A Day out in London

 Last Saturday we decided to take the kids into London again, but this time we took the train.  They LOVED it.  Both were so excited as we walked down to meet the train!

 And they were totally happy while during the ride.  It took 31 minutes to get downtown. 

 And on the way we pass the Olympic Park where the large stadium and the torch is.  We don't have any tickets to any of the games but it's fun to have it so close to us and hopefully we can get in on some action somewhere. 

 We took the tube (underground) to the London Eye and walked around the water front until it was time for our London River Cruise...

 This is the boat we took.  The tour guide told us interesting things along the river.  We started at the London Eye which is across from Big Ben/Parliament and we took it down to the Tower of London Bridge.  It's about a 45 minute ride.  It would have been fun to go on top to see everything, but no... it was raining. 

 The kids were super excited to get on the boat.  And they were super excited to ride on the boat for about 10 minutes.  Good thing I had some back up toys/snacks in the bag!!

 Brian sat down and said something about the seats being comfy and Owen leaned back and said, "Ahhhhh".  It cracked them both up!

 She looks like a crazy person in this picture!!

 After the boat cruise we went on the London Eye.  It's this big Ferris wheel looking thing.  You ride in these large capsules and you can see all around the city.  It was really neat.  You can also take it at night which I bet is pretty cool too.  It takes about 30 minutes to go all the way around.

 Seriously fun day for the kids.  They thought this was great too. 

 Look closely at the upside down cow.  We ended up eating lunch there later. 

 The kids looking down on the waterfront looking for the people that were dressed up.  There was a tiger, a bunny, Shrek, and Minnie Mouse. 

 Views from the London Eye...

 These are what the capsules look like.  This was when we were at the top. 

 The River Thames.

 Big Ben and Parliament

 Again, Owen got a little bored about halfway through the ride so we pulled out the Leap Pad.  That thing has been put to good use.  If only the batteries lasted longer!!

 After the ride we walked around a bit and found the Upside Down Cow venue.  We didn't actually know what it was, but there was a public restroom so we wandered around. 

 Owen showing off his little Lizard that luckily I found in my bag while we were on the boat cruise.

 Our lunch or burgers and chips (fries).

 Brian was craving this huge doughnut that he saw the last time we were in London in Covent Garden.  He was so excited to buy it and take a big bite but he was nice enough to share with the kids first....

 Then he ended up giving it all to them because it looked a lot better than it tasted!  He was so disappointed!!  The kids weren't though!

 I love Covent Garden.  There is always something going on and there are so many people.  The kids were dancing around to the music this little street band was playing.  See all the people walking around listening.  It's so fun. 

 On the other side is a place that I am going to next time for sure.  There are these two large pots of paella.  You just stand in line (usually a really long one) and buy it by the bowl full.  I was really tempted to go get some because there wasn't a line, but we had literally just eaten and I didn't think it would be that good for my diet plan :) 

 Doesn't it look good though????!!!  Hope it's not as disappointing as the doughnut though!

 There are street performers all through the area.  Some are good... some are not.  This one was pretty funny, although kinds creepy.  Owen was pretty interested in him.  He wanted to put money in his bowl but he was nervous to get too close to him.  So he got fairly close and then threw the money at the bowl.  But the funny thing is that it bounced out of the bowl and hit the guy in the face and  then fell on the floor.  So the guy had to reach out and get it and put it back in his bowl.  It made us laugh.

 We are lucky enough to be able to walk to the train station.  This is nice but it goes right past the park.  Without fail the kids want to stop and play every time we pass it.  They were so good all day, of course we had to stop and play!!

Super fun day!!!