Charlie and I just got back from six days in London. Sounds awesome right? Well, I forgot to add three words to that sentence. Let's try again. Charlie and I just got back from six days in London WITH THE KIDS. Doesn't sound so great anymore, huh? Those visions you had of us walking hand in hand down the Thames, sipping wine while people watching at a cozy cafe, visiting beautiful museums and churches? All shattered to pieces. That is what children do to that wonderful image.
We went to visit our friends Jim and Sharon, who moved to London last April. The live on a quaint little street a quick tube ride from London in a great apartment or flat or whatever they call it. Their kids are so well-behaved that I was a little concerned about bringing my loud, out-spoken crazies to their house, but overall things went okay and Sarah played very well with Alex, their oldest who is almost three.
We kept the kids very busy and went into the city every day. We also brought a flat Stanley along with us, and the kids had fun getting his picture with everything we saw. In fact, we may have taken more pictures of flat Stanley than us. If you don't know what flat Stanley is, he's a guy on a piece of paper that you cut out and color or decorate with clothes. Then you take him all about town and take pictures of him wherever you go. This one we are actually doing for the son of a blogger in Chicago. I love reading her stuff and thought it would be a good activity for Andy over our vacation. Even better Sarah and Amanda wanted to do it too so we have pictures of three different Stanleys all around London.
We tried not to overdo it too much, but we ended up seeing quite a bit. The kids aren't so sure that it was the best vacation ever, but they had more fun than they realized and some day Andy at least will look back at this fondly and think it's very cool that he got to do this at such a young age. Charlie and I? Not so sure. The flights were our biggest worry and even those went better than expected. Except for all the people that gave me dirty looks when Amanda cried. She didn't cry that much, but I still got lots of dirty looks. Good thing she didn't behave like she normally does, which is crying lots and lots and lots.
I don't know that I'm going to be able to convince Charlie to take a non-beach vacation again for a while. Somehow they just seem easier, but those are a lot of work too. In a few short years, the world will be our oyster. We won't have to worry about diaper changes or urgent bathroom trips or keeping little ones occupied. We got a glimpse of it while at Windsor Castle as Andy and Sarah were walking though the amazing rooms listening to the audio tour. They were both bummed that we couldn't go slower and listen to the entire tour and instead had to rush a little because the littles were hungry, tired and bored. It was neat to see them so excited to learn about history and want to know more. Someday we will be able to do that kind of stuff more than an afternoon or two.
In the meantime, we'll have fun at the beach and try to slip in a few educational trips in here and there. Otherwise, when we do go back to Europe to visit Paris or some other amazing city, our kids won't know how to act. As long as they behave, we can get through anything. Getting them to behave, well that's another undertaking all together.
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