Around the World in 10 Days

One conference deserves another, so I've been off to Tokyo for the second of three work conferences. Between the short required duration (the conference was a single day, and not too many additional meeting asks had cropped up) and the short time since we'd returned from London, I performed a bit of an experiment this time, effectively cutting out the "travel recovery" day -- which inevitably leads to jet lag the next day but overall a more complete transition to the new time zone. I flew Wednesday (arriving Thursday evening), presented Friday morning, and fly home today. So far it's actually worked out pretty well -- I'm feeling okay as of Saturday morning, though hoping there is sleep to be had on the plane, since I'll return home (due to the international dateline) about 50 minutes ago on Saturday morning, and have a full day to get through.

I did get to chat with Meh and the boys several times during the trip -- O has unfortunately been sick with a fever, though it sounds like he's slowly on the mend. And apparently all of the sudden he sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" -- Meh noticed him doing it at the dinner table tonight, and with some encouragement he sang it several additional times. Super cute, I'm looking forward to hearing that later on (er, earlier on?) today!

Getting into hot water

Our finalized photo shoot pictures have come back, and as expected from the previews, they came out amazing! The full set is here. Keri is such a wonderful photographer, the experience was so nice and relaxing, and we're just so pleased with the results -- lots of great shots of the boys being happy and having fun.

We've done plenty to our house over the years, some of which is visible (painting, fireplace, bathroom remodel, etc.), and much of which isn't (crawl space clean out, attic insulation, etc.) But today's update is perhaps the most practical and immediately utilitarian in my mind - instant hot water! We got a heat transfer pump installed today, reducing the often 2+ minute wait time for hot water (even at the downstairs sink like 15 feet from the water heater!) to near zero. I know, dorky. But suddenly washing the dishes isn't a delayed experience, and the boys' bath time gets rolling just a bit quicker. Zachary actually climbed in today right as I turned on the faucet and was a bit surprised (though happily) by the "warrrm water!" Indeed, in addition to the pump, our hot water heater was replaced and it seems to put out some nicely warmer water. It's the little things.

When I go to offload a batch of pictures from our camera, I continue to be occasionally surprised by mystery pictures not taken by Meh or myself; Zachary keeps picking it up and doing his very own photo shoots, in between asking me to show him the most recent pictures of himself and Owen. Lately he's been equally entertained by our London pictures: "picture of mommy with another cupcake!". Owen in the meantime continues to surprise us with more and more words -- and more of them in a row as well!

Horse Play

We mentioned that while we were gone, mima and papa stayed with the boys - sounds like they had a wonderful (if often light-on-sleep) time together! They got to go see Thomas the Tank Engine at his annual Day Out, which Zachary has suddenly had renewed interest in for the past few weeks (specifically requesting to watch "old Thomas" as opposed to the fully animated 2010 and newer episodes), and which Owen loves as well ("ta-tahh!"). The boys did great, though unlike Zachary's first experience last year with the costumed Sir Topham Hatt, Owen's response this year was apparently to get sad and tell him to go "buh bye").

They also went to a friend's birthday party at a local farm/park, where Zachary got to take his very first ride on a real pony (he and Owen have had plenty of practice on the rocking horse grandma got for them). He apparently enjoyed it a lot, and now often asks me if I can put the pictures of "Zachary on a pony" on the TV. Huge huge thanks to mima and papa for watching the boys and giving them such a fun and special week!

Owen's vocabulary continues to expand by leaps and bounds -- he already has a few three word sentences. A sampling that Meh collected:

• bah-fah (brother)
• boo cah (blue car)
• Ah wah beewee (I want strawberries)
• Oh no!
• Uh oh boobeewee (dropping blueberries)
• kookah (cupcake (of course))
• Yeah! (he says this very happily and emphatically, often nodding his head)

According to the dutiful blog date calculator that took me embarassingly long to program, Owen turned 500 days old yesterday -- it's still amazing that time has flown so quickly! But I think that marks enonugh of a milestone that we can transition him to years/months/days like his big brother. So "buh-bye" day counter, and happy 501st day to the littlest man!

