12 in 2014: May

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took a family trip to California to visit Aunt Kari and Uncle Brett and while we were there we brought Harper in to see Kari’s school and students and played in the park.

We also took Harper to Stanford University to get her on the waiting list for 2030 admissions.

Yippee!! She got in…based on cuteness alone!

Just kidding. Uncle Brett is about to graduate from Stanford School of Engineering! So he took us on a tour of the beautiful campus. I felt so smart just walking through it!

12 in 2014: April

More playing in the park! I rode my bike on the trail to this park with Harper in her trailer and let her run around for a bit. And we had the playground all to ourselves! She loves to point to things when I ask where they are and try to say them (“dass!” is grass.) This girl would swing for hours if we let her.

two girls at the park

My mom, sister and niece recently visited for a nice relaxing girls weekend. We had some good weather for part of the weekend, so we spent some time at the park. Avery and Harper had a great time playing together!

What a doll my little niece is! Harper and her will be BFF’s! I so wanted to keep her here, but I’ll get to see her in a few months in NY for her 1st birthday!

12 in 2014: February

We’ve had a weird string of cold, warm, cold, warm days here in Austin recently and luckily the warm days have been on the weekends. This past weekend, after schools were closed on Friday because of ice, Sunday was t-shirt weather! We just got bikes for the first time in 20 years and got a trailer to pull Harper. We rode down the trails near our house to a park. Harper LOVES to watch the big kids and climb everything!

baby in a bonnet

We went to the park early one morning before it got too hot. She just loves to swing!

She’s so adorable in her bonnet from Urban Baby Bonnets.

al fayed take me home, to the place where i belong…

Craven Cottage
By the river
Al Fayed
Take me home!

Our last morning in London brought us to Hyde Park for a leisurely stroll towards Prince Albert memorial and the Princess Diana memorial. There was a lot of activity going on the in the park – footy games, lots of runners, and a boot camp workout class.

Towards the west side of Hyde Park is Round Pond and Kensington Palace. Round Pond attracts lots of families, sailboat enthusiasts, and every kind of bird you could think of.

You could literally walk right up to these giant swans.

Kensington Gardens, next to the palace, are some of the most lush and colorful gardens I’ve ever seen.

Then it was off to the Fulham game! Drew’s soccer buddy has a friend who works for Fulham (our favorite English Premier League team) and was able to get us tickets and passes to McBride’s lounge. The game is the real reason why we planned this trip – we planned the entire agenda around this game. So yeah, we were looking forward to it. We took the train out to Fulham early so we could walk around the stadium and shop in their team store.

Craven Cottage is right on the bank of the Thames, to the west of residential Fulham – lots of quaint little streets that look like this:

The grounds didn’t even have a parking lot, and only a little two lane road passed in front of it. A far cry from the stadiums we’re used to frequenting here in the States.

A whole store of Fulham stuff? Drew thought he was in heaven. He picked out a new Pantsil jersey for the game and I wore his Davies jersey.

Before the game started, we walked through the stadium and got a good view of the empty pitch on our way to McBride’s Lounge for some pre-game drinks.

The game was beyond exciting. Craven Cottage is a pretty small stadium and the fans get really into it. They played Everton and won 2-1. It was amazing to be at the game and have them win.

After the game, we took the train back to London and grabbed an Italian dinner. And thus ended our stay in London. 😦 London is a pretty spectacular city. For realz.

Next up – the Paris leg of our trip! I didn’t think I could handle any more excitement. But I was wrong. 🙂

Check out all my pictures from London!

*Blog post title is from a Fulham Football Club fan song