London Calling….

And here we are.

Leaving Vancouver…our families, our dog, our dear friends, our jobs, our home.   Difficult.  Exciting.  Conflicted.  Incredulous.  Stressful.  Tearful.  Joyous.  Everything and all things in between.   If I could do it again, I’d plan to spend the first week napping in a hammock somewhere, preferably with an umbrella drink close at hand.   The last few weeks leading up to our departure were, for me at least, emotional, chaotic, displaced, and harried.   Only to catapult straight into one of the most frenzied, over-stimulating, beautiful and historic cities in the world.  There aren’t adjectives enough.

So far, we’ve seen and done too much to list.   The kids have been troopers, despite jet lag and tiny quarters and endless walking.  Despite early mornings and late nights.  And despite our best efforts to expose them to the incredible history all around us (Tower of London, British Museum, Trafalgar Square, Globe Theatre, Churchill War Rooms, etc), when asked, they all agree that the “Dreamworks Shrek Tour” was their highlight thus far (gah- knife straight to their mother’s heart).  They’ve loved the parks, the 4-storey M&M store in Piccadilly, the pigeons that eat from their hands, the buskers, the double-decker buses.  They love the ticket wickets in the Tube stations, the ‘Harry Potter’ taxis, the Toy Kingdom at “Harold’s” (read: Harrods), and the little mice that run around everywhere.   I suppose, after all, they are children still.  I forget sometimes.

Henry discovered Sainsbury’s yogurt.  Lucy can’t get over the bathroom faucets that both wash and dry your hands and Tom has developed an intense dislike of the underground.  He’d rather walk an extra hour than descend into the steamy Tube.  In fact, after 5 days of constant go-go-go in London, our most introverted middle looked up at me and said, plaintively, “can’t we just go to a forest somewhere?”.

And so we’ve left the city.  We’re in Watford for a few nights now, staying with my sister’s bestie, Kristian.   We have space to stretch out, decent wi-fi, laundry to wash, dogs to cuddle and lots to do over the next few days.   And though we crammed our days full in London, it’s nice to have left the hustle and bustle behind.  We’re all looking forward to the next few weeks, exploring some bits of England at our own pace and slowing it down a bit.

Kisses to everyone.  We miss you.  xoxo