Lon-done

And just like that, our delightful week in the UK has come to a close. It was a wonderful time with a *lot* of activity (and yet pretty relaxing), but we're very much looking forward to getting back to the boys. We actually got to chat with them yesterday, and Owen is saying more and more - he sat happily, pointed at the monitor, and talked about mommy and daddy. Zachary was similarly happy to see, enumerate ("mommy and daddy and mima and owen and..."), and talk to us.
Yesterday morning we went to the excellent Borough Market, where we not only had breakfast (Meh hunted down a legendary Chelsea bun, and I had a chocolate croissant [both pictured]) and coffee/hot chocolate, but also grabbed the makings of a picnic lunch (including a lovely official market burlap sack): several pot pies (mine were from an excellent all-vegetarian stand), tarts, a wedge of cheese, fresh cherries, and fresher strawberries.
We then ignored the forecasts for rain (or at least presumed it would be the misty stuff we get in Seattle) and decided to catch a train for Hever Castle, which in addition to being a fun tour and (yet more) beautiful gardens, was supposed to be having jousts and other summery Renaissance Faire-type activities. The rain grew heavier as we made our way out to the countryside, and when we left the train station, we realized that the "lovely pedestrian footpath" our guidebook had described were now muddy pastures -- and full of liquefying cow and sheep droppings to boot. So, after getting thoroughly soaked crossing one field (to the amusement of some grazing sheep), we decided to just take the paved country road to the castle. Not much improvement, as there were standing puddles on a road roughly three quarters of a car wide with no shoulder. One gracious elderly driver waved me past lest he drench me ("I wouldn't want to whiz on you"), and Meh and I traded our sole umbrella back and forth.

We made it intact to the castle grounds, appreciating some impressive bird-shaped sculpted bushes, and stopping immediately at the gift shop to purchase a second umbrella before queuing for the castle tour itself. After shaking off the rain, we did enjoy the self-guided indoor tour, full of Anne Boleyn paraphernalia and other historical artifacts alongside the renovated (but period-like) 1980s wood paneling. We were both amused to notice one of the docents was reading the quite appropriate (but fictional) The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn. Then we toured the gardens in the continuing rain (a highlight being an enormous and extremely fragrant rose garden), and eventually had our picnic overlooking a lovely man-made lake. Soaked to the bone, we decided to forego the jousting and archery we heard in the distance and head back for the train, trying to dry off a bit at the station.
We got back into the city in time for a final stroll through Covent Garden, stopping off at the fun London Transport Museum gift shop (Meh had already gotten the boys double decker bus t-shirts, toys, and several period posters for us, but we browsed the various tube-themed mugs, pencils, etc. My favorite: purses and bags made from the same fabric used to cover the carriage seats) before walking up to dinner at an Italian restaurant run by a certain celebrity chef. Tuckered out, we returned to our hotel and packed for the early taxi back to the airport.

Our return itinerary took us through the same JFK terminal we left from after our New York trip less than (yikes) three weeks ago. It seemed a fitting end to the journey and our major summer travel when Meh spotted a yummy cupcake that we shared along with our sandwich lunches while we waited for the flight back to Seattle.

VIPs behaving badly

The week has flown by, and we've been having an amazing time. Meh spent several days visiting with friends T and B with their son T, including a lovely tour of the stunning Wisley Gardens and Grey's Court while I had meetings and setup for my conference. I got to meet M and K on their last night in London for dinner at my favourite Thai spot here -- M and K had eaten (and cooked!) at their home office in Thailand -- which still features a giant indoor forest and a substantial coi pond (but alas, apparently no longer the lilies given to female guests upon exit). My conference went well, and Meh enjoyed a surreal performance experience at the Barbican with friend N.

