A Week with Dad

There hasn't been much to update the last few weeks - we have been fighting the winter blahs, trying to get over colds and eating my weight in chocolate while wondering why the baby weight isn't coming off like last time (you know you have access to too much quality chocolate when you consider chopping up a Lindt bunny when you run out of chocolate chips).

Spending our days wandering around in a parka, wellies, jammies and a tutu - it is a solid look.

This last week Jamie was able to use up the rest of his paternity and we were so happy to have him home! We didn't have much planned, just enjoyed having him around! We started the week by showing him one of our favorite hangouts when it isn't freezing - the park down by the river.

I was also able to show Jamie the play structure that was "6 feet high" and "so dangerous" that I wouldn't let Hadley play on - turns out it only comes up to my shoulder and we even watched a kid wiff it off the side and she was totally fine. Hadley was allowed to play on it. I proudly carry the title of Over Protective Parent in this relationship, although I am glad there are two of us - I will make sure the kids brush their teeth and eat their veggies and Jamie will make sure they don't become some weirdo in the corner, we make a good pair.

Wednesday we went into London to go to the Natural History Museum, I love museums and this was one of the last ones I really wanted to go to before we left. It had really interesting displays of the earth, space, animals and dinosaurs - I loved the gem/crystal exhibit. The dinosaur area was also impressive, but we were surprised that the main attraction we waited for was a large animatronix T Rex, I thought the bones were more impressive but the 10 year old boys in front of me couldn't get enough.

Bird Exhibit

Bug Exhibit - perfect for little kids even if it did give me the creepy crawlies.

The trip in was good and Hadley liked parts of it, I thought she might prefer it over the others since there were large displays and items she recognized, for the most part she did great and was interested - but when we were in areas where school groups were congregated she wanted out of her stroller. She is just in a phase where she is too old to want to sit the whole time but too young to be truly interested, she has done amazing for how much we dragged her around Europe. Below was the result by the end of this trip -

Picture Perfect

We had planned on spending Friday going in and visiting the London Eye and a few photo ops of Harry Potter sights but when we woke up there was so much fog we could barely see our neighbors trees. It ended up working out well since I was fighting a cold and it was nice to just hang out at home. We have a few last minute trips planned and I think the London Eye should be the last thing in London we wanted to see (I wanted to see the Tate Modern but not with a toddler so Elise and I might go in another time). Our exact travel dates are still a bit up in the air, we know when we will be in CA the first week of June but not 100% sure when I will head to Texas beforehand, depends on some work stuff. I can't believe our time is almost up! So many mixed emotions but we are very excited to head back and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to see so many amazing sights, even if there are things we didn't get a chance to visit. It was so very nice to have a week with just Jamie spending time together (taking naps) and working on some of the moving things as well, all three of us will definitely miss him next week!!

She was giggling right before I snapped this pic, I always seem to miss it!