Toby Thursday

Our little guy is growing into quite the cute teenager dog. He's got much more energy and lots more stamina when he runs around with Brian. He's also still growing like a weed. Take a peek!

-Toby weighed in at 39.5 lbs for his 16 week check-up. Yikes!

-He's now lost all of his bottom and all of his top teeth.
We're only waiting for one or two more to grow in.

-He still snores.

-Toby loves to chew on ice and toes (we try to prohibit the latter).

We love our sweet pup and miss him SO much when we're off on trips!

It's What's for Dinner

After four days of eating, drinking, and fun with my dad and Glynda (photos and tales to follow), it's time to get back on the Healthy Wagon. One of our favorite ways to do that is to eat big salads for dinner, chock-full of vegetables and protein. This particular version has spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, apple, dried cranberries, avocado, walnuts, and garbanzo beans.

What are some of your most favorite salad ingredients? Let us know!

London: The Last Day

Sorry for the delay, but we've been busy having fun with our visitors, my dad and Glynda! Now, on with London...

Our last day in London was another full one. We started off by visiting the impressive British Museum:

The British Museum is fairly large so after orienting ourselves, we headed towards the Rosetta Stone. Take a peek:



Awesome, right? The engravings are so teeny tiny. After staring at the Rosetta Stone for about 10 minutes, we made our way through the interesting Egyptian displays. Here's Ramesses II:

We loved the amazing hieroglyphs on this sarcophagus:

For an idea on the scale, the bird is shorter than my pinky (and I have short fingers!). We wandered through the Mummy Room and then made our way over to the Parthenon Room. Wow! The sculpture from the Parthenon is remarkable. Odd that it's in a British Museum, but that's a whole other can o' worms. My favorite piece was this one from the East Pediment, thought to be Aphrodite reclining on her mother, Dione:

I love the drapery of her gowns and the reclined pose. Once we felt sufficiently smarter than when we first walked in, we left the British Museum and headed over to the Imperial War Museum. There we learned more about WWI and WWII. Unfortunately, photo fatigue had set in and I didn't get any images. It seemed like a great museum, but our time was cut a little short because we had to head over to Westminster Abbey to attend Evensong. I wish I had photos from Westminster Abbey, but they're strictly forbidden when you're attending a service. Believe you me, Westminster Abbey is one stunning church. We enjoyed Evensong and then found a pub on our way home for some sustenance after a long day out and about.

All tuckered out from four fun days in London we headed to bed early. After such a fantastic trip, I've decided London is my new favorite city. Thanks for all the good times, Fun-don!

If you'd like to view all of our photos from our visit from London, please click on this link:
London Photos

London: Day 3

Day 3 brought us sunshine and warmth. In the late morning we ventured out to the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill:

As you can see from the photo above, the Market was ridiculously crowded. Portobello Road Market is mainly an antique market and we had a fun time looking through veritable sea of antiques and shoppers. One of the cutest antique shops we browsed through was:



They had a great collection of old sports paraphernalia, scales, and much more. Near one of end of the Market there are a bunch of farmers market-style booths set up with an array of beautiful goods:

In addition to the produce and bread booths there were food vendors whipping up an intoxicating aroma of deliciousness. To name a few: paella the size of a table top and fresh pad thai:



We opted for the pad thai for a snack and loved every bite as we ate on someone's cute steps to their Notting Hill flat!

From Notting Hill we made our way over to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Brian messed with the wrong lion in Trafalgar Square:

We had a fabulous time in the National Gallery gazing at some impressive artwork. We were particularly fond of da Vinci, Van Eyck and Seurat.

From the National Gallery we hopped on the tube back to our neighborhood, grabbed some snacks from the M&S and then walked to the enormous Hyde Park:

We found a nice view:

Unpacked our goodies:



And enjoyed a quiet little picnic in the park before heading back to the hotel:



Day 3 was a perfect mix of walking around soaking up the crisp fresh air and appreciating some lovely works of art.

Up next: Day 4, the Last Day

London: Day 2

Day 2 in London started off with a quick visit to see that, in fact, the London Bridge is not falling down as we once all thought. Phew!! Proof:

A few tube stops later we found ourselves awestruck by the impressive (does that make sense?) Parliament:

And Parliament's handsome brother, Ben:



Both Parliament and Big Ben were much larger in real life than we imagined and just as striking as we hoped. Later in the evening, as you'll see, they proved to be perfect models for a nighttime photo shoot.

From Parliament we made our way to the Churchill War Rooms, but on our way there we just had to get this classic London shot:



I just love those phone booths! When we reached the Churchill War Rooms Brian got things going out front:



The War Rooms were a real treat. We had expected some interesting information and unique artifacts, but we were absolutely blown away with the Museum. Top notch. The Museum is located in Churchill's actual underground, secret War Rooms. We both learned a lot about Churchill (who sounded like a hoot!) and the British side of WWII. Here are some images from our visit:




If you ever find yourself in London, please go to see Churchill's War Rooms, the entry fee is a bit high, but it is so worth it. With our brains filled to the brim with WWII information, we decided to satisfy our bellies at a nearby pub. Lunch is served, cottage pie for the lady and bangers & mash for the chap:



I had no idea what cottage pie was like before I ordered it, but I had a feeling we'd get along! Underneath that lovely rectangle of mashed potatoes was a mixture of ground beef, carrots, and peas. The potatoes are dolloped on top and then it's baked. Y-U-M!

After lunch, on our way back to the tube stop, we passed by Westminster Abbey and took a look around outside. Stunning!

Ready for some downtime we made our way back to the hotel. A few hours later we were back out, headed for our ride on the London Eye. Our view as we approached the Eye from the bridge:



The ride in our EyePod (Ha! I just made that up. No big deal.) last about 30 minutes and provided breath-taking views:

We disembarked our EyePod and returned to the hotel for a good night's sleep...we needed it, Day 3 proved to be just as busy!

Up next: Day 3 (Portobello Road Market, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and Hyde Park)