London: Day 1

Our fall break adventures took us over the pond to London, England.   Thanks to the evening/overnight flight, I was able to work in my office most of the day and William was able to go to school until 2:30 before we got on our comfy clothes and headed to the airport!   We took John, too, I just don't have a play by play of his day!  Our flight over was 3 x 4 x 3 so we had our own row.  Of course I got the middle seat, since everyone wants to sit by me!  But we had plenty of legroom.

We arrived at Heathrow around 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. Chicago time) and enjoyed a sleepy cab ride to our hotel.  Since our room wasn't ready we left our bags and headed out into the brisk air to start seeing the sites!  The weather the entire week was a comfy 60 degrees and mostly sunny.   Our hotel was at the base of Westminster Bridge, opposite Parliament and Big Ben!  At the hotel was the London Eye.  Spoiler alert:  we never rode the Eye although we planned to!  The day we were finally ready it was overcast.

 

William chose our first stop, the Imperial War Museum, after hearing about it from our airport taxi driver.  It was a few minutes walk behind our hotel (on our side of the Thames River).  In the first picture he is literally running for the missiles displayed in the front courtyard!

After the museum and a snack, we did some scenic photos and hten crossed the Thames by walking across Waterloo Bridge and were excited to discover a little park at the base of Parliament!   We didn't try to go into the Parliament building (not sure if you can?); our destination was Westminster Abbey before it closed for the day.  I had been on my other visit to London but was still excited to see it again and to share it with the guys. 

We walked closer to Big Ben on our return to the hotel over Westminster Bridge.  It will be silent for the next several years as the tower or clock is restored.  Thankfully our room was ready upon our return.  Either the rooms all had amazing views, or we looked very sad at the early morning attempt to check in.  Whatever it was, we got a beautiful room and amazing view of the Thames and Parliament.

The travel caught up with us and we started dozing off at 5 pm.   We grabbed some quick food and called it an early night.  

Go Ape and Fall Campout

As an offshoot of our Summer Fun list and continuing on with my gift giving theme of experiences instead of clutter, we did the Go Ape treetops course.  I meant to get it for William as a Christmas gift, but I realized if I waited until Christmas that it would be April or May before we did it!   Since William is under 10 years old, we did the Junior Course together as a family.   It was actually harder than I was expecting!  That's possibly because the hand guides were at kid level so as adults you were a little off balance.  Or maybe I'm more afraid of heights than I thought!  Or because it was 90 degrees in the shade?  Whatever the reasons, William did a great job and we all had fun.  He was mostly adventuresome and plowing through it.  He did get scared at the foot platforms that were loose.  (I did, too!)  But he made it through all of the loops and was a zip line pro!

 

  

We also did the fall campout with the Cub Scouts.  This was my second campout, and it may very well be my last.  It wasn't horrible or anything, but with all of the nights I spend away from home for work travel, I'm not loving sleeping on the ground in cold weather.   I was so worried we were all going to be sick after this one, and it wasn't even as cold as the spring campout!  It was damp though, and I hadn't considered that the inside of the tent would feel so clammy.  Maybe my camping should be limited to less humid climates.  

Third Grade

Another summer come and gone!  We have had a lot of fun adventures, but as with prior years the "boring" week was the one leading into back to school.  That always makes it easier to go back!  William was excited this morning and quickly got himself showered and dressed.  I was reminded that for 1st grade I debated whether I should "let" him wear a t-shirt versus something "nice" and was given the great advice by friends to let him decide so he was comfy.   We're fully embracing this now - I didn't know or care what he was wearing today until he came downstairs.  He didn't get any new clothes for back to school, but John did take him shoe shopping a few weeks ago, so he has at least one pair without holes.   We had time for pancakes and pictures before we started seeing neighbors walk over.

  

  

 

Four years!  I had fun making these two collages.  We're getting good use out of his L.L. Bean backpack and Star Wars lunch boxes!

 

 

 

Bruno Mars

A group of my partners and I shared a United Center suite with our clients and spouses for the Bruno Mars concert.  It was amazing!  I've only been to 2 or 3 other concerts in my entire life.  This was definitely the best one ever.  Our view and the entire ambience was amazing!  We had so much fun singing and dancing along!  My pictures don't begin to do it justice.  There were pyrotechnics and strobe lights and dancing and just all around crazy energy! 

 

Summer Camps

With two working parents, summer is hard to schedule.  This year John was able to be more flexible and have William go to camps that were shorter than a traditional work day (usually 9-3).  Most weeks, William was attending camp with at least one neighborhood friend so John and the other parents could carpool and only have to do either drop-off or pick-up.

Cub Scout Camp
First up was his third summer at Cub Scout camp.  As expected, his favorite were the BB guns and archery!


Kids Science Lab
Our neighbors, Danny and James, told us about Kids Science Lab.  It was William's favorite camp!  And my house is still filled with his creations.  The first week theme was Jedis vs. Spies and they built a variety of spy devices.  The second week theme was What's Inside of That where they looked at the inner workings of houses, electronics, etc, and built their own elaborate contraptions. 

Naper Settlement
Our local "pioneer days" campus has a variety of weeklong themed camps.   The first week he did Survive This! about survival skills and first aid.  The second week was Hip History II about. . .my childhood! Ha!  He came home and told us all about "when kids were growing up in the olden days, Michael Jordan was popular and so were slap bracelets and pet rocks and . . . ."  John and I got a kick out of reliving our childhoods. And the fact that we're apparently ancient history.

Camp Grandma Grandpa
In August, there aren't many camps available since the counselors are all heading back to college (or other reasons; but that's the one that came to mind).  So that William didn't have to sit around at home for two weeks playing video games, he went to Kansas to stay with my parents.  This was his first solo adventure.  Flying didn't work out, so we met in Des Moines for the exchange.  That's a 5+ hours drive for me and 7 for my parents.  Driving worked out nicely though so he could pack toys and his bicycle!

William left on a Thursday, which meant we had a Friday night date night.  Funny enough I didn't know where we should go or what we should do. . . I had to ask a friend what was a good spot since all of my dates with my guys are to Buffalo Wild Wings!  We ended up getting sushi - a distinctly non-William friendly location.

On our way home across Iowa, we stopped for a photo op (and bathroom break) overlooking the Mississippi River.  It was a lot of time in the car for everyone involved, but he had a lot of fun in Kansas, and we were glad for his adventures even though we missed him a lot!

Solar Eclipse Viewing
Another fun Scout adventure was the day of the Solar Eclipse!  Families gathered at a neighborhood park for some activities.  Luckily we had official viewing glasses from Naper Settlement, because they were sold out all around us.  We were around 90% totality but it was a very cloudy day and the viewing was patchy. 

To me the biggest shock was how many people stopped what they were doing to watch.   At my office, I thought I was the only one who knew about it.  I invited a few staff to share my glasses and we headed down to street level. . . only to find hundred of people lining the street!  Most didn't have glasses though so the few people that did passed them around.