London bound

2012 has certainly been an eventful year so far with big changes coming in the near future for our family. Since Geoff and I got married nine years ago, there haven't been a lot of changes to our lives. We have work at the same jobs. We lived in an apartment for our first year of marriage and then bought our first house in 2004 and haven't moved since. We've been at the same church all nine years with many of the same friends. Yeah ok, we did have a kid two years ago and that certainly changed our lives, but everything else around us was constant. Well, that is ALL changing.

Back in May, Geoff was approached by his boss regarding a potential two year assignment in his company's London office. The timing was certainly interesting. We had just put an offer down on a house that we planned to tear down so that we could build our dream home. The day before he was approached, I had received a job offer with a different company that I planned to accept. Despite that, we were definitely interested in the opportunity for adventure and told his boss as much. With Geoff working in the oil and gas industry and for future advancement for him at the company, we've always known there was a possibility for us to move abroad. All in all, the timing made sense for us to do this now since Olivia isn't in school yet. Plus, London seemed like a fairly easy place to transition to as apposed to somewhere else in maybe the middle East or Asia. Geoff received the official word in mid July that his transfer had been approved and we should get moved over there as soon as possible. Now we're just a couple weeks away from the big move!

Geoff and I went over to London for a few days several weeks ago to look for a house to lease. (Thank you Momma Glory, Granddad and Grandma for watching Olivia for a few days!) It a very hectic couple days for us. We met up with a relocation/real estate agent and she took us to 12 houses the first day. The second day, we went to more 8 houses in the morning and then we returned back to 3 from the first day that we wanted a second look at in the afternoon. I felt like we were on the tv show House Hunters! We would leave each house commenting on what we liked and what things about the house didn't measure up to our defined criteria. Homes there are definitely different than what we are accustomed to here in Houston. All the buildings were old and most had limited storage and tiny kitchens. However, we did find one in the part of town that we want to be in with five bedrooms and an abundance of closets and storage space. So if you're interested in making a trip to London for a visit in the next couple years...we'll have a place for you to stay!

The picture below isn't the home we will be leasing, but I thought the homes were really pretty. I love all the old architecture and history in London and can't wait to explore the city when we get there.

Fortunately, Geoff and I also had a day and a couple evenings to do a little sightseeing while we were there.

Tower of London and Tower Bridge

We wanted to take a tour of Buckingham Palace but they had already sold out of tickets for the day by the time we got there so instead we wandered around it and then wandered around the streets of London.

Buckingham Palace

The Olympics had just ended but signs of the Games were still all around town.

We happened to walk by some building (we weren't sure what it was) but it had guards stationed outside. At the time we walked by, it happened to be the changing of the guards time so we got to see their changing ceremony which was pretty cool.

Coach taxi, anyone?

Big Ben

As typically tourists, we went and rode the London Eye, this massive ferris wheel. It was very crowed with tourists and the typical tourist trap shops and people trying to get your money. We probably won't do it again while we're there, but it did provide beautiful views of the city and the Thames River during the 30 minute ride and I'm glad we can say we did it.