London Thanksgiving

We celebrated our Thanksgiving weekend with some spicy Thai food and a trip to London.  It was fun and nice to get away together as a family.

London Eye (giant Ferris wheel) on the River Thames at night.

Birdseye view from London Eye pod: London on the Thames at night (Big Ben is on the left)

C & Mrs. Relofamily in front of Houses of Parliament

Big Ben in the daytime.

Westminster Abbey

Z & C outside of Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

A bit about our daily lives...

Preschool starts at age 3 here in the UK.  The English government provides funding for up to 15 hours of preschool for 3-5 year olds. I'm hoping this will suit C well and he will be able to get out and have some fun play time with other kids. He'll start with a few half days a week in January. Can hardly believe he's hitting that stage already! We looked around at several programs and found one we liked (and it happens to be within walking distance of our flat--a wonderful perk). The school system is different here in that parents will have "pre-registered" their children for a specific school from the ripe young age of 6 months. And apparently there was a baby boom in 2008, so the schools are over-enrolled as it is. The program administrator at the school I like is squeaking C in and we may have to give up a couple of our days after Easter when other "pre-enrolled" kids start. But it will be nice for him to have some regular little kids to play with--even if it's just a couple days a week. It is fairly loosly structured for the young kids--mostly playtime, stories, movement, and outside play. It will be different, but I am looking forward to it, and so is C. We have visited a couple of times and getting him out the door when it's time to go is the hard part.


More Sights...

This past weekend we visited Broadway Tower . It was super cold, windy, and rainy, but we had fun nonetheless trekking through the inclement weather to reach the tower and climb the narrow and winding stairs up to the different levels of the tower. At the tower's top exterior landing, I chatted it up with a Master's student from Saudi Arabia. It was blustery and raining, but kind of cool to be from such different places and chat on the top of an English historical point of interest on a Sunday afternoon.

Hiking up to Broadway Tower (C hitched a ride on Z's back)

Winding Staircases (they are so narrow, there are separate "up" and "down" only staircases in the Tower)

At the top of Broadway Tower, trying not to blow away in the wind and rain.

Cheers.