Sunday, April 20, 2014

London Part 1 {Ruislip, Abbey Road, The Tower of London, The London Eye, Big Ben}

This was definitely a cross this off the bucket list trip. It was exactly as I'd imagined and so much more. I couldn't get over the accents, and of course we all spoke in our best versions, all the books we bought the kids from Harrods are read in only English accent, naturally. 
We stayed in Ruislip about 15 min. outside of central London by tube, but it was very easy to get around from there. 

The view from the train was absolutely amazing and the kids spent most of the time gazing out… that is when they weren't swinging on the poles.



This is the high street of the sleepy little town we stayed in, I loved the quaintness.






Being that we have a few Beatles fans in our family, we couldn't leave London without visiting Abbey Road. Oh my goodness, that was seriously a highlight of our trip.  We thought we'd get a shot of the kids crossing the ever icon crosswalk.  However, once we arrived, we realized we weren't the only ones with that idea and waited patiently in line. It was fun and our family got an applause because we were the only ones with a baby.  Probably because we were the only ones that would actually place a baby on a crosswalk where taxis, and delivery trucks are zooming by.




The day we chose to do the Tower of London was obviously  freezing cold and rainy… but we braved it and went into the exhibits to keep warm. We saw the crown jewels and took lots of pictures which we later found out were not supposed, oops. There were also live reenactments all over the grounds so the kids really enjoyed it. 







The kids didn't know what to make of him… he was like Ainsley's size.


Good thing for hot chocolate vendors, if not for them she wouldn't have lasted another minute.




Ahh the guillotine… always exciting for a toddler to see.



I've never seen the London Eye during the summer, but I am so glad my first view was on a cold winters night… the view was spectacular.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

America Ririe Photography

My photography website is finally up and running… take a peek!


www.americaririe.com  here's the link or you can click "photography" on the menu above


Now booking summer sessions!

 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Happy at GWA

As I was walking the kids to class this morning, a teacher approached me and said Mia's dancing was excellent on the video, to which I replied "what video?" She told me to look up Happy at GWA… and so, here it is. She's in the 39th and 218th seconds.


Tuesday, April 8, 2014

{Ainsley - 1 yr}

Our Ainsley Maxwell girl… she had us at hello.  We prayed to know if this little spirit would join our family and before we had her name picked out, we knew "she" was coming. She is a beautiful and gentle little soul with so much love in her little heart. Despite all of the obstacles and challenges that come along with her hearing impairment, she is always trying to learn new things. I can't imagine our family without her.