Enigmas and codes--Bletchley Park

Yesterday we visited Bletchley Park, the home of Allied code-breaking during WWII. At the peak of its activity, Bletchley Park code-breakers were intercepting 4,000 messages per day, and Churchill later said it was thanks to the operations here that we won the war.

workers fixing the enigma-breaking "bombe" machine

We saw some enigma machines and code-breaking machines and period stuff. Most of the mansion is now offices, but we got to see the still-authentic parts. Overall we thought it was interesting but could have been presented a little better. Maybe they were trying to be enigmatic...

There's a cute little post office at Bletchley Park.

Stained glass ceiling in one of the rooms.

Gavin definitely enjoyed playing on the grounds of Bletchley, including monster chess. 

I thought this wartime poster was clever.

London during the Olympics

We went to London for an Olympic event (click here for details) and enjoyed spending the day seeing all the Olympic stuff throughout the city. I've been slightly obsessed with seeing the Olympic rings on Tower Bridge (below, with Mandeville (the Paralympics mascot) dressed as a Beefeater), so I was glad I got to see those.

Jacob's intently studying the Olympic wrestling icon.

Regent Street was decorated in all the flags of the participating countries. It was pretty cool.

 We went to Brazil's Olympic HQ at Somerset House where they're selling Rio 2016 Olympics merchandise (apparently the only place you can get it). We also posed for promotional photos and got free shirts! (I wore mine that evening to the Brazil v. Argentina basketball game. It's only slightly awkward for me that it says "BRA" in really large letters on my chest. It's, of course, short for Brasil.)

The Rio 2016 Olympics countdown clock

Shortly after we left the Rio 2016 countdown clock, these 2 TV presenters approached Jacob (seeing he was wearing his Brasil shirt) and asked if he would interview, in Portuguese, for a Brazilian TV station. They asked him questions about how he was enjoying the London 2012 games and what he thought of various events. I didn't understand a word of it, but I LOVED it.  How cool would it be if he were on TV in Brazil?!

the Olympic rings fountain in the Thames, with the London Eye and Big Ben in the background to the right

one more of the Tower Bridge + Olympic rings

Olympic basketball

We had a really fun day yesterday that included watching Olympic basketball! (A big thanks to Becky, Johnny and Hazel for taking Gavin yesterday and OVERNIGHT.) The first game we saw was Brazil vs. Argentina. It was a pretty close, exciting game. Unfortunately Brazil lost; but you can see us cheering them on below.

 Then (after 10pm) the next game started: USA vs. Australia! It was so exciting to see Team USA with all the NBA superstars! Below, see LeBron James shooting free throws. In the 4th quarter Kobe Bryant shot 4 or 5 straight 3-pointers. It was so exciting! (We won 119-86.)

 Part of the fun was painting our faces and changing into our red, white and blue between games.

We didn't get home until after 2am. Can you tell it's late by our tired eyes as we took the tube to our car? We still had an amazing time! Go Team USA!

Churchill War Rooms

 While we were in London for our Olympic basketball games, we visited the Churchill War Rooms, the underground bunker where UK government officials worked during WWII because of the constant threat of air raids. The above room is the Cabinet room where Churchill declared "This is the room from which I will direct the war."

You can imagine how scared everyone must have been with air raids being a reality of the war.

I thought the kitchen, which served the Prime Minister's family's dining room, was adorable.

I also really loved the wartime posters in the gift shop. This one especially.

Olympic football

We had our first Olympics experience this week watching a double-header of football (soccer) games. We went all the way to Wales to take part, and we saw Mexico versus Switzerland and Team GB(!!) versus Uruguay at the Millennium Arena in Cardiff. It was so much fun and just exciting to be there for an Olympic event!

We had a good view of the action on the field.

We weren't sure who to cheer for between Mexico and Switzerland, but a few minutes into the game it became clear that Switzerland just didn't bring any excitement and Mexico was passionate. Thankfully Mexico won. The Mexican fans also brought lots of enthusiasm--and fabulous outfits. 

 Speaking of fabulous outfits, Jacob genuinely brought the below outfit along and changed between matches. (Don't be fooled by the shot that only shows his upper body. It goes to his ankles. :)

 The other slightly enjoyable part of the trip is that we didn't have to subject Gavin to a long road trip (8 hours in 2 days = pretty long for Gavin). He stayed with friends, and we got an overnight trip just the two of us.

Cardiff Bay

20 months

Gavin is 20 months old today!

 When he wants me to sing the ABC song (so he can dance along), he says "AB, AB."

Gavin regularly (several times a day) walks up to a seated person, pulls on their hand, and says "up, up." He doesn't have the vocabulary to tell you everything he wants to say, so he takes you there. Sometimes the lack of words is frustrating for all of us.

He does say trampoline--it sounds like dapple.

I mentioned in last month's post that Gavin loves climbing.
This month he's taking it to new (more dangerous) levels.

displeasure needs no words

Sweet things are, of course, Gavin's favorite. Anytime he wants a snack, he uses the same word.
It's a cross between cookie and cracker that sounds like kah-koo. 

climbing into the sink

A few new favorite words are: button (bu-tee), owie, yellow, and eye. He's also regularly using phrases, sometimes with and adjective after the noun, like in Romance languages. For example "car Daddy" (for Daddy's car) or "book yellow." His favorite phrase: "more cookie please."

When he wants to, Gavin can really pack away groceries, and not just the sweet stuff.
Below: he's eating lots of pizza; I promise he had some fries with all that ketchup on his face (and shirt and chair); and he's eating peanuts.

Being this cute (and BUSY) is pretty exhausting.

Purple field

 This field of beautiful purple flowers is near our house. Any idea what they are?