The rest of Legoland Windsor, heading home

The boys treated us to a 7am wake up call, not too bad!  We dressed quickly and headed down for breakfast in Bricks Restaurant.  If you stay in the hotel, breakfast is included, and there was plenty of choice.  Isaac was happy with his coco pops, Oliver had bacon, sausage and scrambled egg, and Sebastian went with pancakes.  Both Paul and myself went for hot breakfasts. Man it was nice to have proper bacon again!

After breakfast we headed to the pool/splash area.  This is a small area, but at 8.15am there were not many people in it.  The boys had great fun splashing around.  When you are in the pool at 8.15, you know it is going to be a long day.  We headed back up to our room about 9, and prepared to check out.  

Whilst heading down to reception for check out, the fire alarm went off.  This meant a mass evacuation to the car park over the road.  Thank goodness we were not in the pool at the time!  I don't know what was going on in the park/ hotel, but there were people dressed as Storm Troopers and Jedi.  Princess Lea was also there.  

The boys were so happy about this, and were able to get photos taken with various Star Wars characters. This turned a bad situation in to a very good one for our boys!

Staying in the hotel means you get to access the park 30 minutes before the general public.  Granted, we lost some of this time due to a fire alarm and checking out, but we still made it up.  We did 5 rides in 2 hours, we certainly got our monies worth.  

We had to do another quick stop at mini world, the boys so love seeing the countries represented, even if America was very small! 

Another quick ride before a stop at the shop (again!).

We left Legoland about midday.  All in, we had an awesome time, and are now deciding if we can make it to Legoland California before our time in the states is up.

We collected my mums car from Grandad Lee's that afternoon.  My mum signed it over to me before she died.  I had to drive it to Paul's parents up in Oxford.  I took Isaac with me for company, but I think he found my company a bit boring.  It has been a long time since I drove a manual, but I did ok.  That little car goes like stink!!!

We spent Saturday night at the Goslings, Tony and Jenny were also there.  It was nice to catch up with everyone, before saying our goodbyes the following morning.

Our last night in the UK was spent at my dads.  We even subjected him to his first kebab for about 5 years.  I think he enjoyed it, even if he did leave half of it for his lunch the next day.

By staying at my dads, we were able to be on the road to the airport at 5.30am, and dropping the car off at 6.  We checked in to terminal 3, and got through security very quickly.  There is a kids area in the upstairs of the terminal, which is quite unknown.  In fact, it took the cleaning lady in the toilets to bring it to my attention.  The kids were able to run around pretty much to their hearts content.

Our plane was on time.  Paul sat in the row of 4 with the boys, while I sat in the aisle seat on the other side.  The kids were good, but not as awesome as Paul, who kept them perfectly under control.  I hope that now they are getting older, flying will become a lot easier.....

We arrived home about 6pm on the Monday night, absolutely shattered.  Being an awesome mum, I didn't make them got to school on the tuesday.  Good job too, as no one was awake till 9am!  

Traveling Home for a second Christmas

We awoke slightly after 5am on the friday morning.  Dad was already up, so Paul and I got dressed, washed, and shoved some coffee down our neck.  We got the kids up and dressed, not an easy feat, given they were used to waking up around 8.  Paul loaded the suitcases into the car in the pouring rain (a running theme for our trip).  I decided to check the status of our flight.  Delayed till 14.45, we were supposed to fly at 9.55!  hmmmm, not a huge delay, but a bare able one.

Because of this, we took it slightly easy on our drive to Heathrow in the rain.  We got to the car hire place just after 6am.  They hand over was quick and efficient.  I cannot fault Sixt car hire for our trip.  They were courteous and polite in wall our dealings with them.  I would choose to use them again.  We jumped in their van and headed to Heathrow.  

