Day 12 - Thursday, December 4

On Thursday we headed back into London. This time we chose to take Ady with us and leave Emma with my parents. Ady was really good but wanted to be held a lot. I can't really blame considering how much walking we do.

She was excited to ride on the train again. This is her waiting for the train at the Lingfield station.

Our first stop was Hampton Court. This was a royal palace starting from the time of King Henry VIII. Once again this belonged to somebody who worked for the king and when the king decided he didn't like him anymore he took it for himself. It is an interesting palace because it has two halves that look completely different. It was originally built in the 15th century. In the late 17th century the King Wiliam and Queen Mary began to remodel it in a more current style and then ran out of money. The front is the Tudor style while the back half is some other style!
There were 4 different sets apartments that we got to walk through. One was from King Henry VIII's time period. One for King William and one for Queen Mary. The last rooms were from King George II time. It was interesting to see how different the rooms were based on the current style. In the mid 18th century they quit using it as a royal palace.

Ben and Ady in the gardens outside of Hampton Court (this is the back side of the palace). The gardens are beautiful and enormous. The palace is right on the Thames.

There is a maze made out of hedges on one of the corners of the property. We decided to let Ady lead the way through the maze. She actually did a pretty good job. It was fun to see her running through like she actually knew what she was doing!

When we finished at Hampton Court we headed back to Kensington Palace (since we had missed it last time we had tried). We got there with a couple of hours to spare. This is where Princess Diana lived up until the time that she died. This palace was where the King and Queen lived up until Elizabeth I. She is the one who had Buckingham Palace built which is where the Queen lives today.

When we left there was an old homeless man out feeding the pigeons and squirrels. It was interesting to watch because the squirrels would jump right on his legs and arms to get food. I wouldn't want to do it but he sure enjoyed it. He told us that he feeds the every night.

Next we headed to the Hyde Park LDS Church to meet up with my parents and some of their good friends, the Parry's. The church is beautiful. To me it looks like a temple. I love how they had it decorated for Christmas. They even had the inside decorated, the chapel and everything.

All the girls inside the church. Ady was excited to have some friends to play with (after she got over her shyness, of course)!
The church has about 6 floors. The offices for the London mission are in here as well as the LDS Institute for the London area.

Outside the Hyde Park Chapel.

Ady was sitting next to my dad on the train. She decided she wanted to stand by Ben so she got up and moved. At the next stop somebody came on and took her seat. She was very upset that somebody else would sit there and let everybody know that she didn't appreciate it. She definitely has a mind of her own!

Ady and Big Ben!