England

At the end of October, Bryon's sister and brother-in-law gifted us their airmiles to fly to England and visit them.  Meanwhile, Bryon's parents babysat K and A back here.  What a treat!

It was so great to visit family, be tourists, and sleep in :)

I regret not taking more pictures on this trip, but here's what we have.

At the airport relaxing, after saying good-bye to a sobbing Kai.  Poor guy.  I have to admit though, we thoroughly enjoyed our flight without kids :)

Day 1:  On our way to Corfe Castle, via ferry.  It felt so good to be back by the ocean.

Such a beautiful and quaint little town.

Lisa, Seth and Daniel - our wonderful hosts and tour guides :)

We were told this was the classic photo that we need to take at this spot :)

I still daydream about this scone, jam and clotted cream sometimes.  I'm not sure if it was because we were cold and tired after traipsing around Corfe Castle, but this, along with a lovely cup of tea was perfect.

Corfe Castle in the distance.

Day 2: Windsor Castle
Seth and Lisa lived really close to Windsor Castle, so they dropped us off to enjoy a day on our own touring the castle and the town of Windsor.

Day 3:  Bath
Lisa and I made sure to (re)watch Persuasion the night before we visited Bath.  For some reason, the guys didn't want to watch it with us :)

Our sweet little nephew!  He was such a trooper to come along with us on all our adventures.

Bryon, ever the responsible uncle.

We were glad to have Bryon along to push the "pram" up all the hills.

Day 4: London!
I'd been to London before (long, long ago, when I was only 18), but Bryon hadn't, so I took him on the one-day walking tour of London. 

Buckingham Palace, where we randomly arrived just in time for the changing of the guards.

After Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery, we headed back to the South Bank and walked down to Borough Market where we met our friend Danielle (who just happened to be living in London for a few months...perfect timing!) for lunch.

With Danielle we went to the Tate Modern, and then across the bridge...

...for a sunset view over St. Paul's cathedral.

We then wandered back to Soho to pick up Danielle's husband from work and then out to dinner.
Such a fun day with good friends.

On our last day, we babysat Daniel, which basically consisted of taking him for a very long walk to a lovely coffee shop to enjoy one last almond croissant/sausage roll and cup of tea. 

 Thanks to everyone who made this very fun and relaxing trip possible for us!