London for us, LA for the boys!

We've been looking forward to this week for a while! I've been so excited to get back to London. That city is the whole reason this blog has existed the last 10 years! I started posting during my BYU study abroad in 2009, and this was my first time back to my favorite big city.

Last Friday we woke up and drove down to LA. I had been getting random stuff done all week to get us and our boys and our house ready to go so we could take off first thing that day.

We made it to Shelley's house and ate lunch with her family, and got the boys a little settled. Then Shelley drove us to Burbank and Michael and I got on our afternoon flight to visit Rachel in London! And the Cannon crew so kindly watched our boys during that week. We were so grateful to them for that huge help!

London days:

Saturday:

We landed at 1:30pm London time. We both slept just a little on the red eye flight and mostly watched movies. Between both plane rides we watched Bohemian Rhapsody, The Green Book, Free Solo, Instant Family, and Mary Poppins. We took the tube to Rachel's house and made it there around 3:00. Then we biked around Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, and the BYU London Centre. It was so much fun to be back in that area! Then dinner at Rachel and Spencer's and catching up with them and sweet Eli.

Sunday:

We rented a car and took off with Rachel and Spencer and Eli for a weekend in the Cotswolds. First stop was Highclere Castle (think Downton Abbey) and they had a ton of fun Easter festivities going on that day. From there we drove to Stonehenge, then explored Castle Combe. We then drove to Lacock to spend the night. Michael and I went for a walk to explore the village, and then out to a pub for our anniversary dinner and had some classic English meals: fish and chips and Sunday roast. Then we ate cheesecake with Rachel and Spencer in the courtyard of our Inn.

Monday:

We woke up and had a traditional English breakfast at our Inn, then explored the town and the abbey there. Some Harry Potter scenes were filmed in both the town and the abbey, so it was fun to visit those spots and take in the cute old scenes. From there we drove to Blenheim Palace (birthplace of Winston Churchill) and explored the rooms and gardens there. Then we drove to Oxford and took a walk through the beautiful buildings. We kept getting to places juuuust after they closed but it was still so fun to see the city and colleges. Then we ate pizza on our way home to London. Spencer was so nice to drive us around that weekend, that left side of the road deal would have been a mental trip!

Tuesday:

First full day in London! I was so excited to just walk around and get back on the tube. London is such an easy and fun city. I love it so much! That day we did the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Borough Market, walked along the Thames, saw Shakespeare's Globe, the Tate Modern, Millennium Bridge, then Westminster Abbey for Evensong. Then games and dinner at Rachel's. It was so fun to have full days of exploring and then family time together at night.

Wednesday:

We started the morning with Rick Steves' London City walk, while Rachel was super kind to head to Leicester Square to pick us up day-of tickets for Les Miserables for a good deal. She met up with us at St. Paul's Cathedral to give us our tickets -- we were so impressed she tracked us down so well! Then we did Rick Steves' tour of St. Paul's, and had fun catching the view from the top. The lift was not working, so it was quite the climb but well worth it! Pregnancy didn't slow us down tooo much on the trip, but it did a little at times. From there we grabbed some sourdough pizza for lunch, finished the Rick Steves' city tour, then headed to Piccadilly Circus for our play. We went to the afternoon Les Miserables and it was beautiful. That play is emotionally draining but just remarkable. I'm so glad we went. From there we met Rachel and Spencer and Eli at Harrod's and explored -- such unfathomable prices and things to spend money on! We were blown away at the caviar and beef prices, furniture, and just everything. I saw an adorable lace baby blessing dress for 2,000 pounds. Good thing we're having a boy! :)

Thursday:

Michael and I went with Rachel and Eli to see the MI6 headquarters. From there Michael and I went to the British Museum, then the British Library (more Rick Steves tours at both), then walked by the St. Pancras hotel, then to platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross, then to the National Gallery for some highlights. From there we grabbed a sandwich and hot chocolate for our walk to Buckingham Palace, where we met up with Rachel and Eli, and Stephan and Cathryn. It was so fun that our trips overlapped for one day! We walked with them by Buckingham Palace, through Hyde Park, by the Princess Diana memorial, the Peter Pan statue, Kensington Palace, then to meet Spencer at Dishoom for Indian food. It was so delicious and just such fun company. I still just think it's so funny we were all in London at the same time together for just a bit. On our way home we grabbed sticky toffee pudding at a pub, explored a grocery store to bring home some European chocolate to the fam, and then home to catch up some more. We went to bed so late so that our trip wouldn't end!

