John an I indulged in a week without Levi and Hank. We tied up all the loose ends in London (a manic experience), but also relished being back in London sans Hank and Levi. For 1 week it reminded us of what life was like when we 1st moved...
To top it off, it was snowing when we landed; London looked beautiful
We hit the ground running and headed straight to a pub lunch w/ our dear friends Darren and Carmela!
We then hit town to join our close friends Ben, Kristi,
Ulrik and Maureen at Crazy Bear. After lots of champagne and an indulgent amount of food we finally headed home
Ulrik (part of the The
Fugmanns) kept us laughing 'til the wee hours of the night. The Danish are brilliantly fun.
I will miss my girls so much and especially watching our 3 little boys grow up together...
We spent Sunday doing many of our favorite things:
Mexican for lunch, walking along the Thames, and checking out the Tate!
In true British form we experienced snow, sun, and rain!
We closed out the night with our trainer Ben (interesting fact: he's also a Pirate Fighter, meaning he trains people on ships to combat pirates) and his lovely wife
Rebecca. We polished off amazing
Chinese food at their flat!
After packing up the flat, we then hit the town with Simon and Serena (sans their beautiful 3 boys) and saw
Keira Knightley in 'Misanthrope,' which was hands down the best play we've seen in a long time.
Simon and Serena took us to SOHO House for dinner; it was the end to a perfect evening! We'll miss our theater partners and their darling children.
We spent many hours just catching up with some of our favorite people in the neighborhood and, of course, had a lovely visit with Mama Manjola (Levi's sitter since he was 8 weeks old). Nate managed to swing by and use our boxes for a lunch table...in exchange for a raclette set, a blender, and some canned food!
After our flight being canceled to
Verbier, we extended our stay at
Chateau Morello (Andrea and David's flat in our building) and relished yummy dinners and wine together. They
practically had to kick us out as their flat which is better than any 5 star hotel in our minds!
We saw two more plays (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof starring James Earl Jones: incredible; The Little Dog Laughed: not incredible; we left at intermission) and 2 movies (It's Comlicated: excellent; The Road: JWG loved it).
Ahhhh....life without responsibility, pets, or children for 1 week. It was heaven for John and I to just enjoy being with each other without distractions. We'll miss London dearly as it was the beginning of our married life, the city Levi was born in, and the home of many new life-long friends. We feel so
privileged to have had the opportunity to live abroad and are humbled by the experience. I have no doubt we'll be back...only next time maybe Paris or Amsterdam?!
Our next chapter begins on Jan 29th when we fly down to LA to set up camp....come visit!
Grandaddy Bob spent many hours following Levi around, cooking him homemade meals, and participating in Levi's world!
By the end of the week, Levi was in love with his Grandmommy Heather.
Of course, Levi didn't leave Papa Lyons' side when given the opportunity to be with him!
Mumsey filled in all the gaps giving him lots of snuggles, tickles, and rides in the buggy. While we will miss London, we're thrilled that Levi's able to spend more time w/ his lovely grandparents!
