Grandparents, Rome and picnics…oh my.

Settle in…this is a long one.

So my parents came to visit last month... for about a month! There's nothing like having visitors to get you out of the library and exploring one's surroundings. Also, there's nothing like Grandparents for dumping your kid on them so you can go do something else for a bit. It was great to have them here and Nora absolutely adored it. After all, Grandpa did buy her ice cream every time she looked at him with those big blue eyes and said, "Grampa, please you want to buy me some ice cream?" (If only you could hear her say it you'd buy her ice cream too!)

First, shortly after my folks' arrival, Deanna and I (NB: without Nora) took off for a day trip to Rome with a group of people from my program (led by my supervisor). That's right, a day trip to Rome. Our flight left at around 6 am and we touched back down in London at 11:30 pm. Then there was a drive home. It was a long but fantastic day.

Deanna's first pizza in Rome. Later we enjoyed gelato too!

The Colosseum

Temple of Jupiter

Fontana di Trevi

Grave Stone: Paulo Apostolo Mart… (Paul, Apostle, Martyr)

The next trip was a day in London, this time with the grandparents and Nora, where we traipsed around the major sights (Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Changing of the Guard, Big Ben, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square etc.) and finished with a lovely dinner with some old friends of my parents.

At the Changing of the Guard

Family picture in St. James Park

Ahhh…the grandparents.

We told my dad to pretend he like being in pictures.

Beautiful day, no?

At Trafalgar Square

Fear not. Nora is NOT being eaten by the lion. She liked shouting into it's mouth and hearing the echo.

A tired little girl looking at her balloon.

The end of a long day.

Then we rented a car for the weekend and on Saturday, Sunday and Monday we visited Blenheim Palace (Churchill's birthplace), Stratford-on-Avon (Shakespeare's village), and Cambridge (home of…you know, Cambridge).

Blenheim Palace on a beautiful day.

One of our many picnics…of course this is at Blenheim and not our backyard.

Sharing carrots with Grandpa.

Stratford-upon-Avon

If she were in Oregon she'd be hugging trees…

Shakespeare's grave.

Playing dress-up at Shakespeare's church.

Shakespeare's birthplace.

Nora and yet more ice cream.

All of these trips were packed around many trips to the (many) parks, the outdoor market, the library, the Botanic Garden, museums, Oxford sightseeing, a C.S. Lewis day (including a trip to his house, pond, church, grave, college and pub), punting, pizza at our favourite (!) pizza place, and lots of walks, backyard picnics and trips to feed the ducks. We watched a hot-air balloon launch too! The weather was incredible the whole time with most days clear and in the 60's and 70's. (As a result we put my parents to work in the garden.) Clearly, they now have a very skewed idea of the weather here in Oxford.

Who doesn't like a see-saw? Crazy people, that's who.

Grandpa keeping Nora safe... really.

She put her boots on by herself…can you tell?

Punting on the Cherwell.

The view from our punt.

At the pond by Shotover Hill where C. S. Lewis used to swim.

On the steps at Magdalen College.

All in all, it was wonderful and now that they're gone and we have settled back into life-as-usual, we have space for more visitors so come on over!!