Lots to report!

We've been busy busy busy over the last two months and here's why: one bachelorette party, two weddings, four afternoon teas, six house guests, getting ready to move and yet another trip to Denmark. Throw in a cheese festival, some volleyball, planning for our next move, and another Baby Wild that was born JUST TODAY! - and we're so very tired - but have been having a great time. Nothing tells the story of all this like a ton of pictures, so here goes...

The bachelorette party was in the English country side. We rented a big ol'house, played lots of games and even did a slip'n'slide - which specifically stated that it was for children, not adults, not even big children - only small children should use it. Others risk fatal injury. It actually said that. What did I say in return?

The first wedding was in Chicago and it was a family one (Jefferson's cousin).  Jefferson's sister got the DJ to play Bel Biv Devoe's "Poison" for me, so you know I had a great time.

The Hansen Clan

Then we headed to Denmark for a weekend of fun with our friend Rob. First, we went to Lego House - which is a brand new museum type place in Billund. I thought we'd spend about 30 min there, then head to Legoland for an hour to see the Halloween decorations, then on to Copenhagen. Instead, we spent four and a half hours at Lego House! It was hilarious and fun and we turned into big children and did just about every activity we could.

There was this thing where you build your own fish out of any legos you want and then scan the fish and it becomes a digital version of your fish that swims around a tank:

My Lego blowfish thing.

Jefferson's terrifying fish chicken thing.

 

Then we made our own bugs:

Then we had a fun Lego lunch:

And then Rob was eaten by a shark.

Then came the next wedding - which was so much fun and is the one where I wore THE WORLD'S LARGEST FASCINATOR. What can I say, I'm a lady! I also made lots of other people wear it throughout the day...

 

 

 

More to come as we pack up our place and get ready for a big move...

Birthdays!

A few weeks ago it was Jefferson's birthday and two days ago it was mine - wahoo! We're both Leos - roar.

For Jefferson's birthday the celebration has come in the form of relaxing. Staying at home (no trips), doing yoga, cooking together, etc. It's been a nice way to ease the stress of work and commuting in busy busy London. The only "trip" we did take was going to Kew Gardens - the royal botanical gardens here in London. It was probably the largest botanical garden I've been to and although we were there for a few hours, we probably only saw half of it. It was really pretty - here are some pics, including one of us in front of a very old tree called, "the Ageing American". How fitting.

Ageing American

Succulents!

For my birthday we had a picnic outside of the Tower of London - we ate Chipoodles, of course. Then we went into the Tower around 9:30pm to watch the Ceremony of Keys. This is where they say a few words, play the trumpet and lock the Tower of London up for the night. The Tower is the home of the Crown jewels and also about 100 people live inside of this old fortress - which is pretty cool. Our guide for the Ceremony was a Beefeater (or Yeoman warder) and it was pretty darn cool to watch them do something that has happened every night here for the last 700 years or so.

With our Beefeater guide!

On the boat ride home

The Wild's are really killing it this year with birthday gifts, too. For Jefferson's birthday they got him a sweet shirt from their trip to Cyprus and also a beer making kit. We'll keep you posted on how his brewing goes. For my birthday I am going to receive eight (8) weeks of "cheese posties" - which means that for the next eight Thursdays I'll be delivered a sweet or savory grilled cheese sandwich right to my door. They call those cheese toasties here. I'm very excited and will take lots of pictures.

GlamRock tea!

Sarah Wild also took me to GlamRock afternoon tea yesterday and we had a great time. I wore my most rock'n'roll shirt yesterday which has a cat version of Freddie Mercury and says, "don't stop meow". Get it?  GET IT?

NOM NOM NOM

We tried the Bob Marley blend

What else? Oh, I went to the zoo! It was overpriced so I stayed for over three hours just to be sure it was worth it. I will say it was the most interactive zoo I've ever been to and I saw every single animal that was listed - no one was hiding. Does that mean they are happier? Does that mean their cages are small? I have no idea, but it was neat. They had several areas that you could enter and you were actually WITH the animals. Mostly birds, monkeys and sloths - all the things I don't want to interact with, but I did it and survived. Plus you aren't supposed to touch or feed them so it was ok even though several of them were just feet or inches from you. 

I think that's it for us - hope everyone is doing just dandy wherever you are!

Sup Gurl

ha

 

The exotic celery

Adorable owls

Majestical Portugal

TO VICTORY!

Jefferson and I joined the Wild's and our friends Becky, Steve and Caroline at an amazing villa in Portugal for a week. It was A-MAZING. The house had five bedrooms - each with their own bathroom. Two pools (one for kids). You could see the beach and walk to it in 5 min or less. It was so pretty.

