Oh my!!! Can I take a vacation (holiday, I mean)? So we are off to our house tomorrow am. We are packing things up, again. It takes two cars for all of us and our belongings. I am sooo ready to be out of suitcases. Its probably because it feels like we will be in them forever. It's looking like late October, yikes!The apartment has been great, but the 3 floors and small, narrow, wooden stairs that at first were charming are now wearing on all of us. The kitchen and family room are on the top floor so it is lots of ups and downs. Although it has been great to just walk out the front door and not have to get into a car. The kids are doing well. We have been very busy. I force them to get up and go do tourist stuff with me during the day and then we come back and they get some "veg" time. There is a park near us that is fantastic. We are in the Kensington neighborhood of London and the park is Holland Park (photo). The second evening here the kids
met a school group of children from Germany that are here to learn english. They played soccer with them. Their ages were between 9 and 15ish. Sam has not stopped talking about it. He wants to go find them every evening--which we do. We have this nightly ritual, rain or shine. It stays dark until around 9:30 so that has been fun for them. The kids go over and then I follow 20 or 30 minutes behind (just trying to instill some independence, so far so good). The police come round at 9pm to remind us the park is closed, but they are very friendly and let the kids play a bit longer as long as they are behaving. There is also a concert area of the park. 
So sometimes as we play soccer we have Italian Opera in the background and boy does the game get intense. They are feeling more confident each day with their surroundings. There is the coolest playground and they have taught the German kids tag and other games. It was really cool to watch them interact with a group of kids that were different and spoke a different language and yet they had fun and were learning from each other. Also, cool for them to see that people are the same all over the world. The second time they found the group of kids as we were walking up one of them yelled, "Hey, hey, Sammy's here". It was pretty cool to see Sam's reaction.Speaking of Sam...we had o
ur first british hospital/socialized medicine experience. Sam thought it would be good for us to figure that out right away. Although he does not want anyone to know about it so shhh. Its hard enough to just get in your car and drive to the hospital that you know, but try walking and then finding the right bus, while it being hot and humid and having Sara and Kirt with you;)... With several days behind me I can now find humor in the situation. Anyway, Sam got stung by a bee the monday before we left the states right before their tournament championship game (which he played great in by 
the way). It was slowly getting better. But then sunday he came in during the night and said that it was itching. Good Mom that I am, I just ignored him and told him to go back to bed. In the morning he showed me his arm and we promptly went about finding a hospital. They put him on an antihistamine, an antibiotic, and a steroid. One of the doctors that came in to look at it said, "that is nasty". That is one of the words that Sam has been working on with his English accent. That put a smile on his face. They never really asked for proof that we were his parents or proof of residency. They had him seen by 3 different doctors and then mixed up the medicines and then sent us on our way without asking for a pence. I'm really liking this National Health Care system, though I think our family might make them question helping foreigners...We walked over to the Chelsea Football Stadium after our hospital adventure and then through an amazing cemetery (if your into that). I wanted to go back when it was getting dark and play hide-and-seek, but everyone else was too scared. Sam is still deciding which football team he is going to cheer for. He hasn't even spent any of his pounds yet. Although all of us who know Sam well know that he is having a hard time not buying a jersey. It is a high pressured decision. We are staying out of it. It's not like me being raised with, "fall down Arizona, fall down U of A, trip, fall, drop that ball, Arizona fall down", since the age of 2. I would never think to influence his innocent mind like that... He wore his Liverpool/Gerrard jersey today and had someone call him "little Gerrard" and then sing "Li-ver-poool". Okay, maybe only Rich (Sam's soccer coach) will smile at that. Anyway, Sam enjoyed it with a nervous smile, not knowing if the guy was a touch crazy or not. You never know about those Liverpool fans.
We have seen where the Queen lives. We have strolled across the crosswalk at Abbey Road and added our "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" quote with our names. We have seen and heard Big Ben, rode the tube and sat 'first row up' on a double decker bus, watched a cricket match at Lord's, enjoyed (okay, tolerated) the sun, humidity and rain, played soccer in Hyde Park and Princess Di's Memorial playground, discovered Churchills' Cabinet War Rooms (so weird to think that that was all happening not that long ago and that you can still see the evidence around the city), had many a room temperature soda, begged for ice, changed all our dollars to pounds (depressing), seen St. Paul's Cathedral, visited Kirt's work (directly across the street from St. Paul's), seen the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London and stood on the spot (or there about) where Anne Boleyn (and others) lost her head. We have seen torture chambers and carried multiple bags of groceries home in the rain (okay, that was just me by myself), we have shopped at the Portobello Market on a Saturday in Notting Hill. We have tried many different foods, although the Subway around the corner is still the kids choice. We have not had McDonald's, except for the occasional soda which we have to ask for extra ice and then we might get a whole scoop and then the soda is so warm that the ice melts and we have a watered down coke. They seem to have issues with refrigeration and ice in this country. We (meaning I) have battled the UK washer and dryer thing. The loads take about 3 hours each and are about a quarter of my normal loads. That is with the dryer being a separate unit. Sometimes they are all in the same unit. We've only seen our house once and we're not sure what we have there. But we do remember that there is an "American" fridge. Priorities, you know. We (meaning Kirt) have battled the underground (tube) morning and night with a full suit (+ tie), carrying a computer work bag in the summer with the tourists and the humidity and rain and train malfunctions...need I say more? We can't seem to get cell/mobile phones. Evidently you can get a car loan or a house loan easy, but to get a contract for a cell phone cannot be done. Go figure...
If all goes well we will be in our house tomorrow and won't have internet or tv for a while. The phone line should be sometime friday. TV hookup is hopefully next thursday and internet Aug. 20. (The guy knew I was an american right off when the first thing I requested was the package with NFL games). Although, most of the bbc channels go off air at 7 pm so the house gets a bit quiet anyway. No one can tell me where in the world our air shipment is. Although that only gives me skateboards, waves, game systems and golf clubs. Okay, maybe an additional umbrella or two. Does that all sound fun? I'm thinking that some really good family time is in store...
See slide show "Week in London" at the bottom of the blog for more photos.
