Day out in London

During the two weeks Abby and Sammy had off school, when we were not in Scotland, we had some adventures in London. On this particular day, we enjoyed some lovely sun in Trafalgar Square. Everyone was out sunning themselves and hanging out. I had no real agenda going into London this time. I thought I would just go with whatever the girls wanted to do. We hung out and climbed on all the fountains and monuments at Trafalgar Square for a while, then went into the National Gallery for a mere 20 minutes. However, those 20 minutes they were really studying and examining various paintings and were pointing out quite a few things. I guess after a while for kids, it all seems to look the same.

Sammy having a lie down on the fountain in Trafalgar Square

The girls climbed up and sat with the lions in the square. Alexandra was very excited!

The girls climbed higher while I sat paranoid and imagining the worst.

Fortunately, no falls just some good posing for the camera...

I then got duped into paying a pound for some dumb chicken to cuddle my girls while I took a picture. Alex is the one who went running up to him and of course the others followed and what was I to do but snap a picture and pay the guy.

We then went to my favorite church, St. Martins in the Fields located just of Trafalgar Square. It is so lovely and reminds me of the time when Charles and I went with his lovely aunt and uncle (Ken and Christell) to hear The Four Seasons concert by Vivaldi. I cannot go to this church without eating at the cafeteria in the crypt. They have the best bread and butter pudding! However, they were out of it on this particular day, so I settled for a lovely bowl of parsnip, carrot soup while the girls had rice and chicken.

One of the reasons I wanted to venture down to London was to see the new Mormon ad campaign that kicked off in London at the beginning of April. Mormon ads are all over the major tube stations and on some 200+ buses around the city. It is quite unnerving to walk through. You almost wonder if everyone knows you are Mormon and then you wonder what they all must think. In most tube stations, there are Mormon ads on every available advertising space. Anyway, the girl above and in the pictures below is a good friend of ours. Her name is Lola and she is awesome. It was so fun to see her 10 foot tall picture everywhere. It kind of made London seem smaller for just a minute.

Here is Lola on top of our favorite food - Cornish pasties which of course we had to stop and indulge in...

We also had to stop at King's Cross to see the 9 3/4 platform from Harry Potter. I have never read Harry Potter but have recently begun reading it to the girls. We have finished the first book and movie and are now reading the second book. The girls loved seeing the cart disappearing through the wall just like the book but were too shy to pose so I got a picture of some random boy doing it, just so we have documentation that we have been there.

Abby and Sammy cracked me up. They were determined to learn their way around London. While we road the tube from place to place they both studied their maps counting the number of stops until we got off and figuring out how we would get to our next destination. Even Alexandra at one point had a tube map and was pointing and asking Sammy which station was which while riding the tube, much to the entertainment of fellow passengers.

This is the first time we saw our friend Lola in Picadilly Circus station. You can see the shocked look on Abby's face. Lola is quite the celebrity now. You can see her video on mormon.org.uk.