Familyness

London Baby

"Stand there so I can take a picture of you." Brad says to Ari and I as he points to the gates of Buckingham Palace.

The three of us are in London for a few days because we want to spend some time with Arianna.

"Do you think the queen's home?" Ari asks.

"Yeah," I reply. "The flag is up meaning she's home."

"I wish we could go inside the palace, it looks so cool." Brad says.

"I'm sure you could jump over the fence and try to go inside but I think you'd probably end up in jail." I laugh.

We walk over to the fountain that's opposite the palace and get someone to take a picture of the three of us standing there.

"Can we go get something to eat now? I'm starving!" Ari asks, Brad and I agree and we find this cute little cafe in the middle of London.

"Thanks so much for bringing me here, I love it so much and I love spending time with you when it's just us." Ari says, shocking us a little. Brad and I exchange smiles.

"You're welcome, princess. We love times when it's just us too." Brad says.

We order some food and talk about what's been going on in Ari's life.

"Nothing exciting has really happened, I'm just super glad that school has stopped for summer!" Brad and I both laugh.

"Do you want to go to and see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament?" Brad asks. "We could go on the London Eye afterwards."

We both agree so we pay and make our way to Big Ben.

"Stand in front of it and I'll take a picture." Brad tells us.

"Dad, you've taken enough pictures, can we not just look at it?" Ari groans.

Brad rolls his eyes. "I should be able to take as many photos of my beautiful daughter and wife as I want and that's what I'm going to do, now say cheese!"

I laugh and pull Ari closer to me and we both smile for Brad. We then take a picture of the three of us before walking to the Houses of Parliament.

"This is so cool!" Brad says. "I wish I became a politician instead of an actor."

I stare at him. "As if you could be a politician."

"Hey, I'm smart!" He defends himself, I just nod.

"Can we go on the London Eye now? This is kinda boring." Ari asks.

"We could go shopping first, I'm sure we need to go past all the shops anyway." I suggest.

"Yeah, let's do that!" She says and practically drags us away from the Houses of Parliament.

"Brad," I say, holding up a pair of black heels. "Look how pretty!"

"Jen, you don't need anymore shoes! You bought like 4 pairs yesterday."

"And?" I smirk. "I like shoes."

"Really? I've never noticed." Brad rolls his eyes. "Fine, you can get them."

"I was going to get them anyway, I wasn't asking for your permission." I smirk as I walk away to see if I can see anything for the other kids.

Brad comes over to help me search. "Have you heard from your parents if the kids are okay?"

"Yeah, they phoned earlier. They said everything was fine. My dad said Bri is being the best sister to Lewis and she's helping them with him."

"We have the best kids." Brad kisses me. "I can't wait to see them when we're back, I miss them."

"I miss them too." I say. "Speaking of kids, where is the one we brought?"

"Over there," Brad points to her. "She also has a love for shoes. We better stop her before we have no room in our suitcases for anything else."

"Mom, I can't decide between these two pairs of black heels." She says, studying them both.

"You can buy both but no more shoes!" Brad says. She smiles and thanks him and we pay for everything.

"Shall we go to the London Eye now?" Brad asks. "I think we've bought enough."

We walk to the London Eye and queue for around 40 minutes before getting on.

"London is so beautiful from up high." I say. "We definitely have to come back one day with the whole family."

"I agree, but we should wait until they're older. I think we'd regret bringing the little ones here. Bri would refuse to walk and Lewis would just cry all the time!" Brad laughs.

"Luke is so jealous that we're here." Ari says. "I was talking to him last night."

"We should've brought him." Brad says. "I wouldn't have been the only guy."

"I don't think he'd appreciate it as much though. It's a lot of walking and he's too lazy." I laugh and they both agree with me.

"I think after this we should go back to the hotel and make ourselves look a little more presentable before going to see Wicked tonight." Brad suggests.

"Yeah, I really gotta charge my phone." Ari says.

I roll my eyes. "Come on, we're at the bottom now. Let's go."

"I'm so excited to see this!" Ari says. We're at the West End about to see Wicked.

"Me too," I reply. "This is my favourite musical by far."

"Is this the one about the witches from The Wizard of Oz?" Brad asks. He never got much of a say in which show we were going to see. Ari and I chose.

"Yeah, we saw it on Broadway a few years back." I say.

"Oh yeah. Am I going to have to listen to you both singing the songs throughout the show? Let me know now so I can request to change seats."

"Haha, Dad. Very funny." Ari rolls her eyes as I playfully hit Brad on the arm.

After the show, we get a taxi back to the hotel. Since we were out the whole day, we're all very tired.

"Jen," Brad nudges me. "She's asleep." He says, referring to Ari who's resting her head on his shoulder.

"Wake her up, we're at the hotel." I say, instead he carries her upstairs like he used to when she was little and puts her into bed.

"I think I'll have to buy a few more pairs of shoes tomorrow." I joke.

"No more shoes!" He says.

"I'm kidding!" I laugh. "If we did buy any more, I think we'd have to leave Ari here, we wouldn't have enough room for everything."

"Is that such a bad thing?" Brad jokes.

"Goodnight, Brad."

"Goodnight, Jen. I love you."

"I love you too."