London, Day 2

Day 2 in London involved driving again!  We drove about 40 minutes outside the city to the MGM Studios, and saw the Making of Harry Potter tour.  It was awesome!

This was one of those "for the girls" things on our itinerary, but we all enjoyed it VERY much, even Little R!

The costumes and the props were amazing!  So realistic!  And all 3 kids left with a real wand, so they were quite happy!

Warning:  This post might be a little boring if you aren't a "Potter Nerd", as we call our girls!  Please feel free to skip it!

Out in front before the tour...we had some very excited girls!

The Great Hall

More of the great hall, with actual costumes

The girls love Snape!

Poser!

More costumes...fun to see that these actors are pretty small people!

The Invisibility Cloak!

Dumbledore's Office

4 Privet Drive

Diagon Alley

Happy Girls!!

This model was really cool.  They supposedly used it for all the outside shots of Hogwarts in the movies.  It had amazing detail!

Three hours later, and we are finally finished!  It was a fun 3 hours!

Look what we found on the way home!!  I haven't stepped foot in a Wal-Mart in almost 2 years!!  I was so excited...I could have spent hours just roaming around in here.  But instead we bought groceries and went back to the apartment for dinner.

An overall great day!  We knew the girls would enjoy the Harry Potter experience, but I was surprised how much we all enjoyed it!  It was a great time!  Itinerary Day 3:  The double decker tour bus!! : )

London, Day 1

Spring Break=London for the Willises!  London was at the top of the list for the girls, so we decided to spend Spring Break there.  I wanted to go somewhere beachy...and London is about as un-beachy as it gets...but it was still a great trip!  We were excited to go somewhere that we didn't have a language barrier.  And I could listen to that accent all day long...love it!

The first day was just a day to get settled and rested up to explore the next day.

We flew into Heathrow, rented a car (driving in London...EEEK),  found our apartment, then headed out for some dinner and groceries.

A was very impressed with the drive from the airport!

Traffic was horrible!  It took us over an hour to get from the airport to the apartment.  Little R & A decided to rest a little on the way.

London...big city, on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road...a wee bit stressful!

Reminder of a sweet friend!!  There's an extra "L", but this brought you to mind Dave!! 

A was awake by this time, and both girls decided they wanted to live here...



Just the London Eye...no big deal, right?

Just Big Ben...no big deal, right?

Double Decker bus...but it's not red!

Looking for a grocery store, and a place to eat!

Out in front of the restaurant...another great Italian place with yummy pizza!

After dinner, we headed back to the apartment to rest up for Day 2:  Harry Potter!!

Edelweiss...Take Two!

In March, we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary with a trip to Edelweiss.  It was a family trip...what better way to celebrate your wedding anniversary, right?

We really had no plans...just a relaxing weekend together.  And it WAS relaxing!!  I read an entire book that weekend..something I haven't done since having children.  R had some great quality time in the pool with A and Little R.

Edelweiss is a great place...of all the places we have been over here, it is one of our favorites.

Pretty!  The Bavarian style is so much more elaborate than anything we see in our area.

This is a bank!

The first day we walked around and did some shopping in the downtown Garmisch area...very neat!  But it was COLD!

The girls posing with the "Oster" Bunny!

Pretty

So many towns over here have pedestrian-only shopping streets...love them!



We found a Flohmarkt...a flea market...MiMi would be proud!

Little R on the pretend ski lift...the Willis family decided we were not a skiing family long ago...so this may be the closest he ever gets to a real ski lift.

Little R with the "Oster" bunny..

Another pretty Bavarian building

Outside a wonderful Italian restaurant that we found...

Can you tell we were freezing?

The most romantic moment of the anniversary weekend! : )

Inside the Italian restaurant...they had a dog that greeted you at the door...and brick ovens...it was so good we ate dinner here BOTH nights!  Pizza the first night, pasta the next!  It was all delicious!

The drive home...

COLD...but beautiful!

A great weekend celebrating 16 years of being married!  It's been a wild ride, and sometimes I wonder how we've made it through...but I'm so glad we did!  I wouldn't want to take this journey with anyone else, and this crazy little family we have created is a true blessing to me every day!

What have we been up to lately??

We celebrated Dr. Seuss...

We got a new cape...

We soaked up some long-awaited sunshine...

We had one of our very best buddies over for the afternoon...

We played with Play-Doh...(which doesn't happen very often...Mommy HATES Play-Doh)

We decorated cookies and had an Easter egg hunt at school...

Little R ate BOTH cookies all by himself...

And we drew a self-portrait in art class...

THAT'S what we've been up to lately!!  And yes, we do still have two other children!  You can tell by the pictures who I get to spend the most time with...so he ends up in front of the camera more often than the girls!  And T leaves the vicinity when you point a camera at her...so photos of her are rare!  And I really have no excuse for the absence of A...but I will definitely try to do a better job of taking more pics of her!!