Been to London

Morgan turned 7 months old yesterday and the United States finally know about him. :) We drove to London to the American Embassy to register his birth, get his passport and social security number. What a long day!!!


We came very close to having a sitter for the 3 older boys, but it didn't work out in the end. So we all went. Which turned out to be a good thing. God was watching out for us even though it seemed to me like nothing was working in our favor. :) We left earlier then planned since we were taking all the boys so we would have more time for potty stops. Our trip started at 3:30am and we were rushing to make it to our 11am appointment! ...and that was with only one 1/2 hour stop. Traffic was horrible! We would have missed our appointment with our original babysitter plan!

The one picture of the Embassy that Caleb took before a guard came up to us and told him they don't like people taking pictures of the building. *oops*

We had a very successful trip.

• Morgan is now registered. We found parking, found several somebodies to give us directions, took the bus, ran through the streets of central London with four little boys, got Morgan's passport photos, and found the Embassy building...all in time for our appointment. *relief*

• We were able to get all of our pictures for our visa renewals next month for the same price that it would have cost us to get one set of pictures here in Wales. (American passport photos are a different size than British ones, so it costs more since not everyone sells them.)
• We each got a Krispy Kreme donut! ...not planned. We were surprised to see a Krispy Kremes in London and so had to get one. :)

• We went to Pizza Hut...which was planned, and it was very good!
• I got to shop at Ikea on the way home! ...also planned. I didn't think we would make it before they closed, but thankfully they were open until 10pm. All of the boys were sleeping. I thought of skipping it, but I didn't know the next time I would be able to go...so we woke them up. By the time we got in the store we only had 1 hour and 15 minutes to shop which was not nearly enough time...Ikea is a HUGE store! We got to see most everything, just not as closely as I would have liked. :) I will have to be happy with looking in detail at their website. :)
• We didn't get seriously lost!!! Why is it that when we have the choice of 1 of 2 ways we always seem to pick the wrong way? ...happened several times throughout the day yesterday.

We didn't get home until 3am! Traffic was just as bad leaving as it was going. Took us 2 hours to cover only 30 miles! The boys were really good. Between the snacks, the singing and the playing of "This Little Piggie..." they were kept pretty happy. After Ikea they slept all the way home. Caleb had to stop for an hour to take a quick nap. I wish I could have helped with the driving, but I am useless when it comes to nighttime driving.

I was very pleased with the boy's behavior. We didn't have any major meltdowns and they were pretty much well behaved the whole day! At the end of the day I was even happy that we were able to all go as a family. :)