London Trip, Day One

after a week long super-duper wonderful vacation, and then another week long not-so-super-duper slog through work and exhaustion and prolonged jet lag, i'm finally sorting through 600 pictures. there are pictures of fun, pictures of family, pictures of historical landmarks, of beauty, of memories that will last a lifetime.

so let's recap the trip. let's take it one day at a time. let's look at a ton of pictures.

the kids were amazing travelers. they were excited to leave, excited to fly, excited to arrive. they were even thrilled to be on the o'hare transport train from the car to the terminal.


the flight went well, right up until we all tried to get some sleep "overnight." no sleep was had. well, there was no sleep for 3 of us. one of us did manage a few hours (hint: it's the guy with the chocolate pudding drool on his chin).


there were a few tears of exhaustion, fatigue, and impatience in the passport line, but we all managed and even found some smiles on arrival.
 

by the time we piled into a cab (and, as ramona said, "breathed our first british air"), we were pretty thrilled to be on our adventure. you can see it in our selfie smiles.


and here we are, arriving through the gate at becky's house in cobham, in our very london-y black cab.


after arrival to becky's house, we took a little trip through cobham in surrey and then to see the campus of maggie and rachel's international school. we played on the playground, frolicked in the woods (or, as they say, in the wood), and generally made merry with two very very tired children.
 
 
 

and here is a peek at the lower school on maggie and rachel's campus, and it is adorable.


spring was very much on it's way in surrey.


with a bit of begging and prodding, we managed to get the kids to agree to visit king henry VIII's palace at hampton court. it was magnificent and beautiful and full of tapestries and history. ramona and james were able to (temporarily) ignore their extreme exhaustion by learning the enchanting story of the tudors, the church of england, and henry's 6 wives and their...ummmmm.....fates. there was a little movie about it. they love movies.




i love tapestries. james loves to lie on the floor. we both found things to our liking.
 

jamesy also found a little throne to sit upon.


these two, and their serious faces.


the beauty of courtyards only briefly distracted them from their cries for pity and relief (they were so so very tired),


and the wooden figures in the entryway plus the bags of candy they got in the gift shop got them through.
 

but as soon as we sat down in the car, ramona fell asleep immediately.


back at becky's house, the kids had some screen time, a little dinner with cousins (they were SO excited to see their cousins) and aunt becky and uncle matt in their jammies. james even found an audience to share some video games with in the cozy warm solarium.


and then, off to bed to get adjusted to london time, and to be ready for our first trip into the city of london.