today...

Today:

• I'm suppose to be writing another 8-10 page paper, and I don't want to.
• I keep thinking there's more that I would like to do in my life.
• I love my husband
• I love my son
• I can't get enough of family time
• I love the gospel
• I am thinking of Christ
• I am being me
• I remember what is important to me

Hampton Court Palace

We went to Hampton Court Palace one morning, and it's the place where Henry the VIII lived. It is also the place with the Hedge Maze, that Spencer wouldn't let us forget about.

Welcome to the Palace!

Nice front entrance, eh?

These little statues were all over the front of the palace. I thought they looked pretty cool.

Once you go through the front gate, you come to this courtyard with the fountain and the fake people.

Spencer could have worn this jacket/shawl thing, but decided against it. Perhaps he knew the colors were clashing?

King Henry VIII! The whole crew came to visit while we were there.

Anne Boleyn. It was kinda funny because when they introduced her, everyone hissed and booed.

The clock, in which if you notice the sun is rotating around the earth, which is how they thought it went way back when.

Spencer running, and I mean RUNNING through the maze. I can't believe I got a picture taken, because he kept running so fast. He did the maze 3 times, and loved it so much!

Madame Tussaud's

Did you really think I actually met Robert Pattinson?? Well, I didn't, only his wax figure. We decided to take a trip over to Madame Tussaud's to see all the famous people we could. Some looked exactly like the person, while others just seemed to have something off about them. Here are just a few of our BFF celebrities.

Spencer with Zac Efron, Spencer loves him in the High School Musical movies.

Me with Justin Timberlake...which you can completely tell he is made of wax here, or just REALLY oily. I don't think Justin thinks it's cool either with that smirk on his face.

Spencer with DINOSAURS! I won't let him watch Jurassic Park, but he knows that it's a movie with dinosaurs that chase after people. Also Steven Spielberg is in the picture. :) (Also on the right hand side is Drew Barrymore.)

RUN SPENCER! RUN INDIE!!

Spencer and Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) running from the big (shiny) stone ball.

Daddy and Spencer with Shrek, Spencer liked this one.

Me and Audrey hanging out.

Spencer and Tinkerbell. So cute that he loves her.

Spencer and I being scared we are by Alfred Hitchcock.

And of course, the boys find the ONLY video game in all of Madame Tussaud's.

Yea for Spencer!

Me and Princess Diana.

Okay so you see that frame behind Diana? Well it's so you can be framed in a photo I guess, so here is Spencer being framed....except he was just barely tall enough.

Prince William (who doesn't look like himself, I don't think) and I.

The Queen. She was cool with me about taking her crown, you know cause we're BFF.

Van Gogh got to Tyler's ear!

Spencer showing Michael his mad dancing skills.

Me striking a pose as well.

Spencer showing Beyonce how he does his "Single Ladies" dance. He's at the part where she twists her hand back and forth.

We had a blast there, and it was interesting to see all the celebrities. :) Any of these celebrities look off to you? Or are they spot-on?

Fancy meeting you here!

Guess who I met while in London...

Umm...YES! That is Robert Pattinson. We were just walking down the street and saw him, I asked for a picture and he was nice enough to give me one. He's looking in the other direction because there were other fan girls there distracting him. But it was fun that on my second day of being there I saw him! Believe me, right?

We also headed over to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and these are the pretty sights along the way.

Way far back there is Buckingham Palace, we stayed right next door to it, so we woke up and walked by almost every morning. Spencer was chasing the pigeons around.

My MOST FAVORITE picture of the entire trip:

Do you see the joy on that boys face?!?! LOVE IT!

We got to Hyde Park and it was cold, but we kept walking, and let me tell you Hyde Park is HUGE! We walked from one side to the other. But saw some pretty flowers even in the cold.

In about the middle of the Park there is a Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. It was quite peaceful and pretty.

Also in this park is the statue of Peter Pan.

A little fun story about Spencer in this one, I had to wait about 2 minutes before I could take it because he was trying to get into this pose.

Close-up of Peter Pan.

