Part 2 of Josh & Jenni Fun. Stonehenge, Bath, Belgium, Windsor, London & Cambridge.

  After leaving Warner Bro Studio Tour, we stopped at Stonehenge.  The usual route we take with guests!   It was COLD and windy, so we stayed in the car while Josh, Jenni, and the boys got out to see these famous rocks.  Jenni took this pic as we were driving away.  I liked it with the sheep :)  Shout out to Jenni and Josh for taking a lot of the other pictures on this post, too. 

It was freezing cold in Bath, but I always love that place.  We stayed at the Cotswold Centre again.  Definitely not luxury, but you can't beat fifteen (or maybe it's ten?) pounds to stay the night.  Some adventures in Bath...

The birds.  There was a bird guy in the street, and the boys had fun holding pigeons.  I was glad no one got pooped on! 

 

 

 Bath Abbey.  Went in to warm up and rest for a bit.  The kids may have gotten into trouble for climbing on the pews.  Whoops!   The interior reminds me of the SLC temple :) 

Looked like spring, felt like winter though.  Once again, I'll mention that this year has been COLD!  As I type this at the end of May, I'll add that Luke had to wear his coat this morning to school.  Anyway, it sprinkled off and on while we were in Bath.  Hopefully J&J have fond memories despite freezing. 

 There are a couple of fun toy stores in Bath we like to visit, so while Josh, Jenni, and boys were checking out the Roman Baths, we went to check out the toys.  We looked in some shops and walked up to the Royal Cescent and the Circus when they were finished with the baths.  You have to see those when here.  Even if it's crappy weather.
Oh, and another fun Bath memory:  Jake and Josh loading up on random British pies at the grocery store.  So gross.  Their eyes were bigger than their appetites, so we had a lot of meat pie sitting around for the next couple of weeks.

After our day in Bath, we headed home.  The kids were great sports in the car.  Jenni and I rode with Coby, Ella, and Callie, and the guys and big boys were in the other car.  The next morning we drove over to another favorite day trip destination... Belgium.  Jake and I love Brugges.  Love the canals and cute chocolate shops!  Somehow, Luke left the house without his coat that morning.  So, the first little part of our time in Brugges was rough and involved finding a coat for him.  It was SO cold.   Even colder than Bath, so we had to buy a coat.  We actually found a nice one, and it was cheap! So, it all ended up working out. Our Brugges outing...

This kid cracks me up!  Love him!   

 

Callie's first trip to Belgium.  Poor girl had pink eye or something going on for the first week Josh and Jenni were here.

 

 

Dads and their monkeys..

Ella wanted this marzipan.  Cute strawberry shapes, but that stuff is sick.  Sorry, El.  Pick something else.

 

One of the cutest chocolate shops in town.

 

 

Jake usually ends up wearing my diaper bag and I wear Callie when we travel.  :) 

 

 

 Can't leave Brugges without some chocolates to try on the way home.  I can never remember what kind is which.  It's always a fun guessing game trying to figure out what we're eating.

On the way home from Brugges, we dropped Josh and Jenni off at the tube station so they could catch their train to Paris, and took their boys home with us.  Luke and Ella loved having Coby, Austin, and Caden all to themselves for a couple of days!  We managed to get in some egg decorating, a trip to Curve Motion, and lots of drawing/book making/XBox/movies while J&J were gone.  It was fun!

 

 

My kids love Curve Motion.  Best indoor play place ever.  Their slides are even fun for adults :)

 

 

Getting our egg decorating on!

 Luke wanted me to get a pic of his favorite egg.

 

I think Coby colored all dozen of his eggs blue and green.  All boy :)

 

Whoops!  ha!

 

Gross hands!

 

Caden's Eggs.  :)

Mr. Austin hard at work..

 

Not big enough to join in, but she had fun watching the big kids :)

 

Luke had to go to school, so while he was gone one day the rest of the kiddos and I made some ninja stars.  When Luke got home, he was super sad and angry that we didn't wait for him to make them.  Anyway, Caden had a cute idea to make some for Luke and decorate the kitchen for him.  Check out the awesome decorations. Oh, and each of the boys made about 10,000 ninja stars over the course of the week.  :)

 

 

 These two were so cute together.  This is the first time they've been able to really play.  Coby is closest in age to Ella among the Smith cousins.  They're about 10 months apart. 

 

After Josh and Jenni got back from Paris, we all went to London.  Had a day with just the adults and another with the kiddos.  

Fed birds peanuts while waiting for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  Usually the squirrels are out at St. James Park.  Since it was so cold, I think they were all hiding. 

 

 

On the tube..

 

 

I thought the family pictures in front of Big Ben turned out cute.

 

 

 

Made a successful stop at our favourite creperie.    

