Our Final Time Zone

England welcomed us with rain, surprise surprise! It was cold but not freezing like it was the day we left Colorado.  It was kinda strange to see the rain instead of snow, and there were big puddles everywhere. Here are the girls waiting for our rental car shuttle bus. 

Once we picked the car up we drove around for about 30 minutes trying to find an ATM that would take our card so that we could get some pounds.... we actually ended up back at the airport! It then took us about an hour or so to get to the Battersea Travel Lodge where we stayed for the night. We got a bit lost and we were both getting very tired from having no sleep on the plane so we were glad to finally get there. The girls fell asleep in the car and were completely out of it.... here they are on the bed! (I did take their shoes off after the photo by the way!!!) 

 

We all ended up asleep within seconds until about 8pm when we woke up hungry! The girls only ended up going back to bed for a few hours that night, I think they were a bit messed up because Lani asked about 12 times between 2am - 4am if it was time to get up yet! At 4am I'd had enough and got up and put a DVD on for them!! Too many time zones this week!

The next morning we took a drive into LONDON so Mick could complete his registration with the GMC (General Medical Council). It was a stressful drive and our average speed was about 10kmh. Following a map was hopeless as the street names are no where to be seen.  It was peak hour but I think London is like this all the time - it was crazy. Bikes, pedestrians, trucks, buses, cars and scooters going in all directions. We were quite excited to see London Bridge, even though it was from afar and even more excited to end up in the right place and on time. 

We are excited to get back into London and see all the sites, but maybe not in the car next time! Emily fell a sleep pretty much as soon as we left, about 8am and stayed asleep nearly all day... I think she could be a little jet lagged!! The drive back out of London was just as hard but not stressful as we didn't have an appointment to get to so we could look around a bit more. Lani started singing 'London Bridge is falling down' and was quite enjoying the look around. Once we got on the highway she was happy to go back to her Leapster though and she soon fell asleep. (so did I!) 

The drive to Taunton was a bit over 2 hours long, we found the Hospital pretty easily and got the keys to our new home.

One Last Plane Ride & One Last Plane Blog Post

I know you are all wishing I would hurry up and blog about ENGLAND, but first things first huh! And don't worry we are just about there!! 

We were happy to board our final plane (for a while!). This trip was a bit different than our last long haul one because we left at 4pm so It didn't feel like we were flying in the middle of the night. It was 10 hours long and wasn't too bad. Emily slept for the first few hours and Lani fell asleep for the last hour. So we had lots of entertaining to do in the middle!

Because we had to wake Lani when we arrived at Heathrow (local time 10.30am) she was in a bit of a mood and wanted to be carried.... luckily it was pretty quick and easy getting through customs here so it wasn't too much of a big deal. I did feel sorry for her though because she was so fast asleep!

Looking the part at LAX

We had a bit over an hour before boarding time at LAX so we had a bit of a look around, I thought Leilani fitted in pretty well with her book, sunglasses and phone!!

Emily was busy reading her book... she just couldn't put it down... it must have been a thriller!!

Our Last Check-in.....for a while!

Paparazzi

Apparently I wasn't the only one trying to spot the rich & famous! These two get serious with the camera outside the Sheraton LAX Airport Hotel!

I think Emily must be asking for her turn here!!

HOLLYWOOD

So I got a little bit excited coming into LA when I saw the Hollywood sign off in the distance. Yes I know you can hardly see it in this photo, but it is there! We didn't get any closer than this but it was still very exciting!! Unfortunately we didn't see any more of LA either because it was about 5ish when we arrived so we just went to the hotel at the airport and the next morning we didn't have enough time either... but there is always 'on the way home'!!!

I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see anyone famous at LAX too.... I even had the camera out ready!!!

 

Winter Wonderland

We saw so much snow driving from Laura's to the airport. It makes everything look so clean and beautiful. This picture was taken just a few minutes down the road from Laura's house. 

Not really sure what this is... it's some sort of big rock mountain on the way to Denver! But we thought it looked pretty cool.

We had one last very quick stop at the outlets because I was over charged for something so we ran in and fixed that up... as well as getting a few last bargains from Carters. But we didn't have much time so we had to rush...

... and luckily we did because the roads were getting quite bad because of all the snow. We also took a wrong turn heading into Denver and got a little lost. We both stayed pretty calm, but we knew that inside we were both getting pretty worried. It was hard to see where the hell we were in all the snow, but somehow we managed to get back on the right track. Mick did a great job driving in all the snow, as it was a little scary!

