Week 9

It was a fun week here. There were some very happy Hiltpolds - enjoying time with KK. On Monday we finally went to Kensington palace - which I had really been looking forward to. It was a ROUGH morning. The exterminator came so we had to be out of the house at 9 for at least 4 hours. I was running late and so the morning got off to a bumpy start from there and just kind of kept sliding downhill. We put Cole in the buggy for his nap and he proceeded to scream...not cry - no, there were no tears...just screaming for the next hour. I swear I though they were going to kick us out of the cafe at breakfast. People staring - me staring back. It was lovely. I finally gave in when we got to the palace (after I spilled hot chocolate all the way down my pants and on my cream colored sweater). I took him out of the "lay down" part of the buggy and sat him in the seat in the back. He was asleep - hanging over the edge strangling himself with the strap - within 3 minutes. Sheesh.

So, I was really looking forward to Kensington palace, but it seems as though they have changed the tour/exhibit recently. Gone are the Princess Diana dresses and debutant exhibit. Now it's...well, I can't even explain it. It kind of defies comprehension. It's a modern art/creepy haunted house kind of. It's got graffiti on the walls and weird recordings in the background and mannequins suspended above beds. Weird. Disappointing. Sad really. Still scratching my head trying to figure out what the heck happened.

KK was really keen on having "tea" in London, so we headed to the Orangery for that, but Cade wasn't into that and they don't serve a proper tea until 3 pm and it's only like 11:15 at this point, so we get up from the table and head for a walk in the park. This is when it starts to rain. But do I have the rain cover for the buggy? Nope. I do, however have 1 umbrella which is nice, but surely not enough for 4 people. We went and stood under a tree and waited for it to let up. When it did, normal people would head home - but wait - we're having a carpet beetle treatment, so we can't do that. We walked about 1/2 mile in the sprinkles to the mall across from our house. I gave the boys lunch at Starbucks and we walked around until it was time to come home. Oh - did I mention that at this point I'm sick? Yeah...fun day. We finished up with Gymboree in the afternoon which we seem to be doing most days. It's something we all look forward to.
Tuesday we went to Harrods and spend a couple hours, but not much money which is good. Our sick count now is up to 5 - KK and the boys have it too. There are such copious amounts of snot here it's ridiculous...

Wednesday we went to the zoo.

At this point Cade is getting really spoiled with taking taxi's and whenever he sees one he says - "we get in that taxi". Oh how quickly they learn.
Thursday we did play group and music class.
Friday we went to lunch at The Wolseley, then walked to Buckingham palace, then up to Oxford street.
Friday afternoon we went back to open gym and Cole officially started crawling!!! I tried to keep him from doing it as long as I could, but he's a man on the move now.

Saturday we visited the HMS Belfast. Cade is getting so big, climbing those steep stairs all by himself. He does seem a little weary of the creepy mannequin staring down at him in the "sick bay" exhibit though.

In the gift shop at the exit, KK bought the boys hats. How cute are my little captain and first mate???

Down on the pier, we saw the "invisible man". Cade gave him some money...then tried to walk off with the can while the whole crowd laughed.

Sunday was sad. KK left early - about 7am. We all said our goodbye's and Cade cried a little when we said he couldn't get in the car with her to leave.

We headed in to get ready for the day and go get pancakes to make him feel better. After that, we walked to the science museum where we saw lots of fun stuff.



We even went to the Imax and made it about 20 minutes into the movie before Cade was done and said he wanted to leave.

We headed home to rest from the busy week. It was so much fun having KK here. We are sad the 2 weeks went by so quickly. Now we are on countdown to YaYa coming...19 days!!!