Friday:

We left first thing in the morning and it was sad to say goodbye! We loved seeing Rachel and Spencer and Eli so much, and loved seeing where they are living for a couple years. Our flight left early and we had one weird airport experience after another -- I'm pretty sure I was flagged as a terrorist or something that day. Michael had a regular security experience but I was checked so thoroughly and more often than him throughout our day, and my name was on a list to even have all my baggage completely checked through at my gate before boarding our plane. I asked the worker if that list was random and she said, "Some checks are random. Yours is not." And that's all she said about that....?? So, I'm glad I'm not a law breaker or Friday would have had me sweating bullets. Instead, pregnancy just had me sweating bullets. Our flight was half empty on the way home, which was so surprising to us, and made for a much more pleasant experience! It felt like we just paused time to watch movies and eat snacks for hours, and then we made it to LA around 4pm. We were so happy to be back with our boys. We ate dinner with the Cannons and hit the road to Fresno so that Michael could be back to work Saturday.

The Boys in LA:

Shelley and Tony and their kids took such good care of Westin and Bennett, and I was pretty sure they were never going to want to leave. They had an Easter egg hunt, a silly string fight (which they said was actually terrifying for my kids and I think that's so funny), a beach trip, lots of cousin playing time, and delicious food with Shelley. Bennett particularly enjoyed her blueberry muffins (including the paper wrappers on the ones that he snuck) and Westin made her write down the recipe for strawberry pie for me (graham cracker, cream cheese frosting, strawberry slices). :)

I am so grateful for family. We loved visiting family, loved knowing our boys were safe and happy with family, loved coming home to our little family. Travel and family are the best things! We made it back really late Friday night to Fresno and I was making the drive on Dr. Pepper and gratitude while my three boys slept. We had such a wonderful week and I'm so grateful it could come during this particular time. Michael was at work by 6am the next day, and reality comes back strong.

Pictures from London first, then pictures from the boys' time in LA!

Kensington Palace

The London Centre! Oh man, it was so fun to call this place home for four months.
Third floor, left side, bottom bunk!

27 Palace Court in the W2 4LP

Kensington Gardens

Rachel's Easter Bunny Cake!

Highclere Castle

Highclere Grounds

Soaking up the grounds before sampling the Hog Roast and strawberry cake.

Last time I was at Stonehenge we were all freeeeeezing and this time it was so very warm.
I was glad we fit this in for Michael to see, I think it's so cool to see this in person.

Eli just LOVED Michael. So much. He has some sort of uncle magic.

Castle Combe

Graveyard in Castle Combe

View from our Inn window in Lacock.

The Red Lion in Lacock

Sunday Roast and Yorkshire Pudding

Fish & Chips

I loved this view. It was strangely relaxing to hang out by these cows in this cute village and just listen to them rip up grass.

Perfect little village to spend our 7th anniversary.

Traditional English breakfast

Lacock Abbey

Snape's classroom

Courtyard featured in Harry Potter

The room the Mirror of Erised was kept

We technically snuck in an hour before the abbey opened,
but when we were caught they were super nice to us and didn't kick us out. :)

Easter Dinner settings at Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Grounds

We were above average hedge mazers

Oxford

Tower Bridge

The Tower of London's ravens seem pretty ominous. Such a strange place with pretty bizarre history.

Borough Market is my happy place!

This Indian street food was so delicious.
A dosa (rice and lentil crepe) filled with seasoned potatoes and chickpea mixture,
next to fried chickpea noodles over chickpea masala with pomegranate.
So good!

I think these mushrooms looked so awesome.
And some were 85 pounds for a pound... !

Is someone really going to the market to pick up that fish for dinner??

Shakespeare's Globe 

Big Ben is getting a four-year facelift, unfortunate timing

Westminster Abbey

The Rick Steves tour route

Views from the top of St. Paul's

Franco Manca chorizo pizza

Best afternoon

Harrods

MI6

Nobody's climbing that fence.

The Rosetta Stone -- I just think it's incredible you can actually see this

St. Pancras hotel

This spot has become quite the tourist destination since I first visited and only the sign was there.
Now there's an official line, professional photographer in Hogwarts robes, and even another person there
to hold up your scarf right before the picture is taken so that it looks like you're running into the wall.
J.K. Rowling has to feel so legit.

