We started the morning taking the trains to Paddington Station (again, you can get around London easily, but not quickly), where we caught the first stop of our Hop On, Hop Off tour bus.  It was fun to have a good guide narrating the sights as the bus—clearly a close cousin of magical London’s Knight Bus—made impossible feats along crowded, narrow roads.  We saw quite a bit from the top deck before we disembarked at the Tower of London, a place Dwayne and I wanted to see, and with the Crown Jewels and Armory, hoped would be just as fun for the kids.

But we found something better.  Margaret and Jeremy and their two kids were finishing up a week in London and our trips overlapped by an entire Tuesday before we both flew out the next morning.  They had already been at the Tower for hours before we showed up, but there was still plenty to see and we joined forces.  And I have firmly believed in the power of kids playing with someone they haven’t fought with for the last 24 hours.   

The White Tower was really interesting, with a small collection of Henry VIII’s suits of armors, showing a history of impressive girth increase.  

But we all giggled at his, ahem, largest one.  Definitely compensation going on.

I must be compensating, too!

We had almost talked ourselves out of seeing the Crown Jewels—the line was ridiculous, but the 9 of us were together, and standing in a long line was a great time to catch up and hear about their five weeks in the Ukraine.  And, honestly, I would have regretted getting all the way to London, and then the Tower, and not seeing the lavishness that is the royal coronation regalia.  Was I the only one disappointed that the golden Coronation Spool was used to dribble blessed oil over the proceeding, not for a morning yogurt before the hoopla begins? 

The Tower of London has been, in its time, a dungeon, palace, living quarters, commmand center, and hundreds year old second story pit toilet.  We enjoyed walking through the re-outfitted royal chambers, where the finest of that period lived half as comfortably as the least of today’s lower class.  But they did have thrones.

We were all feeling a little this way towards Wes towards the end of the day.

Why?  

Well, this is the best shot we have together…

….after I cropped his butt out of this one.

We closed down the Tower at 17:00 but with an entire evening ahead of us, we hopped onto the Thames and made our way up to the Parliament area, where the nine of us had a nearly perfect dinner—less by food standards than we sat the five kids at one table together, and then got to enjoy an adult meal at a separate table.   

It is our only full day in London, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  We’ll be back, Brits!  (Sorry again about Wesley.)

“I confess a small wee in my pants” is going to be my tagline for years…. 

I won’t bore you with the many animal mummies and ancient gold shields and plates we saw–turns out, we pretty much bored Wes and Piper, though I carried each of them in turn for much of the tour as the half-slept in my arms.  I would blame jetlag more than amazing historical artifacts.  

Sunday-Monday: Seattle to London
Wednesday: Fly to Split, Croatia
Friday: ferry to Hvar, Croatia
Monday: ferry to Dubrovnik, Croatia
Wednesday: fly to Venice
Friday: fly home

It’s almost go-time!  We’re about to go across the pond for almost two weeks, and we did two necessary things before leaving: pedicures and underwear.   I got it in my head earlier this week that everyone needed to have a 3 pairs of travel underwear–basically noncotton underwear that dries quickly.  We are traveling each with a carry on and backpack, so ease of laundry is near the top of my packing priorities.  

Piper has other priorities.  

As I handed out underwear, I had done some reminiscing about how the kids used to like putting on unders as a super hero masks.  Piper obliged.

And here’s her pedicure.  The cat faces are a perfect touch for her.

Wes and Wes have known each other since pre-K, and even though we only get to see him and his grandmother a few times a year, we are all still good friends.  We’ve had time to meet twice this summer, and enjoyed time at the pool together.

In the meantime, Piper was out on the lake with friends. #WeLoveAugust

The best part of the park is the water.  We don’t have pictures of the 3 hour innertube adventure we did, but all the kids love water.  

 

Of the seven grandkids, 3.5 have August birthdays (Kyla is the .5, with her Sept. 1st date of birth). Julie made cupcakes to celebrate Cecily’s 7th birthday.

For the first time in our Me&3 career, I took the kids camping…and we all really enjoyed ourselves!

Because Kyla needed to be droppped off by 9 and picked up by 3pm in Eagle Creek (aka Middle of Nowhere But Pretty), OR, I searched for a convenient place for us to stay that week.  We found a pretty campground less than 10 minutes away from camp.  We only stayed for 3 nights, but if I had been able to alter our hotel reservations, I would have happily done a 4th night.  I was too busy reading books (currently evangelizing Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock series– started first book at 10pm and finished at 3 in the morning!) to take many pictures, but the kids were happy to *hang* out all day at camp, too.😁

But down we went, and Kyla really enjoyed living in 1850, not far off the Oregon Trail.  It was just a day camp, so I picked her up at 3 every afternoon for more adventures in the morning.  

During the day, she did some pretty great things she never would have gotten from Mama Camp.  She blacksmithed this S hook, made a Jacob’s Ladder toy, made clay marbles, and had many adventures.