A Kernovich Announcement

This could be my longest gap between blog posts, ever!  There are several reasons for this since we have been extremely busy.  The short list of activities/excuses is below:
1) We had many visitors in April - some of my best girl friends from Oxford: Megan, Sarah, & Autumn came to visit and we went on a great European tour just us girls
2) A couple days after the girls left, our friends Rachel & James came to visit from Chicago
3) We boarded the same flight as the Chapmans back home to Chicago to spend 2 weeks of wonderful time with nearly all of our family and Chicago friends and celebrated both of JJ's grandmothers' milestone birthdays - 99 & 90th!
4) I had the worst travel experience of my life trying to get back to London from Minneapolis which resulted in 2 missed connections on two different days, extra nights in hotel rooms (one in Chicago & one in Newark), no access to baggage the entire time, and a very tired toddler and mommy.
5) I am kind of obsessed with catching up on the HBO series Girls - most of my free time in the last 6 weeks has been spent sleeping or watching an episode of Girls
6) JJ has had to spend most of April and May back in Chicago working and being a single parent is tough!
7) We took an amazing trip to Norway for our anniversary over Memorial Day weekend
8)  And most important.... we are expecting baby #2 in November!   We are overjoyed and I have been extremely tired so blogging hasn't been a priority.  I'm going to start trying to catch up this week with a recap of all our activities.

We can't wait to meet baby #2 that is due on November 20!  They give these little "Baby on board" buttons to pregnant women on the tube so that others will give up their seats for them.  I don't wear it (yet) but thought it might be a nice touch for the baby book!

Sunny Days, Pillow Fights, and the National Gallery

We have been enjoying a really beautiful spring here in London.  All the flowers are in bloom and the trees are starting to bud.  Every time Tyler looks outside he says, "The trees are growing!" in his cute little astonished voice.  We have been trying to make the most of our time here so when we are in town in London we are going somewhere of interest now.  See below for our latest adventure to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.  Now this month is going to FLY by!  I'm so excited to welcome some of my best friends from Oxford, Sarah, Autumn, & Megan to London on Saturday and then we are headed off to travel more of Europe kid-free!  Then a couple days after they leave, the Chapmans come to stay, and then the day they leave we are on a plane to Chicago for a visit and celebration of both of JJ's grandma's birthdays!

Tyler loves to "use" the outside gym near a playground we go to.  Here he is working on his lats! 

We went to the Natural History Museum one rainy day.  He loved this digger truck on display

He was also really pumped about the stuffed birds and pointed to each one saying, "What is THAT!?"

Meeting the mammals

One of the things the Natural History Museum is known for is this big blue whale display.

Tyler is kind of obsessed with motorcycles these days and he has a new found interest in this baby trike.  He says it's his motorcycle and he rides around our tiny flat on it.  He even set aside space for it's "parking spot"

We visited the Battersea Park Zoo with friends one day.  The boys weren't very interested in the animals that day but there was a great playground and all these cool things to climb on.

Hi, Bob the Builder!

One of the things on my list of things to do before leaving was to visit the National Gallery and see Van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings (both Sunflowers paintings are together there at the moment).  I had no idea when we went down there that National Pillow Fight Day was taking place in Trafalgar Square right in front of the National Gallery.  It was crazy.  Tyler was annoyed because feathers kept blowing in his lollipop and we were annoyed because it was a bit of a nuisance to get around.  I did get smacked with a pillow though (not too hard) so I guess I can now say that I've participated in National Pillow Fight Day (who knew that was a thing???)

People were really getting into it.  Trafalgar Square was trashed.  I can't even imagine what the clean up was like.

No pictures in the National Gallery so I had to take one outside the side entrance to prove that we were there.  

Shake Shack - the new very unhealthy favorite eating spot for the family!

After we ate in Covent Garden, Tyler really enjoyed the band that was playing on the lower floor.  It drew quite a crowd there.

Tyler enjoying the big kid swings on a sunny day

This building is right around the corner from us.  One beautiful day while walking home I looked up and noticed the cool tower up there and how great the building looked in the sunlight behind the blossoming tree.

Tyler was super pumped to see all these tractors working on the lawn in Regent's Park.  We didn't leave this spot for a while.

JJ is in Chicago this week for work so Tyler is getting a lot of "Mommy & Me" time.  Here is a selfie of us at the Heath watching the ducks and swans.  I think he is getting tired of me though because he asks, "Where's Daddy?" first thing every morning.

Day Trip to Bath

Last weekend we took a quick day trip over to Bath to see the old Roman Baths and check out the town.  Tyler was really excited to take a car ride and we had a beautiful day to explore.  Since we are moving back home in August, we are checking things off the list that we want to do before leaving and this was one of them.

An old Roman building

The entrance to the Roman Baths - a bit underwhelming while under construction

Bath Abbey

The boys listening to the audio guide before entering the baths.  The audio guide captured Tyler's interest for about 5 minutes and then it transitioned to a necklace, telephone and finally a weapon (we took it away at that point).

Old times in the Roman Bath.  You can't bathe here anymore but you can tour all the different areas where there are natural hot springs.  They opened up a spa in Bath where you can bathe in the springs but we didn't get there with a toddler on this trip!

Walking over the hot spring

Testing out the weight of the limestone that was moved to build the baths.  Tyler loves to work!

Contemplating a dip....

My boys at the Roman Baths

There was a duck hanging out at the baths.  It never went in the water and I'm not sure if it was allowed to bathe!

They had samples of the hot water to drink.  It tasted like hot water.

Tyler thought it was delicious

The musicians in the town square were a hit.  Tyler didn't want to leave

We took an open top bus tour around the city.

Pretty sure this wasn't for riding...

We took the steep uphill walk to Prior Park Landscape Gardens.  It was worth the walk with picturesque views over bath and some cool architecture. 

The view over Bath, looking down on this cool bridge

The daffodils were in full bloom.  Tyler picked one out for me :)

What is that???

Tyler standing on an old Roman bridge in the landscape garden

A good old fashioned game of leap frog on the bridge!

After all that walking we stopped at the tea garden for some afternoon tea with ice cream and Victoria Sponge Cake.  It was a hit!

After tea there were lots of trees in the picnic area for climbing

Hey guys, how do I get out of here?

The walk back downhill to Bath city center took us past this cemetery from the 1500s 

England is really in bloom right now, it's beautiful!

Fast Cars, Museums, and Spring

We have just been hanging around town the past couple weeks, enjoying the beginning of spring.  Here's the recap in pictures.

Here are some beautiful pictures of our city that Tari and Chris took on the London Eye when they visited.  Here is St Paul's Cathedral

A great one of the Houses of Parliament

Tyler loves inspecting the community vegetable gardens that are planted near where we go to swim class.  It has been fun to watch the bean stalks grow and talk to him about how the flowers will become berries.  Maybe someday when we have hopefully at least a patch of green space of our own, we can grow a garden!

Hey look - the ducks are back in the water!

Tyler outside the British Museum - our first time there.

The Rosetta Stone.  The museum is so huge it's overwhelming.  There are artifacts there from all over the world.  We only got to the Greek and Egyptian exhibits and then Tyler made it clear he was ready to leave.  

Whoa!

The lollipop helped make the museum more fun.  

Hello birdie!

Um, Dad, this cat has earrings and a nose ring.  It does not look like the kitties I know!

The Nereid Monument 

Parthenon sculptures

This is more like it!  We went for a swing at nearby park, Coram's Fields 

For JJ's birthday I got him this racing adventure where he could drive fast cars.  Two other women in my playgroup also got it for their husbands so the dudes went for a kid-free Saturday morning with fast cars.

It's hard to see but JJ is in the driver's seat (on the right of course).  I'm a big dork and got the "picture package" so that he could have a picture to take home to me for the blog!

While the boys raced, the girls took the kids to the zoo.  It was a nice day and all the animals were super active!  Here this camel was out for a walk.  I thought it was super cool to get this close to the camel but Tyler was more entertained by my sunglasses.

Rooooaaaar! The lions were the most active I've ever seen them.  There were roaring and getting really close to the glass.

Hi Raa Raa!  Raa Raa the Noisy Lion is Tyler's favorite TV show here so he really enjoys lions.

Hi penguins!!!

Everything is in bloom here, it is beautiful!

I went to rugby with Tyler and JJ last Sunday for the first time to check it out.  Tyler is definitely a little young for the class but he seems to have fun.  He is such a polite boy, it's adorable.  There is one part of class where the coach runs around with flags velcro'd to his belt and the kids chase him around the gym and try to grab a flag.  Tyler chases him but then would stop right in front of him as if to ask permission to take a flag.  The other kids just grab the flags and run on.  The coach is really good and picked up on it, so he started to show Tyler which flag to take.  After Tyler saw that, then he would grab the flag the coach showed him.  Hopefully he toughens up a bit for future flag football games :)