National Gallery highlights

I really loved seeing this Da Vinci cartoon.

Buckingham Palace with the crew

Sticky Toffee Pudding with bourbon vanilla ice cream

Yummiest Indian dinner

The boys in LA:

These cuties! We loved getting updates from the Cannons throughout the week.
They have such a blast in Shelley's fun playroom.

Easter egg time!

Shelley texted us that this was Bennett's very favorite spot :)

Easter Breakfast

Feeling those Cadbury eggs

Chilly beach day!

Our Own Spring Break

Blogging a little early this week before we take off on an adventure!

This week was Fresno's spring break, which meant no preschool, t-ball, swimming lessons, preschool with friends, or piano lessons. I thought we were going to struggle but I honestly loved it. We had the slowest week and I love that it overlapped with Holy Week. We didn't do anything big for Holy Week -- just read about what happened each day, looked at paintings, sang some primary songs, watched a few Come Unto Christ videos. We usually did it when Bennett was napping and Westin was full of questions about the last week of Christ's life. 

Michael:

has been swamped with hours still and he's looking forward to some vacation time. He has barely been home this week. I am so excited to see more of him over the next few days.

Westin:

has been a ball of energy this week, and I think that's because all his usual activities have been cancelled so I'm just getting the full experience! He took a long nap one day, which meant that when Michael got home at 9:30 he was still awake in bed and came out of his room with a huge smile on his face. He then proceeded to have us laughing to tears while we sat in the kitchen with him while Michael ate dinner. He was in such a crazy mood and saying the funniest things. His komodo dragon impression will forever be in my mind.

Bennett:

is getting some full on attitude but I guess he's allowed to since he's two and a half. And he throws plenty of sweetness in there to get us through the sassy moments. We watched SO MANY DOGS for spring break (one dog for 7 days, another dog for 3 days, another dog for 1 day, and then two puppies that came over and had to go back home because they never stopped barking... that was interesting!) and Bennett just loved it. I love seeing him grab Rosie's face and try to say "you're a good girl, yes you are" in Bennett language. And he feeds her a hundred times a day, she's very taken care of around here. If she hasn't eaten her last course Bennett just dumps it back in with her food and gives her a new bowl, just in case. Then he sits on her.

I guess I skipped my section but the beginning counts -- my whole week was all about slowing down, catching up, trip prep, Holy Week, and growing this baby!

"You're a good girl, yes you are!"

Between these dogs and Kitty, I have to fight for any cuddle time with Michael.
He'll never refuse love to an animal that wants it, so if a dog or cat gets there first, I'm out of luck!

Our cute neighbor brought these boys some intense Easter Bunny chocolates on a stick. They were so thrilled about it.
I told them they could eat them on our morning walk, but that we couldn't save them. They could eat what they wanted,
then we were going to throw them away, because they were a lot.

Westin ate this much then said, "Ok, I think my belly has had enough of this. Which trash can do I put it in?"
Bennett saw him put his in a trash can so then he wanted to do the same thing.
Then the reality of what he did hit him, and he screamed and cried for twenty seconds about that sucker
(he had eaten more of his than Westin had at that point, so I didn't feel too bad for him),
then he was ok. And on we went on our walk.
Teaching kids intuitive eating is something I think a lot about, but overthinking it can backfire!

Library story time was our only weekly plan still on the books during spring break, and we were grateful for the outing.

I've been sewing brides with wedding season coming up!
I really love wedding stitches, the dresses and flowers are so fun.

You can't tell but this moon tonight was gorgeous.
I miss checking the mail with Michael every day in Manchester Village in Indy.
Residency has lots of solo mail checks!

Spring Week

We had a good week getting back to routine after Utah time and visitors over the last few weeks.

Michael:

is averaging 85-95 hrs away from home these weeks and we miss him! On Saturday he worked 5am to 5pm and I mentioned that it stinks that those are what his "half-days" are like on the weekends. And he said, "Well, I guess 12 hours is half a day." After we get through these four months of trauma I think the rest of residency is going to be 70-hour average weeks of actual oral surgery and that sounds so wonderful. On Saturday evening he had fun with the boys in the backyard, went on a mini-bike ride with them in front of our house, then a little longer ride with Westin after Bennett went to bed, and we ate Cafe Rio here at the house together. It was a fun evening and we just love when he's around. His day off was Thursday and Westin loves it when Daddy can take him to preschool and pick him up, especially when Michael picks him up on his bike.

