Proud Mom Moment

Last night was court of honor for the scouts and it was a big night for Joe.

He spent the summer working really hard on his scouting and went to two different scout camps to get a jump on all his scouting requirements.

Well...all his hard work paid off.

Joe not only earned his Star Scout Award, he also earned 21 different merit badges this summer.

21!!!!

Joe has earned enough award to advance to Life Scout in just five more months, and is only 3 merit badges and a project away from earning his eagle. Not bad for a 12 year old!

We are so proud of him and all his hard work.

London Eats

I know you thought I was done with London posts...and I almost was. But I had to do one last post with a few food photos.

I don't know why...but I got it into my head that English food wasn't going to be very good.

Holy smokes. Was I wrong.

It was fantastic.

And so was every single type of ethnic food we tried while we were there, including: Japanese, Polish, Indian, and Mexican.

And the desserts.

oh my.

But of course, I only have about 1/2 the food photos I should have because I got so excited when the food would get to the table that I wouldn't remember to take the photo until after I had eaten the dish!

But, when I did remember:

Meat Pie and Sticky Toffee Pudding at the Royal Oak in Windsor

Profitroles and Scones with Jam and Clotted Cream at Buckingham Palace

Ramen Soup with Spicy Chilies, Seafood with Soba Noodles, and Fried Squid

Seafood Ceviche Tostadas and Chicken Flautas at Wahauca

Strawberries and Cream Donut at Krispy Kreme (honestly the very best donut I have ever had!)

Chips from McDonalds (Troy insisted -- and honestly, they were excellent)

Gelato from Scoop

Are you hungry yet? lol.

London - Hello Goodbye

Our time in London just flew by.

It was seriously such a fantastic trip.

And the last day was no less wonderful.

We took the train out to Windsor Castle and I am so glad! It was just lovely.

Again, wish I could have taken photos of the inside, but the royal residence was amazing!

St. George's Cathedral.

We ended our day with a trip to the theater to see Wicked.

We had seen it before, but tonight's show was simply wonderful. The girl who played Elpheba (Rachel Tucker) was AMAZING!

London - Day 5

I was on my own for a good part of this day and really wanted to see the British Museum.

I was so happy to get there and find that they allowed photography.

And the museum was awesome.

Outside...and inside.

Ancient Egypt.

Ancient Greece.

The Elgin Marbles.

Can I just say when we were in Athens, the Greeks were super bitter about the marbles that Lord Elgin took back to England with him.

These marbles are on display at the British Museum...and can I just say that I can now understand why the Greeks were so bitter. The marbles are fantastic. (and the plaster molds the Greeks have on display in Athens don't even compare!)

More Ancient Greece.

One of my favorite items in the museum was the Rosetta Stone. Seriously...what a wonder.

The also had a nice little Korean exhibit.

And what would a day in London be without a Big Ben photo? lol.

After meeting up with Troy we went to see Westminster Abbey. Another place I couldn't take photos...and how sad...because it was perfection.

And then we visited St. Paul's Cathedral. It was simply stunning.

This was an especially great part of the day as we participated in the evening service -- which was sung by a boy's choir from Wimbledon. We were invited to sit in the quire seats ...  right beyond the boy's choir and right next to the priest.

It was a lovely service.

After dinner...we walked back along the Thames so I could get a night shot of the London Eye.

London - Day 4

We were go, go, go, our whole time in London...and I think by the 4th day I was feeling it.

So...we had a more mellow sight-seeing day.

We started with the Globe Theater, where Shakespeare put on his plays. It isn't the original Globe...the actual site is a few blocks away. But...there were able to uncover enough on the original location to recreate a pretty accurate replica.

This sign on the door of the theater cracked me up.

We took another walk through London on our way to see the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.

I wish that I could have taken some photos...especially in the Portrait Gallery. They were having a new artist contest and some of the work was beyond fantastic.

Across the street from the galleries was this little church. I couldn't resist a photo with that yummy blue sky.

The Galleries are located right beside Trafalgar Square...and on the square they have an olympics countdown timer. (It was a little reminder that all the crazy construction going on in the city was likely due to this.)

Another Big Ben photo -- tired of them yet? : )

We made our way our to Kensington Palace...and Troy fell in love with the English gardens. It reminded him of his lifelong dream to live in some type of Manor House and have a hedged garden.

If we come back to London we will definitely be coming back here to have high tea at the Orangery. We got there right as it was closing and it looked amazing!

A closeup in the garden...it had just rained and everything was perfect!