a great day.

Addendum

For the record:

Let it be known that I do, in fact, really really like Indian Food. Could it be that I've been wrong all this time?

Of course not. There has to be another explanation.

Either way...I'm going to have to re-order whatever it is that Steve picked out. YUMMY!