We were very lucky to have the hire car shuttle bus waiting for us as soon as we arrived because it was freezing, about -12˚C and it's still another 10 minutes to the airport from the hire car drop off area. (Which is huge by the way - goes for miles and miles, just full of rent-a-cars). It was also really good because he dropped us off straight in front of 'kerb-side check-in', where there was no line up. Obviously because it is freezing!! But it was good for us because we didn;t have to carry our bags and we checked straight in, thinking we made it with just a bit of spare time. When in fact we only just had enough time. It was quite a walk down to security, where you have to take off all shoes and coats and they test your drink bottles. We then had to get on the train and go to our gate... took the kids to the toilet and grabbed a slice of the best tasting pizza ever.... which we had to force down while walking to the gate where we were the only ones left to board!! We only just made it, but knew we had to get something to eat, because we were all so hungry!!! What a rush!

We actually had to chuck the last bit of our pizza because we had to board, which turned out to be kinda annoying because once we got on the plane and the doors were locked we saw a guy rip out a pizza box.... apparently they let you eat hot food on there.... but I guess that shouldn't have surprised us!!! I'm still thinking about that good bit of pizza though!! Anyway, so the plane didn't take off for another 40 minutes because outside it looked like this...

And when it looks like this the planes have to be 'de-iced', which takes 10 minutes, once its' your turn.... if you look closely you can see a plane getting de-iced... a guy on a crane sprays stuff (not sure what) all over the plane!

It was quite interesting, but made the plane ride quite long! We were so glad that we weren't flying out of LA today to London, because other wise it may have been a bit stressful!! And good to know that we did the right thing in heading out of Denver a day earlier - in case of a snow storm, like this!!

A hell of a lot of work goes into getting the planes of the ground at this airport anyway, there were big snow scrappers and snow crushers and all sorts of stuff going on. Its amazing seeing some of the things that go on in other parts of the world! 

The Day We Left Colorado...

... it snowed! It snowed lightly most days we were there, but we got quite a good coverage the day we left. The kids just wanted to stay and play in it, but we had one more stop at the outlets on our way and a plane to catch! This is outside Laura and Marks place before we left.

After a few last photos, some cuddles and a quick good bye, we were on our way... again!

We are so glad we spent the extra money to stop over in Colorado and spend some time with Laura, Mark and Kobe in Colorado Springs. It was defiantly worth it and we all really enjoyed it. We wished we had more time to stay and play, as it probably wasn't really long enough, but it's nice to leave wanting to go back rather then 'over staying'. Thanks Laura for putting up with our late sleep-in's, jet lagged kids and all our bags and mess laying around! We miss you already, and hope to see you again soon.

Playing with Kobe

What a lucky little boy getting a kiss from 2 little princesses! 

Lani and Emily playing 'round and round the garden' with Kobe on Sunday afternoon! It looks like he is enjoying it don't you think!?

On Our Way To Church

This isn't really a very good picture of us because we were on our way to church and was in a bit of a hurry. We were meant to get Laura to take a few more of us before we left but we got busy packing and taking pictures of everything else that we forgot about a family one!! I think the girls look cute in their new coats all dressed up for church though. On the way Lani must have realised that she was going to a different chapel and the usual people wouldn't be there because she said "I'm happy, and sad that I won't see my friends for a long time". It was kinda sad, but cute that she wanted us to know that she was still happy to be here, but was going to miss her friends. She has been dealing with the whole thing really well, and seems to have grown up a lot since we left. She takes care of Emily and is really kind to her, most of the time! They have become such good friends and enjoy talking to each other about all sorts of things.

Real Snow Flake

So I have always wondered why they draw a snow flake in the shape of a snow flake! I had never seen, until now a 'real snow flake' and always thought it was strange that someone just came up with this star like, crystal shape to be the symbol for a snow flake. In Tas the snow flakes are always just oval drops. I was very excited to see these real snow flakes in Colorado and couldn't really believe it actually. These ones were tiny, like the size of a rice bubble, but Mark said they get quite big. What an amazing site, and how does it get like this? It's so tiny but has been created so perfectly. I guess it's just another one of Gods miracles! 

A Few Randoms

When you are away on holidays you always seem to take a few random pictures. Here are just two of ours....

Walgreens advertising Flu shots, Doritos and Pepsi. Mick thought this was great!! You pop out to get some Doritos and while you're there you think... Heck, may as well make it some Pepsi and a Flu shot too! Yep, that's all thanks mate!

And I had to get a photo outside of Macys. The shop was pretty average actually, they were closing down so there wasn't much left in there! But at least now I can say I have been to Macys!!! And that's what it's all about isn't it!!!?

Hats

After the Air Force Academy, we went to the mall (shopping centre) to get something to eat and have a look around for some gloves. The girls ended up trying a few hats on!!