Day 3:London, England

From Scott:

After taking sleeping pills, we woke up & had breakfast downstairs in the hotel. We had to hurry & eat as our London sightseeing tour began at 8:30am or what would be 2:30am Idaho time. We boarded the bus with about 40 other people & had a British tour guide named Carlotta. She was very informative & very funny and sarcastic. As we drove around London, Carlotta showed us where Sean Connery, Roger Moore (both played James Bond) lived, they are actually neighbors. She also showed us where Elton John currently lives.

Our tour took us to St. Paul's Cathedral, the famous cathedral where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married (the last marriage to take place in that cathedral). You weren't allowed to take photos on the inside. The church is over 300 years old, it is the 4th church to occupy the site, it was hit with a couple of V-2 rockets in WWII.

After St. Paul's, we took a short drive to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. We stood across the street on a corner railing that faced all angles of where the guards would be coming from. There were thousands of people lining the streets. Shortly after arriving, ahead of us the band of Guardsman came. The band played in front of those coming off duty. Once they left from our right, came those coming on duty. A band played in front of them as well. They were dressed in long grey coats, a black bears helmet (for lack of a better term), and they marched with synchronized precision. I got some great pictures as they passed right in front of us.

Our morning tour ended and we only had a few minutes to eat lunch then it was off to another tour. We had Carlotta as our tour guide again. We went to Windsor Castle. This is where the Queen lives. This castle is breathtaking. This castle is over 900 years old. There were slits in the wall that allowed the guards from the inside with bows & arrows to shoot intruders. We walked to the courtyard area where there was yet another small gated fence that prevented you from going into a well manicured lawn in the middle of the castle. A guard was across the way, he did not move, just remained standing still. I couldn't do that job. There were so many beautiful things inside the castle, china, paintings, and wood work just to name a few.

After we got back to the hotel, we walked through what they call little Beirut, it is full of Islamic shops, smoking parlors and restaurants. We turned in early tonight because we need to be up early in the morning to go to Amsterdam, Holland.

Day 1-2: Leaving Boise - Arriving in London England

From Cindi:

Today we left from Boise to fly to Europe. First destination London, England. What a trip it has been so far. Our flight was supposed to leave Boise at 3:05pm and we ended up leaving at 3:30pm. We had to change planes in Salt Lake City, our plane was scheduled to depart at 4:35pm for Atlanta. We landed in terminal B at 4:25pm and needed to get to terminal C by 4:35pm.

Once we got off the plane - we ran!!! As we got to the top of the terminal, we were blessed to have a airport transporter just sitting there. She said, "Jump in and I'll drive!". Keep in mind that we had 3 min until the doors on the plane were closing. As we pulled up to our gate, the flight attendants were saying, "Last call for Morgan". We jumped off and made the flight. We left Salt Lake to make another plane change in Atlanta, Georgia. We were on time for the Atlanta flight to London.

Our flight to London took off at 11:50pm to arrive in London at noon. We had dinner, which was actually decent, then took a sleeping pill, covered my eyes with the patches.












We arrived in London at 12:05pm, which is 6:05am in Boise. We decided to wait and call the kids after school. So at 9pm tonight we'll call and it will be 3pm in Boise. We are staying at the Hilton. Scott and I kept saying, while the driver was whipping us through the not so wide streets, that we were glad we weren't driving. Everything is opposite to what we do in the US.

After getting checked in, showered/changed, we were told to go out not to sleep to help combat jet lag. We decided to walk to London's famous Hyde Park. The park is over 630 acres. As we walked down the streets and through the park, we noticed quite a few people just sitting around on the lawn relaxing and smoking pot. Yes pot - apparently the US is the only place it is not legal!

What a beautiful day today was. The sun was shining, which was unusual for London at this time, and the weather was nice. We ended up walking around 3 miles today. We're tired. Report more tomorrow.

We are home from our European Vacation

Well we made it back after a long 22 hour day of traveling. We arrived 3 hours early to the Paris airport, why? cause everyone freaks out about security and being late. Turns out, our flight was delayed, so we waited even longer. Security doesn't frighten me, why? because I am always the one chosen for the extra pat down and swab for explosives. And here I thought I looked like a nice girl, not a terrorist. Oh well, I am used to it now, I have expanded it to not only US travel, but now International! Lucky Me!

I can't even begin to explain how much we enjoyed our trip. Scott and I combined took over 900 pictures, don't expect to see all 900 here in our blog, but I will show the highlight of each location. I am making a book, so if you want to see more, then check out my book (to be released soon).

We combated jet lag pretty well with some helpful advice from those who have traveled the distance. We took a sleeping pill on the way over, it worked for me (slept most of the 8 hour flight) and not so much for Scott. Then we didn't sleep when we arrived, we followed schedule and went to bed in the evening. That seemed to help us adapt pretty well. Didn't lose site seeing time. Now coming home, it hit the second day being home, when I had to wake for Emmett and function with the normal rig-a-ma-role.

