London's Calling! part 1

Ok, so now for some pics of London!!  I had an awesome time.  The city was so different than I thought.  The architechture was incredible, I might even say better than France.  It was also actually more Americanized than I thought.  They had more American products than we do here in France, which was quite appealing!  I don't know why I expected it to be pretty close to France, but it wasn't.  It had its own feel.  I most definitely fell in love with the city.  I wasn't used to, however, because able to talk and assume no one could understand me.  I had to be a bit more careful with what I said... hehe  It was a great feeling to be able to communicate with everyone.  Like I didn't have to translate everything in my head first.  I could just go up to anyone and ask without thinking too much about it.  That was most definitely nice.  I would love love love to go back to England.  I loved London, but the entire country to be in intriguing.  Maybe take a Pride and Prejudice Tour and see all the places from the movie.  Overall, loved it.  Would love to go back.  I feel like I didn't even touch half of what I is there to see. 

It's in English!

Isn't it beautiful?

I went with my friend Stacy from college.  Actually, funny story.  I never actually went to college with Stacy.  We went to the same college, I was just a, eh-um, few years ahead of her.  He husband played basketball with my brother.  Last year Stacy and her husband moved to Australia for basketball and now they are in England.  So they are living a very similar life as we are.  It is just so neat for us to have someone who can understand our lifestyle, because believe it or not, a lot of people don't.  But that's okay, we happen to love it!  So it was so refreshing to talk to her all weekend and share adjustment stories and pieces of advice with eachother.  I truly enjoyed it and plan on making it an every year thing!  (hope that's okay, Stacy!)  I am hoping and praying they play in the same league, or maybe same team! :) hey a girl can dream.  I will settle for a nice place to visit, I suppose.

Top of a double decker bus

flower heads on the Stella McCartney Models
Oh and closest we came to anything Beatles. And I was going to try to make my brother jealous!

Oh YES!

So fun!

Camden Town

I had to make a very important phone call... :)

I saw this and said 'look! A ship in a boat!' Can you tell I am a mom loosing her mind?

Niiice horsey...

It started to nibble on me!

Big Ben and a red phone booth!

Even the street lamps were pretty

At the gates of Buckingham Palace waiting for the Queen to invite us in for tea!

ahhh, dinner.  Good 'ole fish and chips

Milan

Okay, so this is a serious bummer.  Our computer was broken, as you might know, and the other day we finally got it back!  I was excited on so many levels and decided to load all of the pictures onto it.  Since we haven't had a computer in a while, I had a ton of pictures and the memory space on the camera was full.  So I chose the option to delete the pictures after loading them... I am sure you can guess what happened next.  The previous two posts I got up and then after that the computer crashed again.  I lost all of my pictures from Milan and Christmas.  And every other picture I had on my computer... Talk about a serious bummer. 

Milan was great.  Beautiful drive, fun family time, awesome new culture.  I loved it.  Not really a city built for families, but if you know our family, we make things work!  We had a good time stayed at a nice apartment/hotel so I could cook to save some money... (hmmm... where's the vacation for me?)  But it was nice.  I did the things I wanted to do, see Duomo, a huge beautiful cathedral, eat pizza, see the Last Supper (well sort of see it. Ok maybe not), and eat gelato.  My favorite being... you guessed it!  Gelato!  It was heavenly.  I don't know if there are words.  It was awesome.  I want to go back just for the gelato.  Duomo was the next coolest.  Here is a picture of it I found from the internet.

Pretty awesome, huh?  The only difference is that when we were there, the weather was terrible.  But still a beautiful thing!

We actually got some family pictures too, but like I mentioned, they are all gone... forever!  Okay, a little dramatic, but seriously, bummer. 

I had some awesome pictures of the Alps too.  beautiful!  Did you know that people live in the Alps??  Like up in the mountains?  I had no idea.  I know I sound pretty stupid right now, but that is crazy to me.  That has to be freezing.  And pretty exclusive too.  I definitely couldn't handle it.  But I guess these people are used to it.  Thank goodness there isn't any teams in the Alps.  No thank you!

I am so thankful this year to be able to experience so many more things.  Like this trip to Italy, the trip we took to Switzerland in October, and my trip coming up to London (YAY!), and yet another trip to Switzerland when my family comes.  What awesome experiences.  I love my life!

Our European Road Trip

Once again I had to condense the huge amount of pictures that we had into little collages.  I think if you want to see them bigger you can click on them.  Anyway, Friday morning we all got up, got ready, had our French breakfast of course, and hit the road.  It is about 3 hours of a drive to Switzerland or Neuchatel where Chris and the Lienhardts (sp?) live.  So we set off.  Almost half way there we saw a castle out the side of our window!  What, a castle?  In France?  No way!  We had to stop!  We drove around looking for our castle.  Then finally, following all the French signs, we drove all the way up to the top of this hill to find our chateau.  It was huge and beautiful.  And it was wayyyy up there so the view was beautiful. 

But, as is most things in France, it was closed for some random reason.  We trekked the kids and ourselves up this huge hill for a closed castle.  It was still beautiful, though.  Huge and it looked like it must have been really cool inside. I guess we'll never know, because even if I wanted to go back, I don't think I would be able to find it!  Anyway, it was good, we got to get out and stretch our legs.  Tae got to run around a bit.  There was also a dog that ran with us the entire time.  He was a cute, nice dog, it almost made me want a dog for Tae.  And if you know me, that is a stretch.  But don't worry, Lavar shut that down quick!  Anyway, it was a nice little stop.  Then we found a Mc Donalds and we were on our way! 

