Bronwyn and the Olympics

 

 What a week it has been!  Between Bronwyn coming to visit, a trip to London for the Olympics and Ellen becoming a US citizen, it doesn't get much more exciting than that!

 Bronwyn and Ellen playing

Bronwyn arrived Sunday afternoon to visit for a few days.  On Monday we went to Bridgnorth, a town about 25 minutes away from us, where we did a bit of browsing, strolled through a rose garden and had lunch at a tea house.  Ellen did so well the whole time, it was a bonus!  On Tuesday we drove into Shrewsbury for the afternoon and had coffee at the Old Market Hall cafe and again did a bit of browsing.  On Tuesday evening the four of us went to the Mytton and Mermaid, our favorite restaurant, as a special bye-for-now meal, since Bronnie plans to move back to New Zealand at the end of the year.... soooo sad.  On Wednesday we all drove to Sharon's (Jeff's sister) house in London where we said "goodbye" to Bron and left Sharon with Ellen while Jeff and I went to... the Olympics!

Last year, before Ellen was even created, we got tickets to the men's team table tennis finals at the ExCeL arena during the Olympics.  The ExCeL arena is at a satelite site for the games, but we did get to see the Olympic stadium pretty close from the train. We were so impressed with the number of volunteers pointing visitors in the right direction.  The table tennis event started at 3:30 - China vs. South Korea.  While visitors were taking their seats, the tvs overhead had videos explaining the basics about table tennis. Our Olympics experience was made to feel even more international due to Chinese being chanted and yelled during the match.  Table tennis is big stuff in China!  It was amazing to watch how fast these men can react to a little ball being hit...okay, slammed... across the table!  After two single matches and one doubles match, China won gold! Silver went to South Korea (obviously) and Bronze to Germany.  It was fun to get to witness a "Victory Ceremony"... it'll probably been the closest we'll ever come to seeing Olympic medals.

Arriving at the station for the ExCeL Arena....

 We were soooo excited!

 Part of the London Docklands outside the ExCeL Arena, now restaurants

 Look! The ExCeL Arena!

 

 

Inside....

 Two tickets!

 The arena before the event

 Chinese and Korean teams arriving

 A singles match

 The Victory Ceremony

 The countries' flags being raised

Thank you to Sharon who babysat Ellen and made it possible for us to attend the event we waited over a year for!

We woke early again Thursday morning to head to the US Embassy for a 9:00 appointment to apply for Ellen's US passport and Social Security Number and report her birth. At 10:15, after answering a few questions about my highschool and university, the lady behind the window announced, "Congratulations, Ellen is now a US citizen!"  This means that Ellen is a dual citizen of the US and the UK. We couldn't believe how quickly we were in and out of there and without any complications. Since we finished much earlier than expected, we grabbed a couple of lattes and pastries and headed to Green Park (near Hyde Park) and sat on a bench in the shade while passersby made their way to Hyde Park for an Olympic swimming event.... it felt so metropolitan!  We weren't allowed to bring our mobiles or camera with us to the Embassy, so there aren't any pictures to show you.  We headed back to Shrewsbury yesterday afternoon with a sleeing baby most of the way.