Happy 6th Birthday to James!! And what a Birthday day it has been.  Today we said farewell to Uncle Richard and Aunty Angela and their gorgeous wee Millers Cottage at Wadenstoe and headed to Stratford-Upon-Avon where we spent some time wandering around and visiting the birthplace of William Shakespear.

The UK has put on another stunning day and we spent a good chunk of our time wandering the old streets and walking the Avon.

After lunch we headed across to Morton Paddox by The village of Moreton Morrell where we have set up camp in with Matt’s brother Andy and his wife Nicola and their family.  We are lucky to have so many family members here who are welcoming us in as if 10 years hasn’t passed.  So far we’ve been out to Leamington Spa for a play in the park and feeding the ducks and geese in the river.

Now we’re home for a swim in the heated pool before BBQ and birthday cake with more family.  I feel we’re a bit spoilt and living the life of luxury at the moment . . . The children won’t ever want to leave!

A beautiful and sunny spring today in the UK.  Still a bit chilly but the sunshine has been stunning.

Today’s travels took us from a Glorius hot chocolate (with all the bits and bobs) in the village of Oundle, to Lyveden New Bield to see the roofless house built by Sir Thomas Treasham in the 1600’s.

Unfortunately Sir Thomas died with large debts and left no money behind so the house was never finished or lived in.  His son Francis Tresham was then caught up in the gunpowder plot with Guy Fawkes and Robert Catsley so he wasn’t around much longer to continue his fathers legacy.

The skeleton of the house has sat in the Northamptonshire countryside for over 400 years, but you can see by the graffiti, it’s attracted many visitors in that time.

From there we headed out for a Sunday Roast Dinner with aunty Angela and uncle Richard.  Needless to say we are full to the brim from roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding . . . I may need to buy an extra seat for the plane ride home!!

Today’s adventure led us to Europecar rentals where we picked up our chariot and headed off into the mist . . . Yep London has put on another grey, cold and misty day but it could be worse – atleast it wasn’t raining!

We headed out of the city and ended up at the imperial war museum in Duxford.  Matt and James were in their element, so many planes – so little time, but the highlight was the tour of the test Concord plane from the early 70’s.

From there we kept on heading  North to Aunty Angela and Uncle Richard’s Place ‘the millers cottage’ in Wadenhoe.  Wadenhoe is a gorgeous traditional English village, overlooked by St Michaels, which is 800 years young.  We were treated to a sight of 20 or so young christians carrying a large crucifix from the church to the local hall in preparation for Palm Sunday tomorrow.

So a full day catching up with family.  It’s been 10 years since we’ve been here with them and it feels like we’ve never left!

So last stop of the day was Buckingham Palace.  Unfortunately Queen Lizzy wasn’t home so we went without our tea and scones, but we had loads of fun seeing the changing of the guard.

London – Day 2

Well what an exciting day we’ve had so far.  We’ve had so much fun.  After a goodnight sleep we tackled the Big Bus tour this morning.  We saw the streets of London, Marble Arch, Hyde Park, lots of churches even a church of St. James!

Then we went on the Tube.  We hopped on the Jubilee line and headed to London Bridge.  James sang us the London Bridge nursery rhyme 😄. We walked over the Thames and saw the Tower of London and the tower bridge.

We went inside the Tower of London, Gemma and James were excited to walk over the moat, reminding Gemma about her medieval topic study a few years ago. James favourite part of the Tower of London was seeing all the armour the soldiers wore hundreds of years ago.

Gemmas favourite part was seeing the Crown Jewels because they were sparkly and really special.  Matt and I really enjoyed exploring the white tower and seeing the Coldstream guards guarding the jewels.

Next stop Buckingham palace to have tea with the Queen if she’s in.

We’ve made it to LAX, everyone got about 6 hours sleep which was amazing.  Go the sky couch!!  The trip over was pretty good, except for the extreme turbulance over the pacific which happened right when the kids were getting ready for bed.

Also we discovered 2.5 hours from landing that a certain Dalton suffers from air sickness 😱 so that was an entertaining few hours and an interesting landing 🤣🤣 to his credit, 4 bags full and only a small amount spilt!

Theyre calling for boarding for the next leg! See you soon London!

On the plane ✈️ ready for take off!  See you in 12 hours NZ!

Bags are packed, passports in hand, pillows ready . . . here we go . . .

So here we are at the beginning of our adventure!  Stop #1 – Auckland Airport.  And in true James style he’s managed to sniff out the ice cream in the lounge within 2 minutes.  “2 scoops of chocolate please!”  He told the man at the counter.   And did James eat that ice cream?  No!  It was too chocolaty, and his eyes were bigger than his tummy.

Were really excited to go on our holiday but we’re a bit sad to be leaving our school and our friends behind.

James says “I am going to miss my Teacher Miss Clow the most”.

Gemma says “I’m going to miss my friends and my dancing, and piano lessons’.

We hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow – at work and school.

Miss you all already!  xxx

Thanks for joining us on our holiday . . . we’ll be posting soon about our travels . . . thanks for following

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton