Next Few Days...

Today marks the beginning of an exciting next few days.  First of all, not sure if I mentioned this yet, but tonight we are going to see one of my musical heros who just happens to be playing a solo show here in London while we just happen to be here for the Olympics and just happened to be able to get tickets (much thanks to my tenclub membership!).  Yup, Eddie Vedder is playing tonight at the Hammersmith Apollo Theatre and we're super pumped!

Tomorrow the entire rest of the crew arrives so all 39 of us will be here.  It's bittersweet for is because while it will be exciting for everyone to arrive and all move into our new place (two big rented houses across the street from each other), it'll be sad to leave our current hosts, who have been absolutely spectacular to us!  We have been truly blessed to have them as hosts (and spoiled)!!  In comparison I realize that we have a thing or two to learn about hosting people.  Wow! Can't say enough good things about them!  Last night they made us a "Sunday roast" - roast chicken with all the fixings.  Spectacular.  (I was a little confused at first because with their accect I thought they we're saying "Sunday rice" lol.

Then of course on Wednesday, Reuben dives with Alex in the 3m synchronized diving event and they do have a legitimate chance at a medal so of course (now this goes without saying) we're pretty excited.  To say the least!  Wow, could the next few days get any better!

Cute side note: we stopped at Burger King (don't judge us, it was late, we were jetlagged and starving and it was there)... and the kids insisted we order onion rings so that they could make them into Olympic rings!  Priceless.

Greenwich

Yesterday we did it.  We finally did it.  The kiddos we're ecstatic.  We rode on a double-decker bus!  It's by far and away the event (besides Reuben's diving of course) that they've been most waiting for and yesterday they got to ride on two of them!

Our awesome hostess, Janet, took us on a bit of a tour of Greenwich (pronounced "Grenidge") where we got to briefly explore Black Heath (on the way), the Greenwich market, and the Greenwich underground walking tunnel that goes right under the Thames!  The kids loved the tunnel!

Afterwards we had fish 'n chips at an English pub, with a pint of room temperature ale while watching football on the tele.  Does it get anymore english than that?  Yup, just immersing ourselves in the culture!  (The football was Olympic football so it was probably sub-standard to most hard-core fans, but nonetheless...)

For those keeping track, Elias woke up at 7am, Malachi at 8ish, and I haven't been able to get back to sleep since 7 as well.  Is this the rude awakening we need to jolt ourselves into London time?  Not sure how it's gonna work out as Nealah, Azelia, and Riel are all still asleep...

Travel Day

As Danny said we made it here safe and sound with very little incidents.  Malachi lost his first top tooth, so he has that adorable missing tooth grin. Nealah loved watching the map on the plane that showed us where we were, so as soon as it was over the arch and closest to London she kept saying "we are going down" and there was no way she was going to miss that! So after some convincing that we were actually 2 hours from landing and a promise that I'd wake her, she fell asleep only to be woken an hour later.  Elias and Riel fell fast asleep on take off, stayed awake the rest of the time to fall asleep 2 hours while landing.  Lesson learned - don't pack your children any sort of toys or colouring books for a flight, they were entertained enough by their personal TVs and the bag of activities Air Transat gave them.  We had way too many carry on bags and a long way to walk to customs.

We have been so blessed to have some friends of the family who have put us up! We are staying at Janet's house.  She is the daughter of my grandma's friend, Jackie.  When we first arrived no one was around at Janet's to let is in, so we made our way to Jackie's, where she greeted us, fed us and gave us wonderful, comfortable beds to nap in, woke us so we could better deal with jetleg, sent us to the park

, and then fed us again. A perfect day after a sleepless night. We then met our incredible hostesses Janet, her daughters Carmen and Mica and tenant Jack. We put the kids to bed and planned to head there soon ourselves but instead had an English history and language lesson in true English style over a couple of beer.

Opening Ceremonies

Well today we got up at about 1:30pm so we're slowly making progress!  It's amazing how much this jet-lag affects us.  Maybe by the time we have to fly back home our internal clocks will finally be adjusted to London time!

Last night we took in the opening ceremonies at Canada Olympic House and it was awesome!  The vibe was electric!  I can't really even describe the feeling.  To be there, in London, at Canada House, during the event, with all the other friends and family of the athletes who made the trip, cheering as loud as we could, all dressed up in Canadian garb... was incredible!  And I'm not gonna lie - what made it over-the-top special for me was that my kiddos made it on national TV!  (We saw the cameras and were hoping it would happen - and our chances were pretty good being that 4 out of the 5 kids that were there belonged to us - and cameras love kids!).  Canada House just seemed like THE place to be at that moment in time and we were there!  For Olympic junkies like us, it was truly special.  I can only imagine what the actual athletes were feeling as they were parading in!  It was truly an intense, and incredibly emotional and happy experience.  When the Canadian athletes entered the stadium, Canada House just erupted!  It was awesome to see Reuben on the big screen as well.  The kids were so excited to see their uncle!

Oh ya, and later on that evening an enthusiastic impromptu chorus of O Canada emerged from the crowd led by somebody standing on a table with his kids!  What a clown.

First Day In London

Well here we are, all six of us (so, so far all is good). We just got up and bathed the kiddos. I sorta know what time it is here, I'm not sure what time it is back home, and my body has absolutely no idea what time it is. It's been quite a struggle to adjust to the time change. The kids slept till 3:30pm today (off and on) and still woke up grumpy.

Being the kids and my first international overseas flight, we didn't know what to expect but it was really exciting. They didn't sleep much on the plane so it was stressful at times but we got through it with no real crisis'. For me it was really novel to eat all the single-serving individually-wrapped food items during the flight. I kept thinking of the Fight Club scene where Brad Pitt was talking about our single-serving world. Also, speaking of pop culture references, my first thought when we entered the plane was "so these are the people we might have to spend the next few years with if we crash onto a deserted island." I couldn't help but to feverishly scan the plane to check out which flight companions might be most useful to buddy up with in case of that event. ("Lost" reference)

Today will be a day of adjusting and getting our barings in London as it is our first real day being settled. We're going to Canada Olympic House at Terfalfar Square to watch the opening ceremonies which will be really exciting, especially if/when Reuben gets any face-time on camera. He dives on Aug 1st at 3pm London time (7 hours dif). And also on that day CTV National News is going to be shooting a story on Reuben Ross and his 39 family members who made the trip to London to cheer him on. I'll keep you posted on that!

Bye for now!
Danny (and famjam)

Ps. We're fortunate enough to be staying with some tremendously lovely and hospitable hosts here in London. Props to them and I'll talk them up a little more in another post with pics!

Welcome!

Hey everyone!  Thanks for stopping by our new blog!  We are Danny and Azelia, plus our four amazing children, Malachi, Nealah, Elias, and Riel.  If you're interested, you're welcome to check in as often as you like as we attempt to journal all the exciting* stuff that happens to our family.  And just in case you're wondering, 2004 is the year our FamJam was established (aka the year we got married).
*Well... exciting to us!

Ps. Our twitter handles are @nudeskater and @carmellelatte.