London, Day 1: Fish & Chips and The London Eye!

Yesterday we began a new adventure – taking 18 of our high school students, and Addison, to Europe! This is actually our third trip to Europe with the kids. However, this is the first trip with Addison, and her first time out of the country. Needless to say, we were both a bit nervous.

Addie and I missed the group pic at the airport, but here are the kids, ready and excited for their adventure!

Addison was a rock star on the plane ride. She slept for almost the entire flight and woke up about 30 minutes before landing. Kendra decided to fee her a bottle to help her ears through the pressure change. Big mistake. Withing two minutes of chugging the milk, she projectile vomited on the woman across the aisle. Though it was an impressive feat on Addison’s part, we were both mortified. Luckily, she was super understanding, as were the flight crew. (Yay Delta!)

Having already had a pooplosion in her first outfit, Addison was officially out of clothing, so I had to carry her through customs to baggage claim wrapped in an airline blanket. I am quite sure I earned a nomination for mother of the year. Fortunately, one thing that has become a regular occurrence in London is being whisked ahead of long lines when I am holding Addie. She’s like a Golden Ticket. In this case, a customs official pulled me right to the front of a very crowded line and I was able to get to baggage claim, get our bags, clean up Addie, and get her in her fancy new car seat/stroller before anyone else had made it out of customs!

We had an easy ride into London with our tour director. Addie was wrecked, so while I stayed back at the hotel with her so she could sleep, the rest of the group followed our tour guide through several parts of London, including Piccadilly Circus, Convent Garden, Trafalgar Square, and Leicester Square. They followed that with visits to several museums, including the Victoria and Albert, the Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum.

Meanwhile Addison slept like a rock. She finally got up around 3pm London time, and we met up with the group for dinner. We had an excellent meal of Fish & Chips at Mr. Fish.

After dinner, we hopped on the tube for a ride to Westminster Station. When we walked above ground, Big Ben towered over us. It was especially stunning to see it lit up at night. We made a quick dash to the London Eye, and after watching a cute 4-D film (which Addison slept through, along with our ride on the Eye), we made our way to the entrance of the Eye and climbed into our capsule.

The views were breathtaking. I snapped a few shots, though it was difficult to get many good ones since it was nighttime, and we were moving.

After our ride, we headed back to the hotel. By then Addison had perked up and we spent some quality time coloring. She has this new thing where she likes me to draw cats for her, so I drew a lot of cats. Everyone is now tucked in tight. We are excited for another day of exploring London tomorrow!