No Sleeping Allowed

Ann & Ron, Cory's parent's, arrived yesterday.  They are our first flat guests since we've arrived.  Their flight from Peoria to London went smooth, a man with the sign was waiting for them at the exit and they were ringing the door bell by 9am.  For both of them this was the longest flight they have ever been on and their first time flying out of North America.

The goal for the day was to keep them up until bedtime so they would get adjusted to the time change.  Both of them tried to lay down on the couch to 'rest their eyes' for a minute, but we would not allow.  Everyone showered up and we headed out for the day!

First stop was walking to Hyde Park.  It was a cool, overcast morning (pretty much standard issue here), but no rain so perfect for a long walk.  At Hyde Park we stopped a the playground so Brady could play and even found some chickens in a corner of the park we hadn't visited before.

After Hyde Park we headed to the London Natural History Museum.  We had heard great things about the dinosaur exhibit and Brady LOVES Dino-Sa-Saurs and he says it.  We grabbed a quick bite at the museum cafe and started exploring.  It was really busy which I think is normal for the weekends since it's free.

At the end of the dinosaur exhibit there was a life size replica of a T-Rex that moved & growled.  Brady was so excited about seeing it until until he could actually hear and see it.  Then he wanted nothing to do with the dinosaur and buried his head into my shoulder.  We all predicted this as he loves animals and replicas, but typically prefers to keep his distance.

We wrapped up the Natural History Museum and caught a taxi home.   Ron and Ann still had 4 hours to stay up before we would let them go to bed.  We rested for a bit and then headed to Pizza Express for dinner.  On our walk to dinner we stopped at Abbey Studios thinking there might be a memorial to John Lennon since it was is 70th birthday, but there really wasn't much there out of the ordinary.   Pizza Express is becoming a family favorite.  Awesome dough balls, great pasta and pizza AND they send out coupons.  After dinner we came back to the flat and went to bed.  As I write this at 9am, Ann and Ron are still sleeping.  Need to go wake them up so we can make it to Buckingham Palace today for the changing of the guard.