Kinsells in London: July 2015

July 1-5, 2015

26 Weeks

Harvey is doing really well with his veggies. We bring his food with us when we go out to eat. He's still a bit small for highchairs but we try.

Mom has been wanting to see Kensington Palace. We were hoping that Princess Kate would be walking around, but no luck this time.

Cute signs

We stopped at The Orangery for some lunch and tea. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed sitting outside.

We celebrated the 4th of July in London. It's a bit odd celebrating our independence from the country we reside in. Some Brits are nice about it while others...not so much. Matt planned a fun American Party at Porky's. We had a blast and loved that we could celebrate America!

Happy 4th of July

Dirty Shirley in London

Whiskey buddies

On Sunday, my cousin, Victoria arrived in London! We took her around to some fun London sights. A new one for us was a brass rubbing at St Martin in the Fields. It was a fun and you can choose a small rubbing or a huge life-size knight. They teach you how to do it, (its more challenging than expected) and now we have a fun souvenir.

Double Decker bus

All done!

July 6-12, 2015
After showing Victoria around a few more landmarks in London we headed for Italy. This was a dream trip for my mom and we were all so excited to see our homeland. My mom is 100% Italian and has wanted to see Italy her whole life. During our trip we found out that Josh's great grandpa was born in Croatia. Crazy! I was an ignorant American and had never heard of Croatia until we were trip planning. What are the odds Josh had a connection.

27 weeks- Italy bound

July 13-19, 2015
We finished up our Italy vacation and headed back to London.

28 weeks- Venice

Thursday Victoria headed back to New York and Harvey had his Baptism. The baptism took place at Westminster Cathedral and was magnificent! It was so beautiful, we could not have asked for anything more stunning. Mom and I did it up full British style in or fascinators, and Harvey was dapper in his white christening outfit form his godmother, Bobbi. Visitors were stopping and taking photographs of us...probably thought we were famous Brits. This is one of my favorite memories of London.

Goodbye Victoria

July 20-26, 2015

29 weeks

Harvey and I love going to Bounce and Rhyme at our local library. He's really starting to recognize the songs and loves staring at other babies. This week they had a photographer taking portraits of the babies. I hope Harvey took a good one!

At Bounce and Rhyme

This was the last week granny is with us in London. We are so sad to see her go home. We will miss her! We celebrated her last week with dinner at Nando's with the Stones, a trip to Westfield mall, and lunch at Five Guys!

Bye Granny

July 27-31, 2015

30 Weeks

Some friends and I took an adventure to Camden Beach. Mary had read about it in Time Out, and we had no idea what to expect. It was basically a carpark (parking lot) filled with sand. Even though it was a bit cold, Harvey LOVED playing in the sand. Last time we were at a beach with sand he was too little to realize.

"Beach" time

Our lil monkey is getting more mobile! His now starting to reach through his crib to grab stuff on my night stand.

Caught red handed

Our picture arrived from Imagethirst! So cute!

Harvey grabs everything, within reach or not! His favorite food is sweet potatoes, he thinks Remy is the funniest dog he knows, he has been going under the water at swim class, babbles, and he is obsessed with electronics.

We have all been looking forward to this trip since we found out we were moving to London. My mom is 100% Italian and has been talking about seeing the country for as long as I can remember. My cousin, Victoria really wanted to see Italy too, so she joined the trip. We decided the best way to see many different cities in Italy with a baby would be a cruise. This way we didn't have to pack and unpack many times and we would still get to travel around. We decided to go with the British cruise line P&O. They are very baby friendly and the other cruise lines would charge a full rate for babies (ridiculous!). We loved Italy! Our itinerary included Genoa, Livorno (Florence, Pisa), Naples (Sorrento, Pompeii), Dubrovnik (in Croatia), and Venice.

on the plane

Genoa: Kind of a "shady" dirty port city but we had fun walking around and doing some shopping.

