Thank Heaven for Little Girls

Since Cath was already hopping the pond to visit my parents in Sweden we concocted a plan to get together for some good old fashioned bonding time.

Miss Madi fulfilled her 1st lifetime ambition and future career training by going to see Phantom.   All the other kiddos tolerated it, but for Madi it was enthralling.  (Matts reported that she thought EVERY part was the BEST part :)

Miss Iz at the show.  She enjoyed some quality back tickles once things got a little slow

The sophisticated big kids.

Our concierge for the week.  Reed got great tickets and arranged a fantastic night.  

Kensington Palace.  Madi imagined the life of a Princess while Izzy joined the boys in a game of  ching-ching.  Little C was battling a nasty virus and spent a lot of quality time in the stroller.

Some things never get old.

The Hooligans trying to escape the Tower.

On their best behavior.

Cath and I went out for a night on the town which meant on thing; DANCE PARTY!

G and Miss Iz at the Science museum.  G is working on his duck face.

I think he perfected it.

We also hit up the V&A.  It was our first time there and we LOVED it!

Madi fulfills her 2nd lifetime ambition and career with a visit to the Roald Dahl House.

Iz was wonderful with "Baby Christian"

Hijinks in the Tube

There was some serious tromping on our path through Great Missden.  

Elementary...

Cousins!

By the end of the trip Iz was missing Scott pretty badly, luckily Uncle Reed was more than happy to fill in for some quality time.  

All in all it was a fantastic, crazy trip.  The kiddos had a great time and it was definitely an example of the more the merrier.  Especially crazy was the fact that we reenacted my Mom's life, schlepping 5 kiddos around Europe.  It was exhausting and  exhilarating and completely worth it.

Holidays in London

Before heading up north we enjoyed some festivities in London.  The big boys memorized the 12days of Christmas in honor of Regents Street and Covent Gardens, with it's ginormous ornaments and lights became a favorite hang out.  

Enjoying (mostly) the decorations at Covent Gardens.

Daily opening of the Lego Advent

Ice Skating at the Natural History Museum.  We went for a primary activity and ALL the boys, even Little C were puttering around by the end.  

Chirk Castle

On our way back to London we made one last stop at Chirk Castle and it was definitely worth the detour.  Since we were traveling on the off-season (can't imagine why more people don't brave the icy rain :), many of the sites were open, but not manned.  At Chirk Castle we got the entire tour and thanks to the quiet day, Robert the Blacksmith spent almost an hour showing the boys the ropes of dueling and all the twists, turns and secrets of the castle.  

Long Sword VS. Short Sword-Tough Choice

Working on their form.

Going through their paces.

He may look innocent...

Moving onto the Staffs.

En Gaurde!

Double checking the lethalness of a dagger before testing the effectiveness of Chainmail. 

Me too! Me too!

In the Dungeon

In honor of Sir Thomas

During our tour of the dungeon, Robert very cheerfully noted that they had a friendly resident bat who was currently missing.  Needless to say, I booked it out of there.  Imagine our delight to come upon said bat outside Sir Thomas' room. Castles have excellent acoustics.  

Enjoying the view.

And that concludes our Great British road trip.  It was a crazy idea that turned out fantastically.  Reed did an excellent job with the planning and execution.  He even pre-picked movies for the kiddos to watch while we drove between destinations.  The kiddos favorite part?  Swimming pools and room service (Matts did say his life was complete now that he had seen the northern most boundary of the Roman Empire).  Reed's favorite part?  A true break from work-cell coverage was spotty at best (wait, maybe that was my favorite part :).  When all was said and done it was an amazing and memorable glimpse into the beautiful and sometimes brutal landscape of this 'little green island' that has such a rich wonderful history.  

Chester and Liverpool and Kendal

Between major historical sites and Castles we stopped in a variety of cities.  

Chester-Lots of Roman Ruins and a nearly intact city wall.

Liverpool, Birthplace of the Beatles.  

In the middle of the Lake District was a lovely little town.  

Reed was excited about the name, I was just excited to be touring the  Lake District'-birthplace of so many, many timeless romances :).  Honestly, it was beautiful; green, peaceful and begging to be tromped through.

Conwy Castle

After spending the night in Liverpool we headed into Wales.  It was stunningly beautiful, inspite of the nasty weather.  On our rainy, windy drive we passed towns that were completely flooded.  Turns out our entire trip happened to take place during record rainfall and flooding.  Let's just say it contributed to the experience.  

After driving through Snowdonia we arrived at Conwy Castle.  Set atop a cliff and accessible only via the drawbridge it was the perfect place for some Ching-Ching.  

Even Reed got in on the action (or possibly initiated the action :)

Wandering the courtyard.

Stairs and more stairs.

A Happy Knight.

Freeze (literally-it was so windy and on the battlements was frigid)

Crazy that this was only the second level.  The big boys and I braved the gusts and turrets to climb to the top.  Reed and Little C "enjoyed" the lower levels.

Wales, the Land of Dragons and Castles = SUCCESS!

Hadrian's Wall (for reals)

As we continued to wind our way through Northern England, Reed and I became increasingly concerned that we hadn't actually seen/climbed/conquered the actual Hadrian's wall.  It sounds ridiculous, but there are ALOT of decaying stone walls in the fields and it wasn't incredibly well marked.  I maintained it's all the in presentation and that the kiddos would never know the difference.  Reed maintained we could scar them for life and they would never trust us.  As we were congenially discussing it we saw what was, unmistakably, the highest point of Hadrian's Wall.  Only problem-it was freeeezing and rainy and about a mile hike  (uphill both ways).  After further discussion Reed and Matts hopped out to scale the mountain while the littles and I hung out in the heated car. Let's just say-for the record-Reed was right.  Matts LOVED it and was ecstatic over their excursion.  

I'll skip the witty captions and just leave you a very please Matts, a dedicated Dad and some brutal British countryside.