Rain, gray skies don't dampen beach volleyball mood

 Horse Guards Parade is rocking today in spite of rain, wind, gray skies

 Defending world champions Emanuel and Alison of Brazil ...

 beating up on Switzerland in all of 34 minutes

 Emanuel serving

 The dancers during timeouts

Spirited sisters

This was great! Ciara Whitnall, 9, and her 7-year-old sister, Caitlin, woke up at 6 a.m. Sunday to prepare their outfits for a day at swimming to cheer star countrywoman Rebecca Adlington alongside parents Jamey and Michelle.

Olympic snapshots

 I love the Olympic rings

 Trafalgar Square starting to count down for opening ceremony, which I watched on TV but brought tears to my eyes for much of it. What a stunning cauldron! James Bond with Queen Elizabeth II - awesome!

 American pride!

 One-eyed mascot ... creepy or cute?

 Divers gear up for start of competition Sunday

 Micheal Phelps' first race in preliminary heats of 400IM

 Phelps stepping onto starting blocks

 Springboard training (looks fun and less scary!)

Perfect pairs harmony

In the Olympic spirit!

Emma called me this morning (her time) and said, "Mommy, we pretended we were at the Olympics with you!" Made my day.

Majestic London locale for beach volleyball

 That's the London Eye just over my head, Horse Guards balcony behind grandstand court.

 This is known as the best venue of these Olympics - and I quickly understood why.

 Kerri Walsh statue is in the queen's park leading to Buckingham Palace, which still has an entrance only she can ride through.

 Brazilian star Emanuel.

My Boston colleague, Jimmy Golen. The flowers and greenery are beautiful. HUGS to all! Miss you.

Arrival in London

 Aquatics center

 This apparently is an observation tower

 Olympic Stadium

 Basketball venue, which will be temporary

 Colleagues Fred Lief and Jim Litke

Love you guys...

Talk to you soon with updates from London!! XOXO!

Cousins Lily and Bo sharing well

Fun walk with Katie, Rocco and Bo

The biggest log quest ever ...

 Evan spotted this from a distance from up the hill at the cabin ...

 We had to investigate and got out the canoe and headed for Field's Point ...

 We were laughing it was such a beast, but we tied a rope to it anyway ...

 And had some fun, though it was hard to balance

 The "fast" Lady of Lake is in the background and saw us struggling to move this tree

 But, paddling at full capacity, we moved it all of 20 feet and it then went to shore

 We played around, accepted defeat, and headed back to the cabin empty-handed

 These roots proved to be the root of our problem ... SO heavy!

But it was a successful sibling bonding moment nonetheless!