A Wicked Trip to London

My brother Matt, his wife Rachel, and their kids Ryan, Kylee, and Dallin came to visit us towards the middle of October, and since Daniel was going to be in London for work anyway, we all planned a trip there together. It was so much fun to go with them, not only because we got to share one of our favorite cities with them, but also because we were able to take turns watching the kids in the evenings so we could all go see Wicked, the Broadway musical that I have been dying to see for three years. It was definitely a highlight of our trip. We went to the Victoria and Albert museum the first night when we got in. I had seen it recommended online for kids, however this was the highlight: a tiger eating an Englishman in India.

Here are thee kids when we went to Wicked. It was so much fun to go on a date with Daniel; we absolutely loved the show, I would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to go see it. My one disappointment was that while I watching it I couldn't help but thinking, "I wish Jaxon were here." I really wish that we had taken him; I'm sure he would have loved it. So next time we go to London, one of us is going to take him.

Waiting for the changing of the guards.

Out in front of Trafalgar Square.

On the carriage at the London Transport Museum.

Our cute little conductors

Jaxon dressed up as a British guy at the V&A museum.

At the Museum of Natural History

Jaxon with a ladybug that he found at St. James Park. I only put this on because he told me that night that this was his favorite time of the day full of parks, the changing of the guard, and museums.

Jonas loved St. James Park.

Buckingham Palace

Cousins in a telephone booth.

Jaxon after falling into the swan pond at Kensington Gardens; it probably wouldn't have been quite as uncomfortable during the summer months...

At the Science Museum. It was fun for Jonas to be able to enjoy it this time. The last time we came here he was to little to much.

The Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens.

Having fun with cousins at the Princess Diana Memorial Playground.

And there's nothing like finishing off a trip to the park with some ice cream cones.

At the London Transport Museum

Just a picture to prove that I did participate in the trip.

Jaxon resting on a sleeping stranger on the Tube.

Having fun with our "Teeth and Lips" candy.

Then we headed home. I think we covered quite a bit of ground with 5 young children. It was so much fun sharing that with them!

A French Halloween

I wasn't really planning on doing much for Halloween this year, as it seems a little presumptuous for a bunch of Americans (us plus my brother Matt's family) to go out trick or treating to me, but some of our good friends, the Monclin's, invited us to go with them. It was certainly a different experience than a good old-fashioned American Halloween, but we had a blast anyway

You certainly have to work hard for your candy around here. Few people were prepared for the holiday, but they seemed to appreciate the kids' costumes, anyway. We did have some success at a few houses.

Since the kids didn't get much candy, it was even more of a shame that Jaxon drug his paper bag on the ground, finally rubbing a hole in it and losing most of his hard won goods...

The Last Swim of the Season

Just some pics of our visit to calanque Morgiou a few weeks ago. I am pretty sure that it was that last swimming weather day we will have until next spring, but that may not keep Daniel out of the sea.

The hike was pretty tough with the kids and in the end became too dangerous, but Jaxon did great.

Some Things America Just Gets Right

Every now and again we run across something that reminds us that there are just some things that America gets right and are not easily reproduced. Things like gourmet hamburgers with bottomless fries, or gooey chocolate chip cookies. Well, we discovered something else that we can add to that list: corn mazes. I wanted to shake things up a bit a couple of weekends ago and do something that felt like fall, so I found a corn maze not too far from us.

Notice the dying corn and the overgrown weeds

There were some fun bouncy things to play on for the kids and they did enjoy it, so I guess that makes it worth it.

Living in a Butterfly House

A funny little phenomenon started to occur after we returned from our summer vacations. We leave the windows open a lot to keep fresh air coming through our appartment and a few weeks ago we started to notice catipillars in our house. Not just a couple of them, but a ton! Jaxon was so excited and would play with them for hours upon hours. Everytime he came home from school, whether for his lunch break or in the afternoon he would always rush to play with his catipillars. He would build houses for them out of blocks (preferably where baby Jonas couldn't break them)

Here is Jaxon holding one of the catipillars. It was all very fun, except for when one unwittingly would sleep with Jaxon and get smashed or Jonas would get his hands on them and pull them apart. But still, I think the little bit of nastiness was worth the hours of fun for Jaxon.

After awhile we started noticing cacoons all over the place and then before long, butterfliesstarted showing up in the house, mostly in Jaxon's room. A couple of days ago he came home from school to find 4 butterflies flying by his window! You can kind of see them in this picture.

Jaxon has learned to be very careful with butterflies and not touch their wings.

It has been really fun to have butterflies showing up all over our apartment, it's a little like living in a fairy tale!