Sights (and frights) of London!

Both kids are fussy and need to get to bed so I don't have time to give much of an update. Grammie and I took the kids into London for the afternoon and had a lot of fun. It is an hour-long train ride and they were both champs, going there and coming back. The pictures mostly speak for themselves...will write more tomorrow...!


Peeking out the window with Grammie. Diego LOVED the train ride.

Alexia fell fast asleep on our way into London


Diego loved sitting here, but had a little accident when the train came to a screeching hault. It scared him, but he didn't get hurt


The countryside





The London Eye - or as Diego says "Circle GRANDE"




Diego missed his nap so was very tired and wanted me to carry him down the stairs...quite a load!





This is the train station we arrived into


Some of the street performers scared Diego, but he liked this one



Snuggle-bug!


On the train ride back to Windsor. Diego was being very silly because he was (is) so tired

Walk of dreams

As soon as Alexia went down for her morning nap this morning, Diego and I got dressed and bolted out the door. We had a blast! Diego saw all of his favorites and if he could express his emotion, I know he'd say "Mami, that was like a dream!" We saw boys playing soccer, people playing tennis, horses, tractors, boats, buses, swans, ducks and more!


This is the Royal Windsor Maze. Diego was trying to keep up with the big boys and it was so cute.

Not sure what kind of trees they are, but they were really cool


He would've kept walking for 12 hours if I let him



One of the guys playing tennis let Diego hold his racket. Diego thought that was the coolest!


"Tractor GRANDE"


There were some kids feeding bread to the swans - we'll come back to do that tomorrow


The building all the way to the left is where we are. Our flat is on the middle floor.


This is looking over the bridge to the other side


The walking path next to the river - what a view for the lil' guy!


What a place to be playing soccer...check out the castle in the background




These are some shots we took on our way to the market to buy groceries for dinner yesterday afternoon:

Pictures...at last!

Ricardo fixed my computer so that I can now upload all of my pictures. Below I've added some from the past couple of weeks that I hadn't been able to share.

Last night was a little restless with the kids. Diego was scared because he woke up in a strange room which confused and scared him. We brought him to our room, but Alexia was in the crib there, so where could he go? To our bed! By midnight, both the kids were in our bed which we've never done before. It was kind of cute, but hopefully it doesn't become a routine here!

Our first full day in Windsor was great. I started the morning by walking down to a cute cafe to buy coffees for my mom and I. I spent a couple of hours unpacking and getting settled in to our temporary home. Diego and Alexia did great with their naps and seem to be happy here. Diego has asked to go to "his home" a couple of times, but I think he's getting used to the idea of staying here.

My mom and I are cooking dinner right now. Once the kids go to bed, Ricardo and I will head out for an evening stroll. The benefits of a live-in grammie!!! :)

On our way to Atlanta airport. Diego was amazed by this huge, black truck...




...Oh ya, and Alexia was too!




On the tram on our way to our gate...Diego was wide-eyed the entire time



On board...finally. We sat on the ground for over an hour before departing, but the kids were fine. The best part of the plane....


....personal TV's!! Diego watched Dora over and over and over.


Gatwick Airport. All the bags around the strollers are ours. We checked 4 bags and carried 4 bags on board...we were a sight to see!


Waiting for our ride outside the airport. It was a bit chilly, but we were well prepared


Within 15 minutes of being picked up, everyone was asleep (except me).


This is the view from our living room...!






This is Diego's view from our living room.


Grammie flew in from Seattle and arrived yesterday afternoon. She'll be with us for the first two weeks! She brought a new lego set for Diego so she's setting it up here.


Alexia doesn't have a bouncy seat here so this is where she hangs out. Grammie brought two of these strollers with her for quick outings (we also brought our Phil & Teds double stroller)



The pictures below are from an Easter lunch that Diego had at school:







Alexia already loves books like her brother:




This was the cutest. They were both in their diapers and Diego was blowing strawberries on her belly and she was laughing hysterically, as was he.

We're here!!!

We're in Windsor, England!!!

The trip over was better than we could have ever expected. Diego and Alexia were superstars and did awesome. The flight was full so we had to hold Alexia the whole time and Diego was upset because he couldn't get comfortable to fall asleep, but neither of them had any meltdowns.

I can't find the cable to upload pictures right now, but will do so in the morning.

None of us slept much on the plane so we're tired and heading to bed early. The kids already seem to be adjusted to the new time zone (5 hours ahead) because they both went to bed at 8:00pm without a fuss.

Our flat is great and has a stunning view of the river and Windsor castle. Diego has been enthralled by the boats, geese and ducks all day.

Will update tomorrow with pictures and more on our trip over!

What a week!!!!

This has been a super busy, exciting, tiring, encouraging and productive week!

On Monday, Alexia and I met up with our friends Emily (my friend) and Maddie (Alexia's friend) and had a wonderful morning. We met at a coffee shop in Decatur where we hung out, enjoyed yummy coffee, caught up with each other and had a blast watching Alexia and Maddie have their very first coffee shop gossip session. We went to their house afterwards to play and Maddie was so generous and let Alexia borrow a bunch of warm clothes for our upcoming trip to England. Thanks again for a great morning girls!

The rest of the week was full of errands, phone calls, cleaning, shopping, more errands and....(the BIG news!)....putting an offer on a house! We've been looking for a house to buy since last year and just when we were about to decide to stay in our apartment for another year, we found a house that we absolutely love. I don't have any pictures of it to post, but when we return from our trip I will take some. We are "under contract" as of yesterday and have 14 days to make sure everything from the inspection clears and that the seller agrees to take care of some issues the house has. We requested a closing date of June 2nd so it won't really be ours until then. It is in Historic Roswell (an area that we've always loved). It was built in 1970 and an investor bought it last summer and did a complete renovation and it's beautiful! We've been praying so hard that God would give us wisdom and guidance in this daunting process. We have handed every detail over to him and find comfort in knowing that the house will only be ours if he wants it to be.

The other big news is that we depart for England tomorrow for an entire month! Ricardo has to go for work so the whole family is going along. We are sooooo excited! I've barely started packing (and we leave in less than 18 hours) so I really have to get back to that. I will try to post as often as I can so that you can journey through Windsor, England with us :)

I am still having computer problems so I can't share any pictures from this week, but here are a couple that Emily emailed me from our Monday morning date.