Part 2 of the UK: London

Monday morning we were off to London, we took a train into the city which was great!  It was so easy!  We got on at the first stop of the line and got off at the last stop, or maybe because they were speaking English and we knew just what to do...

When we arrived we had a quick stop at the hotel to drop off our things and went straight out for some lunch.  Our hotel was right across the street from the London Eye and about a 3 minute walk to Big Ben and the Parliament. Lucky us! 

Jackson by the London Eye  

The Parliament

Big Ben

We had lunch next to the London Eye and then decided to walk around for a while since the line was huge to go up in it.  After our walk we stopped back in and guess what no line!  We got to go right up in the Eye and see the amazing view of the city! 

View from the London Eye

Family pic in the Eye

Afterwards we had a great dinner at a place called Giraffe, it was advertised as a kid friendly place so we thought why not. It was just like an american restaurant!  We loved it and Jackson loved it (maybe that's why we loved it)  we had fish and chips!  Yummy! Afterwards we decided to call it a day so Jackson could get down and run around in the hotel for a while before bed.

So happy at dinner

Our dinner at the Giraffe

Even in the heart of London, Jackson finds tractors

The London Eye at night

Tuesday morning the sun was shining :) and we were taking a bus tour around the city, the bus tour here seemed silly almost.  All things are really close together and traffic is so bad, it's almost faster to walk places. So that's pretty much what we ended up doing.  We got off at Buckingham Palace and continued on foot from there. We walked through Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens. This was quite a haul, but it was so neat. Jackson got to play at the Princess Diana Memorial Park and then we had tasty lunch of McDonalds!

Buckingham Palace

The guards were changing

Playing at the park

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

Playing at the memorial park

That afternoon we went down Oxford Street, a mile and a half of all the best shopping. Our highlight being Hamley's toystore.  It is 5 floors of toys.  It was so fun even for us!! Jackson loved it. I wish we still had more toy stores around!

Insdie the Hamley's Store

Afterwards we just kept on walking back to our hotel and saw some of the sites along the way. Like Picadilly Circus, the world's tallest man, some theaters, the list really can go on and on.  After a long day out we decided to have dinner in our room and rest our tired feet!

Picadilly Circus

Josh by the world's tallest man

Wednesday, our final day in London, we took the bus tour out to the Tower of London and the London bridge.  Another amazing sight.  We played around here for a while and then headed back to our room for nap time.  While Jackson slept I got to go out on my own SHOPPING!  For a solid three hours. It was so nice, believe it or not, I didn't really end up buying much.  It was all just a little overwhelming.

London Bridge in the background

Playing by the bridge

We had a great dinner out at a pub Wednesday night. I got bangers and mash (sausage and mash potatoes) and we had guiness.  A great way to end our day!

Thursday morning we were headed back out to our friends house. What a perfect trip, something just had to go wrong.  As we were coming up in the elevator from breakfast, Jackson must have grabbed the door to the elevator.  It sucked in his pointer finger and it was STUCK between the door and the door frame. It was awful, he was screaming and we couldn't get it out. Luckily, there was another man in the elevator with us and he helped me push the door to one side and his finger came out.  The door to the elevator closed with a huge chunk of Jackson's skin on it. It was immediately swollen and bleeding but after much review we decided it just needed a band-aid or plaster as they called it.

Jackson cried for about an hour and then was so worn out he fell asleep.  After his nap, you couldn't even tell anything happened to him.  He was so happy and moving his finger around just like normal. It is still a little swollen and has a small scab but that's it.  It scared us to death, I was certain we were going to pull him hand out and he was going to be missing a finger.  Poor baby!

Other than that we had the best time in London.  What an amazing city with so much to see!  We loved it and I hope I get to go back there again some day!