The past couple of weeks have been a blur. After my mom left, we were visited by the Rossers...Wynn, Manda, Aubrey and Cotton. I think we all had our doubts as to whether the six of us could cram ourselves into our little flat, but it worked perfectly. I am convinced that Wynn and Manda are the only two parents in the world with enough organization and structure to pull it off, and we had a blast showing them around Oxford.
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| Aubrey was ready to have some fun after the long plane ride |
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| Cotton (a.k.a. Mailman) had no problem making himself right at home in our luxurious furniture |
Unfortunately, many of the sights in Oxford were closed during their visit due to the University break and New Year holiday. However, we managed to visit a couple of museums, attend evensong at Christ Church and find a couple of fun parks.
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| Aubrey at the Ashmolean Museum |
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| Manda and Cotton at the Oxford Museum of Natural History |
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| Leah even found time to make a new friend! |
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| Family photo at the park near our flat |
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| Cotton had a long day |
After a couple of days in Oxford, we all headed to London to take in the big city. This was a great chance for Leah and me to see some of the sights that we had missed in our previous trips. After four months in our flat the highlight was definitely the big, comfortable bed courtesy of the London Hilton Park Lane!
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| The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace |
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| While the kiddos napped, Wynn and I checked out the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms |
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| Our Beefeater tour guide at the Tower of London |
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| I think the highlight of Cotton's trip was when he fed me his leftovers |
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| Aubrey (with her official Royal crown) and Flat Stanley |
After the Rossers headed back to Texas, Leah and I took an impulsive trip to Spain to meet up with the Andersons for three nights and get away from the English weather (or so we thought). Jordan and Katie are some great friends we have made here in Oxford. They are both Auburn grads and, just for the record, I am not at ALL jealous of their recent Alma mater's football success. Really, I mean it, I am not jealous one single bit.
We stayed two nights in Seville and then headed down to the Costa del Sol for one night in Marbella. Upon our arrival, we discovered that our trip was perfectly timed around the traditional Spanish celebration of Epiphany (or Three King's Day). As a result, all of the sights in Seville were closed on our first day there. As one staff member at the cathedral told Leah, "this is probably the worst day of the year to visit Spain." However, we made the best of it and had a blast with Jordan and Katie. Basically, we just walked around the empty streets, laughed, ate (mostly ham), and took in the local flavor.
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| I think these were the only other people out in the entire city of Seville |
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| Orange trees were everywhere! |
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| The Harrells and the Andersons |
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| Flat Stanley at the Christopher Columbus monument |
In our exploration of Seville, we stumbled upon the Plaza de España (which, according to Jordan, was probably just some type of "municipal building"). To be honest, I still have no idea what it was but the tiled mosaics were awesome.
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| Did I mention we ate a lot of ham? |
Our whole purpose of heading to Spain was to enjoy some sun on the Costa del Sol. However, it rained the entire day we were there. Our "day at the beach" ended up consisting of (1) running to the beach in the rain and taking the photo below, (2) eating a hamburger with some local fisherman at the "snack shack", and (3) napping and playing cards in our five star accommodations (which was also empty). Regardless of the weather we still had a great time with our great friends from Auburn (who, by the way, I am not jealous of).
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| Costa del No Sol (with Leah mustering the best smile she can in the rain) |
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