London - 1st of Several Installments

On Sat. May 2nd (Happy birthday MOMMY!), our nuclear family hopped on the "fast choo choo...go underwater," otherwise known as the Eurostar bound for London.

We arrived at 84 Inverness Terrace around 1:30pm and checked into our 2 story, 3 bedroom flat. We threw our bags down and headed to Hyde Park to check it out and the Princess Diana Memorial Playground (PDMP).

Upon arriving, we found a huge line into the playground. With a bouncer. For a playground. Does anyone else find this as wrong?

I guess I can undestand since it was Saturday after all around 4pm on a sunny day in London. So we decided to play in the grass with our balloon and explore the lake.

Michael loved playing with the balloon. And then when it popped, he loved getting sprayed in the face with Brian's spit when he blew through the balloon end. And of course, running around always is fun for Michael:

After this, we went to Tesco and M&S to buy groceries for a dinner at home and breakfast. And we waited until John & Kelli Besancon and Bryan, Katie, and Eden Thomason arrived! Around 9:45pm, we sat around eating pizza and horrible nachos and catching up/talking. It was a great 1st day!

The 2nd day, Michael got up around 7:30am and by 9:30am was going crazy. Since everyone else was still asleep, we went back to Hyde Park (it's just a 5 min walk away) and went to the PDMP! It was early and there was no line. So we went to town.

First up, the pirate ship:

Michael enjoyed climbing up the ropes, but it was a bit anticlimactic once aboard. So Michael was climbing back down fairly quickly:

Then, there was a huge tree house, so we did that:

Brian decided to do the kids' slide and found out he basically was the length of the slide...and according to this pic, the width as well:

After which, there was a teepee land...so that was at least worth a stop:

And Michael decided that Indians most definitely did this inside them:

After this, we went back to the flat to meet up with everyone else and left around 11am for the Rick Steve's Westminster Walk. We saw Trafalgar square:

Westminster Abbey:



Some horse guards:
Big Ben and Parliament:
And ended up at the London Eye:

Michael could spot this carrousel on the ground after being up in the eye. Kid's got my vision:

After this, we walked along the cold, sunny, and windy River Thames to do the Jubilee walk and headed home for a nice calm dinner at home!

That's 2 days. Only 7 more to blog! So I know you will be checking back every half hour for more...I know it.