we survived a week...barely...

That may be a bit of an exaggeration but we're all still getting used to Ranger.

What we've learned:
-First and foremost, Ranger is huge! I thought Boulevard was big but Ranger's head is enormous.
-Stuart is not impressed with Ranger. Any time Ranger gets too close to Stu, Stu barks at him and Ranger runs away. Little does Stu know that one chomp and he'd be a goner.
-I think Boulevard's jealous feelings are coming through. He's acting very depressed at times and he gives Mike a lot of attitude.
-When Ranger gets bored you better have a toy available. He has a tendency to just grab whatever is in reach and start chewing. Nothing critical has been damaged but every tag has been ripped off our outdoor furniture cushions and Ranger got ahold of Mike's taser thigh holster and chewed off one of the clasps.
-Ranger gets kenneled at bed time for reason I've stated above. :)
-Ranger likes to play...all the time, anywhere, and with whomever will play with him. Boulevard and Ranger will play a lot as Stuart watches from a distance.
-Ranger gets disciplined(and obedience) in German and Blvd/Stu get disciplined in English...gets a little confusing.
-If we are walking, most people will move to the sidewalk on the other side of the street if we have Ranger with us...little do they know Ranger is a big baby.

This was the first day with Ranger.

Relaxin'...as Stuart takes refuge in his kennel.
Thought I'd throw this one in. This is one of the photo's we got before Mike even met Ranger. It's amazing that the sweet guy above turns into the mean guy below when he needs to.

Day 5 - London...er, guess I mean Paris

Our final full day in London, we decided to take a day trip to Paris. We boarded a bus very early in the morning and they took us to the train station where we boarded the Eurostar for a 2 1/2 hour train ride to Paris. Once we got to Paris we had about an hour bus ride/tour, then an hr boat ride on the Seine, lunch at the Eiffel Tower, toured the Eiffel Tower, then we had about an hour of free time around Le Louvre. Since we didn't have much time, we decided not to go into Le Louvre since it's so huge so we just walked around a bit until it was meeting time.

Although I only have a day to base my judgment, I much preferred London. Paris was so crowded and the traffic was horrible. I'm sure if we had more time to explore and brushed up on our French, I would have really liked it. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it...but we also had an interpreter with us at all times.

On the bus after getting off the Eurostar.

Traffic doesn't look bad as we look down this street, but trust me...it was not good!
Paris Opera

As you can imagine, we have a bazillion pics of the Eiffel Tower.

Notre Dame Cathedral - taken on our Seine boat cruise.

Boat Tour

Taken from one of the levels of the Eiffel Tower.

A smooch - isn't this supposed to be the most romantic city in the world?

Our free time - Le Louvre. What more do a I need? A water and starbucks...makes any trip more fabulous than it already was.

Le Louvre

And that's a wrap. Thanks for humoring me and letting me post our entire trip. It was a wonderful 30th birthday surprise. We left the next morning with a 9 hr flight from London to Atlanta and then back to New Mexico.

London - Day 4 - May 10, 2011

Tuesday started off with us racing to try to catch a canal boat tour which we literally missed by seconds. We were getting to the boat as it was pulling away. Needless to say, missing the boat tour coupled with our sleep schedule being a little wacky led to some tears by me and cranky pants on both Mike & my part.
Oh well - moving on...off to Windsor Castle. Along with St. Paul's Cathedral, Windsor Castle was another of my favorites on the trip. I thought it was cool that the Royal's still stay at the castle on the weekends and it is where many "state"(are they called state dinners in London?) dinners are held. I think it's so interesting that the castle is still fully in use.

Waiting for our train.

On the train ride to Windsor Castle.
Windsor Castle was huge and we weren't able to take pictures in the inside areas we toured but here are a few. Yes - I do have a head set on...we took MANY self-guided tours while we were in London.

I believe the area behind me is where they actually stay when they are there are on the weekends.

If I remember correctly, this is the on-site church at the Castle.

We briefly walked around the town near the Castle before we caught our return train. This was a building Mike remembered when he was on his college trip to London. Your eyes are not deceiving you, it is crooked. :)

We actually thought Windsor Castle would take longer so we had some "un-planned" time on Tuesday. We decided to utilize the benefits of our London Pass by touring the WWII experience and touring the HMS Belfast battleship.

The WWII experience was geared more toward kids but I did partake in some of the dress up activities.

Thought this was a sign worth taking a picture of!

Touring battleships is always interesting to me. To think how they lived on these ships for long periods of time...

Another pictures of the Tower Bridge to end our day.

We ate dinner at the Punch Tavern by enjoying some yummy meat pies and some beer. We never ventured to try the "warm" beer. Not sure either us would like that.

Day 5 will be coming soon.

London - Day 3 - May 9, 2011

It's something about this time of year that I stop blogging for some reason. But since this blog is basically our virtual scrapbook, I want to finish up the London trip. I thought I could pack it into one post but there's just too much to share...and it's fun to look at the pics and relive the trip. I still can't believe Mike pulled this off.

For Day 3, we started off with a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. If we ever make it back to London(or should I say "when" we get back to London :)), I would definitely like to see a play in the theater. Super cool!

The stage is behind us.

From the Globe theater, we made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral...probably one of my favorites of the trip. It was incredible inside(but you aren't allowed to take pics) and we did climb the 530 steps to the very top.

Are we there yet? The height did start to freak me out a little.

See the point way in the distance? That's the "top" where we ended up after climbing all those stairs.

Next up was Westminster Abbey(couldn't take pics inside here either). It was cool to be there and compare it to all the pics I had see of the royal wedding a few weeks before. It puts everything in perspective.

This is the front of the Abbey where Princess Kate made her entrance.

Next up was to tour Kensington Palace...which I later heard is where Kate and William will be living. Sorta cool! Much of the palace and gardens were under constrution but here is a good pic of both.

We ended our day at Regents Park and enjoyed a lovely dinner and bottle of wine at Cafe Rouge.

Day 4 and Day 5 will be coming up next. :)