Windsor with Katrina

The welcoming committee for Aunt Katrina! (Although, Chris and Ethan were in the bathroom when she came through. She got through customs faster than we anticipated!):

I did enjoy watching all the happy people embracing when they arrived at the airport. It reminded me of "Love Actually". Ha, especially since we were at a London airport (Gatwick). 

We dropped our things off at the B&B by Heathrow and headed to Windsor to explore. Check out this cool passageway:

Can you tell that royals live in the nearby area?

Ooo, the ROYAL shopping center. Makes you wonder if the royals ever run over there to grab something with their bodyguards in tow. Ha, they probably send someone to go get whatever it is they need.

Steep admission but a very cool castle-probably the fanciest we've been in so far. Makes sense, since the royals still live in this one and all.

The well manicured grounds:

Just look at those lines!

Chris' contraband photo (before I reminded him that we weren't supposed to take photos). In his defense, there were people all around us taking photos.

It was pretty cold out today (that wet cold that goes to your bones) and Hails was looking a little cold/cranky here. They predicted snow (it was JUST cold enough) but we didn't see any.

The guard looks very serious here but we did see one crack a smile when they changed posts. I can just imagine what he was thinking, "I'm off!! It's Saturday night!!! I can stop frowning now!"

We had some mulled cider and mulled wine and dinner at the nearby Duchess of Cambridge pub. We really liked this pub-really cutely decorated with Union Jack buntings and good food and friendly service (get outta town!). With a name like that, it couldn't have been around for that long-what like 5 years? We headed back to the room and had our lemon cake for Katrina's birthday and gave her the adult coloring book. We had one spoon so we took turns having a piece of cake. Katrina had candy and Christmas gifts for the kids so they were all excited. Ethan was over the moon about the how in the dark planets and the world map puzzle--he put it together that night of course! His two loves-maps and puzzles.