Lo 'n Anna - Family Travel Adventures: Weeks of August 3 & 10 - First Family Vacation... and a little work on the side!

First European Family Vacation - England

August 3, 2015 -

When we found out I would be in London the week of August 10, we figured it would be the perfect time to take a plan a few days vacation ahead of the work week and travel to a place the girls have been talking about since we found out we were moving... Peppa Pig World.

Peppa Pig is a British cartoon that the girls took a liking to LONG before we found out about this assignment. As with most kids programming, Russ and I are at a loss for what the fascination is with this little pig and her family. Nonetheless, when I discovered that England had a theme park dedicated to this show, I knew the girls would be ecstatic!

Much like our last flight, this adventure started out a bit interesting, with our plane being hit by a support vehicle shortly before take-off, resulting is us having to move planes and arrive about 3 hours behind schedule. While disappointing, we were happy to arrive safely! We are also happy to report we have two little girls who love to fly! Thank goodness... makes all our grand plans for the next two years much easier to achieve!

The girls were beyond excited to arrive at the house of Peppa in South Hampton! They were all giggles in the taxi as we approached the entrance and Loralye was practically laughing uncontrollaby as we entered the park. The sheer excitment to meet their favorite cartoon charachter was so cool!

The Windy Tower
(a.k.a Guaranteed Stomach Ache)

The first ride of the day was called the "Windy Tower." From the ground it looked pretty harmless...but once we got inside, we quickly discovered it was quite sophisicated and spun in three different directions {insert puke face}. The girls thought this was the greatest thing ever, while Russ and I counted the minutes for the stupid thing to stop.

"Being Sisters"
We let them argue over who got to "spin the wheel" becuase they were working against one another which kept it from spinning in one more direction.

They were so exitcted to see all of the characters walking around loved how the rides and park looked just like the show! Every time they saw one of them walking around, they would take off running and then just squeeze them as tight as they could. One time, Zoe Zebra was making her way to the exit and they were beside themselves that they didn't get to hug her. For the rest of the trip, they kept saying... "I hope we see Zoe today, we didn't get a chance to hug her yet."

I think their faces are priceless in this picture ... :)

There were lots of rides and games and no shortage of things to do at the parks. We stayed really busy and were worn out by the end of two days!

Driving Mom and Dad around... they got a big kick out of this scenairo :)

More hugs for Suzie Sheep

During our time at the park, the girls went on their first rollercoaster which was met with mixed reviews and a couple bigger raft type water slides which were a HUGE hit! I think they would have stayed on the water rides for two days if we let them.

One ride which we all collectively decided we are not fans of was the Pirate Ship. Another one of those rides that look harmless, but are in fact, dangerous. By the end of the ride, Annelyse was green, Lo was crying, Russ was also green and crying and I was starting to turn red in fear of what I was going to be responsible for and associated with if we didn't get the three of them onto stable ground. For the rest of our time at the park, everytime we walked past the Pirate Ship, Loralye would say... "I don't like that one... we aren't doing that one again, right Mommy?" No Lo... we won't ride that one again for a long, long time! No pictures from that experience, just the wonderful memories!

Best Friends!

After this trip, they decided that they should get ice-cream everyday...

Of course, no trip to an amusement park would be complete without shelling out some major coin for carnival games which are next to impossible to win. Russ is a total sucker for these, however has mastered his craft over time and is actually quite good (this is likely why I despise stuffed animals).

When he spotted the little white cottage dripping with oversized Peppa's, he was drawn like a moth to a flame... the girls and I went to wait in line for a ride, while Russ continued to 'observe' the other suckers playing the ball toss. When we got to the front of the line, he of course joined us for the ride and proceeded to decribe in great detail their flawed technique.

Completely confident in his abilities, we exited the ride and walked directly to the little white cottage where he proceeded to in fact win! Yes, one of the girls was the proud new owner of a stuffed animal the size of a small child!! But of course, you can only win one per day... which is not a perfect scenario with two little girls. But Russ, even more confident and cocky, assured the girls he would win another the next day... and of course, he did!

Now, we had the great pleasure of walking around with the equivalent of 4 kids instead of just the two I am typically overwhelmed with most of the time! Thank you, thank you Daddy! While I despise the creatures, the girls were totally in love... and the pride Russ had as we walked through the park with his trophies, was priceless. His ego grew a bit that weekend and continued to grow each time a stranger asked him to share his techniqe... ahh, to be a man :)

"The Little White Cottage... aka "The Money Pit"... Russ is happy to report we only spent 10 pounds!

Huggin Mommy Pig

The Prizes... So so happy...way to go Daddy... now, how are we getting them home???

After a couple days in South Hampton, we made our way back up to the big city, LONDON! Russ and I aren't huge fans of really big cities, so we figured 24 hours was the perfect amount of time for us to explore.

With only having 24 hours in the city-center, we were limited on what we how much we could do and see... So we tried to hit some of the more well known places that would be significant to the girls and interesting enough to keep our little travel companions entertained! There is a great website we use to find things in bigger cities to do with kids called Little Nomads. Using this site, we planned our 24 hour intinary which went something like this...

We hopped on "The Tube" (another public transportation favorite) and headed to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. The Tower of London is historic castle located along the River Thames which has served as a royal residence for King Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Outside the Tower of London!!

Snooping for the Crown Jewels!

The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England.

We were interested to learn one of the other superstitions of the Tower of London related to the 6 ravens... The ravens of the Tower of London are a group of captive common ravens which live in the Tower of London. The group of ravens at the Tower comprises at least seven individuals (six required, with a seventh in reserve). The presence of the ravens is traditionally believed to protect the Crown and the Tower; a superstition holds that "If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it."