Then we went on to see Kensington Palace. Not all that glamorous, but still big and nice. Although they have changed the name of it now to The Enchanted Palace, and made it more of a magical place. Spencer liked it because they had live actors in there, and you had to find 7 princesses that they talked about. I didn't like it so much because it looked like a dress-up game for the palace. I wanted to see the historical side of it, not the fantasy. But we did see one of Princess Diana's dresses, and some other princesses.

Here is a necklace I got from there.

And no it's not real...I wish! :)

And of course, Spencer and Tyler find the ONE carousel in London. :)

I love these pure looks of joy from them.

LONDON, BABY!!!

We made it to London! We started off at 1230 in the afternoon, Friday, to go to the Harare airport to get ready for our 230pm plane. Well, so that plane didn't take off until about 315. Luckily (and not so luckily) we had a 7 hour layover in Jo-burg. We were in no worries about missing our flight. We actually had time to walk around and look in the stores there, have a sit down dinner, and find Spencer some cold medicine. Spencer got a runny nose and cold symptoms on Friday morning. He was miserable during that first flight until we could get the cold medicine.

So anywho...we wait there for 7 hours, and get on our plane at 11pm. I had Spencer asleep in two minutes when I pulled him into my arms at around 930pm. So we worried that he would wake up when we got on the plane. NOPE! He slept until about 2 hours before we got to London. And that flight is an 11 hour flight!!!!! We were very lucky!

Anywho...we got to London around 10am, and then we got into a taxi. Now, I told Tyler when we came here that I wanted to ride in one of those black classic looking taxis at least once. Well, it was like they KNEW I was coming. They had a whole line of them outside of the airport for us! :) So I got my ride, and we made it to the hotel. Then put our stuff in the room and we were off to go see London! For our first day we thought doing a London Bus Tour would be best to see the town and see all the BIG sights. It was freezing but perfect! Here's what we saw, and little fun facts we learned.

This area is the RICH area. I mean some of these houses cost 20 million POUNDS, which in American dollars would be 40 million. The area is Belgrave, and Sean Connery used to live there, and Margaret Thatcher lives there now! Here's her house!

Because she used to be Prime Minister she gets a police guard outside her place. You can't really see him here, but he's about 2/3rds the way back and if he is standing out there, then you know she's home. Pretty neat, eh?

This is the statue in Hyde Park Corner.

The infamous building with greenery growing on the sides.

Couldn't NOT get a picture of one of these babies!

Fun fact about The Ritz: Charlie Chaplin used to work at this one!

Hard Rock Cafe. The first one EVER was here in London, this is where we ate lunch. It was yummy.

The Dorchester. This is where some royals have had their bachelor parties. Where Elizabeth Taylor has been, Nelson Mandala always uses this place when he comes to stay too.

This archway used to be in front of Buckingham Palace. But around 1851 they made a new entryway, so they didn't need this one anymore, so they moved it to this square.

At this place is where Jimmie Hendrix and some others (can't remember them now) recorded their albums.

The most popular shopping street in Westminster.

One store I hope to stop in on this street. :)

I was amazed to see how many statues there were around the city. On buildings and just in odd places. Like these horses.

And this dragon in the middle of the road. It does have a meaning, it's the symbol for London, but it was just kinda out there.

This is Winston Churchill, a once Prime Minister here. He is quite a character I think, and with this story it shows even more. So he told everyone that when he died he didn't want to have a statue of himself anywhere, because he didn't want pigeons pooping on his head. But after he died, they did do a statue, BUT they put a little electric strip on the underside of the top of the statue so no pigeons sit on top of his head! Awesome, right?!?!

Houses of Parliament, amazing.

This black and white building is the oldest building in London. Built in the 1600s.

London Bridge. GORGEOUS!

Mayor's office. Thought the design was cool.

Big Ben, or to be technically correct, the Big Ben clock tower. Because Big Ben is the bell inside this tower, not the tower itself.

Okay so another thing I noticed about the tops of the buildings here, I see so many different kinds of weather veins!!! Here are just a few I saw. I didn't get the seahorse one or the one with a boat on top. But hopefully I'll find some other fun ones later. :)

Stay tuned for other stories and pictures. :) I did this now, because I knew I would forget information (which it seems I already have), and the connection is MUCH better here than in Zim. so it's faster here too. :) Hope you enjoy the pics, we are having fun!