Princess Diana’s Memorial Playground

The boys had a great time at this playground in London.  It is one of the best playgrounds I have ever seen!  There were many different sections for different aged kids, with the highlight being the giant pirate ship on a huge sandy “beach.”All my boys played…

…while I tried to convince British Airways that it was unreasonable to charge us over 900 pounds (about $1300)  because we were now taking two fewer flights with them.  Apparently if you miss any” leg” of a flight, the remaining “legs” of your flights are canceled also.  Since I booked all of our flight in one booking, skipping our Corfu-London flight was considered missing a “leg”.  I spent hours on the phone with them, but could not get them to agree to waive the “change fees.”  They insisted that the remainder of our flights (to Edinburgh and back, and then from London back to Seattle) would  be canceled unless we paid the 900 pound fee for not flying on our other two flights!

The monkeys were gleefully unaware of the conflict, and focused on conquering their fears by climbing high-high up to the top of the crows nest.  Owen was the best big brother and talked Jack up- encouraging him all the way.By the time Jack made it to the top, he was an old pro and made his Mama and Daddy a little lot nervous by using his own methods for getting down.  I turned to see if Eric was watching Jack’s creative swings and jumps, and Eric’s hand had unconsciously moved up over his heart.

Another big hit was this boat that rocked quite wildly from side to side.  The monkeys pretended they were in a great storm, then suddenly they would leap off the boat yelling,  “Abandon Ship!”

The most popular pastime was the simplest – just playing in the sand.

Even Mama and Daddy couldn’t bypass that.

Oh, and for those of you wondering…We did not pay the 900 pound fee in the end, but not because British Airways agreed that the charge was completely ridiculous.  Expedia just suddenly sent a mail saying that the Corfu flights were canceled and the remaining flights we had on our itinerary were confirmed.  This was a complete surprise to us as Expedia had also told us several times that they couldn’t do it, and we would have to call British Airways directly. We are guessing someone must have cleared it up based on a final email or phone call that I made.  I was especially glad as I was just about to leave to go to the airport to try to work things out in person…