Our little animals in the Menagerie

"Getting Axed in the Head"... this history is a bit disturbing...

The girls really enjoyed seeing the history of the armor and weapons. They had this interactive exhibit where it asked questions like “Which weapon would be best to use if you were on a horse?” “Which weapon would you use if you were in hand-to-hand combat?” Surprisingly, they got them all right! We were slightly disturbed by their accuracy in this assessment...

The Horse Armor was particuarly fascinating!

Dragon made of armor!

They loved all the little doors and secret passages!

We ventured over to The Tower Bridge which is very close to Tower of London. It is the iconic bridge you always see in pictures of the city. We did find out that London Bridge is actually an unimpressive concrete and steel bridge that opened in 1973.

Again, we got to climb lots of stairs to make our way across. The girls loved the sections of the bridge where there was glass flooring which allowed you to see the street and river below. In a way, I think it made them a bit nervous, but they eventually got over it and didn’t want to leave. Underneath they let you pass through the victorian engine rooms which give you a nice view of the beautifully preserved coal fired engines once used to power the bridge lifts.

One of the 6 ravens in the background at the Tower of London

Tower Bridge

The Glass Floor of the Tower Bridge

Hard to tell if Annelyse if 'fake smiling' or is slightly worried...

Big Ben and Westminster Abby were also pretty awesome. Even the girls found the ornate arcitechture interesting. Nothing much really to report on these visits other than them asking "Is this all it is?" "What do we do here?" "Can't we at least go inside??" Russ and I keep talking about how we may be setting expectations to high for these little princesses... Needless to say we have made it a point to have lots of reality checks in our home lately :)

One of the girls favorites was the London Eye; a huge ferris wheel overlooking the River Thames. There were about 25 people in each of the pods which of course can make a ½ ferris wheel ride a bit interesting. A group visiting from China took a liking to the girls and asked if they could take some pictures with them… Of course, much to Annelyse’s shagrin, one of the ladies had a selfie-stick and used that to take some really cute pictures. I couldn’t help but laugh at how fascinated they were with the girls from the West and equally how facinated Annelyse was with the 'selfie-stick'... she kept saying, "Mom... did you see she had a selfie-stick... I know how much you don't like those!"

Strangers with Selfie-Sticks

Lo started to get weirded out and excused herself
for further photo ops... Annelyse continued smiling
like always :)

After the mother was finished with her photo opportunity, the rest of the family proceeded to take their turns... needless to say, we had to keep the girls questions about the whole experience to a minimum until we could exit the pod. A VERY funny experience for Russ and I and an equally confusing experience for the girls!

The London Eye

Our next stop was Buckingham Palace. The girls were already familiar with this place, because I had been there before and of course brought back little souvenirs for them. They also are a fan of the movie Paddington, so this place resonated with them a bit more. We made our way through Traflagar Square down the mall for the big parade. They loved the band and the guards with the big Busby's (black fluffy hats).

Traflagar Square

Walking Towards Buckingham Palace

Enjoying the Queens Gardens!

As the fun was coming to an end for me, the adventure was just heating up for the kids. A co-worker of mine and her family recently moved to Belgium and was planning to be in London the same week we were. We decided the dads and the kids would enjoy sharing each other's company and found an adventure/water park for them to hang out at while we commuted in to the office.

After a whirlwind adventure in the city, we headed south to Chessington World of Adventures. There were lots of things to do and see and the kids had a blast together. Seeing that their kids have been out of the states for 4 months and in a country where English is not the predominate language, the kids enjoyed having company that felt like home. The dads enjoyed a few beers and some 'guy-time' which too was much needed given the long summers they had as 'child-minders.'

The hotel room was pretty neat, all decked out in a safari theme. The girls spent most of their time in the room on the top bunk of this bed. However, they both slept on the bottom bunk and pull-out bed given our history with falls in hotels.

That being said, no adventure of ours would be complete without some type of injury... One night while playing in the suspended jungle gym, Loralye got kicked in the head by a "big kid"... There is no doubt in my mind the reason she got kicked is because she insists on being first and was likely right on his heels trying to pass him when she tripped and ended up with a black eye. We have had to have LOTS of conversations with Loralye as of late about how she doesn't always get to be first. Let's just say she hasn't quite come to terms with that reality. The other day we were discussing birth order and Annelyse proudly announced that she was born first. Of course, Lo disputed this fact saying she was first. When we explained that Annelyse was in fact born first and that it would always be the case, she replied, "but that's not fair!!" ... And proceeded to cry about how she wasn't born first.

Arriving at the hotel and amusement park was a relief to some extent. The hustle and bustle of London, large crowds and high prices were a little too much! One day was enough to scrape the surface of London, and maybe we will make it back another time since it is such a short flight away!

Chessington World of Adventures was excellent. It was very kid friendly and they did a great job mixing it up so that the kids and the adults were entertained at the same time. Yet another highlight from the trip was Russ's winning a dance compitition during the nightly kids and parents dance party at the bar and restaurant downstairs from the room. The kids would be led in dances by the hotel staff and dressed up characters from Madagascar the movie. There was also an amusement park and pool that were frequented when Mom was at work. Rides, games, play structures, animal/sea life exhibits and shows (such as one done by the movie characters from Penguins) were enough to keep Dad and the kiddos busy for three days straight!!! Thanks to Mom for making the commute by train so that we could stay in such a cool place.