London Calling

I have been to Europe before (Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Austria) but I have never been to the U.K. The company that Jared works for has a office and he had some meetings and I was invited to go so off we went!! Boston and Lillie stayed home with family and friends (thanks all those who helped and made this trip possible...Grandma Up the Big Hill, Lacey-Dave, Ashlie, Allie, Grandma Lil...) and had a good time at home. However we had marvelous time without them...he he he!!

I was nervous to take Paxton with us. Being only five weeks and all but he did aMAzing!! On both flights he was so good. When we landed in London and also when we landed in Houston the person sitting by us each way commented how they were totally bummed when they saw they were by a newborn but very surprised at how good of a baby he was!! And ya know he will be six months next week and I would have to agree...he is the best baby!!!
TIP: If you are ever traveling abroad with a newborn you need to find a flight with a bassinet. It saved us. Pax slept almost the entire flight (11 hours) because he was so cozy! They just stick it into the wall...as you can see below!

Here is a little run down of our stay....

Jared driving the car on the wrong side of the road! Like that isn't hard enough to focus on! Oh, I have an idea lets rent a car with a stick!! I will not lie I was a little scared but he did a good job! ;)
The hotel we stayed out was so much fun! There is only like 30 rooms total in the whole hotel. Everyone of course has the best English accent and everything is "lovely!!" Jared went to meetings one morning and me and Paxton had had a terrible night and so we stayed at the hotel to sleep. The housekeeper was so distraught that I didn't let her clean. I explained to her that my baby was sleeping and that we had had a bad night. So later in the afternoon at like 1 I went down to the cute little restaurant to eat lunch and word had gone around that my baby kept me up and so the Front Desk Lady, my waitress, and the hotel manager all offered to watch my baby so I could take a "nappie!" They also gave me my lunch free since I had missed the continental breakfast!! Really some of the nicest people!!
One of the first nights we went to Cambridge University!! Holy cow!! Talk about a Posh school! Their dorms are not just dorms! They are castles and all so very prestigious! On campus some of the stores lining the streets were Juicy, Prada, Marc Jacobs, and of course H&M! Needless to say it must cost a pretty penny to attend the school!!

Here is a picture of some of the dorms. You can not even get any closer to them unless you have your pass proving that you live there!
And here is their testing center!!!! I don't know about you but I get nervous to take a test at is let alone in a castle!! It's just a little different then BYU-I's dungeon!
We took the train another day to Petersoborough! To do some shopping. This would never happen in America. I was shopping in a store and they said the store is closing and the worker lady came and told me to put my stuff down they were closed. She was not even going to ring me up and I had like 15 shirts (for my kids....)! I just looked at her and walked to the front and I could tell she was saying "stupid American!" Hello I just upped your sales by $150 more!! Duh!

Waiting for the train!! Pax loved it!
Again waiting for the train!
One more little story. Everything in the UK closes at 5! Everything! Restaurants, grocery stores, train stations, movie theaters, malls, and well you get the idea. I asked the lady coming home from the train why everything closed so early and without thinking she said, "its family time. If everything is open parents are not home with kids. So everything closes so we can be together. Thursday is late night. Everything stays open til eight and so you plan around Thursdays to get errands done but the other days you are home with your family." I immediately just wanted to start telling her about the gospel! It amazed me that the whole...what...country just closes down?! They know how important family time is! I don't know I guess inside I was smiling! Not really sure why, but I was!

They had these Red telephone booths everywhere! They are the ones like you see in the movies so we had to get a picture! The one that I took one in was disgusting...someone had peed! Yuk!

The next five days or so was Jared stuck in meetings, me babysitting the GM's kids. Not like they were hard. They were 17, 14, and 10! We had a good time with them.

The last day was spent in London! Just like I love NYC...I loved London! So much history!
This guy did not a move a muscle! Kind of crazy everything they go through to protect their Queen! Very loyal! And it is such an honor for them to be able to serve their country! I think I remember them saying it is a three year commitment and you get no connection to your family or friends!

~Buckingham Palace~

Walking the streets of London...Poor Paxton always under the blanket but he slept all the time!
We went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Trivia! Did you know that the London Hard Rock was the first one? And did you know who started it? Well I am drawing a blank and I know I could google but I'm lazy. But if my memory is somewhat on track then it was Eric Clapton. He loved this certain hamburger joint. It was his favorite and so one day when he was leaving he left his guitar and said something like I will help make this place famous or something and so then some other guy followed in his footsteps and so on and so on and now we have Hard Rock Cafe's everywhere! ;P
(Also please take notes...if planning a vacation with a newborn don't take a lot of pics of yourself! Would you look at those cheeks and my chubby arms! Blah! And also sorry about the crotch grab on Paxton!! Didn't know how to hold him! ha ha)

Big Ben
Here is our cute little guy coming home! Wow, did we exhaust him! Here he is sporting Jared's noise canceling head phones! He was such a trooper and it was so fun to bond with him without the other two rug rats! It was such a good experience for us! We love those cheeks! Yummy!
Coming home we had a five hour layover in Houston. Normally, that could put a little damper on your mood but not when you have an awesome sister who lives there! Jenni has lived in Texas for I think 5 years and I had never seen her house so that was fun! Also, she made us a home cooked meal!!! After 11 days of eating out it was heavenly! We did not get to visit as much as we would have wanted to but either way it was so fun and totally a highlight of our trip!