Brady Pictures January

A few miscellaneous pictures from the month.

London Zoo:

Brady painting:

Brady and Nanny

Natural History Museum:

Brady and friend Joe (unfortunately Brady likes to close his eyes when he is posing for a photo):

Imperial War Museum

This weekend we decided to hit up another London museum.  Brady has become so accustomed to museum he actually asks "go to museum Mommy & Daddy."  Cory has been wanting to visit the Imperial War Museum so it was the chosen destination.  Bonus, it's one of the free museums.

The main couple of floors were perfect for Brady.  Tanks, planes, boats, rockets and other miscellaneous war and military equipment.  He could hardly contain himself and ran from one display to the next.  His enthusiasm made it nearly impossible for me to get a picture of Brady so you'll have to settle for pictures of missiles and tanks.

The museum had numerous special exhibits in addition to the military equipment.  We visited one room that had hundreds and hundreds of medals.  I didn't realize it was a no photography room and got in a little trouble for taking a picture. (I was photographing Brady not the medals so he cut me a little slack.)  We also visited the art gallery for about 1 minute before we realized this was not the exhibit for us.  At some point, Cory and I hope to go back to walk through the Holocaust exhibit.  It was not recommended for kids and would have taken an hour to get through. 

Billy Elliott

Last week Cory and I had a date night and got a chance to go to the theatre to see Billy Elliott.  The show was awesome.  The music is written by Elton John.  The other cool thing (since we're living in England) is the story is based on the mining strikes that occurred in Northern England in the mid 80's.  We were able to enjoy a good show and learn more about a very heated political time.

Another neat thing about the evening is we talked briefly with a cute, old English couple sitting next to us at dinner.  He recommended that we get the apple pie a la mode. We sat down in our seats and then ended up being in the seats immediately behind us.  We didn't talk to them at dinner about going to the show so it was a complete surprise when they showed up.   At intermission, the man wanted to make sure we were understanding the story and gave us his perspective of the mining events. 

It was a fun night and hopefully we will get to see a few more shows while we're here. 

Stonehenge

Place of worship, human sacrifice or pilgrimage location?  There are many mysteries surrounding the ancient rocks at Stonehenge, but regardless of the intent of Stonehenge it is amazing that 5,000 years ago, humans were able to move stones weighing upwards of 50 Tons into incredible formations. Keep in mind this was well before wheels & tools.

To visit Stonehenge we decided to be true tourists and booked a bus tour.  Typically we would travel to wherever we want to see on our own, but Stonehenge isn't super easy to get to so the direct bus sounded more feasible than taking the train to Salisbury and then taking a local bus.  The funny thing about the tour is it was almost all high school and college kids.  I know we're not old, but it felt a little bit as if we were the teachers taking the kids on a field trip.  Our bus driver, Malcolm, did a really nice job commentating on the 2 hour drive to and from Stonehenge so I think we both agreed it was a good decision to take the tour.

Brady did great on the drive there.  He feel asleep about 20 minutes into the trip and woke up 10 minutes before we arrived ready to see the 'big big rocks'. 

The only thing that surprised me is I thought there would be more around Stonehenge.  I knew it was out in the country, but I think I was convinced there would be more surrounding it.  It truly is the rock formation, with a very small gift shop and coffee stand surrounded by sheep in a field.

We enjoyed seeing the historic site.  I won't talk through the history of the different stones, but feel free to read up.  Our bus driver did say that there is an archaeological dig taking place and they are due to release many 'new findings' and that the history of Stonehenge is about to change.  Previously much of the details around Stonehenge have been unproved speculation and theory, but they have found evidence that supports the fact that Stonehenge was a place that people pilgrimage to, to say goodbye to and bury the deceased.  They have found remains of people from as far away as Switzerland.  There are small mounds all around the site which is where the prominent, powerful and rich were given a proper burial (picture below).  There is a large mound about a mile or so from Stonehenge where the 'common folk' were buried (no picture).  There is said to be some 6000 different people buried in the large mound.

The only downfall to our day was the weather.  It was supposed to be mid - upper 40s and partly cloudy, however the weather forecasters were a bit off and it was 35 at best, windy, and not a single peep of sunshine.  Despite the cold, we still had fun!

Victoria & Albert Museum and Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

On a whim, well, I should say on my insistence with absolutely no research, we headed to the Victoria and Albert museum over the weekend.  Cory warned me that it would be 'Boring', but I thought it essential to fit in a visit to the 'greatest museum of art and design'. 