Probably the best part was Sarah Wild's purchase of Charlie the Unicorn. That stupendous creature put up with a LOT of ... fun. We tried to jump on him from the side of the pool. We tried to climb onto him from the deep end. We tried to fit four ladies on him and launch ourselves further into the pool. Now, we didn't get far but we had a darn good time trying.

 

Besides hide from the sun most of the day and relax - and Jefferson doing taxes (boo), we didn't get up to a lot but it was nice. Then we headed home a bit early to hang out with our friend's from Chicago. Here are some highlight pics of it all: 

Jefferson photobomb!

Alfred rocking the pineapples.

Underwater camera action.

Sup.

So much!

Lots to report here, folks. We've traveled to Oxford and had a great weekend staying on campus in a converted dorm room. The town was really fun to walk around and had a bunch of really cool old pubs where famous people like Tolkien once drank. So we visited all those and then headed back to our dorm for a night on twin dorm beds that are just as uncomfortable as you are thinking they might be. Oh my yes. The breakfast was great, though - in a dining hall much like Pierce was at Kenyon for me. Not as pretty but just as tasty. Here are my favorite pics from that trip.

Dining Hall at Lady Margaret Hall

Coolest old crooked building - which is now a Pret!

We also celebrated our anniversary one weekend - seven years already! Gah! Time flies. We didn't get a chance to head to Frankfurt yet to visit the only other European Chipotle, but it's on the list to do this year. Instead we went to a different Chipoodles location in London that we hadn't been before and had some delicious ice cream afterwards. NOM.

Seven years and still awesome together.

Our next visitors were my brother, Richard and sister-in-law, Cynthia - traveling to Europe for the first time. They stayed with is for a few nights, went to Paris for a whirlwind day trip, traveled to Ireland for the weekend, then came back and hung out with us for a bit. We walked EVERYWHERE - including walking along the entire old Roman Wall. You can follow the ruins of it through the city but some of the markers are hard to find and some even say "this is where it used to be" - with nothing but a plaque to show for it. Still a cool walk, though.

While they were here we tried our hand at Pub Trivia night - and sadly, we were in last place AGAIN. Guys, I'm trying. It's harder here. Lots of British trivia that I just don't know (like about the old TV show East Enders). Sadly the team that made second-to-last place won a bottle of wine and we only lost that by ONE point. D'oh. Next time - victory will be ours!

The three of us took a day trip to Bath - and what a pretty town that was. Jefferson and I will have to go back to explore more, but the Roman Baths that Richard, Cynthia and I visited were pretty cool.

Serious pose - but Cynthia is still smiling!

We've had quite a few visitors this last month! My cousin Travis came into town and we took him out for a traditional pub meal. Also our friend Jasmine from Bern, Switzerland - who was also Jefferson's German TA in college - came into town to visit one weekend and we wandered all over Greenwich and the Docklands with her. It was so great to see her again - it's been about 7 years since we last hung out!

Jasmin!

Travis!

Then Jefferson and I headed to Denmark for a weekend of amusement parks. First we hit up Legoland once again - but only for about two hours before heading to Copenhagen for the rest of the weekend. At Legoland we got two awesome new Legos:

Chicago!

Corn man!

In Copenhagen we stayed in what I do believe is the Red Light district and had trouble finding our AirBnB at first. We were looking around and saw a sign that said, "Erotic Corner" and I said, "Oh man, I hope that's ours." And it was. Turns out, it was a really cool apartment and super close to everything great in the city.

Asleep on the train

Erotic corner...

We went to Tivoli Gardens - an amusement park smack in the middle of the city. It was my first time and probably my last because I do not do well with rides that drop really fast. It makes me scream a bit more than I'd like and laugh a lot. Plus, sadly, I tend to get motion sickness on some of the rides and since nobody wants me puking on them, our friend Britta had to go on some of them with Jefferson.

Obviously a "before" pic since I'm smiling

Britta and Jefferson

Now we're back in London and this weekend we had a hilarious party at our apartment. It was a Girl Scout Cookie Wine Pairing party - and it was amazing. Thanks to my sister, Stacey, I was able to make green sashes for everyone to wear and provide a badge to put on their sashes for each pairing people tried. We had a whopping 18 people in our apartment and it probably won't surprise you but the Thin Mints were the most popular pairing. Here are some highlights:

Delicious cookie pairings!

It was a good crowd of honorary Girl Scouts.

Oh and...turns out I have no shame...