London Calling

Hello London,

Well, we made it back, three kids, we didn't lose them. It was great to see the granparents, and, well, it was great to tour around a great city. It was definately a struggle with the kids to do some of the events, but you know what, if we don't do it, we'll never see Europe. So here's the first post of probably two or so of London. We did things on the cheap at first; a great Ryan air deal, the whole family round trip to London for only $600. The grandparents got there first, and we reserved a vacation apartment near the Thames at 09 Albert Embankment just across the river from Parliment and Westminster. It really was something to walk out of the apartment everyday and see Big Ben. For the boys it was reality of the "flushed away" movie that they love, for us it was history in the making.

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So here's the crew, first day out after our flight back. We're headed to the Natural History Museum, of course totally free (yes Jason is a tight wad), but the kids really liked it and got a lot out of it. Just a short tube ride away, but when you calculate time and trouble, you've got to calculate how hard it is to roust 4 crazy boys anywhere, it is not easy! Trouble, trouble, and more trouble. And of course, Grandpa is the fourth troublesome child!

Here's Jo and I outsid ethe Natural History Museum

I was really impressed with how interactive all their exhibits are. I know that in the states the museums have been moving toward more interactive stuff, but England has it nailed! They had an elavated walkway over the dinosaurs that let you look at the bones eye to eye, not just on the ground looking up. The kids loved the animitronic dinos that they had there, and the cool exhibits. They even had real taxidermied animals ( a relic of the 1800's, all the animals were strangely yellowed, but hey, who kills animlas now a days anyway?). The Naturalhistory museum had great interactive displays with bugs, and other things, they loved it! I'll post more of the Science museum tomorrow, but as will be described later, museum that are interactive, or anything for that matter that involves hands on is a must with the kids. I think the grandparents had a good time, but very tiring. More posts later, Sorry that i've had to take over the posting, but Cyd just rented the Twlight movie and she's out of action. Just as a personal critique, I really think the movie Twlight is crap. Am I wrong? It's kind of a buffy the vampire slayer meets a really bad after school movie, I just don't get it. Edward dosen't sparkle that well either!!! -Jason

with childlike visions leaping into view...

we are off to London in about 4 hours! i am so excited!

any last minute requests for goods? we will be there until Sunday...so if you want anything, i will be checking in!

We decided to paint our guest room!! i love the colors! a soft blue and a mocha brown...yummy! look at Jasy....doulble yumm...he did a great job on the paint! love him...

here are a few pics of the boys in thier natural habitat! Colbs in costume...as always, it's nice to see that things have'nt changes to much! and Jonah and James on the 'pooter, as Jo Jo calls it! totally cute!

i made something super cute...wanna see 'em?

totally cute, huh?

i have been teaching classes here on base and i taught this one last weekend!! i love how they turned out! i made a few for the girls at Colby and Jonah's school!

ALSO look what comes out in just 3 short days!!! i can't wait to get my copy!!! woo hoo!and...uummm...HOLY CUTE!!! wow he is a stunner....ooh, Edward....this is a pic from the new issue of GQ mag!!! unbelievable...

catch ya all in a few days!

loves

and i will drive my chariot down your street....

Hey! we are back in business! we are getting ready for our trip to london on the 18th and i'm so excited! woo hoo!!

i am also loving our new laptop! it's pretty fancy!

and in the mail today i got an early bday package from my dear, dear bff Erika. i love you more that you will ever know. thank you sooo so much. you made my day! seriously.

lookie....along with so much scrappy stuff!!! i am dazzled!

the boys are loving basketball and they had a game on Saturday! it was cute.
swimming just started again today! we are busy!

on sunday the weather was so nice that we went to the beach! her are a few pics! James and Colby made friends quickly and proceeded to bury eachother up to thier necks! good times.

Jonah was content to sit on the beach blanket with me and listen to some tunes....he's a good kiddo.

we had a great time, Jason was working in the ER, so we spent like 4 hours on the beach! it's going to be an amazing summer!

loves

..

i'm not dead...

and i'm not a vampire...either, but the computer died, though. so we were out of commission for a few days. I lost all of our pictures that i have taken since wqe;ve been here in Espana....i'm pretty bummed out about that. we are still trying to recover them....keep your fingers crossed. So this is a pictureless post. boo.



we just got a new laptop! i still do'nt have my pics from the old one, but, you all know i take a gazillion pics all the time so, i will have pics up soon. this is just an update. i will post a picture heavy post asap!

loves

i love boys who sparkle...

ok, i am done with the saga.....i think i will start over....i loved it so. aahhhh....edward....

ok, back to reality!