Maddie:

I've been spring cleaning and feeling nesting coming on strongly. Nesting was a crazy weird experience with my first pregnancy -- like I would wake up wide awake at 3 in the morning and want to reorganize or decorate or make something and it was all I could do to stay in bed. Then we moved during Bennett's pregnancy and I'm pretty sure that used up all my nesting budget for those 9 months. But this time I feel it coming around again and I've been cleaning and organizing and planning. Once the baby stuff all comes back out we will be starting to feel the first inclinations of outgrowing our space here, so I am figuring out how to counteract that and get this place organized and efficient. It felt a little funny to be back to routine this week after just flipping an off switch on everything for 3 weeks -- taking Westin to school and T-ball and swim, babysitting on Tuesdays, teaching piano lessons, naps, and dinners again. Except we skipped the dinner part. Quesadillas and mac and cheese and all sorts of other non-dinner things made an appearance over the last few days.

Baby steps.

Westin:

looks forward to t-ball and is improving a lot. It's so cute to watch his little team figure out this sport for the first time. He's doing great at swimming lessons and has so much fun with the three boys in his class. He also has SO much fun with the three boys in his church class and they are turning into a rowdy little crew of besties. Westin is so smart and is such a sponge. He has as many questions as I have patience for. And he loves extrinsic motivators (don't we all), like the library's spring reading program. It started while we were in Utah so we only had a few days before the deadline, but you could read 5 books for a free In & Out burger, with a limit of 3 per kid. So Westin loved coming home and picking out 30 books for his and Bennett's burgers and making our way through a read-a-thon over two days. Sleep is Westin's biggest basic need and we still have some anger issues whenever that's a factor, but for the most part he is really growing up and becoming more and more of a sweetheart all the time.

Bennett:

would probably love to join Westin's t-ball team already but he also loves hanging out with me and cheering on his brother. He's most annoyed when the team snacks get handed out and he misses the boat, but Westin has been so cute and shared with him each time. Bennett played instead of napped for the first time this week, during all of nap time in his bed. I thought it was so funny because he was just so happy the whole time but obviously just not into the idea of sleeping that day. Just means an earlier bedtime plus we still get the quiet time in the afternoon, so I was perfectly happy with it! He has been in heaven with three dogs here this weekend and particularly loves to just sit down by a tiny french bulldog we have right now and just let it kiss his face. Pretty disgusting, I know. 

Conference Weekend last weekend

Double dentist visit!
Westin has a small little cavity and tells people,
"I have a teeny, tiny, teeny, tiny, super small teeny tiny hole in my tooth.
I have to floss for the rest of my life. Or it gets bigger."

Bennett is so compliant at the dentist.
My favorite thing he says right now is the way he says, "Uhhkay" whenever he's asked to do something.
Such a sweetie.

T-ball practice

Tuesdays with Mara

After learning about authors and illustrators at preschool

Easter Egg Hunt at school

K is for Kite for sunbeam preschool at our house this week

One of Westin's preschool friends had the cutest Easter party and egg hunt on Saturday.
The boys had a blast!

I love these little helpers that set up the primary room with me before church.

Cannon Crew Spring Break

We loved having Shelley and her kids visiting this week from LA on their Spring Break!

Sunday: They arrived and we had Sunday dinner together when Michael got home.

Monday: We spent the day at the zoo.

Tuesday: We spent the day in Hanford and visited Rosa Brothers Creamery, Rosa Brothers Farm, Superior Dairy, and a local park.

Wednesday: We hiked the San Joaquin River Gorge trail and played some games together.

Thursday: We walked to the donut shop near our house and brought them to the park nearby for a fun morning outside before they drove home to LA.

They are so much fun and we loved spending time with them this week! Anthon, Quinn, Ella, and Clayton are such fun cousins and the boys were in heaven. Shelley is so kind and I love talking with her.