 

Stacy and Katrina were sweet and watched the kids while we did London with just the adults.  Well, Miss Callie came along, too. We did the Tower of London, Josh and Jenni did Westminster Abbey while Jake and I browsed some stores, we all had some tasty lunch at Cantina Laredo, Jenni and I went to Harrods to shop while Jake and Josh did the Churchill War Rooms, and we grabbed some gelato.   

Here we were at the tower.  The weather was crazy.  Snowing and windy one minute, sunny the next.

 

 

Cantena Laredo Deliciousness.  There aren't any good Mexican places around our house, so it's nice to get some good stuff in London!

 

 

Kind of blurry phone pic, but I liked it!  Fun to browse fancy pants stores like Harrods.

Another day we visited Windsor Castle.  Actually, I think it was on the way home from Bath, so these will be a little out of order.  I have lots of other Windsor pics somewhere on the blog, so I'll just put a few from this trip. 

 

Cute buddies.
 

 

Jenni and Ella had matching pink boots.

 

And last but not least, Cambridge!  We wandered around the market and froze.  The guys found a hot dog/sandwich stand that they fell in love with, and Jake and Josh took the kids punting,  Jenni and I browsed some shops.

 

 

 

 

I love having visitors.  Gives us a chance to get out and do our favorite things again.  It was great to have Josh and Jenni for a bit!  The boys, too.  Hopefully it isn't too long before we get to hang out again.  Next up:  Easter pictures.

 

More March Visitors! Fun with Josh, Jenni, & Kiddos. Part 1

It seemed like Jake and Josh had been talking and planning this get together for a while!  It was so great when the time finally came.  We picked Josh, Jenni, & kiddos up from Heathrow and then had almost two weeks of nonstop fun.  We wasted no time.  30 minutes after pickup, we were at Warner Brother Studios Tour London to see the Harry Potter sets.  I had heard great things about it, and it was better than I expected.  So cool to see the masks, props, and so many things from the movies. 
When we first got there, Jenni took the boys into the shop while we waited in line and they all picked out wands.  Luke and Austin chose Harry Potter's wand, and Caden and Coby chose Ron Weasley's.   The boys looked like they were having tons of fun with their wands, so Ella decided a little later that she wanted one.  Aunt Jenni spoiled her and took her to pick out a wand so she wouldn't feel left out. (Thanks Jenni!)  She chose Narcissa Malfoy's.   The kids ended up bringing their wands along on our other excursions throughout the next couple of weeks.  Very fun first stop with our guests!  And we were glad that Josh and Jenni took a lot of pictures!  We brought our camera, but the memory card was still at home in the computer.  Whoops!  Got a lot on our phones, but I'm glad we have some from their camera that are better quality!
Here's the whole crew in front of the studio!

 

When you first walk into the building, they have these huge pictures of all the actors/actresses.  The portraits are like 10 feet tall.  Kind of cool. 

 

Harry's bedroom under the stairs...

And, some other favorite pics.  You'll recognize the sets :)  Cute boys with their wands..

 

My favorite part was Diagon Alley.  Ella was having fun being a "BAD lady." 

 

 

 

Most of these pictures are pretty self explanatory if you've seen the movies or read the books.  I kind of want to post every pic we took, but I'll restrain myself. 

 

4 Privet Drive

 

 

Ella was a little creeped out by the dying robot. 

 

Hagrid's head is a huge robot.  Who knew!? 

Loved the cutie screaming plants.

 

Creepy goblin masks and hands.  Would be fun to have some on Halloween!

 

 

 

Potions classroom..

 

 

 

 Random creatures... that spider is HUGE. The giant's head, too.

 

 

 

Love the humongo chess pieces.

And the costumes.

Wands!!! 

Hogwarts!  This set was used to film all of the shots of Hogwartz.  It took up a whole room.  Cool that they can use computers to put it on a bigger scale.

Fun afternoon!  Next stop was Bath. 

 

Visitors!

  Rochelle and Liza came to hang out for a week at the beginning of March.   It was cold and miserable outside, so we didn't do a whole lot of sightseeing beyond local things, but it was fun to have them here!  We enjoyed their company.   Here are the girls one day after church.  Cuties. 

 

More picture fun from February...

  Ella graduated from her "foamalin" to the real deal.  She started violin lessons in November with Ms Samara.  So far she is liking it.  She has her moments where she doesn't want to practice, but for the most part it's been fun, and she is so proud of herself when she gets a new skill down.  Her teacher requires the parents to learn some of the Suzuki songs as well, so I've been playing a fiddle myself.  Kind of fun!  I'm halfway through book 1.  Woot woot :D 
This was right after her lesson when she opened her violin.   They measured her and said she needed a 1/16, so it's cutie and really little.   She has been working on her twinkle variations.