first a big shout out to my amazingly wonderful hubs, Jason for guest blogging for me!!! he's awesome and will never admit to it, but liked the *twilight saga* as much as i did. :)

Anyway, yes we've been traveling quite a bit and it has been both exhausting and fun. The boys are really warming up to this whole touring thing. Hopefully they will carry it with them throughout life. we can only hope, right?

here are a few pics from Portugal.

the first is a pic from Evora, about an hour outside of Lisbon. They have a bone chapel!!! it is made of the bones of the people burried in the city.....spooky. we stopped and toured the bones and let kids play in the park. We also let Jason and Jonah recover from a bit of a debackle in Merida...see we stopped for lunch at a park and decided to take a walk on the road by the river....well, Colby James and I started walking ahead of Jonah and Jason....Jonah decided to walk on the edge of the embankment and within a few seconds he was sliding down the embankment in to the stagnant, funk, murky swampy river!!! So, without hesitaton, my superhero hubs jumps right in the said river and saves the day!!! but not before his blackberry and wedding ring went flying into the abyss!!!! sad times...here he is all injured. he hurt his elbow and knee...

here is an amazing ruin in the park. it was amazing, peacocks EVERYWHERE!

Jonah on the playset...and this pic of James is so funny! I told him to step up on the pedastal and pose like the staues we saw in the museum and he did this! all the statues had no heads...get it? ha!on the second day we went to the Oceanario in Lisbon. It was cool.ok, i will do a *Portugal Part 2* tomorrow.

but first, i got my hair did!!! it's not as great as * the hair whisperer* , {who i am missing sooo much right now}, but it will do! love the color! woo hoo!

loves

Hello everyone. Yes it has been ages since the Palmer family has found the time to post. Since Cyd is gone beyond any hope of redemption in her "Twlight" books I have put it upon myself to post our most recent blog. Please forgive any missteps or inadequacies that you might find and realize that I'm trying my best. So hear goes the first real posting from Jason.

So we'll begin with our brief visit to Italica just north of Seville which happened late January. The trip itself was quite short, and I was glad to get some history in. earlier in the day we did a quick stop into the archetectural museum in Seville and another cultural museum. It was a typical flial with the rain and trying to park, but we made it. Italica is facinating; wonderful history, beautiful mosaics. It's an incredible focus of history and I'm glad we were able to spend some time there. I tricked Cyd into going there by telling her it's where the guy from Gladiator was born.

Here's a picture of James looking into the ampitheter, bring in the Gladiators! It was a windy day, and I'm glad the boys were able to tough it out. They're getting better at touring.

After this trip, the next weekend we all went up to Madrid. I think Cyd blogged about that earlier so I won't add anything more, it was a great trip and I hope that we go up there frequently to see Margarita and her family. We did stop in Toledo on the way up. It's a magical city, we'll probably go up there again in the future. The cathedral there is one of the best. It's pretty touristy, but we had a good time.

So now back to our regular life. Day to day stuff is pretty normal, but we're trying to integrate the boys into regular activities. They were great swimmers back in San Diego so we put them into classes here in Rota. Here's a picture of Colby hamming it up on his way to his swim lessons. Here's a secret, the girl in the picture has a crush on him, lord knows why. I guess he's cute.

Here's another shot of swimming from a different perspective. I'm being cruel though, he's really enjoying his swimming. It gives him a chance to do something he's good at (swim) and to talk to other kids. James is growin up and maturing, I have to give him that.

Now back to touring. These are shots from our trip to Madina Sidona. It's an Andalusian white town, the boys had a good time running around and we got some history touring.

This a picture of the boys looking out over the valleys of southern Spain. I hope something rubs out on them on all these trips.

Jo and I on the march. Before this we had just headed up a church tower, he's pretty fatigued at this point.Jo on a pause.

A typical map check.

Now back to real life. A fun thing that we started to do during the swimming lessons of the kids is to take Jo bowling. He's really taken to it and loves it. The other kid love bowling to. I think they just like the colors of the balls Here's some shots of them getting down:

I'm looking back at such bowling skills! Check out Colby in action! I see a future kingpin!

Here's a sweet shot of Jo in the interum. He's waiting for his "Bop", milk and strawberry syrup in a sippy cup. It's his manna, the only thing he's looking for to start his day. We love him but it's becoming kind of tiresome.

I promise I'll get Portugal in tomorrow. It's a lot to catch up on. I guess this blogging business is more than I though, I owe Cyd some props.

awful, i know....

i know i need to post....ugh. i'm exhausted from our Portugal trip. i will post soon, promise...maybe later tonight.

loves