Not happy about life jackets

Genoa

Livorno: It was founded in 1017 as a small costal fortress to protect Pisa. Livorno suffered much damage during WWII. Today it is the 3rd largest sea port in Italy and is very much a working town rather than a tourist location. We decided to do an excursion to Pisa and Florence. We took a coach from the ship to Pisa. Once again during our traveling Harvey got us special treatment.

I was so surprised to see so many fields of sunflowers. It was beautiful! They went as far as the eye could see. I just wanted to run through them.

Field of Miracles

The leaning tower, Campanile, is the bell tower for the cathedral. It has 7 bells in it but no longer ring due to the degree of the lean. They now play a CD with the bells.

We were in Pisa and Florence July 9, 2015, our 4th wedding anniversary.

Found a penny press...I'm addicted

After visiting the Field of Miracles, we took the coach to Florence. We visited a beautiful leather shop and got an amazing recommendation for lunch. Mom and Victoria got pizzas that were delicious and Josh and I got this...

Josh was told to get a Florentine steak while in Florence. We decided to splurge and get it for our anniversary. Good plan because it was 1kg or 2.2lbs of meat! It was really yummy!

Santa Croce Square

Sunset sail off

Day at sea: We relaxed and went to the pool. Harvey had a blast in the bay pool. That night was the Captain's Gala. All the crew loved Harvey. So many of them had babies at home that they are not able to see for months.

Naples: In 79 A.D. Vesuvius destroyed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Then in 1748 Pompeii was allegedly rediscovered by accident. We signed up for torus of Sorrento and Pompeii. We also visited Antica Pizzeria Port'Alba (thought to be the world's first true pizzeria opening in 1830).

We got on a coach to drive to Sorrento. It was beautiful with crystal clear water. Josh and I really enjoyed the shopping. They grow lemons and this is where Limoncello started. They have lemon everything.

Sorrento was breathtaking

HUGE lemons everywhere

After touring, shopping and lunch in Sorrento we drove to Pompeii. The view was beautiful and the roads were very narrow and curvy.

Vesuvius

Vesuvius is currently dormant, but is expected to erupt again. Currently there are too many living in the "red zone" to be evacuated in time.

Pompeii: This costal town was frozen in time, and much of what is left was exactly how it was on the day of the eruption. Poisonous fumes suffocated the people and the buildings were covered in ash. 1700 years later, the city was uncovered, and the excavation has been easier than at the other famous city of Herculaneum. This visit was the one I was looking forward to the most!

A store- notice the counter

Stepping stones for when it flooded

They served food, notice the pots for storage

The next few pictures are in a house of a very wealthy family. It was very large and had the original painting and decorations on the wall. It was very eery walking through this city that appeared so much like a current city today.

Cast of a poor puppy

After the tour we headed back to the ship. Victoria, Josh, and I decided to visit the famous pizza parlor, the first one in the World! We also stopped at a penny press! Long story short, we were the last 3 back on the ship and they were looking for us! Glad we made it back, but I'm pretty sure my mom and Harvey would not have let the ship leave without us!

They only make 2 kinds of pizza, cheese and just sauce. We got 1 of each and it was only 10 Euros. So yummy! I would highly recommend 'L Antica Pizzeria.

Maschio Angioino

Day at sea: more relaxation and pool time! We got to witness a pod of whales enjoying the sun. I actually finished an entire book on this trip! Dinner was a formal night.

Dubrovnik: situated on the Dalmatian coastline of the Adriatic Sea at the southern end of Croatia. In the early 1990s Dubrovnik was badly damaged in the war following the break-up of Yugoslavia. We toured the Old City and took in some amazing views.

The pirate ship for our boat tour

City Walls

Venice: Once one of the wealthiest cities in Europe, the main island, Venezia is divided into 6 districts that are separated by canals and waterways. There are no roads in most parts of the city, so the majority of people have to travel in and around the city by boat. We visited the Murano Glass Factory and got to see glass being blown, and we really enjoyed our gondola ride.