Buck Palace & a Show

Happy 4th of July!!! Yep - we celebrated America's freedoms while enjoying the sights of London. I LOVE (love. love.) the 4th of July, it's my most favorite of all the holidays. So, it was little rough on my holiday emotions to be spending it in England but ... I survived. And next year, I'm certain I'll be somewhere that has BBQ potential and fireworks. Go 'Merica. I sure love being an American. Moving on ... 

The second full day in London we headed over to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard show. It was surprisingly long and drawn out but, at the same time, we had a fun time. It wasn't rushed or stressful (which is always a huge added bonus on vacations!) and we could just enjoy the attractive British accents sights near the palace. 

Kason had fun running around the statue that is across from Buckingham Palace and somehow, even after spending 2 or 3 hours right next to it - I walked away without a picture of it. Weird. 

Here comes the band!!! 

Then they all marched into the gates at the palace, played some more songs, shouted some things at each other, opened the gates, and marched out. The whole process took probably an hour or so and because we were not right up next to the palace gates, we had no idea what was going on during the whole ceremony. However, we did get some good seats for when the band was leaving because so many tourists gave up on the ceremony and left. Score. I didn't take pictures because I was taking a video. 

Good grief this kid is my favorite. He was such a good sport on this trip and I think he was just extra adorable that day because I have a lot more pictures of him than usual. I love him. I feel so lucky to be his mom and get to take him all these fun places. I sure hope he remembers the memories we're making over here. 

After the ceremony was all said and done, we walked up to the gates to check out the guards. Didn't they used to have the guards out front where people could stand right next to them? Well, this is as close as we were able to get to them. 

There is a fun park that we walked through on our way to the Underground. Um ... St. James Park I believe. I had kinda wished we had more time because it would have been fun to just relax there - blend in with the locals. We did find a fun park that Kason played at for a bit!

Giddy-up Snail! 

We then headed back to the apartment because we were meeting up with Brad! Woohoo! I was pretty happy to have him join us. He ended up taking the wrong bus and was about 45 minutes late BUT ... he still made it. I sure was glad to see him. 

On the metro, Kason was convinced he was Tarzan ... 

Riding on the top deck of a double-decker bus! I don't know how those drivers maneuver those buses but serious kudos to them! 

We headed towards St. Paul's Cathedral and climbed up & up & up the stairs to the top of the dome. The views are always so worth the workout to get there. 

So ... anybody who is a big Harry Potter nerd (much like myself) knows that this bridge is in one of the last two movies (and I am obviously not a big enough nerd to know which one) but, it was fun to see the bridge!

In the top of the dome you could whisper into the wall on one side of the dome and somebody on the other side could hear you. We had the best time watching one of the employees walking around whispering "no pictures! no pictures!" ... "sit down!" ... "whisper!" ... I cannot for the life of me remember his name but, we stopped him and told him that out of all the places we have traveled, he has been the best employee we've come across. I hope we made his day because he really was a lot of fun to watch. And I hope that someday - I can remember his name!

We headed back to the apartment after St. Paul's and got changed for dinner. We were heading to the theater! My wonderful mom got us all tickets to see 'The Lion King' at one of the theaters in London. So, we grabbed some yummy Italian food before the show and then headed to the theater. 

Oh, and we saw this guy on the way ... what the heck!? That's talent. (Brad had his tactics figured out but, it's still pretty impressive...)

Here we are, in the theater, with a very strategic photo-bomb by none other than Kason himself. Sneaky little man! 

It was really fun to have Brad join us for the show and Lion King is AMAAAZING. The costumes, the music, the little kids were adorable. It was a lot of fun. Kason even sat through the whole show and really enjoyed it. Bonus! After the show we were all so exhausted we just headed home and crashed for the night.