Oh, Emma...

Best pic ever

Would be a shame not to share with everyone... 

My First Beach Weekend

Went to the beach a couple weekends ago, dad took some pics but he won't let me post them on facebook or instagram... my generation is so over that anyways.

New beach house. Plenty of tanning in my future. Unless I have dad's skin.

Just waiting for my bottle.

Oh, hey, I was thinking about what we could do after my nap, dinner would be nice...

With Mom and Dad. Was a tad chilly.

With my lovely grandparents.

Free place to stay, round the clock service... solid. *fist pump*

Nana visits Emma.

She did hold Emma but I don't remember which camera those pictures are on so we'll have to do a part two post later.

A few more pictures of Emma

She really is as adorable as she looks!

The Many Faces of Emma...

Emma

Thought I'd give a quick update, sorry I haven't gotten around to it yet, but when faced with the opportunity to sleep or blog, sleep has won every time. But I know you guys are dying to see pics so I'll take one for the team ;)

Emma arrived at 8:23 PM on 8/24. Labor started around 2:30 AM although we didn't go to the hospital til around noon. We were waiting on our dining room table to get delivered! It was a long day, but I think we got pretty lucky with how quickly things progressed.

Here are some pictures...

Mom and Emma

Mom and Emma

Dad and Emma

Grandma Susan and Emma

TBD and Emma (Best Emma Face award)

Grandpa and Emma

Uncle Joe and Emma (runner up for Best Emma Face award)

Emma's First Bath

Late Night Scuttlebutt with Emma

Travelin' Around England

Over the last few days, we have traveled to a few places. Saturday we went to Oxford, home of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. We spent a few hours walking around the campus and town. Below, you can see Christchurch College. We didn't go inside, but this is where the great hall scenes (with the long tables) from Harry Potter were filmed. 

Laura and I then bee lined it to The Eagle and Child Pub, which is where Tolkien and Lewis spent much of their time. On our way, Laura had the unfortunate incident of being pooped on by a bird. 

This is the pub. A plaque on the back wall read "C.S. Lewis, his brother, W.H. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and other friends met every Tuesday morning between the years 1939-1962 in the back room of this their favourite pub. These men, popularly know as the "Inklings," met here to drink Beer and to discuss, among other things, the books they were writing."

This was on the wall when you entered the pub. Seeing as I just met them the day before, I thought it was necessary to take a picture of it. We were told that Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Ring series while living in Oxford.

While walking down an open air market, I saw Turkish Delight for the first time. I immediately thought of Narnia :)

The next day, Laura and I decided to travel to Winchester and Portsmouth. Winchester, hometown of Colin Firth, was beautiful! Below, is a picture of the Winchester Cathedral. 

 It was Sunday, so there was a service going on. 

 The cathedral is also where Jane Austen is buried.

 We then walked across town to the Great Hall where King Arthur's round table is located. 

They have it hanging on the wall. 

Laura and I then caught the train to Portsmouth. We wanted to see a town located on the English Channel. It started raining and was quite cold, so we didn't end up spending much time here. 

 We did put our feet in the English Channel!

Today, we went to the British Museum. We weren't able to take many pictures, and only the nerds of the family would appreciate hearing me ramble on about seeing the original Beowulf manuscript, Anglo-Saxon linguistics, and King James's Library. But we did see original Beatles lyrics written down on paper bags, etc.

Iconic London: Day Two

We woke up early in order to see as much as possible today! Kensington Palace, home to Will, Kate, and Baby George Alexander Louis, was first on the agenda. The grounds were beautiful, but it was quite cloudy out today. 

Below, is the sunken garden at the palace. 

They had four tours: The Queen's Quarters, the King's Quarters, Revealing Victoria, and Modern Royal Fashion. The fashion area had this display case of some of Diana's dresses. They also had rooms for HM the Queen and Princess Margaret. I didn't realize what a fashionista Margaret was!

The wallpaper below are all drawings of famous pictures of Diana. 

We then traveled over to Westminster Abbey. We didn't take the tour because we were in a hurry.

 The Big Ben pictures are below: 

We had booked tickets to see the 2:00 showing of Macbeth at the Globe Theatre. A few minutes into the show, I made a comment to Laura about how Banquo's voice sounded a lot like Pippin from Lord of the Rings. She, not being a nerdy LOTR fan like me, shrugged off the comment. A couple minutes later, after staring through the large, graying beard, I was convinced it was none other than Billy Boyd playing the role of Banquo! I couldn't believe my luck. Now, if you know anything about the Globe, it is not a big theatre. Therefore, he brushed past us several times when entering the stage through the crowd. I had to keep myself from grabbing his arm and yelling out "Pippin!!!"

After the show, we saw him walking down the pier with none other than......Merry!!! I didn't think my London experience could get any better. As you can see, we did a bit of stalking and he walked out right behind us to answer a phone call.

I decided there was no way that I could pass up the opportunity for this photo op! Though Billy seemed a little preoccupied, Dominic was more than willing to take the photo. The sun wasn't very helpful, but I will still cherish this moment. I did ask Dom how he felt about the ending of LOST; he claimed he never saw it. I called him out on his lie, but he just smiled and went on his "merry" way :)