I hope you enjoy our day to day travel through 6 countries in 10 days. Remember our trip was just a sampler of Europe, so we didn't get a lot of days in each location. Now, we know what locations we would want to see again in more depth and those we don't. I wanted to post every location all at once, but it's taking a lot longer than planned. So day by day you will get a new location posted.

ENJOY!!!!





Here we are the Paris airport waiting for our flight home.

We're Off...

Back in 10 days to update you on our beautiful trip to Europe. While we are gone, the kids will be documenting their stay with grandma and grandpa. We thought it would be a fun way for them to feel included. So they each have their own digital cameras (Santa brought them at Christmas), and Garhett will be the journalist.
Can't wait to tell you all about it...

See you in April!!!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Today is my birthday (March 14). I love birthdays! I started the day off with a nice hot stone massage (one of the two gift certificates the kids gave me).


After my relaxing massage, had lunch with the family at Chili's, then it was off to more pampering. Another fantastic gift I received was my very own small digital camera. I love to take pictures and we have this fancy professional camera (mostly Scott uses), but I wanted to have a camera that I could keep in my purse and have ready at any given candid camera moment. So thanks honey for my shiny new camera.

To add to my awesome day, Scott and I went out on a date. We haven't been "alone" for more than a few hours over the past 3 weeks, so this was a treat. We got the kids settled with the babysitter and off to dinner we went. We had reservations at the newest restaurant in Boise:
Tucanos is fabulous, especially if you like meat. They bring all different types of marinated meats to your table for you to try. It was delicious, of course we over indulged. Our waiter asked what brought us into the restaurant and we told him it was my birthday. The next thing I know, I hear drums banging. Here comes a lot of waiters banging drums and shaking tambourines up to our table. They asked me to shake the tambourine and dance while they sang happy birthday to me in Portuguese. Scott tried to capture the moment.

How do you end a perfect day like today? My dear sweet husband spoke the best words ever, "Let's go shopping at the mall!". Heck YA!!!! So we did a little shopping and walked off our dinner. What a great Birthday!! Thanks honey, I love you.

This has been a week...

What can I say about this past week except that I don't want to repeat it. We were real busy with the usual day to day activities, then in the middle of the night, Emmett got the flu. Then to compact it all, he got severely dehydrated. Oh did I mention that Scott was traveling yet again for the 3rd week.

After 2 1/2 days of Emmett not eating, I decided to take him to the doctor, who in turn had a bed ready for him at the hospital. When we got checked in, they took us to the room where they put the IVs in. Four pokes and an hour later, they finally found a vein that would work and not blow. So here is a picture of Emmett with the IV in his arm trying to enjoy himself.












After 24 hours of fluid in Emmett's arm and with him drinking pedialite, the doctor decided to unplug the IV fluids to see if he could maintain hydration on his own. Only to find that later in the evening when we should have been at home, we were still in the hospital. The doc had the nurses plug the IV back in only to find that this vein had blown as well, so back to the "special room" we went. And again 4 pokes and an hour later, the nurse found a vein in his head. Normally I do real well holding Emmett through all his tests, procedures, and even needle pokes. But this time, when the nurses were going for the vein in his head, I passed out. I started to get real light headed and told the nurses that I needed to sit down. Down in the chair is where I went. And through all of this, Emmett still managed a smile to each nurse and doctor who came into the room to examine him. Emmett is such a special spirit. His forgiving nature is what helps me get through each poke and test that Emmett has.













Because I was home alone with the 4 kids, my parents so graciously came to my rescue for a day before they needed to head out of town. The dreaded thing then had to happen, I called Scott and he had to come home early from his business trip and take care of the children. Thank goodness he did.

During all the stress of Emmett, I realized that Garhett needed to make a cake with his dad for the Blue & Gold dinner. Below is the cake they made. Even though the people at pack meeting didn't realize that it was a sand castle, he got an award for the most original "circus tent". I was sad to miss the festivities, but was glad that Scott could make it home to take Garhett.


















So now Emmett is stable and getting better. We are all beginning to relax and slow our breathing down. Scott is home working this week and we are getting ready for our trip to Europe. Thank goodness for the power of prayer to get you through the dark nights and to see the light and hope in the morning.

Hip Hop Show

For the past 6 weeks, Deidra and I have been taking a hip hop class through Boise Community Education Program. It has been so fun to get out of the house one night a week and dance. Tonight (March 6th) was our "Show", the finale of our 6 week class. Our instructor asked us to dress up in hip hop attire for the "Show" and to invite friends and family to watch. At first, we were against inviting anyone, but then I realized that it would be fun to have my kids come watch mom and support me in my efforts as I do them in their sports and what not.

Here is our class photo. When the class started we had 14 women and one man, and today for the "show", we only had 8 women. Our instructor is the lady in the zebra striped shorts. We had so much fun!!!!







Click here to watch our performance. We had so much fun, we can't wait until the next session where we try belly dancing. hmmm:o)