While my conference wrapped up today, Meh visited the Garden Museum, the Silver Vaults and discovered what may be her favourite new spot to have tea. (She thought she even spotted Natalie Portman having tea at the same time, but friends and paparazzi suggest it may have been someone else.) At long last, tonight was our first evening back together since our anniversary dinner, and N's brother-in-law had fabulously snagged us some tickets to a show at Somerset House, overlooking the Thames. We went to grab the tickets a little bit before the show, and were greeted with VIP passes! There was an entire separate outdoor area of couches, a full bar, a handful each of free drink tickets, and apparently license to come and go to the show itself through a private entrance (even carrying our drinks - things that likely wouldn't fly at an outdoor US venue). So we happily went up to the bar and Meh announced she would like a glass of champagne. The bartender gave a big smile and a "very good, madame", which should have been our first warning sign. He then tore the foil off and popped the cork off a fresh bottle, pulled out a bucket, filled it with ice, and placed two glasses on top. Meh started trying to offer him our tickets, and he gave us an "are you kidding?" look (followed by actually saying "Are you kidding?") Apparently champagne was not covered by these drink tickets, and it was a cash bar (insert irony here, since it was a concert sponsored by American Express). And yup, I didn't have enough cash at hand to cover the cost of the champagne. Mildly mortified, we apologetically fled to the street in search of an ATM. By the time we returned, the champagne had apparently (and thankfully) been snapped up by someone else, so we quietly grabbed and meekly sipped our drink ticket single serving plastic bottles of white wine before heading into the concert.

The concert itself was tons of fun -- Somerset House has a large interior courtyard where the concert was held, with fun lighting for both the stage and the walls of the building itself. Ellie Goulding had apparently recently played/recorded in Seattle (and had been on Saturday Night Live a few weeks before that), but this was a homecoming for her, and the crowd (and we) loved every minute of the show. Hooray for a fun Friday night date night out! Yes, even if we turned into pumpkins before she'd completed her set; we had a nice stroll back to the hotel and then a late evening (early afternoon there) chat with mima to catch up on the boys' day.

London Calling

It's been a delightful visit to London-town and greater England! After a long but thankfully uneventful flight (which even featured the film Meh and I had tried to see last weekend before realizing it was long out of the theaters), followed by a tube ride interrupted by bus replacement service, we arrived at our hotel and dropped our things before setting off to rediscover Covent Garden. 30 minutes later, Meredith had her first cupcake of the trip. And when we returned to our hotel a few minutes later, we were greeted with a welcoming second cupcake. Lunch taken care of, we had a somewhat relaxed unwind before heading back out to friends N and S's house for S's lovely birthday barbecue. We had a great time, and conked out soundly when we got back to the hotel.
On Monday, we got to meet up with friends M and K, on their final leg of a European trip and their own first time out from daughter N. We hit a ton of favorites with them: lunch at our favourite vegetarian place, several productive shopping locations, a rest in Trafalgar Square, a stroll through Hyde Park, and a very civilised afternoon tea. We had just enough time to stop back at their hotel before heading out for the evening's activity, a visit to the very unique Dennis Severs' House, somewhere between a 19th Century-inspired museum, a drama, and a still-life portrait. Definitely quite a unique experience, enjoyed in silence per the docent's (apparently a friend of Dennis) instructions.
Today was a working day for me, consisting of trains and taxis out to the countryside followed by meetings, so Meh explored Hampton Court Palace with M and K. The two of us met back up in the evening for our anniversary dinner (I'll be working again tomorrow, and Meh will be spending the next day and a half visiting friends T and B and their son T out in Redding). It was a lovely seafood place right near the hotel; we ended up sitting at the oyster bar, which was great fun for watching all of the interesting food preparations. Everything was extra tasty; our favourite part was the Scandinavian Ice Berries for dessert - frozen berries served on a plate drizzled with hot melted white chocolate. Yum!

