Christmas 2012

Well, as quickly as it arrived it's over just like that. It seems as soon as Thanksgiving is over we rush to get out the Christmas decorations and anticipate the big day. Then when the day finally arrives, it's over and done and we're exhausted and the aftermath is overwheleming. The house is a mess and I'm ready to take down all the decorations and get back to normal life. I think I'm starting to understand why my husband is a grinch. Or maybe it's because we have young kids. Or that every 2 or 3 Christmases are spent in a new city/state and new house and rarely with our families. Now, I don't want this entire post to be a downer. I do love Christmas. I have a lot of special memories of Christmases growing up. This year I tried to start some new traditions with my kids, I tried to explain the true meaning of Christmas. (As I do every year). I hope I'm creating some good memories with my kids that will not only have them loving and enjoying the Christmas season but also realizing the true reason we celebrate. The birth of our Savior was the best gift we could have ever received and we should want to share that gift with others. Sadly I never take enough pictures and I'm lacking in photography skills, but here are a few from the day.

Thanksgiving

We actually celebrated Thanksgiving with our dear family in the San Fernando Valley who came down on Saturday and unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that. We had 19 people! But it was so much fun!

On actual Thanksgiving day we took the kids down to the beach for a little photoshoot since we didn't have any of the four of them together. It's so hard to get them all to look good and smile nice at the same time!





Europe 2012 Part 2

Rome

So here's the next half of our trip. The day after graduation we hopped a plane for Rome. Rome was hot and crowded for the end of October. Much less romantic than the first time we visited but the fact that I was so tired and emotional and dragging around a 3 week old baby could have had something to do with it.

The first day Devin thankfully insisted we sleep in while his parents went out sightseeing. The walked all over the Colosseum and Roman Forum while we stayed in bed until noon. We then met up and toured a church, had lunch and went on an evening walking tour through the city which included the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona among others.

The next day we took a 3 hour tour of Vatican city where we walked through the museum, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Finishing our day with a 2 mile walk back to our hotel.

Our last day in Rome we went to Circus Maximus and saw more ruins. Then we went searching for gifts/souveniers for the kids before catching a taxi to the airport to fly back to London. 

Castle San Angelo

Spanish Steps

Circus Maximus 

  

It was quite the whirlwind trip. I'm still not sure what is easier. Traveling with 3 kids (that are potty trained and able to feed themselves) or a brand new baby. It was nice however to get away and just be adults and not have to cater to a bunch of kids for a little while. I still missed our kids back home. That was the longest we have ever left them and it was harder than I anticipated. Anyway, I'm glad we did and glad it's over. Enjoy the pictures!

Europe 2012 Part 1

England

So let me preface by saying I love to travel under normal circumstances. I love to see new places and try new things and it doesn't typically stress me out. However this last trip was in no way normal and couldn't have happened at a worse time. I DO NOT reccommend traveling overseas with a 3 week old! I even had feelings deep down that our unplanned pregnancy would somehow get me out of this trip. But like a good wife I supported my husband who had a strong desire to actually walk at his Oxford graduation despite now living 5,000 miles away. So planning this trip included Devin's parents who wanted to be there in support of their son. We had decided it was too expensive to take our other 3 kids and so would leave them with my parents. Then somewhere we decided to add on to our trip since we were already there. With discussions back and forth it was finally settled that we would head to Rome after the graduation. Wouldn't have been my first choice but I wasn't going for me. So needless to say I was not looking forward to this trip.

The older I get the less I like to fly. I remember as a kid wishing so often we could afford to fly places more often. It was so exciting then. Now, any little bump of turbulence freaks me out. Any abnormal sounding noise scares me. My husband, who fully understands the physics of how planes can fly just laughs at me. I say, even if I could copmprehend it all, who's to say the plane wouldn't just drop out of the sky at any moment? So our flight out to London was the worst I've ever experienced. For a 9 hour flight we had maybe 1 hour of calm. We had so much turbulence. At one point the plane literally dropped probably 20 feet. Soda. coffee, water went flying everywhere. I sat with my eyes closed, clenching my chair and my baby and crying and praying for most of the flight.

We arrive in London early morning and after dropping our luggage at the hotel, we catch a bus to Hampton's Court Palace where King Henry VIII lived. We are all so exhausted we could hardly stay awake if we stopped moving.

The next day we took the Underground to St. Paul's Cathedral. You may know because Prince Charles and Diana were married there. It was also designed by the famous Architect Christopher Wren.

After this we went to Greenwich where the Prime Meridian is marked with a line through the park.

Cutty Sark

That evening we caught a bus to Oxford getting us in much later than hoped. The next day was the graduation ceremony. Our former nanny and good friend watched Kelsey for us while we attended. The ceremony was nearly 2 hours and most of that was in Latin. It took place in the Sheldonian which was also designed by Christopher Wren.

   

Despite being exhausted beyond all hope of catching up I'm glad I went for the graduation. It was interesting and unlike other graduation ceremonies. I'm so proud of my husband!