Last Thursday

Last Thursday the kids were awake, dressed, and ready for our London adventure by 7 am.  They were jumping around excitedly and "helping" me get ready and pack the last minute things.

Our neighbor across the hall drives a taxi and was going to take us to the airport.  So, we got ourselves prepared and when we couldn't wait any longer we rang his bell.

It was 9:30.

He was expecting us at 10.

He got himself together, stuffed our luggage into his tiny trunk (sidenote: I had to think for a full minute before my brain produced the word trunk.  My English is slipping away, I tell ya!!), and off we went.

The traffic was bad, so I was glad that we got an early start.  I did not need any extra stress in this journey.  The only bad thing was that he talks so fast I can hardly understand him.  So, it made for a long taxi ride trying to figure out what topic we were discussing and exactly what I was agreeing to!

We got to the airport, checked in, went through the standard probing, prodding, and pat-downs.  That is always fun!  We ate a quick meal which consisted of basically a chicken tender on a bun for the bargain price of 60 lira!

We finished up just as they were opening our gate.  Quick potty stop, and then off to find our gate.  After one last anal probing we were through our last security check.  We only had to wait a few minutes before we boarded the plane and were off.

The flight could not have gone better.  The plane was pretty empty so Lucy and I sat in one row with a seat in between us and Noah and Callie sat behind us with a seat in between them.  I had downloaded two new movies onto their ipods so they were so excited (and totally quiet and content).  Lucy was happy to color for a little bit.

Dear Lord, thank you for ipods.  They are the BEST!  How did the cavemen vacation without such novelties?

As soon as we were at cruising altitude they served us lunch.  At which point I praised the Lord for my overpriced chicken tender on a bun because the kids were served fish and I was served stuffed eggplant.

Um... no thanks!!

After they collected the trays I took Lucy to the bathroom.  I swear those bathrooms are insane.  Could they be any smaller?  And, really, who has decided that scarves are in style?  Certainly not a mother of young children.  Yes, they look cute, but if I bend over one more time to wipe my child's hiney and fail to realize that the end of my cute scarf is dangling in the toilet I am going to flush it down, too!  What is more indignant, hiney wiping or a scarf wet with toilet water?

BOTH!

Anyhow, I sat Lucy back down and told her that she should go to sleep for awhile.  And lo and behold SHE DID!!  So, I did.  We woke up just before landing.

We got off the plane, collected our stuff, and met our driver.  It was so weird to get in on the driver's side as the passenger.  Driving on the opposite side of the road felt was weird, too.

I finally figured out how round-abouts are supposed to work.  I'd like to teach a seminar on that to the drivers in this city!!

It was so fun to finally be reunited with Justin!  We were all so happy.

We put our stuff in the cute little inn and headed out to explore a bit.  The area where we stayed was just south of London.  It was the most lovely village with a really nice shopping area and beautiful old buildings.

We ate at Tony Roma's.  I was embarrassed that the first thing we ate in London was American food, but...RIBS = YUM!!

So, this is really long and I didn't take any pictures.  Sorry.  Tomorrow will probably be longer, but at least there will be pictures!