it's a jolly holiday with donald

our plan for this trip was to travel slow, so after a short layover in iceland we landed in london with just a few must do items on our list and only a general idea of how we would spend our days. between the time change, extra pregnancy sleep, and donald's internal clock being set to the night shift, we weren't super successful in overcoming our jet lag. this resulted in an overabundance of nap time, but we still had a jolly good time exploring the city and enjoying our week with the british.

the first morning we popped into an ole & steen bakery and donald fell in love with their cinnamon social. he had one for breakfast every day, while i ran into the sainsbury's across the street for two croissants and a pint of skim milk. with the rest of our days we explored some charming old streets on our way to eat handmade pasta, got caught in a rainstorm at the tower bridge and warmed up with bangers and mash at a cozy pub, attended evensong at westminster abbey, ate wafflemeister waffels whenever we got the chance, waved to the queen at the palace, tried a scotched egg, spent sunday evening in a neighborhood pub with nfl redzone, and one of us thoroughly enjoyed our frequent underground rides.

while i found london to be as delightful as ever, our two favorite activities happened to be the ones that took us outside the city. the last time i was in england visiting some friends i talked myself out of a side trip to a miniature village i knew i'd love because i was too cheap, so this time we took the train to beaconsfield to visit the bekonscot model village and it was by far my favorite day. the village itself is tucked away in the midst of a quiet residential area, and our stroll there from the train station was delightfully charming. the miniatures were just as magical as i'd hoped and i was so glad we went on that little adventure.

unsurprisingly, donald's favorite activity [aside from nfl redzone] was the very thing that enticed him to agree to the trip in the first place. our main event was a visit to the making of harry potter at warner brothers studio, where we saw first hand the magical ways the movies brought the world of harry potter to life. we wandered the great hall, saw tons of sets, props, and costumes, and learned some fun trivia about the filming, like how the color of voldemort's robe faded each time a horcrux was destroyed. this was also the same day we happened upon an english chap on the train wearing an iconic kc heart t-shirt, and that was a delightful surprise.

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mcculloch's kansas city adventure

for the past few summers my mom has hosted a sleepover for my cousin's daughter mcculloch. they usually go swimming like twelve times, watch movies and go on a little adventure. she is easy to please and is always gushing about how great her sleepovers are. this year my mom decided she wanted to go big with the adventure and bring mcculloch to legoland in kansas city. so they took their sleepover on the road and we spent a few days having fun together.

along with the visit to legoland, we made art at kalidescope, swam at a water park, had hamburgers delivered by a model train, ate some questionable jelly beans, and were wowed by donald's light saber pizza cutter. it was definitely action packed, but the best part was hearing the hilarious things that mcculloch says.  so in no particular order, here are my top ten mcculloch-isms:

1. are you jealous of my comedy?

2. [as dag is licking her] this is the old school way to wash your hands

3. i feel like a real gamer now

4. that was harder than spreading cheese on a rotten cracker

5. you guys have the coolest objects [referencing the tv remote you can talk into, but needless to say she was very impressed with all of donald's toys]

6. this is like a water wonderland!

7. we're such an amazing couple [re: shelly & mcculloch]

8. oh no, papa sir knows nothing about fashion

9. having kids is a fun and hard job

10. the funnest part of today was just being a family

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how we summer

it's no secret that i love summer. i love sunshine and swimming and shave ice. i also love the feel of summer...the freedom from school and responsibilities. obviously most adults don't get to enjoy the same level of freedom as the kids, but i still do my best to make summer feel like summer, even as a grown up. we typically take a bit of a break from house projects and try to spend our time enjoying summery things.

after a few too many summers that felt like they were over before i really got to enjoy them, i started making 'the summer list'. it's a fun way to make sure we don't miss out on our favorite activities and really, who doesn't love checking things off a list! the only downside is that most of the items require some level of planning or scheduling, so it wasn't really helping with that carefree summer feeling. so this year i added a mantra...enjoy every day.

it isn't much different than the simple discipline of noticing. i wanted to fully enjoy the moments that felt most like summer, and maybe add a little something extra to make them more fun. so instead of eating that shave ice or qt cone in the car, we found a patch of grass to lounge in. i took the back roads home at night with the windows down and the radio up [i also randomly started playing real mccoy songs, which immediately transported me to the summers of the late 90's and those early morning pom practices]. there were day movies and night movies. walks to the thrift store. honey smacks for breakfast. mugs up root beer floats, just because. sandwiches with lettuce. sitting outside after dark. reading by the pool. and an adventure to find the raytown dragon...and i thoroughly enjoyed it all.

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our last little pig

it's a little surprising how often we've been able to host the ardens in kc the past few years, and we had another opportunity when their cross country sabbatical road trip passed right through raytown.

as is the tradition, we introduced them to another staple of the kansas city barbecue scene with a visit to joe's, and we also made a stop at the beloved mama china. our few days together were otherwise spent chatting, playing games, taking walks, breaking out of an escape room and sorting through donald's baseball card collection. 

the other tradition is eating our last meal together at the little pig in belton. what we didn't know at the time was that it would be our last chance since the restaurant was destroyed by fire a few months later, but we're thankful we got to enjoy those bbq sundae's together one last time!

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anniversary number five

five years ago donald and i were introduced to ned and marjorie. the day we got married they were celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of their own lodge wedding. it's their tradition to come back to the lodge each year, which we thought was a lovely idea. logistically a yearly visit would be tricky for us, but we decided that a return engagement sounded like the perfect way to celebrate five years.

after a little shuffling around we settled into one of the original lodge rooms, and the whole place was just as charming as i remembered. this was the first time we had visited without some sort of wedding agenda and we enjoyed every minute. we took a walk, went swimming, played games, reminisced over wedding photos and video, and of course ate the traditional fried chicken. the one thing we didn't expect was a surprise visit from the broomies! they had decided to drive over on a whim, thinking we had been there the weekend before. it was hilarious and a fun treat to enjoy a little part of the day with some of the same people who helped us celebrate five years ago!

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