Then we made it, we can finally see the border!  Yay!  Get out your passports, ladies, we're goin' to Switzerland!!  Maybe this nice man will stamp our passports... We have to buy what?  Wait, no one else is stopping... 40 bucks for a stupid sticker that I have to put on a rental car?!?  Well, I'll just switch it to my regular car when I get it.  NO?! What?  This is ridiculous!  Stupid Swiss.  I hate Switzerland.

Well another hour went by, had to go by, for me to cool off.  They just saw that we were tourist because our car was packed to the brim.  But we made it to Neuchatel.  And yet another hour goes by and we still can't find that stinkin house!  Seriously, I know it sounds like an excuse, but our GPS sucked.  It took us on the freeway just to get off at the first off ramp and get back on going the way we came and get off at the same off ramp we got on!!  It was messing with us.  It must have been Swiss too.  Stupid Swiss.  I hate Switzerland.

Finally, we have arrived!!  We found the stupid house!!  And then just behind us this guy drives past on a motorcycle and waves.  I'm thinking, 'well that guy is nice.'  Then I get out of the car only to find that it is Chris Taylor!!  Yay!! Not only did we make it to Switzerland, but Chris is here too!  I love Switzerland!  Yay!  (Tae took the picture of us, so that is why Aunt Jan is half cut off.)  So we are standing outside a long-time, dear friend of the family with our long-time friend, Chris Taylor in Switzerland.  Okay, that's cool.   

Just to do a little background.  My Aunt Donna moved to France when she was 22 years old for a summer job she had all lined up.  She arrived in Marseille only to find that the job had been given to someone else.  She was taken in by a nice family and the next day another job was found for her.  She took the train and moved instead to Switzerland.  The Lienhardts owned a restaurant in Neuchatel where she worked all summer.  The family was so lovely to her, they treated her like a daughter.  Needless to say, the life-long friendship was formed.  When my mom was 16 she was able to stay with them on her European tour.  They took her all over Switzerland, showing her all the sites to see.  Then when my brother, John, and cousin, Jackson, were travelling throughout Europe, they ended up there and spent a few nights with the family.  So really, it was just my turn!

We had a lovely evening.  Chef (Mr. Lienhardt) was known as the singing chef.  And he showed us why.  He cooked a delicious dinner for us and then whipped out the guitar and sang us some songs!  He has a wonderful voice and is full of life.  He is 87 years old and you would never guess it!  (Kinda like an 84 year old I know...)  We sat and talked and listened.  Then Chris played the piano and Chef sang.  It was delightful.  Tae also graced us with his piano abilities... Thank you, Tae. 

The next day was lovely.  We were able to stay at Chris' apartment quite comfortably (thank you, Chris!), which was right in the town center.  We woke up and walked downstairs of his apartment and had some coffee.  There was a farmer's market going on with beautiful flowers and fresh fruits.  It was lovely.  We also happened to be in Switzerland for a cheese festival.  We got to taste lots of cheese (which affected Tae later...) and had fondue while listening to the Swiss horns play and a Swiss chior singing.  It was all very tourist-y which fit our purpose well, I suppose.  It was really a lovely day, ending with everyone purchasing some Swiss chocolate. (Really, isn't that is how every day should end?)  We had to say our goodbyes to our friends and we were on our way to Paris. 

Paris, aahh Paris.  I love Paris.  I have actually never really driven in Paris before... And the first time wasn't exactly pleasant.  Lavar's game started at 8 I think.  And we were soooo on time even after hitting some traffic just outside of Switzerland.  Then it all happened.  I will take full (ish) responsibility for what happened for the next two hours.  (I partially blame the GPS)  Anyway, we drove around Paris for two hours looking for the gym that we actually saw right when we drove into Paris.  So the GPS had led us astray before and it was pointing to a street that wasn't actually there, or we couldn't see, and we saw a complex, but we weren't sure if that was it.  Well we should have just checked, but I guess we were delirious from being in the car all day... Anyway, we got there with 8 minutes left in the game.  At least we got to see that, to be positive.  I wasn't exactly being positive at the time, but hey, at least I am trying.  We stayed at some hotel that smelled, to be quite honest.  The Aunties woke up early to see the sights.  Well I had seen them and I wanted my sleep.  So my mom and I slept in and woke the boys up to meet them in front of Notre Dame at 12:00.  (Getting to the Notre Dame with the boys is a whole other story...)  Well then the best part of my day was seeing my best friend in France, Charlotte.  She is living in Paris and came to see us.  It was sooo great to see her.  We became friends 3 years ago in Brest and have always stayed in touch.  Love her!  We saw Shakespeare and Company got some ice cream and headed home.  It was a lovely trip.  (Except for Tae 'dealing' with all the cheese he had eaten in Switzerland, if you know what I mean.)

Phew!  That is the trip!  We made it home safe without getting lost for once!!!  (Most of the 10 days was spent getting lost somewhere)  Thanks for reading and I can't wait to write about Tae's school and French.  Honestly, it's hilarious!