Cody turned the big 3-0 this year. I wanted to do something special for him because he always does way amazing trips and gifts for my birthdays. Cody loves soccer and is an avid fan of Liverpool--a team in England. We have 'dream lists' that we talk about and one of his dreams was to go watch his team play at their home stadium. I took it upon myself to go ahead and make this happen for his birthday.
I decided to try and pull this off as a surprise--pretty daring for me. I put this plan in motion over a year before his 30th. Trying to plan this trip was almost the death of me...and Cody. Smuggling money from my husband isn't very easy or fun! I can't count (or want to remember) all of the fights we had about my 'excessive' spending when really I was just stashing the money away. The trip planning was so stressful, but ultimately was such a great thing. The actual trip was spectacular.
The next game we went to was Liverpool vs. Arsenal. This was the reason I took Cody on this trip--to see his team play on their home field. We had to stand outside the field and try and scalp tickets. It wasn't looking too good for us--we both weren't wanting to get arrested in a foreign country. Cody decided to walk around the stadium to try and find somebody selling tickets. He was gone for a while and I had pretty much given up hope that Cody was going to get to complete his dream. Cody eventually returned and acted like he had no luck...until he pulled out two tickets in the Kop end--the Liverpool intense fan end! Here is a picture of Cody looking like he just won the lottery.
It turned out that we probably saw the game of the season--it ended 4-4. We had amazing seats and saw a ton of goals. Here are some pictures to of this game. My picture taking was not great because we spent most of the game jumping up and down and cheering with the fans! The first picture is of a corner kick--we were that close!
The last game we went to was Manchester United vs. Portsmouth. Manchester is my team with my favorite player! We had decent seats right at midfield. I was able to see Cristiano Ronaldo play. It's a good thing I saw him play this year at Man U because he moved teams! Here is a picture of him...I didn't get as close to him as I would have liked :)
So, we did see some other sights, just not too many! The first day we got there we went to see the popular sights in the POURING RAIN. I gotta say, it was pretty miserable. BUT, we did see
Buckingham Palace....
The London Eye...and Big Ben...Well, that's about it for the England trip! Not really, but it's enough for now I guess!