Michael:

is the best dad. Last week Westin seemed like he had allergies or a cold, which then worked into ear pain on our drive from Fresno to Utah, which then seemed to go away -- but then on Sunday and Monday he started complaining about his neck and slowly became so stiff that he wasn't moving it from side to side or back. Then Monday night he had red rashes appear on his arms and legs that were really itchy. I ended up texting pictures to my pediatrician and he called me to talk about some options, and we opted to keep our eye on him that night to hopefully skip a trip into the ER. That night Michael got home late from the hospital, helped check on Westin, then slept by him in his room all night because he was worried about him. He is such a sweet dad and so good to his boys. He has such minimal time with them right now but always loves the time he has and is so fun with them. The next morning I took Westin into the doctor first thing and we started him on an antibiotic, and he's been great ever since. It's so sad to see kids hurting. I felt bad that Michael couldn't be around more during his sister's visit. He sacrifices so much for our family and we're grateful for him.

Maddie:

loved going from a Utah trip to visitors, because I stocked my freezer full of meals before our road trip and it felt like we just extended our vacation and family time. I was happy to have three weeks of trauma fly by like that. It was hard when Westin was so sick and acting so mean and grumpy during our full days but I'm learning more and more that there will be time to rest, and that kids will only remember the good parts of those days that we wear them out. I only let his mean words make me cry once :) Haha I've come so far. I hit 24 weeks pregnant this month! And the nausea noticeably scaled back when I hit 23 weeks. Finally! I'm so grateful to be able to laugh hard again without running to drink something so I don't throw up. This baby feels so much higher than I'm used to. I am always so out of breath and I just would choose laying down over basically any other activity and that feels lousy. Laziness doesn't feel good, and for some reason pregnancy doesn't justify the things it should probably justify in my mind and I end up feeling annoyed a lot. But this is a stage and it will pass, and I'm grateful for it. Baby boy is moving more and more and I can see him kicking from the outside now, which is always wild. What's his name???

Westin:

Is feeling much better after his little sickness scare. His T-ball game on Saturday was adorable. Michael had to work a booth at Big Hat Days (the kick-off festival to the Clovis Rodeo) which started at 9:00, so he was able to go to Westin's game at 8:00 Saturday. That is our last game scheduled for 8:00, and we thought Michael was going to have to miss all the games this spring, so it was happy to have him at one. He's currently playing T-ball with Westin in the backyard right now :) Westin's neck was super stiff at his T-Ball practice earlier in the week, so he looked much improved at his game Saturday. He loved having his cousin Clayton around to play with and loves his older cousins too.

Bennett:

tends to always be following around his biggest cousin, whether that's Jaren in Utah or Anthon in California. He loves his big cool cousins! He also loved showing them his turtle and everyone had a good time catching snails and worms for Mr. T to devour. Bennett eating a donut is still the greatest site. He is such a good sport with long days and road trips and has stayed happy and healthy through 98% of our crazy packed last three weeks. He's such a joy and I love him. 

If Bennett could live at the zoo and hand the giraffes romaine lettuce all day, I think he'd do it.

Westin ran out of practice when his cousins came by from playing on the playground and said,
"Hey guys, do you want to see me hit the ball?"
He felt so big and loved having them there, even though he was a sad little sight with his stiff neck!

Then the spots came. Poor guy! I'm so glad he's doing better.

Cannons and Daetwylers

Rosa Brothers Creamery, home of the greatest chocolate milk in all the world.
Quinn loved the Root Beer milk, and we all liked the Vanilla milk as well. We also tried Orange Cream, and skipped the Egg Nog and Banana.
But that chocolate. Nothing beats it.

Milking (watering) the (pretend) cow.

This did not smell good.

You have to schedule tours in advance and they were full, but we tried to go get a glimpse of all the cows.
Then we saw one have a baby. So, we'll count it.

S.O.S. Sundae at Superior Dairy. That thing was tall!

Bennett and Clayton ran multiple laps around a little pond at the park to chase each and every duck into the water.

Hikers! It was a two-mile hike and in the beginning the three littlest hikers ran and ran.

Made it to the bridge!

San Joaquin River Gorge

Lots of backyard fun all week.

Walking to the donut shop, finally Michael's day off for the week!

That cinnamon donut and their fresh apple fritters... I dream about them!

Bennett looooove Quinn's hat.

We brought home three snails from our donut walk for Mr. T.
One he devoured. One he killed and sampled. One crawled on his back and rode him across the yard.

Bedtime stories with dad.

Back to preschool with friends! Westin missed these guys.

T-Ball Talks