London with family

Zoe in front of Buckingham

At the start of this week, the Voosens were in town!  So lucky to be able to see them again so soon after leaving Texas.  They were on a whirlwind tour of Europe to celebrate Emmy's college graduation, and London was their last stop after Zurich, Paris and Amsterdam.

Omi and Zoe

One day Kyle was able to join us in town, and the other day just me and Zoe took the train in to tour the city with family.

Pops, Omi, Zoe, Auntie Em, and Ross on a double decker bus

the whole gang on a Thames boat with Parliament in the background

Lots of great sites, some good pub food, and bus, boat, and train rides for Zoe!

 

The Bachelor Pad

notice the dip at the doorway step

Our temporary apartment, home for the next month or so, is located in the old Phoenix Brewery.  It's a bachelor pad, complete with a mega-TV, mega-cable service, a bean bag, a small kitchen with few cooking utensils, two double-bed rooms, and one large modern bathroom. Take a look for yourself:

 

the kitchen:

there's a fridge/freezer on the left, 

a water heater in the upper cab straight ahead,

a dishwasher in the lower cab straight ahead,

and a washer and dryer to your right

 

 yes, even with that large TV, she's watching an iPad;

notice the pillows in the background are being used

as leapfrog lily pads for entertainment purposes

 

 fancy-schmancy bathroom, with fancy-schmancy tub -

the shower?  your usual European corner claustrophobic pre-fab unit

swallowed by the bean bag,

or the bus as Zoe calls it

 nap/rest period?  yeah, not going so well.

here, she was changing her baby's diaper and wiping her bottom.

apparently, her baby must have had diarrhea.

Our first week

Welp, Friday, the day after we arrived, Kyle got right into the swing of things and went to work, so Zoe and I did some more exploring and grocery shopping and enjoying the absolutely perfect weather.

Check out that three story slide structure in the background!

DISCLAIMER

only watch the following video

if you feel like getting a bit queasy 

That weekend we took our first country road adventure to a pub located about a 1/2 hour away (called the Swan Inn like a million other pubs in England - did you know that all swans are property of the Queen?  Yup, someone even goes around and counts them every year.  No stealing from the Crown!).  Country roads here are scary!  I really don't think that I'll be driving much over here. I was pretty much sitting in the center console.

We went on a nice walk on a footpath (footpaths over here go through all sorts of private property - open the gate, walk through, close the gate so horses and cows don't get out, and continue on your walk!), even exploring an old 13th century church yard. 

 We then returned back to the temporary-temporary apartment to pack everything up in our rental car and move a few blocks over to our temporary apartment (a.k.a. The Bachelor Pad).

this is our only shot of the temporary-temporary apartment

On our way to the UK

The day we left we packed up the car (full)

plus Kyle, Mo, Christian, and Zoe

made a stop at the storage unit to drop off a few things (towels, sheets, brooms, stuff that wouldn't fit afterall in our suitcases)

 don't worry, the backpack came with us

 got to the airport

what we're living off of for the next month or so

and boarded our first plane of the day to Dallas.

start of our journey!

After that, there are no pictures of the trip - blame jet lag if you want.  As previously stated, the flight went fairly well.  Expectations were set low, so they were exceeded!  Zoe changed into pjs in Dallas, and ran around the airport to get some energy out.  Kyle boarded early with his special metal jewel status (or whatever it is), while Zoe and I waited until later to get in as much running as possible. Our pediatrician, who has traveled abroad with her own children, suggested Skittles for the flight at this age, as they're unlikely to listen to you to drink water to resolve ear pressure, but will likely be more than happy to gobble down Skittles, which take some time to chew, plus do actually contain some vitamin C; it worked brilliantly.  I had packed a carry-on bag full of lunch sacks full of goodies; small crafts, new drink cup, new socks, jewelry, coloring books, crayons, candy (even candy!), small stuffed animals, nuts, goldfish.  There was a lunch sack for every hour of the flight, and we went through about 5 of them. The rest have proved useful keeping Zoe busy as we've been settling into our various apartments.  I sat next to Zoe, and Kyle was in front of her so that we would be kicking family, and not strangers while they were trying to sleep.
We did finally arrive at Heathrow, and after some luggage conveyor snaffus eventually found our driver to take us back.  During the trip Zoe and I both looked like this

the diaper leaked, so miss-matched pjs

We moved into our temporary-temporary apartment, where we would be for 3 days, as our temporary apartment was not yet ready.  Then, off we went to a local park, to get out into the sunshine!  A pretty great first day in our new town.

Zoe can now recognize Queen Victoria!

We made it!

We did indeed arrive in England!
A long plane ride, but Zoe slept for 3 hours, which we were very thankful for. There was a melt down when she awoke, but we eventually resorted to Olivia on the iPad. Headphones were apparently completely unacceptable at this point ('How dare you suggest such an awful thing?!'), so all of our seat mates were treated to several episodes. Zoe thought all of the food was equally unacceptable (who can really blame her?), though she did eat the chocolate chips off of the top of the gluten-free cookie bar on Kyle's veggie meal. She basically subsisted on Skittles, milk, juice, and water. And then crashed on the car ride out to Newbury. As did I.  The driver almost gave up on us as it took an hour and a half(!) to go through customs (long lines) and collect our bags (broken conveyor belt). We moved into our temporary temporary-apartment, got some basics, and fought jet lag as best as possible, which Zoe proved to be the best at combatting.
Friday Kyle headed off to work, Zoe and I putzed around town, took naps, and enjoyed the perfectly amazing weather.

Saturday we took the car out along country roads (aaccckkk! I nearly had a heart attack! There is no way in h£ll I'm driving over here!), to a cute pub, walked along some country paths (they go right through private property here - you just open a gate, pass through, and shut it behind you), ran into a friendly horse, ran into a 13c. church, then back driving through the country roads (aaccckkk! I nearly had another heart attack! There is no way in h£ll I'm driving over here, definitely!). We piled everything into the car (sans me - I walked), and moved into our temporary apartment.
For the past few days we've been into London on day trips to visit with Omi, Pops, Auntie Em, and Ross, who are wrapping up their European adventure.
We've had a wonderful time so far, and once I get a computer set up I hope to post more, including photos.

Brilliant then!

Cheers!