Turns out I should have listened to Cory.  He knows we are not the stereotypical museum type. During the 1.5 hours spent at the V&A I felt a bit as if we were at a giant house of a hoarder of random things (some might argue that these random things are art).  For example, we spent some time in a room full of silver.  There were hundreds of silver cups, big silver cups, small silver cups, silver cups from Asia, silver cups that were old, some that were new, they were EVERYWHERE.  Then you would move into the silver communion cups and there would be a hundred more.  Then silver crosses, silver spoons, silver plates, aghhhhh.  After the silver there were statues, textiles, costumes, photographs, furniture, the list goes on and on.

Brady probably got more enjoyment out of the museum than Cory and I did.  For one, they had phones you could pick up every so often and he thought it was cool to answer the phone.  He also thought it was really cool to run through the corridors, particularly the ones where it was dead silent with a random person here and there sketching a random thing.

I did think the glass sculpture in the main atrium of the museum was pretty cool.

Our walk home from the museum goes through Hyde park.  We had not yet seen the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain so made a pit stop by the fountain.  Brady had fallen asleep by this point, but I was able to pose for a photo.  We also saw a really cool disk thing (not sure what to call it, probably 'art') that showed the cloud reflections.

Flight back to London

On Saturday we arrived back in London.  The trip home went amazingly smooth.   Brady napped for two hours before we got on the plane in KC and then slept for 5.5 hours on the plane.  A sleeping toddler while traveling is incredible.  I highly recommend it to those with young kids.

We were able to bring back almost all of our Christmas gifts and a few extras as well.  We ended up with 4 checked bags weighing in at exactly 50 pounds a piece and one checked duffel at 30 pounds.  We each also had our limit of two carry-ons a piece.  I think a few people probably thought we were nuts as one of our carry-ons was a bag with a car ramp and train tracks in it.  We had to tape down the ramp so it didn't make load take off noises with every bump of the plane. 

I thought some people might be interested to hear what we brought back to London with us.  All items are either hard to find, very expensive or things that we are extremely brand loyal to.

• Crest Original toothpaste
• Thomas the Train toddler toothpaste
• Bath and Body Works hand soap
• Dryell
• Bounce
• Ziploc baggies
• 2 Large tubs of salsa
• Marshmallows
• Contact solution
• Deodorant
• Peanut Butter
• Shampoo
• Glad Force Flex trash bags

We had intended to pack Taco Seasoning as well, but it got forgotten.  Thank goodness we probably have enough to make it until our next visitors arrive. 

I also did my fair share of shopping while in the US, but it was completely justified as I see it as saving our family money.  Buy the boots in the US that cost $85 or buy the boots in the UK that cost $250.  The same same price differential applies to pretty much all clothing items so I'm sure everyone can understand the logic of stocking up.  The only clothing exception that I have found is with children's clothing.  Baby Gap in the UK is surprisingly affordable.  Many things are actually cheaper than they are in the US.  This is a good thing as there is one two blocks from my house.  When Brady comes back to KC and looking like a Baby Gap model you'll understand why.

Brady Needs Cookies

Brady has gotten into a habit of saying that he NEEDS things.  This is one example of Brady absolutely needing something.  The conversation went something like this. 

Me - What are you doing Brady?

Brady - Brady get stool.

Me - Why do you need the stool Brady?

Brady - Brady needs cookie.

Me - Do you want a cookie or do you need a cookie?

Brady - Need cookie.

Christmas 2010 Take 2

The second part of our Christmas included trips to Edmond & Wichita. Brady was sporting a K-State shirt because it was also the day of the K-State vs. Syracuse bowl game.  Unfortunately the game outcome was a bit controversial and not in K-State's favor. 

While at my mom's Brady was amused by the large collection of animals.  Just to give you a taste, and keep and mind this is just a 'taste' as there are hundreds, I've included one of the bears for viewing pleasure.

Christmas Pictures from Oklahoma:

  

While we were in Oklahoma Cory and I got to sneak away and see Little Fockers.  It was pretty funny, but I think the thing that amused us the most was the GINORMOUS popcorn and pop.  It even came with free refills.  I can tell you one thing, you won't see that in London.  And we wonder why the average American is overweight.  I will admit I do miss free drink refills, but appreciate the assistance with portion control by cutting me off after one serving.  If you do not have will power, I highly recommend moving to Europe.

After spending 3 days in Oklahoma we headed north to Wichita.

Christmas Pictures from Wichita:

Trisha wins the award of giving Brady the messiest Christmas gift - Moon Dough.  I think it is supposed to be cleaner than Play Doh, but Brady and Grayson managed to get Moon Dough everywhere.  They did have fun though and since it was Trisha's gift she had the privilege of supervising the activity.

Cory, Brady and I had a great two weeks.  We got to see the family, catch up with friends and were even able to spend a few nights in our own bed.  We logged 8,309 miles by air and 1,104 miles by car, but it was worth it.