A Grand Day Out

Aren't these just lovely pictures! We had a fantastic day out today. We started off watching the guards depart and arrive during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The Queen was in today so they all saluted her and the retiring life guards paraded to the front of the palace and saluted her with a bugle. I wonder if she actually watched these salutations anymore? We were guided through the action by an old chap who watches every single change - every other day in Winter and every day in the Summer. He was very helpful and spot on with his timings.

From the palace, we walked through Trafalgar Square (stopping at The National Gallery for a nappy change and bag empty), through Leicester Square and China Town to The Rainforest Cafe. We won a £35 meal voucher in a raffle at our community nurse team's family day back in September. The voucher went out of date last week but, when I explained the situation, the manager let us come anyway and in half term, when the orignal voucher wasn't valid. It is an amazing place. We certainly wouldn't have been going without the voucher as it is not at all cheap and the food is pretty standard. The atmosphere and effects were amazing. We had a pair of elephants watching over us as we ate and gorilla's and monkeys were near by. All the animals are animated. A star lit sky was above us and thunder rumbled from time to time. We were promised a good table and we certainly had one. The only problem I had was that there are no disabled facilities and the restaurant is down a steep flight of stairs. However, the staff bent over backwards to help us to get Wills down there. The children had a great time. Willam, as ever, enjoyed pushing engines around the table and smelling chips.

After lunch we revisited Trafalgar Square where the children ran around together. We went back into the gallery for another nappy and bag empty but this time stayed to look around a bit. At the suggestion of visiting it properly, Hope complained that galleries were boring and then complained that we weren's spending long enough at each painting once we were in. I promised her a return visit on our own so we can stop, stare and talk about the paintings together without her younger siblings chomping at the bit.

Hope, Ellie and I decorated our Christmas Tree whilst William played with his engines on the table. A perfect day really. William does struggle with pain while sitting for long periods. We have to build a bit of a jump around to help him drain every couple of hours into days out like this. It is a bit of a military operation really with all that needs to come with us and timing medicines, flushing TPN, bag emptying... All well worth it though, just look at those faces!