Trip to England

Jeff and I got to take a grownups-only trip to England a couple months ago. Our kids were in good hands with my mom here to tend to them.  I really recommend taking trips as a couple. It always seems to be stressful to me beforehand but then once I am there or when I am coming back I realize it was exactly what I needed!

Jeff had a conference to present at at Oxford so we spent a few days in London first and then a day in Oxford before I flew home and before the conference for Jeff.

After we flew into Heathrow we rode a bus to Windsor to take a tour of the castle there. Also, we ate lunch at McDonald's. :)  The grounds were just as lovely as I imagined and the inside decor was just as ornate as you can imagine. "Let's hang 200 swords and guns on the wall in a cool pattern!"  Pretty amazing stuff!

One of the kings added more height to the Round Tower in the 19th century to make it seem more imposing. Luckily I wasn't to scared by it and could smile for a picture!

After Windsor we rode in to Paddington Station (no sign of the bear, sadly, but they did have a store named after him!) and then to our hotel in the King's Cross area of London. Here are some more pictures of our adventures!

We saw the London Eye a few times while we walked along the Thames. It is a bit newer than most things in this part of town...

Jeff had gone to London last year and we saw most of the same things he saw then, including the Tower of London. Of course it is much more than a tower and it was quite exciting to learn about so many things in one place. They kept animals here, criminals/traitors were imprisoned (or worse) here, this is where visitors were greeted after they got off their boats, they made money here, they keep the crown jewels here and more. I'm glad Jeff took me here!  

Tower Bridge

The Shard

Me with the Elizabeth Tower in the background. And also Big Ben up on top.

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We visited the British Museum and thought that Jacob especially would have loved all the artifacts and statues.

We took a walk through St. James Park. We got lots of pictures of birds to show the kids and we found these lovely blue flowers. I love blue flowers!

We saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, kind of by chance since we thought we'd missed it. Later we went back there to take some more pictures. Here is Jeff looking very stately and regal.

We saw Westminster Abbey one day also. No pictures inside, of course, but it was amazing. Jeff's comment when we walked in was, "And remember, it's not well-known just for its size." But boy was it big and beautiful and old. It is really amazing how many people are buried there.

Sunday after church at the Hyde Park single's ward we went to an organ recital at St. Paul's. We took a nice montage of hilarious pictures of me for our yearly video but I like this one of Jeff & I together also:

 Since our hotel was near King's Cross, I realized that I should take this picture, perhaps to Jeff's chagrin. Unfortunately, this is not actually where the train to Hogwarts came in the films but if we really tried to take a picture there, I would have fallen on the tracks. Safety!

Monday morning we rode a bus to Oxford and we had a walking tour of some of the university and city. Again, I marveled at just how old everything is. I think as an American it is easy to forget just how long history was going on before our country existed. It was a good reminder!  Here I am in a room at Christchurch (a college at Oxford) that was the infirmary in the Harry Potter movies.  I got a little cough while I was there...

We thought this ceiling at Christchurch was quite intricate, and similar to the ceilings in the cathedrals we couldn't take pictures in.

Almost time for dinner at the Christchurch dining hall.  We ate dinner at a little Thai place that night, but it was fun to imagine sitting down to eat a formal dinner with college friends. This dining hall was an inspiration for the one they made for the HP movies, though they couldn't use it because it wasn't large enough.

 We climbed up the steps to see Oxford from the top of the Carfax tower after our visit at Christchurch. There was a time several years ago where I would have been so fearful of being up here (and it wasn't all that high up, really). It was a nice view of the city and I didn't get too scared this time. :)

And here's Jeff in front of Oxford's business school. In the middle of our trip was Jeff's birthday. We celebrated with the kids before and after the trip but on his actual day I was probably failing at trying to keep up with him as we walked all over the city together. We talked about and learned about many things together on this trip and in addition to all of that and perhaps even more importantly I really just kept thinking how grateful I am for him and all he does. He didn't get cake on his birthday but we did get some ice cream cones from McDonald's and I sang to him as we walked back to our hotel. Sure glad I get to spend forever with him!