We checked in, using the self check in.  Shame you can't check the kids this way, so we had to go to the desk for them.  The man behind the counter was really feeling the fact it was 6.30!  He was a little dense to put it politely…. After about 15 minutes we were all checked in, and the bags despatched.  We headed through security.  Heathrow security is pretty good, as soon as they saw the kids, they sent us to a side aisle.  I remembered this from our big move, seems to be the aisle for families. Very convenient.  Out the other side, we checked the departure board.  Boarding delayed till……..15.30

So we tried to make the best of it.  We headed for some breakfast.  Not overly expensive (but not as cheap as Beefeater), good service, tasty food, happy boys.  There was not much left over. Then for one of our many walks around the terminal. Terminal 1 has had a makeover in the last few years.  We did not really explore it last time, but it has gone quite upmarket.  Not a fast food restaurant in sight.  There was however a children's play area, which killed a good 45 minutes.

Breakfast

We had a lighter lunch, and again, there was not much food left over.  We sat and waited for our gate, while the boys got on with playing their kindles/iPods/leap pads.  Thank goodness we got them before the trip.  They did manage to drain the batteries, but again, there are charging places in and around the terminal.

15.30 came and went, and still no sign of a gate…..  Eventually it was put up about 15.50, so we took a nice leisurely stroll in that direction.  There were a lot of disgruntled looking people waiting.  We eventually began boarding at about 17.00, and took off about 20 minutes later.  The captain was most apologetic.  There were maintenance issues with the plane (just what you want to hear when you are about to taxi down the run way), then there was a weather delay.  I later discovered that the flight had not left Charlotte for Heathrow till about 3am.  

The flight itself was not too bad.  The boys ate some of their meals, then had some computer time.  But they were tired, dog tired.  Sebastian fell asleep with a kindle in his hand, before they had even dimmed the lights.  Oliver and Isaac fell asleep shortly after.  Half the battle with the boys on the plane is getting them to sleep.  As they had all done it, I was able to watch a film in peace.  I watched Rush, and absolutely loved it.  I even had a tear in my eye towards the end.  Such an awesome film.

About an hour and a half before we were due to land, they put the lights back on.  It took the boys a while to wake up.  It was about 20.30 US time, making it 1.30 am UK time….  We touched down, and had a wait for the buggy.  Great I thought, by the time we get through Immigration, our bags should be out.  But no.  Despite the fact we were the last through Immigration, we had to wait 30 minutes for the bags to appear on the carousel.  Then another 20 minutes to get them all.  By now it was past 11pm US time.  We walked out of the airport, and found the bus to the long stay car park.  From here in, it was relatively plain sailing.

I really felt for the other people on the flight who had to catch connecting flights.  Many of them missed their flight due to the delay in getting their baggage.  That delay, and the general incompetence of US Airways, and Charlotte Airport will have cost them a fair whack in compensation, hotel fees and new flights.  It is only since getting home I have realized that we were lucky to have flown when we did.  Another 2 days and our flight may have been cancelled……

We eventually got home at 1.30 am US time.  We put the boys straight up to bed, and despite them all sleeping on the plane and in the car, they went straight to sleep, bypassing the massive pile of presents Father Christmas had left them.  We thought they would sleep till at least 10am.

But no.  Isaac was up at 7.45am.  We managed to get them to stay upstairs till 8.  Then we headed down to open their Christmas presents.

They were all pretty pleased with what they received.  Sebastian even managed to open some of his, before discovering the awesome presents his brothers had received.  Then he lost interest….

We eventually got him to open them all.  Isaac was the first finished unwrapping, Seb the last

Once all the presents had been unwrapped and opened, we got down to the serious business of taking down the Christmas stuff.  It was nice to go back to the UK, but very hectic. We never spent longer than 2 nights in a row in one place.  But thats what you have to do when you are short on time with lots of people to see…..

100th blog post

Wow, I cant believe I have made it to 100 blog posts, in just over a year...

I feel like I should say something significant, but right now my mind is a blank.  I won't bore you with what we have been up to this week (that post is coming soon....).  Instead, I think I will just put in some photos from the last 100 posts.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog I *mostly* enjoy writing it, it lets me get a bit of perspective on what is going on in our little lives.

Heathrow airport, off on our look and see

My lovely Netmums ladies, I miss you guys 

My first car

Experiencing Mice on Main

Cutie Pie

Getting kitted out for baseball

Gappy Gosling

Paul and Uncle Tony

One of our first trips to the pool

Chilling in Orlando