Back in London!

So...did I ever mention I love London? If I ever had to leave my hometown for some reason, this is the city I would want to move to. I don't know what it is, but visiting London always feels like coming home for me. This time I visited the city with a friend of mine. It turned out to be an amazing and completely stress free trip. As a parent you are so used to having your kiddo around that you completely forget what it was like to just enjoy a good cup of coffee and a scone without attending to someone else's needs all the time. But that beeing said...I did miss my little terror! :)

Bye France! We actually travelled to France and took the boat to England from there. We saw a refugee camp there with Syrian refugees. That was quite impressive to see. And it defintely made me realise how lucky I am to be travellling through for an entire different reason. 

You can't travel without a little caffeine! Enjoying some Starbucks coffee while enjoying the view. 

The famous white cliffs of Dover. I had never seen these before, so that was kind of cool! We arrived in England around sunset, so the ride to our hotel was amazing. I loved the English scenery! 

Chilling at Hyde Park. Because that's just something you do when you're in London. It's mandatory. 

The Marble Arch!

A Disney store on Oxford Street! I can't believe I didn't notice that the last time I was there! I obviously had to go in and pick up a present for Charlotte. It was so hard picking just one thing though. They had so many cute toys! 

London by night! You can see the London Eye in the background. We also did a night tour around the city to see all the famous hotspots, but my phone battery died. But if you're interested in that sort of thing, check out the blogpost from my London trip from last December: London, Baby! :) 

We also visited a new town. Well, it was new to us. The town itself is actually medieval, haha! We visited Canterbury! 

Enjoying some carrot cake and a cappuccino at the town square. This is the life my friends! But after our visit to Canterbury it was time to head home again. It was a long way home, but it was definitely worth it. London is always worth it. ;)

Local Traditions and Festivities!

In two weeks from now we'll be celebration a typical local holiday. We celebrate the birthday of a Catholic bishop that comes to visit us with his helpers and brings gifts for all the children. He usually arrives by boat a couple of weeks in advance to get everyone in the right spirit for the actual holiday. This was today. 

This is a holiday I grew up with and one that holds many dear memories to me. We always celebrated this holiday with the entire family and I remember feeling so excited and loved as a child. But it is also a harsh reminder that not everyone is still around to celebrate it with me this year. Especially my dad. He passed away before Charlotte was born and it hurt that he's not around to celebrate the holidays with us. But I do know I am very blessed that Charlotte is here and that I can share this holiday with her and make new memories with our little family. I love her so much and I'm so incredibly thankful fthat I am able to share this with her. 

Charlotte found a great viewing point on daddies shoulders. She got really excited about all the dancing and the music as the parade passed by. It was very crowded in the streets, but she handled the event like a pro. She even recieved candy from of the helpers. So she was just chilling and stuffing away her sweets. She had a great time, so that automatically means we all had a great time.

After standing outside in the cold for a while we decided to head indoors for a warm cup of coffee. There were alot of kids there, so it was impossible to keep Charlotte at our table. She went off playing with the other children and got treated to some spiced biscuits and candy by yet another helper. She got so excited about it that she ran back to our table to show us what she just got. 

Yes, she was really excited about getting candy from a stranger... we'll probably need to do something about that in the future. But not now, not yet. We're just enjoying the festivities and love being able to share this with our precious little angel. Do you have any special local traditions?

Vacation Part Deux!

Since we had to postpone our vacation due to Charlotte's health scare, we had to wait a little longer for our much needed second break. But vacation was finally here! We spend a sweet little holiday in France, a holidaypark in Aisne called le lac d'ailette to be exact. I had lots of activities planned, such as seeing the Eiffel Tower and visiting Disneyland Paris, but since Charlotte was still recovering and we were all pretty exhausted from the whole experience. we decided to just have a chilled and laidback vacation instead. We hung out at the lake, went swimming, went for walks and went out to dinner. We stayed at the park most of the time and just did some light local sightseeing. It was absolutely fine though. We had to cutest little cottage and the park was absolutely gorgeous! Here are some of our favorite holiday shots!

I actually liked it so much there, that I'm seriously considering going back there next year. And maybe then we can actually go see the Eiffel Tower and visit Disneyland Paris. Who knows! :) Did you have a fun vacation? 

Kisses!

Vacation Time!

We just got back from our sweet little getaway, and we had such a great time! This was actually our first little break away from home since Charlotte was born. So I'm guessing it was about time! It were alot of firsts for her, which also made is extra special for us. It's just such a different experience seeing the world through your child's eyes. It's very exciting! It was her first time seeing the ocean, jellyfish, porpoises and even seals! We even spotted a few seals offshore when we were hanging out on the beach, which was just so cool! Everything on this trip was perfect, the weather, the hotel, the boattrip to the Island, I seriously couldn't have asked for more. The hotel did have a pretty scary miniature golfcourse in the basement though, but than again we probably shouldn't have gone exploring it in the middle of the night! Haha! But since a picture says more than a thousand words, here are some of my favorite holiday shots! 

So, that was our sweet little mini vacation! I'm not sure what we'll do with the rest of the summer. I do have two weeks off next month. Any suggestions? And what are your plans for this summer? 

Kisses!