Through the magic of technology, we've actually gotten to chat several times with Mima and even had a video chat with the boys. Somehow in the few days that we've been gone, Owen has had a seemingly continuous language explosion, and was saying hi to us while running in and out of the camera's view. He was also giving Zachary giant neck-twisting head hugs, which Z accepted in a resigned manner. Both boys seemed happy to see us, though O was overdue for a nap and eventually had a bit of a meltdown -- hard to end a video conversation with our boys in anything less than a happy state, but we know they're having a blast with mima and papa, and are looking forward to seeing pictures of their adventures in our absence. But for now, time for sleep!

Putting a little English on it

It's mommy and daddy's first extended road trip away from the boys -- after a flurry of preparation (including a photo shoot with the boys yesterday), today we are on a plane to London! Well, technically we're on a plane to Minneapolis (hence the internet), where despite keeping the same flight number, we'll be changing gates, planes, and crews, and connecting onward to Heathrow. We left a happy pair of boys with mima, and a full weekend/week of activities to hopefully keep them occupied and entertained: Thomas the train, Z starting his summer school program, a birthday party, and a host of activities. Now about that sleep bit, we can only hope.

This is Meh's first trip to her favourite country in more than four years, and we've been planning a full week of activities, both new and revisited. Friends M & K are similarly engaged in their own international trip away while M's parents watch their daughter N, so we're hoping to catch up with them on Monday. I'll actually be working much of the time, both in meetings and presenting at/coordinating a conference -- but I'm not too worried, as Meh always finds amazing things to see and do.

I did get to give Meh an early anniversary present (this coming Wednesday!) on the plane; over the years I've made her a series of increasingly silly and elaborate books, starting with my proposal (a spoof in the style of Alice in Wonderland) and continuing with many anniversaries since. This year I opted for a take off on the Time Out travel guide, once again littered with inside jokes (the National Digital Portrait Gallery for the slideshow that keeps the Xbox busy, Zachary charging letter cookies for the use of the outdoor playhouse as a hotel, etc.) and even a "subway" map in the style of the London Underground.

One more milestone before I forget: Owen had his very first haircut earlier this week (and Zachary had his trimmed as well). Some sadness, but a successful cute cut (and reduced sadness for Z as well -- the at home haircut may be the way to go!).

Table for three

When mommy left for work this morning, Owen grabbed one of the flags she'd patriotically placed around the house and began waving it around happily. Such a wholesome American little man. With Meh working until mid-afternoon, I tried to plan an eventful day with the boys to avoid cabin fever. Thankfully the weather cooperated, with a nice sunny and warm day - finally the Northwest seems to have acknolwedged (if not fully embraced) summer! The boys and I first went to our favorite economy size store (where Owen pointed out balloons, and Zachary noticed a few burnt out overhead lights), and did some speed trials on the way back to the car:

Then we visited a nice local park (where we alternated between strolling, watching a few soccer games [Owen: "Ball! Ball!"], and playing on and around playground equipment. It was getting on towards lunchtime, and friend E is in town visiting, so we rang her to see if she wanted to join us at a local fine dining establishment. She and friends K, J, and their girls N and A were hanging out and agreed to join us. The schedules coordinated, the boys and I played a little bit more (Z crashed a birthday party's reserved picnic shelter to go check out a fun fountain) before heading out to lunch.

Alas, we didn't think to coordinate which instance of this chain restaurant to meet at -- and of course, as we later learned, picked different locations. And to top it off, I'd left my cell phone in the car and wasn't about to drag the boys back outside to retrieve it. So with no way to confirm what I suspected, we waited for twenty minutes (I kept a queue of kids' orders coming) and then decided to just have a nice boys meal together. While Owen tried several times to climb onto the table, both boys had a great time dining out with daddy, and I can happily say that everyone ate something and nobody cried. (I've had less success than that with some home meals!)